My main tv which was a samsung went out two weeks ago after a thunderstorm, my other tv was a dynex from best buy had been having turning on problems the last 3 months.
the samsung would just click and not turn on. i called samsung and they said that they would fix it one time even though it was out of warranty. the tv repair guy came 2 days ago and replaced some capacitors on the power board and that fixed it.
i did a little research online and found that this was a common problem with flat screens. capacitors blow and tvs gradually take longer to turn on untils it does'nt. youll know that a capacitor is bad when the top bulges up or its actually split open.
i opened up the dynex today and found 2 blown caps. went to radio shack and bought 2 1000microfarad caps $4. i soldered it back and turned the tv on and voila! got that tv working for $4 and a quick solder job.
I thought id share this because this would have cost me $100 easy. more than likely they would replace the whole board which costs more than $100 and the service call charge. theres a number of videos on youtube that shows how this is done. quite simple if you know a little soldering and use a screw driver. Had to unplug and replug a few plastic connectors and unscrew the power board.
It's a capacitor for the power supply that goes bad causing the TV to take a longer and longer time to power up until it won't power up at all. This cheap capacitor is common to most new LCD tv power supplies and is under rated for the job causing them to fail they look puffy and exploded when they are bad. Do you have some pictures to post maybe.I helped my buddy fix his TV the hardest part was taking the cover off the TV, the solder job took 5 minutes.
the one that split open is definitely bad. the other one next to it seems to be bulging up. good ones are flat. mine was 1000mfds and 16v radio shack had the 1000mfds and 35volts. they seem to be working ok but can take more voltage. it was real easy with A cordless philips screw gun. unplug some wire connectors. unscrew power board. desolder caps leaving hole open. insert new caps. resolder. reconnect everything. plug in and test before putting cover back. quite asy and cheap. i did'nt really hear mine hissing but they can hiss when theyre dying.
All these TVs use a 24VDC power supply, see the problem with the 16volt capacitor and there are thousand of these power supplies out there with these crap capacitors.
I just repaired an expensive high powered stereo last week that blew a cap. A friend gave it to me and was about to toss it in the garbage. I wish I had shot pics because it was so easy to repair. Its amazing how many things arent as difficult to fix as you might expect. There's nothing to be lost by removing the covers to have a look inside. Just be very careful of capacitors and their connected components because some caps can store enough energy to deliver a very serious shock.
Ive been lucky with electrical repairs, because most of the time the failed parts have been rather evident to me. ie: showing up as a burned or darkened color on a component. I often dont know exactly what Im replacing till I bring it to an electrical shop and have the parts clerk identify it for me. Then I pick up tips from the shop guys as to what might have caused it. The repairs usually cost less than $5 and the replacement components are usually far better quality than OEM.
I've replaced hundred of bad capacitors... older computer motherboards in particular had this problem. I have a stack of four power inverters on my desk right now that need all new caps...
There's various stories about industrial espionage gone wrong and such, or it could just be it's cheaper to make crap, and forces you to buy new stuff every year as a side benefit...
Its all be about risk assessment based on known failure rates over time. If the product blows inside the warranty, its a major loss for the manufacturer to fix/replace it. If it blows after the warranty expires, then the consumer loses.
My credit card gives me free buyers protection. They will extend a product warranty up to one year as long as the product comes with at least a 1 year manufacturers warranty. Ive used their services twice and its a fairly hassle free process. Once with a broken camera and another time with a blown TV (probably caps ... cost me nothing at all to get them repaired.
I love the story about the Japanese guy who allegedly stole the secret recipe for the electrolyte in his employer's capacitors and sold it to a Taiwanese firm - but he'd forgotten the last page with the corrosion inhibitor bit of the recipe.
Power supplies in general seem to be the weak point in most electronics - if it isn't the PSU then it needs someone with actual skills to fix and probably won't be worth it. Switches and PSUs between them seem to cause more problems than anything else.
... cost me nothing at all to get them repaired.