This was a very early project of mine which I completed back in 2012. It all came about when my PC monitor / TV stopped working. As you can appreciate this was rather annoying, especially when you are mid way through a university assignment.

Today we live in such a throwaway society I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't conform. When our parents were younger they fixed things, not just throw them away and buy a new one. So rather than buying a new one I decided to fix it.

Step 1: Fault Finding

This particular unit was a 22 inch Samsung TV which also had a VGA and HDMI input. The model number escapes me.

The TV started to flicker quite a lot then all of a sudden it just went black. Nothing seemed to bring it back. The power light was on, but nothing was on the screen.

Fault finding is by far the most difficult part of the whole operation. I had absolutely no clue how to go about finding the issue. But thankfully, I had Google. After an hour or so trawling Google I found a forum where someone was describing the exact same problem. The problem they described was to do with blown capacitors. They when on to say they paid £30 to have it fixed by a specialist TV Repair Company. This gave me more motivation to fix it.

Step 2: Tools Required

I don't have a photo for this step. but you'll need:

Screwdrivers (various sizes)
Soldering iron
Solder
Solder sucker
Replacement components (59p for 2 820uF 25V capacitors. Purchased from Amazon)
Wire cutters

Step 3: Identifying the Problem

First off, you need to turn the TV off and remove the power cable. You will then need to carefully open the case up. This can be quite tricky as there are a number of plastic clips that can break easily. Once you have carefully cracked open the case and removed the board you will need to identify the offending parts.

In this case those parts were 2 820uF 25v capacitors. You can see in the picture that both these capacitors are bulged at the top indicating they are blown. You may also see an oozy liquid at the top too.

Step 4: Desoldering the Blown Capacitors

Once you've found the offending components you will need to remove them from the board.

First, it is a good idea to mark the polarity of the capacitors on the board. This just makes it easier when you come to pop in the new ones.

To remove the blow capacitors carefully heat the solder around the bottom of the pins. Once it's liquefied, use the solder sucker to get rid of it. Repeat this for all of the pins.

Step 5: Soldering

Once the old capacitors are removed it is simply a case of putting the new ones in their place. It is important to get the polarity right. Otherwise you'll finish up and it won't work.

I'm no soldering expert so the soldering part was quite tricky but I got there in the end. I learnt how to solder by watching YouTube videos on the subject. There are lots of good ones out there. It’s imperative that you make a good connection with the solder, otherwise, again, it won't work.