Samsung News Geek

You sit down and get comfortable, ready to watch your favorite TV show or movie. You turn on your TV and.....nothing! Unsure if you hit the power button, you try again....again nothing! But you do notice a clicking sound emanating from your TV.

"what the heck"......"no"......."oh crap"

HDTV's aren't cheap, most of us have to save or at least be prepared to spend $1000-$2000 on new one, heck I'm sure many of you don't savor the idea of spedning a few hundred on repairs. Well I have bad news and good news.

The bad news is that your the lucky owner of a Samsung LCD HDTV that has a known problem with capacitors going bad after 2 to 3 years, and If you did not purchase an extended warranty, than you might be headed for a $200-$400 repair bill.

The good news is this repair is actually quite simple and with only a few basic tools and $3.98 you can have your TV working in less than an hour.

The step by step repair guide below is on my Samsung LN46A550 46" LCD HDTV, but this is a known issue for any Samsung 550 & 650 Series TVs. This guide may help you with any brand of LCD, as bad capacitors are very prevalent in modern electronics You know the old saying "they sure don't make 'em like that anymore", well they don't, and I for one think this is very intentional. These companies sell at razor thin profit margins and they need you to upgrade every few years.

Well today, we win! With just a little bit of effort, very little skill and just a few bucks, you'll be watching TV in about an hour.

After unplugging everything on the TV, you will need to remove the stand. If your TV was wall mounted you will need to remove the TV from the wall, and remove the mounting bracket from the back of the TV.

Red arrows - Remove these 4 screws to remove stand from TV

Blue arrows - Remove these 4 screws to remove a wall mount (not shown) from your TV

The TV sits on top and inside the stand, so it wont just flop over when you remove the stand screws, but it's always safer to have a friend hold the TV upright as you remove the screws from the stand. Then each of you grab a side and carefully lay it flat on a carpeted surface.

Warning
When handling your TV always keep it straight up (like your watching it) or laid flat. Any force applied at odd angles can damage the fragile glass front.

The area we will be working on is indicated. See Step 3 for an enlargement

Remove the 7 different wiring harness located on the circuit board. A simple tug on the connector clip (not the wiring) should be sufficient to remove them.

Remove the 6 screws shown on the picture above and remove the circuit board from the TV chassis. This board is a power supply board and not particularly sensitive, but it is always a good habit to handle these boards carefully and by the edges.

Usually, but not always, capacitors will show visible signs of failure. There are two main types of visible failures;

Bulging Vents
Because the chemical reaction inside the capacitor when it fails can produce hydrogen gas, capacitors have vents cut into the tops of their aluminum cans. These are intended to break and release the gas that has built up inside the capacitor. So a capacitor which has failed can show bulging at the top. below are a few examples.







Leaking
Another sign of a failed capacitor is leaking fluid (electrolyte) this can be an orange or brownish discharge from either the top or bottom of the capacitor. Usually with leaking the capacitor will also be bulging. But a capacitor can bulge but not leak.







Again , we want to emphasize that capacitors do not always show visible signs of failure. But if you see signs of this on your board, you can be confident that your close to fixing your TV. If you don't see these signs of failure, but your TV had the tell-tail clicking sound, you still can be fairly certain the the steps below will fix your TV.

If you have a Samsung 550 Series LCD (and perhaps other models) and you came to this site because your TV won't start and it makes a clicking sound then the picture above shows the capacitors that should be replaced in the red box. If you have a different make or model you will need to visually inspect and replace any damaged capacitors.

Below are an actual closeups of my TV's board. Notice how the blue capacitors in the foreground are bulging. These are the capacitors I will replace. All other capacitors look OK. If you can find replacements for all 4 of these capacitors and any other that show visual signs of going bad, I recommend replacing them all while your in here.

I couldn't find the specific replacements for the "black" capacitors (820 uf 25V) at my local electronic store, and since they looked OK, I just replaced the the bulging ones. But again, if you can find replacements and since the capacitors are cheap, replace all 4 of these if possible and any other ones showing signs of damage while your working in here.

Capacitors have polarity. What this means is like a battery they have a positive (+) and a negative (-). Before removing any capacitor, note on which side the white stripe of the capacitor is facing. You will need to put in the new capacitor in the same direction. You probably noted on my pictures that I actually made a note on the aluminum heat sink with a pen.

Now that you've identified the capacitors that look bad. Turn the board over and carefully identify exactly which points on the board are the wire leads from the these capacitors. Circle them with a "sharpie" type pen to keep track.

Grab your friend and have them help you on this step. Balancing the circuit board on its side while using a hot soldering iron and pliers can be a bit tricky.

Plug in the soldering iron and give it 10 minutes to get hot.

With the circuit board on its edge, have your friend grab one of the capacitors with the pliers and apply a very gentle pulling pressure. Apply the tip of the soldering iron to one lead on the back side of the board and hold it there until you see the solder melt. Now switch to the other lead until it melts. Keep going back and forth on the leads. Each time the solder will melt faster. After going back and forth a couple times the capacitor will easily come out.

Repeat for each capacitor that you are replacing.


Let the iron do the work, if the capacitor does not easily pull out - Do not force it.

Insert capacitor making sure the have the negative side in the correct location. If there is hard solder in the hole, simply apply the soldering iron until solder melts and slip capacitor leads in.



Bend back the leads to hold the capacitor in place.



Carefully clip the leads, so that only about 1/8" is protruding



Place soldering iron and solder on lead until the heat melts the solder. Once solder melts onto the lead apply the iron on the lead and solder a few times to melt the solder cleanly on the lead. If you have solder flux, the solder will make a clean connection.




Capacitors installed. If there is any flux or solder residue, simply clean the area with a damp cloth.

1. Attached the Circuit board with the 6 screws
2. Reattach all 7 wiring harnesses.
3. Replace the back cover.
4. Turn on TV and be happy that you save yourself a ton of money.