Westinghouse LTV-32W3 HD television
I bought a TV off craigslist, dude said it wouldn't turn on. Opened it, pulled the power board, looked it over and put it back in. Turned on and worked perfectly straight every day for a month. Gave it to a family member.
TV was given back with same problem. This time, when I plugged it in and turned it on: the backlights would come on and stay on, but no picture on the screen or menu. Could not turn tv off without unplugging it. Plugging it back in, the backlights would come on immediately like you pressed the power button. No response to remote or buttons.
I started to check voltages and look for cold solder joints, etc. All of a sudden, I decided to look at the power cable and it was missing the grounding lug on it. I grabbed a spare computer PSU cable and used that. The symptom changed. Now, pressing the power button would turn the backlights on for a couple seconds, and then it would turn to black. I pulled the back case to check for voltages and decided to use a flash light to see if there was something on the screen, I hit the lights and plugged it in and the power supply catastrophically failed.
Is it worth pursuing a repair on this unit? It seems I have two problems now. A shorted out PSU and then the original problem. Also, I am not exactly sure how safe of a TV it would be if I did repair it. It's a shame that they made these tv's with the cheapest parts possible. The screen was actually really nice for playing old school games on while I had it, and the sound was decent for what it was.
I bought a TV off craigslist, dude said it wouldn't turn on. Opened it, pulled the power board, looked it over and put it back in. Turned on and worked perfectly straight every day for a month. Gave it to a family member.
TV was given back with same problem. This time, when I plugged it in and turned it on: the backlights would come on and stay on, but no picture on the screen or menu. Could not turn tv off without unplugging it. Plugging it back in, the backlights would come on immediately like you pressed the power button. No response to remote or buttons.
I started to check voltages and look for cold solder joints, etc. All of a sudden, I decided to look at the power cable and it was missing the grounding lug on it. I grabbed a spare computer PSU cable and used that. The symptom changed. Now, pressing the power button would turn the backlights on for a couple seconds, and then it would turn to black. I pulled the back case to check for voltages and decided to use a flash light to see if there was something on the screen, I hit the lights and plugged it in and the power supply catastrophically failed.

Is it worth pursuing a repair on this unit? It seems I have two problems now. A shorted out PSU and then the original problem. Also, I am not exactly sure how safe of a TV it would be if I did repair it. It's a shame that they made these tv's with the cheapest parts possible. The screen was actually really nice for playing old school games on while I had it, and the sound was decent for what it was.
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