Can anyone mend my telly?

[Dave Baker]

Me has a Ferguson 28" Dolby telly about 15 years old wot worked fine for several years and then wouldn't switch on. A mate who repaired computers had a look and it was just a single thingy (resistor or capacitor I think) in what he said was called the power circuit. He soldered a new one in and it worked again for a few more years and then died again. I'm guessing it's the same thing broken. Said mate no longer plays with electrickery things having found himself a bonkable girlfriend finally for the first time in 40 years. I can't argue with that. We all have to lose our virginity sometime.

I know I'll get ripped off in spades if I take it to a "proper" repair shop. Anyone near enough to Amersham that I can drive to fancy having a crack at it? I'm thinking Mr Plowman might have the necesary skills.

[geoff]

In message , Dave Baker writes

ask your mate what it was that died

I can prolly get you one, but don't have time to mess around with TVs at this time of year

[meow2222]

complete waste of time guessing.

[Peter Crosland]

Realistically the set is totally un-economic to repair. Spend the money on getting a new set.

Peter Crosland

[Brass Monkey]

Blimey, you must still be watching 'All creatures great and small'

I'll get me coat.

[Dave Baker]

I did back when it broke for the second time but he said he couldn't remember exactly. It had been a few years mind since he'd fixed it. Something very simple though like a single resistor on a circuit board as far as he could recall. It was the part that powered the tv up rather than anything that actually made the monitor display pictures. The symptom is it's just stone dead like a fuse has blown rather than working but not properly.

I wish electrickery was one of my own skills but being colourblind pretty much knocks it on the head. Everything just looks a jumbled mess and trying to read a wiring diagram gives me a headache in about 3 seconds flat. I know for example that the little coloured bands on resistors are there to tell you what size they are but it's not much help when you can't tell what the bloody colours are. I suppose I could have a play with a multimeter and try and find something that was completely open or closed circuit though but where to even start.

[Dave Baker]

For the amount I watch tv which is near as dammit nil it's not worth doing either probably and I know there's not that long to go before all tellies go digital but it seems a shame to throw out something that complex for the sake of a 10p component and a few minutes soldering. It'd let it soldier on for another couple of years anyway. For now I just manage with the old one which is also a Ferguson, 22 years old and has never gone wrong once. Well the on/off switch doesn't work but luckily it failed in the on position so I just switch it on and off at the wall. Other than that it was one of my better buys. No remote control, no teletext, no external surround sound speakers and miles of wire all round the room but at least it still displays a very good picture when I actually watch it once every couple of months.

[John]

The trouble is that you are never sure if the part that has died is a symptom of something else causing an overload. Some of these old sets had very common chassis that were used by many manufacturers - there will be an expert out there somewhere.

what happened the TV Repair newsgroup?

[John]

You could try:

[stuart noble]

My local repair shop has a pile of 28" tvs for sale at £20 each. That's what they retail for when they're working.

[A.Lee]

Here in South Leics, it is impossible to give them away. Tried a card in the local PO, TV for £10. No takers. Then changed it to free to collect. No takers.

Took it down the tip, asked the bloke if anyone would want it. No, put it in the skip over there - nearly all of them work, no one wants them. Alan.

[Dave Baker]

Struth. I think it cost about £800 and that was when £800 was actually worth £800 not the £400 it would be worth now. I remember getting it all wired up the first time, turning it up full and rattling all the pictures off the walls and thinking this is some telly. It has more grunt than my HiFi system. So now it's basically scrap. I hate scrapping things. I've spent most of my life repairing things, engines basically, and scrapping something that almost works doesn't sit right. If I have one complaint about it it's I can't lift the bloody thing. It weighs a ton. Well I can just about lift it but it's horribly imbalanced. All the weight is on one side, the screen basically, and just getting it into the car to take it somewhere to be fixed is enough of a struggle. I guess I'll leave it sat where it is until digital tellies come in and if no one can help before then it'll get chucked.

[John]

Funny how a flat LCD or Plasma is a 'must have' when the entertainment value is exactly the same as with the old CRT TV. I will wait for the prices to tumble - lower shipping costs due to their size must have a big effect on the trade price. It must be possible to get 5 times the number of flat TVs in a container than the old CRTs.

[stuart noble]

I don't think you can depend on prices continuing to fall if the beloved £££ continues its downward spiral.

[pete]

... "I will wait for the prices to tumble ... " be prepared to wait then. The lower value of the £ means that imported goods could _rise_ in price next year.

[fictitious]

The only real advantage of LCD's is that you can lift them practically one-handed .

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The likely thing is an electrolytic capacitor in the switch mode power supply by your description. Due to the high frequencies used in these power supplies some are highly stressed. With luck it should be obvious which one has been changed as it could well be a different make from the originals - even colour. They can be tested using an ESR meter - but with their low cost just changing it can make sense. Even if an identical replacement was used you can usually tell which it is by the fresher looking solder etc.

But sod's law applies. The same fault - not working ;-) - could be caused by any number of things, and some SMPS are near impossible to fault find. They have feedback circuits from various parts of the set which cause them to shut down (or not start up) if things ain't right somewhere - so the PS can't be tested as a stand alone unit. Without a custom test rig. I threw out a Philips set like this - Philip's answer was to replace all the semicondictors in the PS at a cost of several hundred pounds.

I could certainly replace the capacitor for you and test any others in the PS, as I have an ESR meter. But I'm well short of being an expert in TV repairs - audio is more my thing.

[stuart noble]

Might be an idea to squirrel all those old tvs then. We could end up selling them to each other at boot sales for a suitcase full of pound notes.

[PCPaul]

If you don't need to have the latest and greatest set then get yourself on Freecycle.

I'm off 5 miles down the road tomorrow to pick up a 24" Sony set, 6 years old, full working order, Dolby stereo, etc. etc. Totally for *free*.

to find your nearest group(s). There's one most places now.

[John]

Given the amount of copper in old TVs (degaussing coil, etc) I am surprised the pikeys haven't been nicking them.