The TV is screaming and it's not Halloween

October 12, 2015 6:34 AM

Over the past few weeks our Samsung LCD TV has developed an odd habit after we turn it on. It will cycle on and off quite a few times before finally displaying a picture and sound (yesterday it took 25 minutes to come on). During the cycling the picture, if it displays, will be full of vertical lines (usually green or blue). There is usually no sound, except sometimes it will make a deafening screech that sends the cat running.

The TV is about 6 years old, model number LN40A630M1F. I've tried doing a factory reset and unplugging it, but that did nothing. Once it's on it's fine until we try turning it on again the next time.

So, is there anything I can try to get it working again? If not, would it be cost-effective to try getting it repaired, or should we get ready to go TV shopping?

posted by lharmon to Technology (5 answers total)

Best answer: Sounds like the power supply, although I'm tempted to add 'and/or the mainboard'.
LCD TVs typically have separate boards for power, sound/video input/output (the mainboard) and a board to power and control the backlight.

The power cycling issues suggest a power supply board issue, but I'd want to open the TV up and check for scorch marks, blown/leaking capacitors etc. before going any further. And of course a damaged power supply will sometimes lead to problems elsewhere.

It's probably repairable, depending on the services available where you live. The boards in LCD TVs are pretty modular, with easily removable connectors. If you can isolate the problem to one of the boards, a replacement ought to be a lot cheaper than a new TV. I'd be confident in my ability to do this sort of repair myself, but I wouldn't suggest it to someone who hasn't done similar things before.
posted by pipeski at 6:58 AM on October 12, 2015

Best answer: This sounds similar to a problem I had with my ca. five-year-old Samsung TV - although mine just had the cycling when being switched on, not the ‘screaming’. I got an electrician to take a look at it - he found a faulty capacitor in the power supply: replacing the capacitor fixed it. Apparently this is quite a common problem with Samsung TVs.
posted by misteraitch at 7:15 AM on October 12, 2015

Best answer: Ours just went through this. Ended up needed the capacitor change that misteraitch mentions. It was really cheap, but YMMV.
posted by cooker girl at 7:38 AM on October 12, 2015

Best answer: Congratulations, you sound like you're the victim of a shitty $0.25 capacitor destroying your $1000 TV! I was too. There was a settlement and repair program but when I looked into it, it was too late in the US. There are DIY repair instructions and capacitor kits you can buy online, you could probably fix it yourself for $10 in parts or get someone to do it for you for $50-$100.

I'm such a sucker I just bought another new TV. From Samsung, to my shame. At last TVs are a lot nicer than a few years ago, but I feel dumb for buying the same brand that completely wrecked their last generation of products by using broken parts.
posted by Nelson at 8:59 AM on October 12, 2015

Response by poster: Took it to a TV repair place and it was indeed the power supply. A couple days later and it's working great.
posted by lharmon at 8:37 AM on October 30, 2015