Need help with what to do.. guide me please

[HelpMe14]

Hello all,

This is my first post. Go easy on the newbie I have been googling and have discovered that fixing a damaged Samsung SyncMaster 245B monitor may be easier then I think (or is it?)

My monitor is 7 years old and and has overcome many flickering blue line episodes and many loud crackling noises. However, 7 years later and it decided to go completely black screen on me. The difference with my problem and what many others have seen/fixed is my power button is also black (does not show blue anymore).

With that, I have decided to take my screen apart and have successfully removed the power board. I have inspected the board and I do not see (but what do I know) any bulges, leaking fluid etc. (see attached pics).

I have no electronical repair knowledge, have never used a soldering gun (but think I can) but want to fix this monitor rather then buying a new one. Do you think someone can guide me (more hand holding)?

I was thinking that I start off by desoldering the capacitors (have seen some videos but please tell me what I need to get/buy)? What do you all think I should do or where do you think I should start?

I would love it and appreciate it if someone could help me diagnose this/the board and guide me all the way.

Thanks so much,

[Lumberjack777]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

You'll need to buy a digital multimeter. In this day and age, they don't cost an arm and a leg. Maybe somebody knows of one you could buy fairly inexpensively. I've had mine for years, so I don't know the current best deals on them.

I think your problem might be with at least 1 of these 3 resistors. The glue turns brown and becomes conductive. You'll need to check the resistance on them. And we can also check voltages in other places with that digital multimeter.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Thanks LumberJack777,

I will get a multimeter. Now as for measuring the resistance, do I need to desolder the resistors off the board to test it or can I take the measurements while they are on the board? Also, what measurements should they be/read.

I do see a lot of glue on many of the resistors, including another that is not mentioned in your three.

Once I have the info. I will take the steps and post back.

Thanks so much.

[Lumberjack777]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Most of the time its best to remove at least one leg for accurate results. Since the glue is holding everything together. Here's what I'd do. Take some desoldering wick and remove the solder on the 6 legs of the resistors. Grab the whole thing and pull it out (all 3 resistors and the glue) You need to get the glue off anyways, and this method might make it a little easier. Then measure them. Look at the colored bands to find the ohms. Lots of places online will tell you how to read the colored bands.

As far as the digital multimeter (DMM). I would price one depending on it's future use. If I'm going to maybe repair 1 or 2 monitors a year. I'd probably buy the less expensive one. Dozens of monitors, a little more. Open a repair shop. The more expensive one.
You can probably find a good deal on eBay or eBay.ca

[R_J]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

I just did a couple of these monitors (245BW), one of the 3 68 ohm resistors was open, Don't worry about the glue just break it away. I replaced all 3 resistors, You will also want to check the capacitors on the inverter board and see if they are bulging, if they are replace them. on mine 2 of the 4 caps were bad, again I replace all 4.
If I remember the bad resistor checked open in circuit and was the one next to qb802

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Lumberjack777,

Thanks again.

R_J, I am not sure about the bulging on the capacitors. I attached some pictures of the capacitors in my first post, not sure if you can make anything of them.

Do I need to do anything with the white fuses? Should those be replaced too? I guess once I take these components off I can take them to my local electronics store and show them so that they provide the correct parts for me as I wouldn't know what I am looking for.

However, let me start with checking them first and I will post back.

Thank everyone.

[R_J]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Check the caps on the INVERTER, thats the long board on the left with plugs going to the backlight lamps, The ones on this inverter were CapXon 220uf/35v (green with gold text) If they are another brand they may be ok
Does the led on the front light? If it does the fuses will be fine. My guess is that one of the resistors (68 ohm) are bad and thats all. replacing it should get the monitor working.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

R_J,

You lost me on the inverter Not exactly sure what you mean on the left or what I am looking for. Do you happen to have a picture.

As for led on the front, no it doesn't light up (blue) when I press the power button.

My problem with the monitor is I don't see any picture (black screen) nor does the power button light up (no blue around power button).

Is there a way to check the fuses. Not sure why they are white but if that is just paper can I remove it to see if the filament is blown?

Thanks again.

[R_J]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Is there a board in the monitor that looks like this one?
You need a multimeter to check the fuses, they should check 0 ohms, they are ceramic fuses thats why they are white.

[Jonny Accelerant]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Repair-Kit-S...-/330582684086

Here's a link to an eBay vendor, which claims to sell the components needed to repair these power boards. Not saying that's the problem, or the solution, but if it comes to component desoldering and resoldering, I'd recommend going this route your first time out. Others here will help order more high-quality parts for somewhat less per part, but the huge shipping cost will negate those savings. If you are not planning on doing this as a regular hobby, I wouldn't mess with trying to figure out all the various ways to by capacitors.

Also before doing anything I'd spend some time looking for documented cases for these specific boards to see if there is a common theme, a frequently-blamed part. It might be the resistors mentioned earlier, but it's good to get more than one person telling you the same thing sometimes, especially when you are making decisions that have financial, and other, consequences.

And (again if) since you are doing resistors, might as well get all the caps while you are at it, because how are you going to feel if you replace one bad component, the equipment works for 2 weeks, and then you are back into it again in order to replace the capacitors you could have done the 1st time? I repaired my 1st TV power board in about 2 hours doing about 8 caps and resurrecting 25 year old soldering skills. The company sent solder, and some desoldering wick which was nice for me because I know how to use it, sort of (it's a PITA). It might make a total newb too mad to work, IDK. $15.00 for a desoldering iron at Radio Shack was a damn good investment. Add up all your expenses and compare that to the value of the monitor/TV.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Yes,

I do have a board like that. Here is a newbie question, but which ones are the fuses? And do I have to remove them from the board(like I have been told for the resistors) or can I test them on the board? If you could somehow show me how to check them with the voitmeter that would be awesome.

Sorry for the simple questions. I really hope its not the fuses on that board or this fix might be more difficult then I can handle

Thanks again R_J

[R_J]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

The fuses are those %%^^ ing white things in the forth picture you posted.
remember writing this: "Do I need to do anything with the white fuses? Should those be replaced too?"
"Is there a way to check the fuses. Not sure why they are white but if that is just paper can I remove it to see if the filament is blown?"



Check those 3 resistors in the picture in post #2 if one is open it is bad and needs to be replaced. That is most likley all thats wrong. There is no need to replace all the capacitors.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

It will cost me more then what monitor is worth. It wouldn't be worth it.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Hi Johnny Accelerant,

The link you sent me is not opening up. Could you please verify that link again.

Thanks so much

[Jonny Accelerant]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Hi Johnny Accelerant,

The link you sent me is not opening up. Could you please verify that link again.

Thanks so much

Are you really only 14? Letting people know this will increase the level of patience. Well, at least for me anyways, lol...

The fuses are the long narrow white things with silver ends and they look like stone (ceramic) in the middle. They should test short, or 0 ohms on a multimeter. I doubt they are the problem because I think they burn black soot when they go, but you never know.

Total parts for that repair might be around $11.00, depending on if you go pre-made kit via eBay, or buy the parts from digi-key or mouser. Soldering iron might be $20.00 and a desoldering iron $15.00. How much is the monitor worth? You might get some cash for it from a pro that will fix it for resale.

[R_J]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

I uploaded a picture of the power board, The fuses are in the red square, they can be poped out of the silver fuse holders. I have circled the resistor I found to be bad and have arrows to the two others I replaced,
On the monitors I repaired the standby voltage was working, this was indicated by the front led coming on. If you don't have the front led coming on then there will be other problems (ie: the fuse's check open)

If the the front led does come on then the standby circuit is working and the next most likely thing to check would be the resistor which if open and not the 68 ohms it should be will cause the main power supply to not turn on.
If you do a search in the forum for 245bw there is lots of information, but there are also two different power supply boards in this monitor.
If you don't have a meter etc to check this you could take the fuses out and have someone with a meter check them, same with the possible bad resistor, all 3 resistors should check about 68 ohms each if two check 68 ohms and one checks a lot higher it is the bad one.

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Fantastic R_J,

That really helps. I will give it a shout and report back.

[reaper57]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

I don't know what was up with Jonny, but he's banned now so anyways, did you get a multimeter?
Checking the fuses doesn't require a voltmeter, what you need is a ohm meter or a multimeter with a diode testing option (continuity mode). A voltmeter, ohm meter and a continuity mode are avaliable on 95% of modern multimeters so don't worry about that.

To do the testing itself you need to set the multimeter to the lowest ohm testing option (usually 200ohms), and put one of the probes on one end of the fuse and the other on the other end, it doesn't really matter which probe goes where. The DMM should read 0, sometimes it might be 0,1, but that's usually due to a bad multimeter battery.
If you want to use the diode test option, set the multimeter to that and test the same way, the DMM should make a sound and it should read 0 as well.
Here are some DMM usage instructions I found.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials...ter/continuity

[HelpMe14]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

Hi Reaper,

Thanks so much for reaching out. So perfect timing. I got all the parts (3 - 68 Ohm 2W resistors, 2 - 1000 uf 16 V 10X24 capacitors ) solder/desoldered the parts on the board but when I turn it on, all I get is a white screen. The blue light on the power button however is working now.

Note: I did test some of the resistors, capacitors and fuses however, since I wasn't sure if I tested them correctly, I decided to change everything since I got the parts for cheap.

Any ideas? What did I do wrong?

What I should also mention is that I only replaced 2 of the capacitors (the 1000uf ones). I did not replace all 4 not bec

If you need pictures of what I bought or what I see on the screen (although like I say completely white) please let know.

Thanks again.....

[Lumberjack777]

Re: Need help with what to do.. guide me please

The white screen shows that the backlights are lighting up. But the video signal has a problem. That's good that the blue led power button now lights up. What may be the the problem is very common after a repair. The lvds ribbon cable is not plugged in or seated properly. Check and plug in all the cables and ribbons, and reseat them.