I have a relatively new Samsung LCD TV (LE32 R8)
It has started 'freezing' or going to black screen mid viewing ..... Is it worth me taking this in for repair, or modern TV's though of as disposable items ?
If anybody knows a way to do a hardware & software reset I'd happily try that first.
The fault does not happen on any other tV in teh house - so its not a reception thing.
Has it updated its firmware lately? There have also been reports of problems with the server that Samsung TV phone home to.
You might like to have a ferret round in this page as well:-
Its harder finding commercial repairers, but there are some about. DIY repair seems more common though now. Plenty of fora and you tube help on many common faults.
Google for Engineering Codes and your model.
Mine did a "weird" once under guarantee and I watched the bloke bring up an engineering menu and do some sort of reset.
Do read the guides and do not poke unnecessary options - there are ways to brick your set in that menu (here be dragons).
Well I've seen adverts for people who do, but half the problem these days is that so much integration is used, that any part is going to cost a large amount ofthe cost of the tv, I fancy, unless one can canibalise another non working one.
Brian
Board swapping from a used TV isn't such a bad thing, especially when they are often available on Ebay or from the Far East so little, at least for the popular devices. The trick as always is knowing which part to replace and with what and whether the replacement part is just as broken! :)
Yes, electrolytics are so expensive.
funny expression
NT
screen is fine ... which would rule out what I would think is one major cost ..as is audio. However I'm obvioulsy stuck at what an 'authorised TV repair centre' will do.
If it still plays DVD's etc then presumably it's the tuner firmware or software.
If following the recommendations on here about rescans resets etc is of no use there would be no harm in hooking up any old digiboxes etc you have knocking around assuming you can find the remote and seeing if that does any good. After a rescan of the digibox possibly.
I remember that on one digibox rescanning involved a lot of faffing about rescanning with the aerial disconneted first to clear the thing, unplugging it for a bit and then scanning again. Maybe the same might apply with the TV.
michael adams
...
My parents' Panasonic started playing up 18 months ago - repeatedly crashing and restarting, giving 10-15 seconds blank screen, which they called me about, mainly because I got it for them and did I know if it was still under guarantee. I happened to turn mine on a day later (same TV), and it was doing the same. A search in the net revealed several such reports. It turned out that the BBC had changed something in the Freeview transmissions, and it was tickling a bug in the firmware of these sets. The BBC worked with Panasonic to get it fixed in a couple of days.
So yes, initially start by having a look on the web for similar reports, and avoid changing lots of things on the set, which might just add more problems.
If the problem really is the set and not firmware, then you might be able to find a Restart Party or Repair Cafe near you, where people like me will take a look and try and see what's wrong. Capacitors failing in power supplies are quite a common cause of problems like this. If you think the set is still quite valuable (if working) and worth spending something like £100 on, then you may want to take it to a repair place instead.
Quite - I have a Humax TV where the digital tuner side fails - but everything else works ok and it's a decent enough set. You can buy all the bits used on Ebay - but this board. ;-)
And, IME, a red herring.
Out of the 4 TV/monitors I've had apart in recent months with intermittent starting problems, only one was cured by replacing PSU caps. And that was quite old[1], dating back to when such problems were coming to light.
Of the others:
40" new'ish LCD TV: broken solder joint where a funny little daughter board was attached at right angles to the main one.50" Plasma (~8 years old): Several bulgy caps so replaced them all (plus some others showing no signs of bulge.) Didn't cure it.
32" LCD TV: Totally DOA. Not very old, no bulgy caps. Mainboard dead as far as I could tell - wasn't telling the PSU to fire up.So I conclude that the capacitor plague is long over and problems are simply dying boards which, unless it's obviously the backlight driver or a standard problem, aren't worth mucking about with. With these things all being so cheap these days I can't imagine there's much of a living to be made out of doing in depth diagnosis.
[1] 17" monitor which, in true UKDIY fashion, was hauled out of a skip by yours truly. Still going strong
Doesn't stop them failing if they are mis-specced for the application or run too hot in service. I've still seen the occasional failed 'lytic in newer gear, but agreed the days of mass failure of caps is *long over*. Til the next time :)
On a side note, I pulled an 8 year old Philips LCD apart the other week, knowing it had a tcon failure but still half expecting to find failed caps and every single one of over 20 caps I measured were within spec. So it survived that plague only to befall the creeping tin plague instead... Oh and it had a secondary infection of failed bonding to the LCD panel, but that was being treated by bandage and was manageable :)
Lee
snip snip
If your small sample is representative, 25% of failures due to failed caps makes it still a significant issue. I was pointing out how off track Brian's post was.
NT
No it didn't. Your implication was that all any failed TV needs is a tupenny component. If 75% of failures aren't caps then that reply makes no sense.
One of them may be, but alas there are different strains of the infection! One might more correctly be cheapitis...
It seems not uncommon to find poor designs that put 85 deg C electrolytics near hot components, and then routinely fit parts with a
2000 hour rated life. Needless to say they fail after a couple of years of normal use, but its not actually a defective capacitor as such - just a worn out one, inadequately specified and a poor design.Not only that, but deep analysis may require a fair amount of pricey test gear these days.
Having said that, you can still find a fair bit just checking all the three terminal regulators with a DVM.
OK ... official Samsung repair centre ... £50 to look at it, then if I decided to proceed with repair a further £75 deposit ... that is almost
50% the cost of the TV !Found local independent repair, £30 to investigate and that comes off repair ...... he is pretty sure it will be PSU based on symptoms.
You will find lots of TV sets that look like they are having a psychedelic episode on magic mushrooms when powered up.
Basically they have fallen off the wall/TV stand, owner has claimed a NEw for Old TV from their insurance. They then sell the old one for spares on Ebay.
You essentially get a whole TV with a smashed glass panel. Good source of whole boards.
I've fixed quite a few TV using these Ebayed psychedelic TV sets... :-)
CRT sets ocasionally suffered psychedelics too. Enough of a smack and the shadowmask could pop out of position...
NT
Your inference is not my implication. How silly.
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