TV Repair
 

I've got a 3 year old 42" LCD Vizio that's taken a turn for the worst. The left side of the screen gets dark, but not completely black and then fades in and out from being a normal to dark just on the left side.

I'm really not wanting to purchase a new TV so I'm wondering if it's worth paying $100 to have a TV repair shop look at it to see if it can be fixed rather than buying a new TV. Anyone have any success with getting a LCD TV fixed by a repair shop?

Also, we purchased the TV at Costco 3 years ago so I was going to see if they would exchange it even though I think they have a 90 day return policy or something. Couldn't hurt to try I guess.

Any suggestions?

You'll probably be better off getting a new tv. I think the cost is going to be high and not worth fixing. My wifes grandparents Vizio got a red line through the center after a year and it was going to cost about $500 to repair it. Vizio doesn't supply their own parts either.

I wouldn't waste the money on haveing it looked at. TV's usually cost more to repair than it's worth. You probably won't be able to return it either because TV models change so much each year. I would start looking for a good deal on a replacement. I would not suggest another Vizio since they don't have a good track record and poor customer service. One of the most reliable TV manufacturers is Panasonic. Panasonic has some great lower priced plasmas that I would highly recommend you take a look at if you aren't watching Blue Ray. I used to sell TV's so if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a PM. :t:

I think you are going to be right....I just hate the thought of paying someone $100+ to tell me it's going to cost $400 to fix....that's $100 I could have used towards a new tv.

I'm going to give it a shot and take it back to costco. They have a new return policy that started in February 2007, and I purchased the TV in October 2007 so i'm going to see if they will exclude me from the policy that started after I purchased it. ha ha ha....Probably not going to work, but oh well.

Should have got a Panasonic, Samsung or Sharp LCD from the get go.

Next time get one that lasts 20 years instead of the 2-3 year disposable specials. lol

LOL no kidding! I must have missed the fine print where is said the shit would self destruct after 3 years. ha ha

I have a 42" 1080p Plasma Panasonic Viera in the bedroom. Its better than my frigging 50" 1080p Samsung in my living room. I think i'm going to switch them.


Buy a new TV. Do it right. You buy cheap, you get cheap. You put a little money out now, and you'll eventually save money over time.

yeah this is sad man. I have almost 4 years of service on my 32" lcd and have not had issues with the screen. But, sometimes when I turn the TV on the screen stays black and goes into a hard shut down. I have to unplug it from the wall and wait a few seconds before plugging it back in to see if the tv will function as designed. Intermittent issue that happens about 2 times a month. My luck to end up with a Panasonic lemon :/

I got a Panasonic viera plasma 50" for x-mas 09. worked great till a power out in March of 010. Serviceman spent 6 weeks relacing the same fcking board and to no avail. But panasonic did right by me, because they quit making that model they couldn't replace it. I got a Samsung plasma 50" as my choice. Works great, But I loved that panasonic for all the features and sound and picture choices you could use.. Too bad it puked and they couldn't figure it out.. But it did get flustrating.. :mad:

if one side is dark the way you say it is then I'm betting the repair will be fairly inexpensive. Usually it's a bad LCD inverter. The repair should be relatively inexpensive, I say relatively because parts availability and cost may factor heavily into that. On laptops this was a common problem for a while.

Consider that even a 500 dollar repair compared to shelling out 2000 dollars for a new TV is a deal.

Laptop displays and LCD HDTV's are not really any different from each other, hope this helps you.

http://www.laptoprepair101.com/lapto...fix-backlight/

This is a repair BTW, that I would do myself.

Thanks for the info! I've been doing a little research and I think it might be the the inverter as well. I might go ahead and order one online and see if I can't get it to work. Might be worth a shot.