Had a weird one with a 10 year old flatscreen that just would not die

Got a call from a neighbor last week. His old Samsung TV from 2014 had a dark screen but sound still worked. Figured it was a simple backlight strip swap. Opened it up, tested the strips with my meter, and sure enough one was out. Ordered a new set for about 35 bucks. Put it all back together, powered it on, and the screen stayed dark again. Spent another hour checking the driver board and power supply voltages. Everything looked fine. Finally, on a hunch, I pulled the main board and reflowed the solder on the backlight connector pins with my iron. That did it. The heat from years of use must have cracked a joint you could not even see. Has anyone else run into a backlight fix that needed more than just the strips? Makes you check the simple stuff twice.

3 comments

3 Comments

laura_allen19d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, @white.blair is right about it never being the one broken part. Tbh I've had that exact same thing happen with a cracked solder joint on the main board. It looks perfect until you hit it with the iron. Makes you triple check every connection before you order any parts.

white.blair19d ago

Man, that is SO common with modern stuff. It is never just the one broken part you see first. The real problem is always some tiny, hidden thing you have to dig for. Feels like everything is built to fail in the most annoying way possible. You fix the obvious issue and the machine just laughs at you.

elliot_barnes15d ago

My buddy had the same thing with an old Vizio. He replaced every LED strip twice and still had a dark screen. Was about to give up when he noticed a tiny, almost invisible crack on the power board near a capacitor leg. A quick solder touch and the thing lit up like new. All that time spent on the strips for a five second fix.