TV Repair for Constantly Blowing Fuse

INTRODUCTION

I wanted to show you how I recently fixed my TV which had a problem turning on, after only 2 years of use! One day it just refused to power on, so I opened it up to notice a blown fuse on the power board. I thought to myself "Wow that is simple, let me buy a fuse for 50 cents and replace it". So that's what I did, and after I replaced the fuse, it blew again. Hmmm.... problem lies deeper. Hence a big lesson to learn:

IF A FUSE BLOWS, IT IS LIKELY A SYMPTOM, NOT THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM!

So after consulting with other electronics hobbyists on EEVBlog (www.eevblog.com) I started to troubleshoot the TV power board, testing components and seeing which ones I need to replace. Schematics and existing repair kits helped to narrow down my search for the faulty components. Fortunately, I was able to purchase a kit of components (so I didn't have to source them individually on my own) which covered the main failures that are common for this board, which is found on numerous models and brands of TV!

I also managed to get a component tester (see link in video) and build a dim-bulb tester in the process, which are tools which I can use in the future if I have to make any other repairs.

IN CONCLUSION

As the video shows, it wasn't as easy as I thought! A simple "blown fuse" can turn into a much more complicated mess. But I hope it shows how I went about diagnosing the problem, and what I learned in the process. I managed to fix the TV and thankful to all who helped me along the way. So I encourage all of you with a TV issue to try and learn and troubleshoot what is going on, and get help from various internet forums. Usually you can fix these things for a few dollars! It is a shame that so many TV's end up in land-fill when they can be cheaply and easily fixed!