Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

[bowtie20]

I know this is a very broad question but I just bought my second (won't power on) TV and when I bring it home it works just fine. I just want opinions from some folks with more experience than I have with TV repair because this is bound to be a common occurrence. And yes I'm pretty confident they aren't stolen. The first one was a 47" LCD Toshiba. I watched it for about a month just to make sure it wasn't an intermittent fault before I resold it. The second is a 32" LCD Sylvania I just purchased. Both sellers claimed symptoms typical of a bad power supply. One even claimed they had a surge that "fried" the TV. My thoughts are after the TV is unplugged for so long maybe it comes out of some kind of "protect" mode. Any suggestions on how to handle these would be greatly appreciated because I'd hate to sell someone a TV that's just waiting to go out again.

[goontron]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

all TVs have a protect mode, or seven, but they should reset after a power disconnect. if the OO (original owner) didn't disconnect and reconnect power, then yes, it could be a protect mode. else i would bet the farm that you can find at least on bad solder joint that was shifted back into making a connection when the TV was moved.

[mmartell]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

Since you posted this twice I will reply twice lol.

Agree with goontron. I would take a hair dryer/cooling spray to the boards one at a time to try and induce the fault the owners were complaining about.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

I was just given a 58" Pannasonic TH-58PZ700U that was "fried by lightning". I got it home, plugged it in, and it came right on. I haven't touched it since. It weighs 165 lbs and is a little more than I feel like moving around by myself.

[bwilliams60]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

Just curious, why are you buying bad TV's? You can go to electronics recyclers and swing a deal with them and get them all day long for free. Maybe throw them back a good repaired one that you have that didn't cost much to fix just to keep them happy. No point buying them. Broke is broke and should be free. Paying for them makes you broke.

[johnboy1313]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

The only electronics recycler around here is an hour away and they fix what they can and sell them. No freebies coming from that place. The only way I can find them is through Craigslist or people I know.

[bwilliams60]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

Do you have a Habitat for Humanity around your area? We also have guys that go around and pick up scrap steel (and anything else that isn't tied down) and usually they will pick them up.

[Hobby 1]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

I've bought sets that work when I try them at home. I don't try them at the seller's place unless they have it ready and plugged it. I've had them back out if the set starts to work properly again. At my home, I open them up and see if I can spot any damaged parts like caps, etc. If nothing bad is found, I use the set till it fails which can be from a few hours to as long as 6 months before the stated problem shows up. Then I fix it.

The problem with sets from recyclers is if they are even willing to give/sell them is that they get pretty badly scratched up because they are treated as broken/scrap.

[bwilliams60]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

And sometimes you just get lucky. I just picked up a 55" Toshiba LCD with a bad TCON board. Should see it next week and hopefully that's all that's wrong. Beautiful TV though, excellent shape. There are tons of TV's being recycled for simple repairs. No different than bicycles and anything else that society feels is not repairable.

[bowtie20]

Re: Purchased bad TV to repair but it works

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. Unfortunately I'm not aware of any recyclers in my area but I am in the process of working out a deal with the trash pickup people. They actually came to me when they saw the tvs with the broken screens I sell the boards out of on the road. When I do purchase them to repair I rarely pay more than $30 and still come out with a pretty good profit, especially if I can repair it at the component level. Sellers basically have the option of something or nothing for them so they will sell for cheap. And again sorry for the double post, when I realized there was a better place to post this I reposted and intended to delete the origional but tried about a half hour and couldn't figure out how. This is literally the second thread I've started in my life. Or third if you consider the double post.