Screw you Samsung and your $500 repair bill!

[Winnow]

My beauteous Samsung 46" LCD TV stopped working last weekend. I came home and turned it on and all it would do was keep making a clicking sound. After a few minutes of trying the usual stuff (unplugging, other video source, etc), I said, "well fuck!".

I hopped on ye'ole internet and it didn't take long to discover that many Samsung LCDs from slightly less than 2 years ago (yep, out of warranty) had developed the clicking issue. I think there's a class action or something going on but whatever the case, I was out a TV and pissed. I'm not really into bitching and wasting time with companies about defective products so did some more research online.

After a little browsing, I found that Samsung had decided to use cheap ass 10V 1000uf underpowered capacitors on their boards which, over time, eventually failed. It also turns out these capacitors are extremely inexpensive so the challenge became being able to take apart my TV and replace these capacitors. I decided to give it a shot because I would rather waste my time trying to fix something than waste my time on the phone with companies and repair centers.

I first went to Fry's electronics but they didn't have the right capacitors. I then found them on eBay. I'm not a fan of eBay but this appeared to be my best shot at getting capacitors.

Need: 2 x 10V capacitors 1000uf 105c

Cost: 6 x 10v capacitors 1000uf 105c for 2.99 plus $2.00 priority mail shipping.

Running total: $4.99

I ordered the capacitors and then had to get a soldering gun and some solder.

need: like an inch of solder for 4 drops to secure capacitors

cost:

2.99 for hella cheap ass soldering gun
8.99 for a roll of more solder than I could use in 10 lifetimes but it was the smallest amount I could get

running total: $16.97 (not counting tax)

With all my shit in place, I set out to fix my TV



There were around 20 screws holding the back onto my TV. Easy enough to remove



The metal cage protecting the boards was pretty easy to take off. I bent the metal a little prying it off before finding a few more screws that needed removing. No harm done!



Thankfully, the capacitors that were supposed to be damaged, were visibly damaged. Note the bulging tops compared to the functioning similar capacitors on the right.



removing the board was no trouble. At this point, it was like working on a PC.



First challenging part (well new to me) was to take my cheap ass 2.99 soldering gun and heat up the solder on the bottom of the capacitors while slowly working them out of their sockets. It's a little challenging because you have two prongs and need to get both hot to remove at same time.



Picture of empty sockets with new capacitor ready to be soldered in!



After probably the worst solder job ever, my new capacitors are in place!



Picture of board remounted.

I ended up with 12 extra screws after reassembling the TV. Screwmania! Way too many screws holding stuff in place.

I plugged my PS3, Xbox 360 and PC back into the TV, plugged in the power, and it fired right up!

Sweet. This was more satisfying than any of my hacks. I didn't think I'd ever repair something like an LCD TV but with a little digging on the internet, my $1,700 TV is back up and running for $19.97, of which half was the massive reel of soldering wire I had to buy. If I had solder and gun, my total cost would have been $4.99 plus some pain and suffering which was replaced with deep satisfaction after the successful repair job.

[Animalor]

Really nice. Good job.

[Psyloche]

This does not bode well for me in the future! Posting so I can find this easily later.

[sarlen]

The Vizio 42" and 46" have the same issue, warranty repaired it the first time but now way out of warranty. Nice little tutorial here that I may need in the future!

[Kluden]

Yeah, good job! If your soldering job didn't look "good", did you use a heat sink on the cap side of the board? Just wondering, because just heating the legs allows all that heat into the caps, weakening the internals...where as if you have some alligator clips, just stick those on, and voila...protecting the new equipment, and the solder joint will probably look better.

Just an idea for the future, so you can show us the solder joint. But yes, grats and good job!

[Winnow]

Yeah, good job! If your soldering job didn't look "good", did you use a heat sink on the cap side of the board? Just wondering, because just heating the legs allows all that heat into the caps, weakening the internals...where as if you have some alligator clips, just stick those on, and voila...protecting the new equipment, and the solder joint will probably look better.

Just an idea for the future, so you can show us the solder joint. But yes, grats and good job!

Good advice! While I was heating up the defective capacitors solder for removal, the actual capacitors became too hot too touch.

While the new ones didn't get that hot, I'm sure they did take in some heat although it was less because I was heating up the solder above the legs so not as much direct heat. Thankfully I have 4 spare capacitors now in case the current ones go bad.

If there is a next time, I think I do have some alligator clips in my tool box I can use. : )

It sucks that Samsung made this mistake though because there will be a ton of people with bad TVs that only need parts that cost pennies to fix and probably won't know it. On top of that, I doubt many would risk taking apart their TVs to fix the issue.

[Kluden]

Its contract work for companies like that...Samsung probably has an exclusive with company X, for years 200X thru 200Y, to provide them with all ferride core devices, caps, etc...The "quality" cap companies cannot keep up with the demand, usually, although they don't cost much more. So the problem samsung faces is not having enough at a time to produce their quota of TV's. Its a travesty. Japan still makes the best caps, but, their factories just aren't as fast to pump out product as china/Taiwan/etc. It is a travesty.

Good thing is, when it comes to computer power supplies, the quality brands always put the good Made in Japan caps in their power supplies. those caps do a lot more heavy lifting, so to speak, than electronics like TV's, DVD players, etc.

But this is a good post, damn good post, to help folks see how "easy" most electronics fixes are. Its like caps and relays 9 out of 10 times.

[Canelek]

Nice!

And it definately helps to have a good solder gun. I used to build/mod and race off-road RC Cars when I was a kid so found out the hard way regarding soldering shit together...constantly.

[Jarori Bloodletter]

Nice!

And it definately helps to have a good solder gun. I used to build/mod and race off-road RC Cars when I was a kid so found out the hard way regarding soldering shit together...constantly.

I was a sponcer'd (spelling?) driver for Oregon Hobbies way back heh so ive also done a ton of soldering~

1/10 scale offroad as well as onroad stuffs.

[Trias]

awesome post winnow...this gives me hope if my new Samsung set ever shits the bed.

[Canoe]

Mine just started doing this - looked and sure enough the capacitors are bulged

Any advice for someone who has NEVER soldered before?

I'm deathly afraid of ruining a $1300 TV - enough to consider shipping it out for the $400 repair bill instead of the $30 fix above.

[Kluden]

Soldering is actually not very difficult. There's lots of online tutorials, and I"m sure some videos on you tube.

My advice is to heatsink the new capacitors "legs" between the capacitor and the solder joint.

Remember, for a solid solder joint, you are heating the "legs" to melt the solder onto itself...that's the best advice I can give!

edit: Also, if you are afraid or don't want to have to learn to solder, you can just call an electronics shop up and take the board to them. It will cost you less than $100 to have a professional do the work for you, provided you don't stick them with the whole TV to deal with. Any electronics repair shop will do...including most computer repair stores.

[Canoe]

Just realized - I am senior management at a multi billion dollar engineering company - there HAS to be someone in one of the plants that will do this for me hah.

Time to start asking around

Otherwise great advice on the board - I'm sure I can take the board out without any issues, and take it somewhere to get the capacitors soldered on.

[Boogahz]

Yeah, you can probably find someone there willing to teach a manager how to solder

[Canelek]

Well Canoe, you can always wing it!

[Winnow]

March 31 - August 31

six months!

That's how long I thought my capacitor fix worked after I started getting clicking noises again when turning on my Samsung LCD TV.

It only took two or three days for the the slow click turn on to become clicking and TV never turning on...so...I had 4 more of the 10V 1000uf capcitors so I figured I'd just dive back into my TV and swap out the same capacitors....but nooooooooo...when I got the back of my TV off it turns out two OTHER capacitors were blown. These were 25V capacitors right by the 10's I replaced.



(the two 25V capacitors to the right of the circles ones. That's old picture from first repair before they went bad)



(This is a picture of how the original 25V capacitors looks now and what I replaced them with)

I didn't feel like going the eBay route so I checked Fry's...they didn't have anything close but Radio Shack had 35V 1000uf Capacitors so I went and picked up three of those at 1.59 each (1 spare back up due to no confidence in my shitty soldering abilities) These were a little larger physically than the 25V capacitor and a few more volts but what the hell. Close enough!

Due to the larger size, I had to kind of angle the capacitors to get them to fit so close together. After a very bad soldering job, I put everything back together and my TV cranked right back up!

If this TV didn't have such a great picture I wouldn't bother but I like the TV and want to hold out until the google TVs come out or pick up a second gen LED LCD TV so I want this thing to keep working for awhile.

Cost of Repair: $3.18 for 2 Capacitors and $1.59 for another spare, 2 hours of my time.

Now, if I went the service route...guestimating that my original 10V issue would have been $500 service repair and then these 25V capacitors would have been another $500.00 service repair.

Checking the internet, I once again found way too many people with Samsung TVs that have this issue. It's a shame people are losing their TVs or paying megabucks because samsung used underpowered and/or cheap penny parts.

This time, I was able to replace all of the screws that I took out.

[Aslanna]

They don't make TVs like they used to.

[Niffoni]

Sure is making me eye my nearly-2-year-old 40" Samsung with suspicion.

[Xouqoa]

We bought a Sony 60" rear projection (DLP style) a few years ago. Earlier this year it started having color issues, and eventually it got really bad so I started looking into the problem.

There is a well known issue with this particular line of TVs, and a class action lawsuit happened, etc. So I called up Sony to see if it was still under warranty. They asked for the serial number and said it still (barely, by like 3 days) was, so they just needed to see proof of purchase and they would have it fixed. That was a problem since we bought it from an aftermarket resale place that sells like returns and stuff. So, since Circuit City had just gone out of business I told them I got it there and I didn't have the receipt. (I also said the proof of purchase was the TV sitting in my living room.)

Anyway, that was good enough and they sent out a local repair guy with the new part and got it fixed. Ta-da!

(Not quite as impressive as Winnow's story but it beats an $800 repair bill)

[Winnow]

BTW, I switched hosts and accidentally (or stupidly) didn't back up my picture folder for vv so the 100's of linked images will all be gone on VV from me. I fixed the ones in this thread because pictures help a bunch with repair stuff. I have all the images but they aren't in same folders I used online so I'll probably fix a few here and there when I notice them.

I also added an image of the bad 25v capacitor so you know what to look for if it happens to you. Basically look for bulging top and sometimes even leaking like the one in my post.

[Winnow]

Samsung's full statement to CNET follows.

A small percentage of certain models of Samsung televisions have experienced performance issues caused by a component called a capacitor. We are unable to provide specifics on the actual number but can say that it is a small number given the volume of Samsung TVs in the US.

Since originally confirming this issue in early 2010, Samsung has voluntarily provided free repairs for U.S. customers with affected televisions. Customers who believe they have an affected TV should call 1-800-SAMSUNG to speak with a customer service representative.

The Oklahoma settlement reaffirms that Samsung's efforts to voluntarily repair affected products for consumers since early 2010, have been appropriate for the situation. The settlement will be final on February 20, 2012, at which time we will make a nationwide announcement to explain next steps to customers. Once the settlement is approved, a process will also be put into place to compensate consumers who have already paid for a repair.

The models affected by the settlement are 2006-8 TVs, listed below. The asterisks represent the size and series of the TVs.

LCD TVs: LNT******/XAA; LN**A******XZA; LNS4041DX/XAA; LNS4051DX/XAA; LNS4052DX/XAA; LNS5296DX/XAA
Plasma TVs: HPT5034X/XAA; HPT5044X/XAA; HPT5054X/XAA; HPT5064X/XAA; PN42A410C1DXZA; PN42A450P1DXZA; PN50A410C1DXZA; PN50A450P1DXZA; PN50A460S4DXZA
DLP TVs: HLT5087SAX/XAA; HLT5087SX/XAA; HLT5089SAX/XAA; HLT5089SX/XAA; HLT5687SAX/XAA; HLT5687SX/XAA; HLT5689SAX/XAA; HLT5689SX/XAA; HLT6187SAX/XAA; HLT6187SX/XAA; HLT6189SAX/XAA; HLT6189SX/XAA

The news is a little old but first I've heard of it!

Well how about that. After I personally repaired and replaced to separate sets of capacitors, having to open up my TV twice. Nice to see Samsung finally own up!

Lucky for them I'm lazy and most likely won't pursue the settlement unless it's more than $100.00, if even then.

Once the settlement is approved, a process will also be put into place to compensate consumers who have already paid for a repair.

It's the time it took and frustration that needs to be compensated. My repairs costs were like $20.00 total for the two repairs including two orders for capacitors from eBay, cheap ass soldering gun, and hella expensive 8.99 roll of soldering wire that I need about two inches of out of 20 feet.

I'm still pretty proud of my repair job! The TV is still up and running with it's 4 new capacitors.