ASU2003

I just spent 4 hours doing TV repair on my HDTV. I bought it close to 4 years ago, and spent around $1800 on it. Warranties don't appeal to me in the first place and throwing it away didn't seem like a good option. So, I took it apart and found that one of the capacitors had a piece of solder that was touching a grounded piece of the frame. It was creating a few sparks, but mainly removed all of the soldering around it. It eventually lost enough to cause the TV not to power on. All I had to do was spend the time to take things apart to get to the very inside and re-solder the part onto the PCB board again. It wasn't too hard, but I don't know any of my friends or family that would do that. They would probably want me to fix it.

But I'm curious what a normal person would do in this situation? Would you do the same thing? Would you try to find someone else to repair it? Do you go shopping for a replacement? Is there someplace to take it or send it back to the manufacturer? Would you sell it on eBay?

Willravel

Edit: Oh, right a response.

I'd go buy a new one.

inBOIL

I would do (and have done) the same thing. Unfortunately, it isn't usually obvious which component is malfunctioning. If it isn't something obvious like a broken connection or extra solder, I just give up and buy a replacement. And yes, I have gone all Office Space on broken electronics.

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Manic_Skafe

I have three nineteen inch widscreens. Two for the computer and one as a television - if one died then I'd just change the configuration while I sent off the broken screen to be repaired.

I'm not handy enough to manage any serious repairs but I also don't believe in dumping things in the trash just because they don't work. I've still got a few minidisc players that need to be repaired and regifted.

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lostgirl

Depends on how old it is. If it is old and out of date I would just buy a new one. Just like inBoil, I wouldn't bother if it weren't obvious.

MikeSty

I like to fancy myself as a competent, thrifty fellow - but the reality is, I'm really clumsy and never had much luck with soldering.

I'm in a similar pickle now. I've been bumming a laptop charger from a roommate (same model required by school) ever since mine stopped. I know roughly where the problem is - a weak connection on the DC end of the adapter - I must have been too rough with it going in and out of my bookbag. A new one costs quite a bit of money around here, and online options aren't much cheaper - so I'll be cracking it open tomorrow and seeing if I can indeed solder something back together.

lostgirl

Who am I kidding, lately I wouldn't even bother and just buy a new one.

Vigilante

I fix everything in the house, so I would obviously fix this one. I'm a competent solderer and many think of me like macgyver or something. Hell 2 of my computers use motherboards I replaced capacitors on.

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guthmund

Me too.

As a clumsy fellow, I have shocked the ever loving piss out of myself on more occasions than I care to count, which always makes me a bit hesitant to crack open anything electronic in nature.

In all honesty, I would have either called someone to look at it or given it to someone who wanted a project.

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LoganSnake

I would go out and try to buy a new one. It would give me an excuse to get something better. Never been much for repairing things.

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Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

boink

well, it happend to my old 300 pound sony XBR tv set, this was my signal to buy a new tv and join the 16x9 LCD world. since this was less than a year ago I'd call if either if the LCD tv's broke.

I'm still using my 10 yr old Hitachi CRT on my computer. I'd look into fixing it some, but if I couldn't find someone to repair it for a reasonable cost I'd be in the market for a new or good used monitor.

if I had a good place to work on the tv's and had no other recourse I spose I'd look into it myself. I've re solderd a pair of Shure earbuds and some bits inside a tv remote. but tv's are alor more complicated so I'd be somewhat lost in there.

you did say a 'normal person' I doubt I fit that description.

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when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain't the way.

Jinn

My laptop's screen is all fucked, with a dozen vertical lines running through it.. with a few more adding every couple weeks. It was driving me nuts, but I don't want to spend the $120 to buy a brand new LCD screen for a $1000 (when I bought it) laptop that is probably only worth about 300 now.

Thinking myself rather handy I took the whole thing apart last night, hoping to see that it was just an unseated inverter cable or something. All looked well, and it took me almost another hour to put the thing back together again. Looks like it's a new LCD or a new laptop for me. :-/

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"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Amaras

Pick up a book.

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