Fixed our TV

[Chris @ Saturday Financial]

Out of the blue, our TV broke. Half of the screen flickered constantly, and none of the buttons on the remote worked except for the power button. This made it impossible to switch inputs, etc.

First I turned it off and unplugged it, waited 30 seconds, and turned it back on. It was still broken. At this point, most people would have tossed the TV and bought a new one. Our TV is a "Smart" LG flat screen from 2015. It's 6 years old, but all the newest models are practically identical. We didn't want to spend $290+ to replace it. So I did this instead...

1) Read forums to find out what the likely problem was. 80% chance the "main board" was broke. 20% chance the "T-con board" was broke. (~1 hour.)

2) Find and purchase the main board, making sure the part could be returned if necessary. This wasn't easy, because apparently not many people repair their TVs anymore and very few places carry parts for TVs that are only 6 years old. (~1 hour)

3) Watch a YouTube Video on how to replace a main board. (~15 minutes.)

4) Replace the old part with the new one. This was much easier and straightforward than I imagined. Just removing screws, unplugging 4 wires, then reversing that process with the new part in place. (~30 minutes.)

5) Turn on the TV. It works! Reconfigure to desired settings. (~15 minutes.)

So all in all, 3 hours of fun problem solving. Because the part was so rare, I had to pay $160 for it. If it were still readily available, I could have gotten it for closer to $50. Even with that setback, we saved $130 and prevented a 43" flat screen from going to a landfill.

[RWD]

Way to go! More than the cost I hate throwing out stuff that can be fixed. Most people don't bother though (why spend $160 on fixing when you can get a shiny brand new one for $270?).

[draco44]

Respect! I fully support giving planned obsolescence the finger. And learning something new and saving money.

Out of curiosity, if you feel comfortable sharing, what good sources did you find for parts? I'd probably check on eBay first, but electronics components feel like a gamble to buy.

[Chris @ Saturday Financial]

In my research I found that shopjimmy.com seems to be a trusted source for TV parts. You can plug in your model number on their site and see the parts that fit your particular TV.

Unfortunately they and other retailers appear to no longer carry the part I needed. (It was out of stock at every retail site I looked at. It could be a COVID supply chain issue. But my best guess is that the demand for the part is low enough that they just don't carry it anymore.)

I ended up finding the part on eBay. It was actually a used "main board" which had been pulled from a TV that had a cracked screen. The part had a 30-day return policy, so I went for it knowing that at most I'd be out the shipping cost.

[katsiki]

Awesome job!!

I tried the same thing on a TV last year.  Sadly, the common solution (changing a board) did not solve the issue.  I was surprised how easy the repair was also and how easy it was to find the part.  I cannot find the site now unfortunately but they had parts for all the major brands and then some.

[draco44]

In my research I found that shopjimmy.com seems to be a trusted source for TV parts. You can plug in your model number on their site and see the parts that fit your particular TV.

Unfortunately they and other retailers appear to no longer carry the part I needed. (It was out of stock at every retail site I looked at. It could be a COVID supply chain issue. But my best guess is that the demand for the part is low enough that they just don't carry it anymore.)

I ended up finding the part on eBay. It was actually a used "main board" which had been pulled from a TV that had a cracked screen. The part had a 30-day return policy, so I went for it knowing that at most I'd be out the shipping cost.

Thanks for the additional details on sourcing.