Samsung LCD TV power problem

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andrew027

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Master Geek

Topic # 64646 19-Jul-2010 18:22
Couldn't find this problem on the forums yet, so apolgise if it has been posted already. I have a LA40S71 40" Samsung LCD TV. i can;t remember exactly how old it is - maybe 2.5 years? Here's the problem: When I power it on, the power LED flashes, it "clicks" as though it's about to turn on, but about two seconds later, before any audio/video, the LED flashes again, it clicks again, and turns off. It started doing this late last week, about four or five times, before finally turning on. But right now, well, it's been going on for about 70 minutes, looping through this on/off cycle. I'm about ready to throw the damned thing out the third storey window! Anyone heard of a problem like this before?

74 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 353639 19-Jul-2010 21:46
Hopefully a current TV tech will be along shortly to give you the stock fault for this but in my day this sort of symptom was usually a result of something drawing a bit much current and the PSU shutting down. We called it 'hiccuping' in the trade, a very technical term In this case it could well be something similar, also it wouldn't be unusual for electrolytic caps to dry out or otherwise fail in the PSU itself. Given it appears to have got progressively worse, rather than fail completely in in one go, it could well be something like that (caps). I assume it's out of warranty? If so then, other than googling to see if anyone else has a similar fault and fix, and if you're not willing to dive in with an ESR meter yourself to check the caps etc then you'll need to drop it into a repair shop I guess. Incidentaly I assume you've de-powered it completely? Often worth a try with these things, if you get it running I guess you could also try reducing the brightness level to see if that did anything... Cheers, P.

210 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 353910 20-Jul-2010 13:59
What type of signal are you sending it. My old samsung used to do this if when I had a dodgy cable hooking something up, so it didn't quite 'see' the signal - that might have only been on the vga input though.

119 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 354768 22-Jul-2010 09:48
The TV is plugged into a multi-socket power board that it shares with a blue-ray player and MySky box. As far as input signals, it has component audio and video signals from MySky and a HDMI feed from an AV receiver, although the receiver is not switched on when thsi problem is occurring. I've googled the problem in the last day or so and it seems to be well known in some other countries. A couple of technicians on US-based forums have offered answers that there are "cheap" or "underpowered" capacitors on the power board that fail after a while, showing swelling or bulging at the ends. One forum even provides instructions for the DIY crowd on which four caps to look for and which replacements to buy from RadioShack. This is one of the few items where I actually bothered to purchase an extended warranty, so it's covered for another couple of years. For this reason, a service tech is going to have a look at it today, so will see what he says. If it wasn't still covered, I'd be tempted to get the soldering iron out!

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Reply # 354801 22-Jul-2010 10:57
andrew027: This is one of the few items where I actually bothered to purchase an extended warranty, so it's covered for another couple of years. For this reason, a service tech is going to have a look at it today, so will see what he says. If it wasn't still covered, I'd be tempted to get the soldering iron out! If they say it's not covered I suggest you read the consumer guarantees act first and then go and talk to the retailer who stictched you up with a worthless extended warranty and explain how even if the TV is out of warranty they need to fix it or replace it.

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Reply # 354902 22-Jul-2010 13:27
As above you can still claim under the Consumer Guarantees Act http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1993/0091/latest/DLM311053.html The only down side is that it may take a bit of time but 2-3 years is NOT a reasonable life expectancy for a TV. Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

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Ultimate Geek

Reply # 355613 23-Jul-2010 23:48
very likely that its the capacitor problem, i've done the repair on three samsungs now, two = mine - one = someone elses. Its quick to do if your good at soldering.

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Reply # 355654 24-Jul-2010 01:29
Yeah, the caps failing is a great way to get new monitors ;) Richard rich.ms