So about 10 days ago our big screen TV finally went kaput after 11 years of faithful service. I still say it was the best money I ever spent. Pretty much all the experts say that when a TV is that old that it is not worth the money to try and repair as something else will eventually go wrong and you'll be out the $500 average service call. I pretty much had resigned myself to having to buy a new plasma or lcd TV (oh darn). HOWEVER, being a true Torgesen, dropping that kind of cash tends to give me severe pains, so I looked for an alternative.
I went on to Google and described the symtoms that my TV was having, (would not turn on, red light on in the back.) After a bit of searching I came across a discussion thread where several others had the same problem after 10-11 years. Fortunately a service person was also contributing and described two components on the massive PC board that are often the cause of this malfunction. Two or three people had tried the fix and it had worked for them.
So I ordered the parts off the internet as I wanted to give it a try (nothing to lose!) A few days later they arrived and I started to look at what I needed to do. In the first place the back of the TV is a rat's nest of wires, components, etc. So I have to disconnect several things and partially slide the PC board out to get access, then clip off the old components. I had practiced soldering on some copper wire so that hopefully I wouldn't wreck anything. Then with the help of Mom (holding the board so I could get at it) and Brooke (holding the component in place), I then proceeded to solder the pieces onto the exposed leads that I had left from the old ones.
Then came the moment of truth... plugging it in. Amazingly enough it fired right up and after connecting the antenna, the picture came in great. So now I've got it running for a few hours to make sure it keeps going before moving it back into the house. Total cost... parts $5, shipping $10, soldering pencil and solder $15... total cost to repair $30. Now that's a sense of accomplishment!!
