O.T. TV Repair Newsgroup?

[Al Bundy]

Looked through my NG list but didn't see one. Anyone know of one?

Thanks

[cornytheclown]

sci.electronics.repair.....its about as close as you are gonna get....

use google groups and search for the group...

[Lena]

Does anyone repair TVs anymore? The CRT sets have dropped in price to the point where repairs cost as much or more than a new set.

Lena

[hallerb]

yeah 200 bucks will get you a spiffy 32 inch set, no use fixing and with all the ICs soldered to the board and speciality expensive parts its not worth the hassles.

I was at a auction recently 35 32 inch sets brand new sopld for 8 bucks a piece. sytmphonic brand ....... BRAND NEW most in original box

seems the manufacturer doesnt stock parts, they said toss them we will just send the store more.

so a store employee loaded them in his truck and sold them for a few hundred bucks.

kinda sad were no so disposable its cost effective to toss something brand new.

the seller explained the situation after the police wandered by..................

someone plugged one it it didnt work........

[ppp]

There is no money in servicing consumer electronics. There may be some money in servicing items worth more than $500 but these will have to be done by the vendor. Models change too quickly for an independent service shop. The very high level of circuit integration and miniaturization means one needs special tools, skills and of course parts. Its easier to just replace the whole board, something only the vendor can afford to do. If enough faulty items are returned they may get "fixed" and resold as refurbished. But not for big bulky items like TV sets where shipping and handling costs would wipe out any service profit margin one could charge. If the OP can give a brief description of the TV problem perhaps someone can give an opinion if its worh pursuing the subject further.

[udarrell]

Use:

Search Engines search all engines at once!

- udarrell

[Pete C.]

Vendors rarely have service facilities, they rely on independent authorized service shops for nearly all service. As you note, unless they are under warranty cheap items are generally not worth servicing. Higher end items may well be worth servicing depending on what repairs are needed.

Pete C.

[cornytheclown]

I wonder how many nice tv sets and other appliances are tossed because of bad solder joints or board level components that just go bad...

Ive done some electronics repair on my own and for friends family...all with the upfront disclaimer that it probably is not repairable by me and I may in fact cause more damage..so in other words If they toss it in the trash I'll take a look at it...lol

I am by no means an electronics "technician"....but I have repaired many items and usually its repairs such as bad solder joints that overheated or parts such as protective diodes letting go and damaging relays or varistors going bad....which they do as a part of their normal lifeltime. Like I said I am limited by my own limited knowledge but I have been able to keep quite a bit of stuff out of the landfill. I dont always find the root cause of the problems but when I do make a repair it holds up over time and like I said...anything I tear into is destined for the curb.

Manufacturers use the cheapest components they can get and you know quality control standards in the USA have dropped since we have pretty much gotten used to being a throw away society who doesnt have time to deal with the brick wall of warranty and return issues.

[HeyBub]

"Better to spend than to mend."

Where'd I hear that before? Wasn't it in a book or something?

[ppp]

I was an electronics tech and was trying to arrive to this point. Might as well say it. If the TV set has an intermittent problem that can be temporarily fixed by slapping the cabinet, it has a loose connection or a cold solder. An easy way to locate the problem is to unlupg it, open the back cover, switch it on again and use a long wooden rod to move around and put some strain on the wire harnesses. This avoids getting zapped. A zap is unpleasant but won't kill. If you can reproduce the problem with that poking around it will let you narrow down the location. Again unplug the TV and do a closeup examination of the wire harness connections and the solder joints on the circuit board. Even a hairline crack on the PCB will cause problems. SONY is notorious for developing this problem of solder pads lifting off the PCB but appearing to be in good shape. Resolder the joints. If you cannot locate the cold solder resolder the joints anyway. If that fixes it you are ahead. If it doesn't you've lost nothing.

To go back a step, after opening the cabinet take it outside and give it a good blow to clear out all the dust and grime. The exhaust of a vacuum cleaner is a good source of blown air. Brush where appropriate. Reseat all the wire connectors. A good cleaning may sometimes solve the problem. In any case it makes any troubleshooting easier, unhampered by dirt and grime.

Any fix beyond that consider the TV set toast. Its not worth the effort, time or money to try to fix it. This advice applies to the analog TV sets. I don't know anything about pricey big screen plasma TV sets.

The cost pressure is brutal. But the loss of shelf space is fatal. Manufacturers do not make shoddy goods to save a few cents. One too many returns for warranty claims gets his product tossed out of the vendor's store for good. Yes, market conditions make it cheaper for a manufacturer to just give a new replacement item than to try to repair it. As soon as a product has known design or manufacturing faults the model gets pulled and a new one put in. We as consumers never had it so good.

[Al Bundy]

"Lena" wrote in news:1156067969.416365.28710 @p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

Yea I know :-(

It's an older 25" Sony Trinitron (10-13 yrs old maybe) that has a very nice crisp pic.

About 5 yrs ago I had it fixed and it cost 90 bucks. When I brought it in to get an estimate the guy said what you said. But, he said, it was worth it because it is a quality TV fompared to the cheapos made then.. Said that's why it is heavy and requires 2 people to move easily.

[Pete C.]

Exactly right with the Sony gear, particularly stereo receivers that are always placed where they can't get proper ventilation. The amount of solder used when they are manufactured tends to be pretty thin and with the heating and cooling cycles the product experiences the thin areas of solder crystallize and develop a circular stress fracture around the pin. If you look close with a magnifying glass you can see these ring fractures. Resoldering with some fresh solder will fix the connections and provide more structure to avoid the problem in the future.

When I spent a summer working at a friends electronics repair shop every Sony receiver that came in had all the connections resoldered, even if the problem was a blown output. The 5 min it took to resolder was cheap insurance against having the unit come back a month or two later for the solder problem.

Cleaning also helps the components run cooler prolonging their life expectancy.

There are a lot of larger and higher end analog CRT sets along with plasma and LCD models that warrant further troubleshooting and repair efforts. If the replacement cost of the item is more than $500-$600 it's usually worth repairing at a factory authorized service shop that can fix it properly for perhaps 40% of the replacement cost. This assumes it's out of factory warranty, if not it's certainly worth fixing for most anything over about $20.

Correct, brand reputation is critical.

Not really, in some cases the manufacturer will replace the failed item with a new one, but the failed product is often repaired / refurbished and resold at a "factory outlet" store or at some retailers that carry factory refurbished product.

Not even close. By the time enough repair / warranty claims have been made for the manufacturer to determine there is a design flaw with a particular model, they are already several models past it.

Pete C.

[Charlie Morgan]

If that TV is 10 or more years old, it doesn't matter what brand it is. The tube has deteriorated significantly and picture quality is nowhere near what it was when new.

That said, the number one repair on all crt TV sets of any brand is cracked solder on the connections to the flyback transformer. The component is physically quite heavy and it is also where all the big power usage is happening. Between those two details is the reason for so many ring cracks on flyback connections.

CWM

[Al Bundy]

Charlie Morgan wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I'm sure it's not worth the labor $'s to have fixed. And I bet the pic quality is nowhere near what it was when new. I haven't seen one on display that looks half as good as this one does now though.

And those flat mega$ TVs...The pic looks like pure shit. That is when you are looking directly at it. If you are off center you can't even see the shitty pic. How do you set up a room for TV watching with one of those? Line up all the chairs down the middle of the room and you sit shortest to tallest, front to back?

[T Shadow]

sci.electronics.repair