HDTVs: Are They Built for the Long Haul?
Posted in: hdtv, plasma, samsung, Today's Chili
I haven’t owned a lot of big-screen TVs in my life. In my basement there’s an old 19-inch Samsung CRT gifted to me in 1988. It still works. After I demoted that TV, I bought a 32-inch RCA tube TV. It lasted for about 12 years. In 2006 I bought my first HDTV–a 42-inch 1080i Plasma from Samsung. It didn’t make it through 2009.
It still runs, sort of. The screen turns on. I can change channels and the sound is fine, but the screen is a pixelated mess.The crazy thing is it started the day off fine. We all watched a movie on it in the morning, turned it off and when we turned it back on, it was a mess. I checked all inputs, everything looked the same. Then I went online.
The problem was not as uncommon as I thought. Other owners of the same and closely-related models reported a similar issue. Most narrowed it down to two circuit boards inside the display–upper and lower buffer boards. I also searched online for Samsung service centers. Samsung’s own site came up with zero options for plasma TVs and my area. My next step was to visit the Samsung’s parts site. The board coast about $130 each and a service manual cost around $30. I thought about ordering them and then hesitated.
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