Golborne Vintage Radio

No more LED strips replacement jobs for me anymore.
Last week two Vestel TVs came in for repair, the usual LED backlight failure problem. Parts ordered from ASWO and delivered from France the next day. The first set to look at was a 40" Toshiba, the LED replacement  job went OK except there is something else wrong with the set so that was a waste of time.
The other set is a 42" Hitachi. Again, after the scary business of handling the fragile screen the set displays a nice bright picture.  Now for the final assembly, fit the escutcheon thing the goes around the screen panel, easy enough as it is a push fit. At the bottom left and right corners there is two small screws to secure the frame to the inner panel.  First screw went in OK but the other, disaster! I was sure I heard what sounded like a cracked screen and sure enough it was. How could that happen?   Anyway, that's the last backlight replacement job for me.   I'm wondering if this type of job is being turned down by other TV engineers. Bear in mind the total cost for the LEDs including VAT was just over £100.  Strangely, the 40" Toshiba LEDs were £55 and those for the 42" Hitachi were £45.
About those LED strips. In most sets the LEDs are wired in series therefore the result is one out all out.  However, I find some LED lamps go short circuit which causes overloading the of the other diodes.
I'm aware that many engineers replace will replace a faulty diode rather than fit new LED strips. That's not a good idea because the set will soon come back in for repair.

Geordie McBoyne.

David,

That's very bad luck on both sets.
This is not helping you to pay for the running costs of the shop!

Jac

Perhaps you are not supposed to repair them at all?
Is it ever going to be cost effective to repair flat screen sets?

Hello Jac,
the shop hasn't made a profit for many years now. TV rental has all but gone now, in fact I sensed even in the late eighties the writing was on the wall for TV rental. Unfortunately the retail trade is going through a bad time and there's not much chance of finding anyone who will be willing to occupy the premises. Shop opened in August 1972.

Answer to Sam.
You just have to go to the council dumps or recycling centres and see the piles of unwanted LCD TVs. Many are only a few years old.

From the Royal Society: Publication is dated 2009.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/f....2009.0247

Geordie McBoyne.

I've  repaired a few of these (55"-65") but only where we have them in blocks of 4 in the office - we use the very thin bezel LGs and wall mount them in a 2x2 block. The video cards and drivers we use then make that into one big screen. I only repair those that we cannot replace with new... My LEDs came from Norfolk...

Damn fiddly though...

Just had a read of this one and the link to the RS (can only browse this of course). May not be as long lived as we would like but still incredibly clever and hats off to the people who can figure out how to do it.

Are some LED TV makes better than others? Our Sony Bravia lasted for quite a number of years and the Panasonic that replaced it is going great. A friend who bought a Panasonic when we bought the Sony has his still going strong with a good picture. That must be about 10 years but I will find out.

thanks for an interesting thread Gary

Reading these threads, and part of that RS article makes me glad I don't service or repair flat panel TVs. The comment about one screw causing the screen to crack is particularly scary. I've only ever repaired two, and both, from memory, were PSU faults. My own modestly sized Goodmans TV, which is several years old, is still going strong, and, if and when it fails, I'll probably just replace it. It does have a minor problem (Nothing to do with the screen or LED Backlights, in that the volume can only be turned down by going into the menu, but it can stay that way!

Hi Old Sparky, rest assured I won't be replacing LED light strips anymore.
All the easy jobs such as dried up electrolytics in the power supply have all but stopped. Seems that the public are reconciled to the fact they can't get these things fixed anymore.
Anyway, there is no pleasure trying to fix LCD TVs. Can't imagine anyone looking forward to going to work in the morning to repair LCD TVs. The last of the CRT sets weren't all that nice either!

Geordie McBoyne.

I spent over 23 years repairing Car Radios & Stereos, until mid 1995 when I was made redundant. Since then I've repaired & serviced many things, but admit to not being a TV specialist and now refuse to touch TVs of any type.