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:
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:
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.
