I have something strange going on that I cannot put my finger on, but I wanted to ask this forum their opinion before I keep making this worse. Bear with me, I've fixed several dozen HDTVs and various other electronic devices, but I am not an expert in this like some of you are. I know I made a few mistakes on this TV repair, but if there is a way to salvage this I would sure like to.
This is where things stand - First off. I am in a hotel on the road for work. You should have that picture in your head... lol.. I purchased a Hisense 50H5G off Craigslist for $25. It had a 10-code flashing power light error that supposedly means there is a loss of power to the set. There is nothing online on any forum I could find that states what the problem is correctly. It's not 'the panel'. It's not the 'AV Main'. It's not the 'PS'. It's an LED shorting out in the backlight. That is what does it. So, I made an LED strip tester out of 2 nails, some copper wire, 2 alligator clips, and some electrical tape. I then snapped two 9V batteries together, connected each exposed lead on the batteries to the alligator clips, and touched the nail leads to the testing spots on the LED strips after removing them from the wiring harness to light each one up. I circled the 4-5 LEDs on 3-4 strips that were not lit, and took out the LED strip that would not even light up. On that strip, I removed the LED that was burnt out and replaced it with a small copper wire and some new solder to complete the connection. I put it all back together, turned on the TV, and it started right up. Beautiful picture, BTW. I then used this TV for about 2 months. One day last week it would not turn on and it did the 10-code error again. I took it back apart and tested the strips in the same way. Two LED strips wouldn't light up this time, including the one I had soldered across the connection. The other one had a new badly scorched LED. There were at this time even more LEDs inside the backlight that would not turn on than there were 2 months ago...but strangely, all on just the right side of the TV backlight nearest to where the wiring comes through from the PS... I circled those. Then, before putting the set back together, I plugged in the TV and hit the power button to double-check the LEDs...panel and speakers disconnected...and a spark shot out of the side of one of the newly purchased LED strips and shorted to the metal backlight casing, which blew out that strip and gave me another 10-code (ARGH!). So, I saw what was happening right in front of me... I have not encountered that before on a previous unit. Out of curiosity and an overall general WTH!, I figured in the moment that I would just snip off the wire leading to that LED strip and splice the wire together with some solder, shrink wrap it, and just bypass that whole strip. I did that. Did a nice job of it too. I then plugged back in the TV and turned it on. It came on for a few seconds just like it was supposed to, then one of the LEDs flashed and the TV went out again back to the 10-code error.
Now, I have a total of I think 6-7 LED strips with lights that are not lit and everything I touch seems to make this worse. What I think that has happened is that the LEDs are shorting out because the voltage keeps going up every time one blows, so the problem is growing away from the location that is closest to the PS. I then made it worse by removing the resistance that should have been there from the one LED strip I bypassed. Should this be the case, would it fix the issue to buy a new wiring harness for the LED strips, plus replace every strip that has an LED that is burned out, whether it is just a short or just will not light up. Or, is this problem I have encountered evidence of something else that is going on?
Thanks for everything. I appreciate your time.
Dave
This is where things stand - First off. I am in a hotel on the road for work. You should have that picture in your head... lol.. I purchased a Hisense 50H5G off Craigslist for $25. It had a 10-code flashing power light error that supposedly means there is a loss of power to the set. There is nothing online on any forum I could find that states what the problem is correctly. It's not 'the panel'. It's not the 'AV Main'. It's not the 'PS'. It's an LED shorting out in the backlight. That is what does it. So, I made an LED strip tester out of 2 nails, some copper wire, 2 alligator clips, and some electrical tape. I then snapped two 9V batteries together, connected each exposed lead on the batteries to the alligator clips, and touched the nail leads to the testing spots on the LED strips after removing them from the wiring harness to light each one up. I circled the 4-5 LEDs on 3-4 strips that were not lit, and took out the LED strip that would not even light up. On that strip, I removed the LED that was burnt out and replaced it with a small copper wire and some new solder to complete the connection. I put it all back together, turned on the TV, and it started right up. Beautiful picture, BTW. I then used this TV for about 2 months. One day last week it would not turn on and it did the 10-code error again. I took it back apart and tested the strips in the same way. Two LED strips wouldn't light up this time, including the one I had soldered across the connection. The other one had a new badly scorched LED. There were at this time even more LEDs inside the backlight that would not turn on than there were 2 months ago...but strangely, all on just the right side of the TV backlight nearest to where the wiring comes through from the PS... I circled those. Then, before putting the set back together, I plugged in the TV and hit the power button to double-check the LEDs...panel and speakers disconnected...and a spark shot out of the side of one of the newly purchased LED strips and shorted to the metal backlight casing, which blew out that strip and gave me another 10-code (ARGH!). So, I saw what was happening right in front of me... I have not encountered that before on a previous unit. Out of curiosity and an overall general WTH!, I figured in the moment that I would just snip off the wire leading to that LED strip and splice the wire together with some solder, shrink wrap it, and just bypass that whole strip. I did that. Did a nice job of it too. I then plugged back in the TV and turned it on. It came on for a few seconds just like it was supposed to, then one of the LEDs flashed and the TV went out again back to the 10-code error.
Now, I have a total of I think 6-7 LED strips with lights that are not lit and everything I touch seems to make this worse. What I think that has happened is that the LEDs are shorting out because the voltage keeps going up every time one blows, so the problem is growing away from the location that is closest to the PS. I then made it worse by removing the resistance that should have been there from the one LED strip I bypassed. Should this be the case, would it fix the issue to buy a new wiring harness for the LED strips, plus replace every strip that has an LED that is burned out, whether it is just a short or just will not light up. Or, is this problem I have encountered evidence of something else that is going on?
Thanks for everything. I appreciate your time.
Dave
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