CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[ricky_ricardo]

This should be post number three.

[ricky_ricardo]

This should be post...ah.....number four.

[ricky_ricardo]

Okay....post number five coming up now....hope this works!

_________


Edit: Yes, it does! PM sent!

[ricky_ricardo]

Well, I went ahead and took the set apart since I haven't heard/seen anything here on the thread; what a nightmare - never saw so many screws before! Looks like the boards simply "plug" in, which is a relief. Ordered a new main board from a place in Cordova, TN, which had the cheapest prices, best return policy, and shipped new parts. Should be here on Monday. Will update the thread then, after I've installed it. For the record, the people at Vizo recommend vizparts.com, which has to be affiliated with either them or the repair company they use or something. They'll only ship "recertified" parts for "out-of-warranty" Vizios and there's a core charge to boot, not to mention the 9% CA tax. Got three day USPS shipping on the new part (with none of that core charge garbage) from the place in TN for approximately $130. The "recertified" part, with core charge, tax, and shipping, was approximately $211. Seemed like a no-brainer to me....but then so did the Vizio when I purchased the damned thing - LOL. Ah well...time will tell!

[Curt Palme]

'Recertified' parts? That's a good one. I should use that... and charge triple for those.

I understand the core charge, that's gone on for years, but 'recertified' = 'we fix your old board by our trained monkeys that didn't build it right in the first place'.

[Curt Palme]

'Recertified' parts? That's a good one. I should use that... and charge triple for those.

I understand the core charge, that's gone on for years, but 'recertified' = 'we fix your old board by our trained monkeys that didn't build it right in the first place'.

[ricky_ricardo]

Well - it works!

Put the new board in and it's been working now for several days; guess this was the fix!!

Don't know how long it'll last, but even if I get a year out of it and then need to replace it AGAIN, it's still better shelling out the 100+ bucks and a few hours of my time than buying a new TV (a better make, of course) for $1500 to $2000.

MANY thanks to the original poster and I hope this thread can continue to serves others who own this Vizio POS when theirs breaks down and gives them THE BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH (LOL).

[Curt Palme]

Cool! Most likely your original board could be repaired with a 'reflow' of the main chips on the board. (google that, there's a pile of videos on Youtube regarding reflowing SMT chips.

I need to invest to do this, then I can experiment with XBox 360s and PS3s that all suffer from that problem before I attack TVs.

[Curt Palme]

Cool! Most likely your original board could be repaired with a 'reflow' of the main chips on the board. (google that, there's a pile of videos on Youtube regarding reflowing SMT chips.

I need to invest to do this, then I can experiment with XBox 360s and PS3s that all suffer from that problem before I attack TVs.

[ricky_ricardo]

Don't know much about it, re: reflowing, other than what a quick google-sourced search told me. Seems a bit too complicated for my troubles, at the moment; sold the dead board on ebay for circa 3 bucks. Let someone else screw around with it if they want - my work is done....for the time being....until the new board I just installed craps out, that is - LOL.

[Curt Palme]

Yep. not something for the layman to do. I will attempt to invest the money needed for the cash to do the work in 2012, but not sure I'll ever get my investment back from it.

[Curt Palme]

Yep. not something for the layman to do. I will attempt to invest the money needed for the cash to do the work in 2012, but not sure I'll ever get my investment back from it.

[ricky_ricardo]

Another point I wanted to make concerning my recent experience: the screws that hold the television together seem to have been chosen for their size and subsequent location by a drunkard placed in front of a dart board. There appeared (to me, anyway) to be little rhyme or reason and it made putting/screwing the entire thing back together again a nightmare. The actual board swap was a piece of cake...

[truckerock]

Thanks for the input on troubleshooting.

I have a 32" Vizio - 3 years old - Symptoms as follows

It will power on with power button on TV and remote
Vizio lights turns amber to white. Stays white while powered on
When powered it flickers after a few seconds then remains blueish/black
No sound
Will not respond to any controls other than power on/off

I just replaced the main board - same symptoms

Any ideas of next step. It seems if it is powering up with no problem the then P/S board would be fine right?

[ricky_ricardo]

Well, guess what? I just experienced the Black Screen of Death AGAIN.

It's been only 6 (?!) weeks since I replaced the main board!!!

This is simply ludicrous.

I did a lot of research on HDTVs below 2k in worth and they ALL seem to have significant percentages of their units suffering from similar problems, with most of them being related to the main board (Black Screen of Death) and failure to power-up (power supply board).

Perhaps this shouldn't come as a surprise since all the brands - all of them! - seem to be sourced from just three companies, with all of them manufacturing their boards (or the bulk of them, in Samsung's case) in China. Even Sony uses China-manufactured boards!

I remember the days when a Sony CRT television was made-in-Japan and would easily last a decade! Sadly, even Sony know sources its boards from one of the three aforementioned manufacturers who have them made in China.

What a shame!

After exhausting research, it's now become apparent to me from so many posts on so many websites (and validated by my own personal experience), that we, the consumers, are purchasing $1,000 to $2,000 "throw-away" HDTVs with approximately 13 to 20 month lifespans...with some of them crapping-out as early as 3 to 6 months.

I'm not going to waste my time with the Vizio. I'm going to put it on Craigslist for parts. I'll probably buy the Zenith Z50PT320 (made by LG and warrantied for 1 year by LG since they own Zenith) for $499 at sears. It's slightly smaller (50") than my Vizio, is plasma, and only 720p, but at my viewing distances (10 to 20 feet, depending on which couch I am sitting on), I'm not going to notice the difference between 720p and 1080p anyway. And if it craps-out after the 1 year warranty, I'm only out approximately 500 bucks instead of 1,000 to 2,000.

To each his own, and if you don't mind spending/wasting the money, then by all means go ahead, but until they start making reliable HDTVs, this is the best route to take, IMHO.

On a side note, they collect some kind of a landfill fee here in California with each "big" HDTV sold. Think they know something the average consumer doesn't, i.e., that the thing will be headed to the dump in a very short period of time?!

[ricky_ricardo]

Re: truckerock: time to buy a new TV, IMHO; you're just wasting your time trying to fix it. The problem lies with the boards, and all you're doing is replacing one board with another one that is of the same faulty design and/or contains the same faulty parts. In other words, you'd be just buying more time until the "new" part craps out too. Just my two cents...

[Curt Palme]

Welcome to my nightmare! Anything electronic you buy will last 2-5 years. I've repaired about 300 computer monitors i nthe last 2 years, and no question that the 3 year old ones are built worse than the 5 year old ones. Power supply capacitors die left and right.

BTW, I do not believe that al of the Zenith LCD TVs are built by LG. I recapped a 3 year old 32" last night. 12 capacitors in the power supply had popped their tops. Now, judging by the dust in the set, it had 1000s of hours on it, probably came out of somewhere that ran it 12 hours a day. 1/2 hour and $8 worth of caps later, and it's back to life. I didn't see an LG stamp in the unit anywhere.

Yes, the reballing of the SMT chips is a real issue with some brands. Want quality? Buy Panasonic! I've found them to be a big step above all others. Sony LCDs fail commonly due to delamination within the panel itself, so they are crap. With a no name brand set, you never know if you're getting a decent chassis or complete crap.

As mentioned in another thread, I will be buying a reballing machine sometime early this year to attempt repairing those large boards. No idea if I'll get my investment back out of the machine or not.

[Curt Palme]

Welcome to my nightmare! Anything electronic you buy will last 2-5 years. I've repaired about 300 computer monitors i nthe last 2 years, and no question that the 3 year old ones are built worse than the 5 year old ones. Power supply capacitors die left and right.

BTW, I do not believe that al of the Zenith LCD TVs are built by LG. I recapped a 3 year old 32" last night. 12 capacitors in the power supply had popped their tops. Now, judging by the dust in the set, it had 1000s of hours on it, probably came out of somewhere that ran it 12 hours a day. 1/2 hour and $8 worth of caps later, and it's back to life. I didn't see an LG stamp in the unit anywhere.

Yes, the reballing of the SMT chips is a real issue with some brands. Want quality? Buy Panasonic! I've found them to be a big step above all others. Sony LCDs fail commonly due to delamination within the panel itself, so they are crap. With a no name brand set, you never know if you're getting a decent chassis or complete crap.

As mentioned in another thread, I will be buying a reballing machine sometime early this year to attempt repairing those large boards. No idea if I'll get my investment back out of the machine or not.

[macgyver655]

Zenith has been LG since 1999, marked or not.

You want to know the best tv to buy now a days?


A used CRT...............

[Curt Palme]

really? I'll check this 32" again. The last 3 32" Zeniths that I've gotten in looked so bad I figured that LG had dumped the name to someone else...

[Curt Palme]

really? I'll check this 32" again. The last 3 32" Zeniths that I've gotten in looked so bad I figured that LG had dumped the name to someone else...

[macgyver655]

I actually pull Zenith flat panel service manuals from LG.

[Michale32086]

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread.. But this is exactly the problem I have been having so I figured a new thread would be redundant....

"In the dictionary under 'redundant' it says, 'see redundant' "
-Robin Williams, LIVE AT THE MET



Anyways... Vizio VF550M. Black screen on power up... No "ghost image"... No sound.. Couple clicks from the Power PCB on plug-in and power up.. Vizio Logo at the bottom goes from amber at plug in to white on power up.

While I can disassemble and reassemble a laptop blindfolded, the extent of my TV Repair abilities is replacing PCBs until the unit works. As you can imagine, I don't repair too many TVs.. I have replaced the Power PCB and the Backlight Inverter set that is on the left, as you face the back of the TV. No effect on the issue...

I was hoping to get an idea on which board I should try to replace next?? There doesn't appear to be many choices left, but would rather hit the right one sooner rather than later...

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated..


Michale

[Curt Palme]

It's either the power supply or the controller board. From what I've seen, it's more likely the controller board. Beware, you can find them used on eBay for $100-125 or so, but there's a person here that bought one, and 6 weeks later, the used replacement board failed in the same way.

Mac is the flat panel expert here, but he and I agree on the following: These flat screens are built to be disposable, so if it's 2-5 years old, you're pushing your luck with trying to get more life out of them. Some sets have massive LCD problems, some controller board, some last 7-8 years. In Vizio's case, it seems to be bad controller boards.

[Curt Palme]

It's either the power supply or the controller board. From what I've seen, it's more likely the controller board. Beware, you can find them used on eBay for $100-125 or so, but there's a person here that bought one, and 6 weeks later, the used replacement board failed in the same way.

Mac is the flat panel expert here, but he and I agree on the following: These flat screens are built to be disposable, so if it's 2-5 years old, you're pushing your luck with trying to get more life out of them. Some sets have massive LCD problems, some controller board, some last 7-8 years. In Vizio's case, it seems to be bad controller boards.

[Michale32086]