is my $3,000 lcd tv dead?

When I plug in the TV I get a solid red light followed by one blink, then two quick blinks, then a steady series of blinks (all red).

I called Sharp and they directed me to a service center. I took the TV in and was told something about the circuit boards that I didn't quite understand. the service person didn't speak English very well so i couldn't pinpoint with him the exact problem. But the gist of it was that it wasn't worth it for him or me to fix it. The quote he gave me was around $1000.

The TV is only three years old and I paid $3,000 for the thing, so I'm trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with it and whether I can get it fixed.

Any thoughts? Should I take it in to another service center for a second opinion?...or does this problem sound like the unit is totaled? for me, having to pay $1,000 means it is totaled.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

pete

Reply to
pete.nicks
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These types of TV sets are mainly serviced by board replacement as very much like a computer. The authorized service department would, have the service manuals, access to original parts, proper training, and have the proper setup facilities for the model of TV that you have.

A non authorized centre, if he can determine what is wrong with the set, would most likely buy the board through a jobber, and most likely would not go through the proper verification and calibration procedure. With a non authorized service shop, your set would most likely be serviced at a lower cost, but there is no guarantee about the service quality.

Typical repairs on large screen LCD and Plasma displays usually run from about $600 to $1500 depending on the service required. If the panel itself goes defective, the cost would be more than the TV is worth.

Take a look at the specs of the TV set, and see what a new one with the same or better specs would cost before you decide to service the set. The prices of these sets have dropped by a large amount in the last several years. They also got a lot better.

Personaly, I would be buying a new TV set.

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JANA
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Reply to
JANA

Unfortunately, that price is probably correct. I would buy a new set since that $3000.00 set you bought 3 years ago is probably priced at least 30 percent less these days.

This is one of those cases where an extended warranty for $150 /yr probably would have been a really good idea. I just purchased a 32" HDTV LCD set for my bedroom and purchased an extended warranty for $169.00 for 3 years. It is in home service that covers everything including broken pixels. This company has the best warranty on broken pixels that I have ever heard of.

Reply to
Meat Plow

Here in the UK I'm pretty certain that something costing that amount of money which only lasted for three years could well attract the attention of our trading standards people, the argument being for that amount of money the expectation would be for it to have a lifespan of longer than three years, irrespective of the manufacturer's guarantee. Just a thought, but would it be worth investigating to see if anything in the U.S. consumer protection legislation incorporated something similar?

Reply to
Ivan

Who be "this"?

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

It's called the warranty of implied merchantability, and is derived from English common law. (The "warranty" in any user manual is not protection for the customer, but an attempt to weaken or circumvent this implied warranty.) Among other things, it says that a product must be of "average" quality for that sort of product.

Clearly, any TV receiver should last rather longer than 3 years before suffering a major breakdown. But you're going to have to twist Sharp's corporate arm very hard to convince them they should provide a "reasonably priced" repair. The law is on your side, but getting any company to acknowledge it without a lawsuit is almost impossible.

The best approach is to discuss the issue with Sharp in a quiet but insistent manner, emphasizing that the cost of repair is out of line with the cost of the set and the amount of time you've owned it. If Sharp still refuses to adjust he cost of repair to something more reasonable, tell them they've lost a customer. And then make sure you never buy a Sharp product again, not even a mechanical pencil. (That's where the company's name comes from.)

I've had good luck recently. When a Silverlit X-UFO failed and the importer had no replacement parts, I pointed out that they were legally obliged to carry service parts, and they quickly replaced the entire unit. This is not quite the same thing, but it shows what you can do when know how to protest. I'm currently trying to convince Ryobi of the same thing, with respect to battery packs..

My understanding is that, over the last 20 years, legislatures have watered down the warranty of implied merchantability so that customers have fewer protections.

One other point... What do service techs currently make? Given the high cost of service, you'd think they were paid $25 to $30 an hour. Are they? (I can hear the loud guffaws.)

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

I'm thinking that here the Trading standards could well take the case up for you if they thought that you were within your rights, and then again there is always the option of the small claims court, in conjunction with the citizens advice bureau, which I presume must exist (or something similar) in the U.S.

When a friend of mine here in the UK recently had some major problems with his car he put it into a main dealer garage for repair, they contacted him on his mobile to say that it was ready. even before he had arrived back home.

When he got back to the garage they told him that they had replaced the vehicle's main ECU, on receiving the bill he almost passed out, as it was for a staggering £899.00!

I would be surprised if the ECU in a modern vehicle has a great deal more functions to calculate and control than the microprocessor in a half decent VCR.. so how can that kind of price be justified for the few minutes work of replacing a plug in module, which I would hazard a guess any self respecting Chinese electronics factory could turn out for less than £30.00 a time!

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Reply to
Ivan

I am friends with a long time repair shop here and we chat alot . Although Sharp is still a very good product their service and parts methods pretty much stink he says . Some parts they wont even provide .

I have seen him with several flat tv sets over time and have worked on several myself . Some of those circuit boards costed some 5 to 7 hundred dollars but by now those 3 year old boards should be around 300$ . Do more research to try & track down which board it is or at least find a service shop who woud at least try to find & service the bad board . I myself have repaired a few flat tv boards . I own 3 sharp LCD sets and have had no trouble You could replace the board yourself if you are carefull with stuff . Its just screws and wire plugs on the boards .

Reply to
Ken G.

Perhaps, but the other 95% of the time the investment in an EW would have been a waste. $169 is not bad for three years, but $150 per year is a high. EWs generally do not make sense overall are a losing gamble.

Leonard

Reply to
Leonard Caillouet

Does that mean that there should be zero failures in x number of years? Just because a set breaks in three years does not justify saying that there should be government intervention. What if the failure rate for the product in general is very low and this is just an example of a customer with bad luck. Are you saying that we should legislate warranties? Certainly, if the product does not have a reasonable life in most cases there may be some remedy due. There is not tendency that I know of for Sharp sets to have such issues. I think Sharp is a lousy company to deal with for service and dropped them a couple of years ago, but they do not seem to have systematic problems with their LCD sets at all.

Leonard

Reply to
Leonard Caillouet

what ever happen to repairing the boards them self's? Has TV repair gone the way of car mechanic technicians?

I've never replaced a whole circuit board unless it was potted, totally smoked up or just happen to have a used one from a junker spare parts TV sitting in the back for speedy repairs..

I don't do TV repairs on a regular bases but I can say that I would prefer to replace the component not the board as the first choice..

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Reply to
Jamie

UK law requires that any goods sold must be 'fit for purpose', and I would be surprised that anyone paying $3000 (UK equivalent £1500) for a television, only to be advised by the manufacturer that it wasn't worth repairing after three years use would be mightily pissed off, I know I would be.. Is it perhaps because people in the U.S. are so well off that $3000 for three years viewing is deemed to be a perfectly acceptable fact of life? now If it was a £60.00 supermarket telly then I agree, even a couple of years could be considered to be quite reasonable.

Reply to
Ivan

Sometimes we need an excuse to buy a newer model for the newer technologies since they're obsolete as soon as you walk out the door with your new purchase.

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"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"
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Reply to
Jamie

Here is a site about setting up and adjusting expensive tv sets so that they use less energy and last longer.

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cuhulin

Reply to
cuhulin

If you beleive that, you are very stupid. Why on earth would you pay $3000 for something that is already obsolete?

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Replacing a quad flat pack chip in the field is very difficult. A BGA cannot be done in the field. This assumes you can figure out which chip is misbehaving looking at high speed data busses. Field board repair ended quite a while ago.

GG

Reply to
stratus46

When you say field, I assume you're talking about onsight service calls ? I'm talking about sitting at the bench.. And I do have a variety of tools for removing dense packages. It's seems that all we have these days are those that don't event want to debug the issue with the board to determine if it is a dense package component.. They just rip the board out anyways and place the burden on the customer.. For a while I use to do some part time work for a shop near by after hours. If you only could have seen how many items the regular techs use to deem a board to be replaced that only needed minor care, it would shock you. Some units would sit there for a long time while they were waiting for a complete board. At times, boards were not available and they would just let it sit there for a couple or more weeks and then charge the customer bench fee's and condemn the unit..

SO now days, it should be noted on the repair bill Labor for physically removing and putting in new board or boards!./

Another shop (now closed), use to get whole chassis and replace them with out even debugging anything past a line fuse and maybe a diode or cap in the PS. This kind of dried up and he got spoiled over that which then took a big bite out of his business when he then figured out that he had to get him self updated with current technology.. His solution was ., close shop and retire./

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"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"
http://webpages.charter.net/jamie_5
Reply to
Jamie

It never hurts to get a second opinion. If they can't do a component level repair though and have to replace a board then that price is not unusual.

So you can get an equal or better TV for less than $1000?

Reply to
James Sweet

I've noticed this as well. The problem is that a shop can't pay enough to anymore to keep a really good tech around. I do component level repairs on everything, never even considered replacing a whole board, but I can make a much better living in software so I keep the repair work a hobby. It's amazing how much good easily repairable stuff people toss out, I had to stop accepting things unless they're significantly better than something I already have. I've never had to actually buy a TV, these days even big HD sets are getting tossed.

Reply to
James Sweet

Having built and tuned a DIY ECU last summer, I can say there's far more that goes into it than the hardware design and manufacturing. The hard part is getting the fuel and ignition maps tuned across the temperature, RPM, and load range, achieving an acceptable balance between fuel economy, clean emissions, and drivability, dealing with various climate conditions, fuel grades, and compensating for wear and tear on mechanical parts. Now I do agree that ECUs tend to be rather overpriced, but in effect, you're paying for the software development which can be monumental to get to the point where the car just works under any imaginable conditions..

Reply to
James Sweet

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