Broken LG TV
Portabletv2
Posts: 167 Forum Member
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Bought my 42 inch HD LCD Lg TV only 3 and half years ago I think for about £1,300 at the time. But it's developed a fault. When I switch it on from stand by the light goes from red to flashing green but not much else happens,...the Tv does not come on. It sort of goes through a cycle of clicks and flashing green lights and eventually comes on,.. but this is taking about an hour now and getting worse. Once on it is perfect as before.
So. Is it worth trying to get someone to fix it, or at least paying a call out charge to see what is needed. Or...should I take it on the chin and buy a new one ? I think the equivalent is about £500 these days.
So. Is it worth trying to get someone to fix it, or at least paying a call out charge to see what is needed. Or...should I take it on the chin and buy a new one ? I think the equivalent is about £500 these days.
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If what you need doesn't appear under the makers name use their search function as some boards work in more than one panel.
If you can figure out if the signal processing board is the same part between the two TV's then I can tell you what it is. If it's totally different then ignore me.
I'm no electrician, so can't go trying to fix it myself. And phone calls to local repair centres have left me pretty depressed about call out charges, minimum fees, and possible repair costs. I don't even have the means to take the TV to the repair shop given that I'm at work all week and have no transport.
I am almost convinved they will check my TV out then come up with a repair bill that makes it uneconomical to fix.
Not good for TV that is only 3.5 years old !
Given it will cost you at least £ 400 to buy a 42" of similar quality, I'm not sure I agree with your logic.
A call out should only be about £ 50. If it's an easy fix a competent engineer will do the job then. If it needs parts at least you'll have a view of whether it is an economic repair or not. The fact the TV starts tells you the panel is OK and that's usually the most expensive part.
The best discussion I've had yet with a repair centre is as follows,
£60 call out charge to pick up TV
£65 minimum charge to investigate (but will be deducted from repair cost)
Power issue resolved, anything from £50 to £200 depending what power board it has and if it needs replacing
£60 to bring the TV back to me.
To me thats £170 min, £320 max.
And once the TV is in their hands they will have me over a barrel claiming any sort of repair cost, and/or that its not economical to fix, such that I dont even bother to pay them to bring it back and they keep the TV.
I should note that I'm in London where ripping people off is the norm !
Have you tried LG and asked who their service agents in your area are? A total of £ 120 for uplift and return seems a tad excessive.
Also may be worth approaching either your local Currys store - DSG's repair guys do repair on-site wherever possible - or John Lewis (not sure who does their repairs) to get some quotes from them, not least because they are more likely to have a 'fixed price' for call out and investigation.
Good idea re. DSG and John Lewis. But whoever fixed it would have to come and either fix here or take it away. I have no means of transporting it.
I'm surprised more repairers aren't suggesting they'll fix on site. OK, LCD tvs are a lot lighter and easier to handle than their CRT forebears (as somebody who carried everything up to a 28" CRT I know what they were like), but it makes little sense to uplift the set unless the repair is likely to be particularly complex. And my understanding is that modern LCDs have fewer components and are easier to service than older sets.
LCD's and Plasma's are FAR more complicated and difficult to repair, any on-site repairs are likely to be just replacing panels, which is VERY expensive - and requires the engineer to have the panels as well.
If you've only ever carried 'up to' 28 inch sets, you haven't carried anything!
As far as I know, JL don't have any service facilities, they just use third parties - and DSG won't even look at anything that isn't under their extended warranty, even if you bought the set from them.
Bingo, these things are so complicated, and changing so fast theres no way to train a technician to "fix" anything on them, its major part swap time. and in t he end, it generally isn't worth it unless your tv was very high end.
I'm no electrician. But doesn't this mean that the TV is proabably 'OK' except for some sort of power issue ? Doesn't this rule out some of the more complicated aspects that could drive a repair cost up ?
Yes, it's probably just a capacitor issue as "tellyman" said previously:
A complete LG power supply is only £59.99
Quite often switch mode power supplies fail with a bad 1 microfarad capacitor.
back to square one after switching off and back on. Takes another hour to fire up again.... And is taking longer by the day
Which again is usually a sign of high ESR electrolytic capacitors - as they get worse and worse it takes longer and longer.
OK thanks. But I am no TV engineer. What is an ESR capacitor, and if you are right is this just a simple case of replacing that component ?
You can't fix it yourself, it's dangerous. Is a TV worth your life?
But such a fault is quite cheap to fix. But the need is to find someone trustworthy to do it.
Or you could put it on Ebay as cash on collection and someone with electrical engineering experience will find it an attractive buy.
So you might get a fair price.
HIgh-ESR is the common failure mode for cheap electrolytic capacitors, you would need to replace all the faulty ones in the PSU.