| Today most people have or are looking to purchase | | | | the customer and to me. The secret is you have to |
| an LCD TV. The technology has taken over the | | | | actually know what you are doing and not just be a |
| market and even the new "LED" TVs are just the | | | | "board swapper", if you are a board swapper then |
| same type of TVs with LED back or side lighting | | | | you most likely will not fix a lot of TVs because it will |
| (excluding OLED TVs) as apposed to the traditional | | | | not be worth it for the customer to have the TV fixed |
| CCFL back lighting that most LCD TVs use and have | | | | for the cost of the board plus your time. You need to |
| used for some time. When you take this fact and | | | | learn how the TV works and learn to troubleshoot the |
| couple it with the fact that LCD TVs in general have | | | | PCBs within the TV at the component level, then this |
| about a 3-5 year life before needing some kind of | | | | can be an extremely profitable business and will be for |
| repair, you can see how LCD TV repair is a very | | | | years to come. |
| profitable business to be in. I know because I own a | | | | I would say that the majority of the problems I see |
| business that specializes in liquid crystal display TV and | | | | with most liquid crystal display TVs are failures relating |
| monitor repair along with other electronic devices. We | | | | to the PSU (power supply unit) or SMPS (switched |
| not only have seen a huge increase in customers | | | | mode power supply) board. Many times the failure |
| bringing in liquid crystal display TVs for repair, but also | | | | symptoms will not even seem like the failure is related |
| we have seen a large increase in the warranty work | | | | to the SMPS board even though it is, for instance |
| we do as well and all the extra work is for mostly | | | | artifacts in the video or an all white display, dim display |
| LCD TVs along with some plasma, DLP TVs and | | | | etc. these failures and many others (that are obvious |
| more. | | | | SMPS problems) like no power or intermittent |
| The fact that many LCD TVs under warranty are | | | | shutdown can be caused by electrolytic capacitors in |
| failing tells me I will most likely be seeing a lot of these | | | | the PSU that have an increased ESR (Equivalent |
| same brands of TVs later on out of warranty as well. | | | | Series Resistance) due to electrolyte venting out of |
| You may hear some people saying "TVs are not | | | | the capacitor when it is hot and or chemical changes |
| worth repairing anymore", this is absolutely absurd, is it | | | | that happen to the electrolyte over time that cause an |
| not worth it when on a daily basis I fix $1200 dollar | | | | increase in ESR. Often times the failed capacitors will |
| TVs for $200 dollars and make $170 profit in 2 hours? | | | | have a greatly reduced capacitance value as well. Of |
| Is it not worth it when I fix a $400 dollar TV for $100 | | | | course this is only an example of some of the |
| dollars with $90 profit in 1 hour? No way! It's worth it to | | | | common failures I see with these types of TVs. |