this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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For TVs it's usually really simple, like internal fuses or blown caps. And a few with bad backlights or mainboards that are dead.
For 2 of them it's been shorts in the LCD itself which meant I had to block the clock pin from the TCON board for the specific part of the screen with the short. Basically killing a line of pixels to get the TV working again. In general if the TV is 4k and smaller than like 45 inches you'll never see it unless you look for it.
That's a super involved fix (involving A LOT of trial and error to find the right pin) but it keeps it out of a landfill.
In general fixing a TV is always cost effective unless the actual LCD has physical damage.
hey, I'm getting into this kind of repair. I have good soldering skills and am great at taking things apart, but do you have any tips on how to find the fault? even it's just a blow capacitor, what am I looking for?
Blown capacitors are nice and obvious.
Most capacitors you'll find are cylindrical, with a flat side of the cylinder pointed up. They'll usually have a big X cut into that top side, allowing it to flex a bit. But if that top side is bulging a lot, that's a warning sign, if it bulged so much that it opened up and it either looks burned on top, or some kind of paste is actually seeping out, then that thing is way past done.
With capacitors a visual inspection is really all you need. You'd actually need more expensive specialized equipment than a standard multimeter to actually test their capacitance. But if you look at it, and your description might include words like "exploded" or "popped", or "wtf is this mess?", then it's bad.
got it, thank you!!
NGL I usually only do component level repairs on the power boards (or in the case of appliances most of the components are easy to find docs for and are much larger) but I usually find stuff by poking around with my multimeter or looking for obviously blown things. But my experience is more from the realm of appliance repair (and all from experimenting).
Testing capacitors can be done (and if they're big enough) something I'll do as well. I ain't gonna test capacitors that are smaller that a grain of rice.
There are times though that it's easier to just buy a new board rather than do component level repair.
Good news is that when it comes to TVs those boards are usually really cheap.
that makes sense. appreciate it!!
Any tips on finding someone who does component level repair? I have an old-ish laptop (7 years?) and the only issue is the USB C charger seems to be losing connection. If I flip the charger it works fine, so I think the solder just needs to be reflowed.
I think it would take an experienced person <30 min to fix. It's almost not worth it though since it's so old, but I'd be willing to pay $50-100 if it makes charging work better.
Usually if it's a charging port, it's pretty common that there's like dirt in there or something.
But soldering a type C connector is pretty tough due to the size. Especially for my (lack of) experience level.
It could be a learning opportunity for you though.
Yeah, unfortunately I don't think that's the case. It has been dropped, tugged on, etc, so I'm pretty sure the solder joints are weak. I can feel the connector is loose as well.
If I get desperate, I'll pick up a heat gun, some flux, maybe a better soldering iron (I have some cheap Chinese crap) and try it out. But I'm more likely to break it than fix it. I'll try it once I'm ready to replace it anyway.
I second this comment. It can be extremely tricky to solder something so small with so many contacts so close together.
But... if you get some sharp tweezers, I wouldn't be surprised if you could pull some lint out of that USB port. And more often than not, that'll make all the difference and it'll charge normally again.