Samsung cost cutting.

[adrianl]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=24065

Real nice to see that come out, working as a tech in peoples houses and seeing many dead samsung sets the past few years I already knew it of course.

[mockingbird]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Look at those bulged Samwha capacitors on that picture...

Manufacturers might also stop using Samwha once they see that Korean capacitors are not an par with Japanese.

[Krankshaft]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

I've seen Samwha caps on Samsung plasma displays all the way back to 2004.

One of my Toshiba projection TVs from 03 has them too and they've yet to bulge.

Then again a projection set has way more ventilation than any modern display as manufacturers pack more electronics into a smaller package and still try to use passive cooling.

[ratdude747]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Look at those bulged Samwha capacitors on that picture...

Manufacturers might also stop using Samwha once they see that Korean capacitors are not an par with Japanese.

more like "(Sam)Wha just happened man?"

samwha

[c_hegge]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

more like "(Sam)Wha just happened man?"

and then maybe Sam sung a song about what happened.


Oh, if ohmly I had the capacity to resist the capacitor jokes

[Rulycat]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

and then maybe Sam sung a song about what happened.


Oh, if ohmly I had the capacity to resist the capacitor jokes

I'd laugh but my funnybone has too high a resistance to your jokes.

[mockingbird]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

I've seen Samwha caps on Samsung plasma displays all the way back to 2004.

Samwha don't always bulge... I've changed them in Samsung LCDs.

[yanz]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

it would be better if they use polymer capacitor..

[Scenic]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Are you crazy?! That would mean they would have to spend a few cents more on building the TV and they would end up with a product which actually lasts much longer than the warranty period

lol

That's clearly not what they want. They WANT them to fail, so average joe goes and buys a new one, cause "fixing it is too expensive"
(in comparison with a new junk TV that'll die the same way)

It's an endless cycle.

- Design a product (TV) that works as advertised and doesn't leave a bad taste in the users mouth, but use borderline components (caps) which make it last a bit longer than the warranty period with normal use, but not too much longer

- When it fails after the warranty ran out, the user will go out to buy a new one, preferably the same brand, as it "did work as advertised for years and had a good picture", instead of fixing the old unit because, again, getting it fixed in a shop is usually unfeasible compared to the cost of a new "disposable" TV -> the cycle continues..

My guess is that they use the caps as the "way to make it fail", cause the time it takes for it to fail is pretty constant, considering usage patterns and all.
A capacitor has a limited lifetime in a specific environment. If they instead used borderline diode packs or mosfets, it could fail at any time from overheating or otherwise (even early in the warranty period, which would be bad for your reputation)
An electrolytic capacitor will continuously degrade over time, till it's "not good enough" anymore specs wise, causing the whole device to stop working or work erratically. Much safer bet from a manufacturers point of view.

Regardless of which way it's done, it's still nothing more than showing your customers the middle finger.. "go buy a new one!"

[lti]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Some people don't try to repair their TV because it would mean that they would miss too many TV shows. They can go to Wal-Mart and buy a new TV and not miss more than an hour of television. Also, some TV repair shops intentionally make their labor costs so high that only TVs that are worth several hundred dollars or more are "worth repairing." By their logic, the TV that I repaired by replacing one cap should have been replaced by a Wal-Mart Special LCD TV that has such shitty scaling hardware that it is impossible to read text.

[Shocker]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Also, some TV repair shops intentionally make their labor costs so high that only TVs that are worth several hundred dollars or more are "worth repairing." By their logic, the TV that I repaired by replacing one cap should have been replaced by a Wal-Mart Special LCD TV that has such shitty scaling hardware that it is impossible to read text.

If there is one message we would like to send to those shops, it's:

WHY should a friggin REPAIR SHOP encourage REPLACEMENT?????

[japlytic]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

Is this issue specific to North America?

(Officially, this is my 1000th post!)

[eccerr0r]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

I have not checked my Samsung DLP TV for bad caps...sounds like something I should do!

[Uranium-235]

Re: Samsung cost cutting.

you have to do a bunch circuit redesigns for polys. Most Polys don't have the higher voltage/cap that lytics do. Just use decent lytics. Ever notice there is like no 16V 1500 polys? Circuts in power boards (with some exceptions) require higher voltage filtering and polys just aren't made to handle high power/cap. Also you notice ESR is hardly ever a factor in caps used in power boards.

now this isn't completely true. High voltage REAL polys do exist, but usually have VERY low uf. You'll see more high voltage _functional_ polys. And i'm fairly sure, they might have to use more of these in series than lytics cause of such low uf, which actually does increase the price considering how expensive they are to begin with