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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The name is Fixedit, Sparky Fixedit.

Ok, so my 1 yr. old plasma tv quits working mid-showing of one of my wife and I's favorite episodes of our favorite tv show. The tv will not turn on even though the light that signals when the unit has power is lit. After the torrential rain of colourful metaphors that came out of my mouth I decide to check my warranty and give good 'ol tech support a call. They wanted to sell me a 750 dollar replacement part even though it was under warranty. Here is a quote from the call, "Of course we can help with that. This is a well known defect by our tech department though it rarely happens and I myself have not before received a call concerning this, but since it is so well known common problem we will be glad to assist. The problem is caused by an issue with the power supply that was installed in your particualr model. Now Mr. [Sparky] the unit is still under warranty, however the cause is marked as a non-manufacturing defect so it is not covered. The replacement part is 750 US dollars. Will that be Credit, debit or do you wish to use check by phone?" Uhm, I almost lost my shit. I refused to pay that and politely told them to go sit on it and spin. Seing as how google is now a verb I decided to give that a try. My googling revealed that this an extremely common issue and the fix is quite simple and very inexpensive provided you are willing to learn how to do a little soldering. The fix is to replace 2-5 electrolytic capacitors located on the power board of the tv. So a trip to the local electronics store, $5.30, 10 minutes worth of soldering and reassembling the tv, BAM! You can call me Mr. Fixit. Here is a link to the arcticle I found to fix the tv: http://www.fixya.com/support/t4891862-purchased_vizio_vp322_hdtv10a_just_about

All you have to is open the back of the TV and locate the bad capacitors. You will know if they are bad because the tops of the cylinders will be bulging and possibly leaking. See this related arcticle (different tv same problem): http://www.fixya.com/support/r741402-polaroid_flm_373b_lcd_tv_black_screen

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