Tag Archives: LCD

Getting My Samsung LN52A650 HDTV Serviced

A few days ago my TV started having power-on problems. I would turn the power on and it would cycle itself on and off several times before finally coming on. Each day the process seemed to take longer and longer. Each cycle consisted of a relay click, the startup/shutdown sound, no image being displayed and would then repeat this process. The second to last cycle I would see an image briefly before it powered down again to return and stay on. The problem only seemed to happen if I turned the TV off for a period of time. Once the TV came on it seemed to otherwise work fine except for the clock loosing it’s setting each morning.

The TV was outside of the 1-year Samsung warranty. At the time I did purchase a 2-year extended warranty from Circuit City which is now being handled by Assurant Solutions. I still have 1 year left on the extended warranty so I wasn’t overly concerned. I did some searching on the net and found: How Do I Use My Circuit City Extended Warranty Now?

I decided to call Samsung first and I’m glad I did. As it turned out, my TV’s model, serial number, and symptoms happened to match certain criteria where they gave me a 1 time free of charge capacitor replacement repair.  I got the impression that my TV must have been part of a “bad batch”.

Later that day, someone from Professional TV, Inc out of Oklahoma City contacted me to set up an appointment to come by the next morning (April 29, 2010) to work on the TV. The tech arrived as promised and commenced to repair the TV after showing him what it was doing. He agreed it was due to failed capacitors. After helping him take the TV down and laying it on the floor on top of a floor pad, he took the back and stand off and removed the circuit board with the failed components.  Following is an image of the TV with the back removed, after the circuit board had been removed:

Samsung LN52A650 Repair

He then used a soldering iron to desolder the two bad capacitors that had failed with bulging caps and holes on top slowly leaking their contents. He also replaced two other capacitors that usually failed in these circumstances to be safe. All replacements had higher voltage specs. Here’s a pic of the two failed capacitors:

Bad Capacitors from Samsung LN52A650

He then replaced the circuit board and plugged the TV back in while it was still on the floor to make sure it would power up which it did. Yay! After cleaning the dust that had accumulated in the TV and replacing the back cover, we placed the TV back on the stand and reconnected it to my home theater system. He also dusted off my stand while he was at it. Everything worked fine and has continued to since! 🙂

So in the end, the complete process was painless, took less than 24 hours to have a working TV again, was free of charge, and everyone I spoke with was professional and understandable.  I commend Samsung for ultimately standing behind their product even though it was outside the manufacturer’s warranty.  I should also note that they offered the 1 time free repair to me after getting my information, rather than me asking or demanding it from them. This does give me the confidence to purchase future products from them.

I have searched the internet concerning this issue and realize that not everyone else has had the same experience. All I can say is that this was my experience with my TV.

Samsung LN52A650 52″ Widescreen 1080p LCD HDTV added to Home Theater

Samsung_LN52A650Well, after many years of wanting to get a widescreen TV, I finally bought myself one! It is a Samsung 52″ 1080p LCD HDTV, model LN52A650. I’ve had it about a month and love it! As it turns out, according to the AVS Forum, it is one of the better models to get. Needless to say I’ve been watching a lot of movies on it lately. I am actually behind on adding movies that I’ve bought to my website. I’ll get around to adding those later.

Star Wars III DVD ImageI currently have my Denon DVD-2200 DVD player and Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8240HDC DVR cable box connected to my Denon AVR-3806 A/V receiver, via component cables which are then connected to the TV via component cables. On the right is an image from my DVD player I took while watch Star Wars Episode III.

I have learned much concerning HDTV since purchasing this and following the AVS Forums and will most likely write another article concerning what I have learned about all this HDTV business. 🙂