LG 50PZ550 screen issue - need repair advice (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I have a 50" 3D capable plasma TV that I purchased in 2012 (model #LG 50PZ550) that just stopped working. I can still turn the TV on, but nothing displays on the screen, and no audio can be heard. Even the onscreen display menus do not appear. However, I can tell that the unit is at least turning on. Looking at the outside of the set, there doesn't appear to be any physical damage. I was very happy with this TV, and it served the purposes I needed it for. (It's my living room TV which we use for non-movie content; all movies are watched on my projector but this is the TV we use for casual viewing of things like TV shows, news and sports.) Especially given that 3D TVs aren't being manufactured anymore, if it's at all possible and cost effective, I'd like to have this repaired rather than simply throwing it out and starting over.

I did a little bit of googling and it appears that it may be one of the circuit boards inside that's simply burned out, but that the screen itself may still be perfectly fine.

I've never had a TV repaired before. I know that this is out of warranty, so going to LG doesn't seem like a viable option. (Unless, I don't know, do they offer repairs at a cost outside of the warranty window?) I just don't have any experience with this sort of thing. I'm in Queens, New York - can anyone recommend a vendor in the area who might be able to diagnose and repair the TV at a reasonable price, or at least someone who can provide a free or low cost estimate before committing to a full repair?

Thanks everyone!

 

[John Dirk]

Hey Josh - I had a similar issue awhile back with one of my Samsung TV's. Mine was still in warranty but I had a short coaxial cable connecting it to my wall. I moved the TV a bit too aggressively away from the wall to check behind it and the connector on the TV snapped. Samsung refused to cover it. They considered it improper use or something. I disassembled the TV, gathered the necessary information for the damaged board and went straight to eBay. I found a replacement board available for something like $20.00. It's now installed and my TV is like new. Before the above occurred I took the set in to my local Samsung repair shop. They wanted $350.00 for the repair, which was close to the price I originally paid for the set.

I'm sure your screen is fine. It's a board issue. If you're comfortable with this sort of thing the repair is pretty straightforward. Do the initial work of identifying the replacement board you need and then decide if the repair is worth it to you. If you need help, just ask.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm not sure that I'm comfortable doing this myself - I have no idea what part I'd need to get and no way to tell which board / where to replace / how to open / etc. I guess I could get comfortable with it but I don't really have the experience, tools or even really a great space to work on it.

Edit: I'm not opposed to popping it open and taking a look, I just don't know what I'm looking for.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I opened it up. Everything on the inside appears fine - no loose wires or burnt connections, all of the boards on the surface at least look fine - in other words, nothing to point to any particular component being the culprit.

So I guess back to square one - how does one find a place to get a six year old TV repaired?

 

[Todd Erwin]

You can try this site:

https://www.lg.com/us/support/repair-service/find-repair-provider

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Thanks Todd!

 

[John Dirk]

I opened it up. Everything on the inside appears fine - no loose wires or burnt connections, all of the boards on the surface at least look fine - in other words, nothing to point to any particular component being the culprit.

So I guess back to square one - how does one find a place to get a six year old TV repaired?

Congrats Josh on cracking the cover. I know a little something about delving outside of ones comfort area. With electronics, there aren't always easily identifiable signs when components fail. It can be frustrating. A couple of questions.

1. Were you previously getting audio and video via a common HDMI cable?
2. Does the set have component video, optical audio connections, etc? If so it might be of diagnostic value to try these.

Ultimately, I think the solution will be to replace whatever board your output cable was connected to before the failure. Assuming you can find a direct replacement on the market, this is generally just a matter of carefully disconnecting and reconnecting ribbon or Amphenol style cables. Professional repair of most electronics is simply a rip off in my opinion since they will usually only perform board level repair anyway and charge you as if they did much more. I would encourage you, however, to get a professional repair estimate along with the cost of a replacement video board for comparison.

Good luck and let me know if I can help.

 

[John Dirk]

Josh - Any updates? Just curious.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Josh - Any updates? Just curious.

Hi John, sorry for the delayed response - the last month ended up being a little busier than expected around the house, and since I have a projector for movies and since we had a smaller TV in the bedroom, I was getting by without it, so getting a repair wasn't urgent. But after realizing I had let it go for a month, I thought it was time to finally deal with this.

I did take the back of the TV apart and looked inside, but there was nothing obviously amiss. There are also multiple circuit boards inside that serve varying functions, so it wasn't an easy case of "I can just try replacing this one board." I also discovered that it was impossible to find a reasonably priced replacement for any of the boards - they were all hundreds of dollars each. I did see that there were some electronics companies that were happy to allow you to send in the actual circuit boards from your TV, and that they would then diagnose and repair at more reasonable rates. But that still got me back to the initial problem, which is that it seems like the problem could be in any one of three different pieces. The cost of sending in three boards for diagnosis was getting up there and ended up being more than what local LG-approved companies were offering to charge for a diagnosis/estimate. I wasn't completely comfortable with doing surgery on the set myself, and since the cost for sending in all three boards was more than what it would cost a technician to come and look at it, I wasn't sure that made sense (especially since I don't know for a fact that it's the board, though I think that does seem like the most likely culprit).

I called LG for service, and they recommended two local authorized service providers. One had exclusively terrible reviews online, and one had mostly good reviews. I always take online reviews with a grain of salt because I think people are more likely to write a bad review than they are a good one, but it did seem to make more sense for me to start first with the company that was getting better ratings.

So I have an appointment this Friday with a service company to come and look at the TV. They'll attempt to diagnose it here, but may also bring it back to their store if necessary. They'll determine a repair cost, and if I decide to repair it, the cost of the diagnosis will be applied towards the repair. If I don't go forward with a repair or if it's impossible to repair, then I'm just on the hook for the diagnosis charge, which I can live with.

But it seems like one way or the other, there will be a resolution here sooner vs. later.

 

[John Dirk]

Hi John, sorry for the delayed response - the last month ended up being a little busier than expected around the house, and since I have a projector for movies and since we had a smaller TV in the bedroom, I was getting by without it, so getting a repair wasn't urgent. But after realizing I had let it go for a month, I thought it was time to finally deal with this.

I did take the back of the TV apart and looked inside, but there was nothing obviously amiss. There are also multiple circuit boards inside that serve varying functions, so it wasn't an easy case of "I can just try replacing this one board." I also discovered that it was impossible to find a reasonably priced replacement for any of the boards - they were all hundreds of dollars each. I did see that there were some electronics companies that were happy to allow you to send in the actual circuit boards from your TV, and that they would then diagnose and repair at more reasonable rates. But that still got me back to the initial problem, which is that it seems like the problem could be in any one of three different pieces. The cost of sending in three boards for diagnosis was getting up there and ended up being more than what local LG-approved companies were offering to charge for a diagnosis/estimate. I wasn't completely comfortable with doing surgery on the set myself, and since the cost for sending in all three boards was more than what it would cost a technician to come and look at it, I wasn't sure that made sense (especially since I don't know for a fact that it's the board, though I think that does seem like the most likely culprit).

I called LG for service, and they recommended two local authorized service providers. One had exclusively terrible reviews online, and one had mostly good reviews. I always take online reviews with a grain of salt because I think people are more likely to write a bad review than they are a good one, but it did seem to make more sense for me to start first with the company that was getting better ratings.

So I have an appointment this Friday with a service company to come and look at the TV. They'll attempt to diagnose it here, but may also bring it back to their store if necessary. They'll determine a repair cost, and if I decide to repair it, the cost of the diagnosis will be applied towards the repair. If I don't go forward with a repair or if it's impossible to repair, then I'm just on the hook for the diagnosis charge, which I can live with.

But it seems like one way or the other, there will be a resolution here sooner vs. later.

Sorry Josh. Since in this case you can't just replace the set with a new one that would have lots of cool features and for less money than a typical repair, I can understand your frustration. My advice was based on a set manufactured in 2017 so it figures yours has a less modular design. Mine had maybe four boards and, based on the symptoms, it was fairly obvious which one was the likely culprit. I've also never actually owned a plasma TV.

I hate the thought of you losing something that is basically irreplaceable. I hope the repair estimate is reasonable.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Basically, I’m willing to throw $150 to find out for sure if it’s a dead soldier or not. I don’t know how much I’d be willing to pay for a repair - maybe twice that?

The thing is, on one hand, as a plasma TV that does 3D, it is irreplaceable as you say. But on the other hand, I no longer watch 3D content on it and I no longer use it for movies - the projector does that. (At the time I bought this TV it was meant to be my primary display device but no longer fills that role.) So it’s basically just for watching broadcast and cable programming, and some TV-on-DVD stuff. If I have to replace it, I’m not going to replace it with a top of the line OLED - I’ll instead find a reasonably priced set that works fine for everyday, non-movie viewing.

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh, good luck with your repair and diagnosis. My Panasonic plasma just died last week too and I’m going to try to have it repaired as well. Hope parts are available, I’m guessing it’s the power supply. Mine is 3D too so I’d hate to loose that. But I’m also looking at a new OLED should things not work out. This set is my primary home theater screen. Nice that you have a projector and can still indulge. I’m going cold turkey.

Wish me luck, i’ll he calling Panasonic for a local service shop on Monday. Interesting that they make house calls and would take the set back to their shop too. I hope they can fix yours and mine on site.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Nelson, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles, and of course wish you the best of luck!

So here's my update: the electronics company came and looked at the TV and wanted to take it back to their shop to diagnose, which was expected. They determined it was main board failure, but they wanted $400 for a replacement part and then $200 to install it. So, $600 to bring my TV back to life.

Now on one hand, you could probably argue that repairing it at any price is worthwhile, because you simply can't get a plasma TV anymore, and you simply can't get a 3D TV anymore. But on the other hand, that's a lot to spend to repair a TV when I can buy a larger sized 4K set for less than that if I wanted to.

I think I am going to decline the repair, but ask to have the TV returned to me. (Or, if they won't drop it back off, figure out a way to get to them to pick it up.) I've found a couple different places online that will repair/rebuild the main board for a $75 fee (and will refund your money if they can't). If I can successfully remove and send in the main board, get it repaired, and re-install it myself and it works, then I'll be a happy camper. And if that doesn't work, then I'll only be out an extra $75.

I'm just hesitant to throw in $600 on a six year old out-of-warranty TV. Because outside of the 90 days warranty that the repair company offered, that's a lot of money to spend on something that could end up dying again in relatively short order.

 

[Nelson Au]

Josh, that’s a tough one. Is $600 a large percentage of what you originally paid for the TV? In looking at TV repair reviews on Yelp, one guy did what you are contemplating and ended up paying the guy to do the job later as his attempts failed.

With my recent experience, I’ve come to a new point of view. In my way of thinking, you spend good money on good stuff and expect it to be a solid product that performs well for a long time. I have a car from 2001 that I bought new and maintain it and still drive it to this day, I love the car so I’m happy to be a few years behind the latest.

But it seems with electronics, you can’t rely on them anymore. Aside from how fast they become obsolete from advances, they just don’t seem to make them the way they used to. I have a Pioneer plasma from 2006, it’s hdmi ports died after 7 years. Luckily I’ve been able to nurse it along as the electronics boards are in a separate media box and I replaced the box with a used one from an eBay seller. The Panasonic was purchased 7 years ago and it’s failed after 7 years. As Maxwell Smart would say, if there was only a pattern to theses crimes.

The Best Buy sales guy I spoke to yesterday said to expect to replace the TV every 5 to 10 years. That just seems too short! But in the case of our electronic HT gear, my expectations have now shifted. I’m beginning to think if I get a new TV, I’ll need a new one in 2024. I’m sure that will have the latest whizzbang technology too.

Good luck with how your DIY repair goes. I’ll let you know what happens to my Panasonic.

 

[CraigF]

These plasma displays can be a real pain to take apart. Especially the later skinniest ones. Actually, it's the putting back together that I find harder and I'm fairly experienced with taking modern electronics apart. A 50" isn't too bad I guess, but once they get larger, you have to set aside quite a large space, and the display will have to stay there until you get whatever parts you need etc. Theres a huge overall size diff between 50" and 60", but I'm not sure if the 50" isn't a bit harder to work on, they seem to compact the guts a lot more since somewhat lower power requirements for everything. Depends how they come apart, but I usually had to lay them down flat and...quite inconvenient re space.

Long way of saying, the dis/re-assembly nuisance factor is "worth" $200 to pawn it off on somebody else. But I have no doubt the service place is at least doubling the parts price compared to what you could probably find elsewhere. But an *LG*, ~7 years old...get the parts while you can, another year or two and forget it, in fact I bet you might already be paying a good premium for them. (Isn't there that "7 year parts rule" in the U.S., I'm not sure, nothing like it here.) Not so much Nelson's Pio, many of those modules are quite easily rebuildable, Pios are *in general* much easier (not necessarily easy) to repair in that regard.

Don't know what the prob could be obviously, but my first suspect would be PS caps. IMO LG and Samsung run their caps a little too close to the limits (re voltage and temperature ratings, plasmas and OLEDs get rather hot and this is generally bad for capacitors). I don't know why they seem so skimpy on them, unless it's for intentional failure. It's not like they're expensive parts for a manufacturer. And typically when one goes in a PS, it quickly cascades until total failure. Usually easy/cheap enough to replace *once you get the module out*. And if it's not something you do regularly, the whole thing is a bit of a time suck. I'm not sure I would take your plasma apart and put it back together for $600, when normally I would do a repair job for nothing, I despise working on "skinny" displays so much. Not saying it's worth or not worth it to get it fixed, but I'd say it's a bit of a nasty job for $600, I'd pay to have somebody else do it, like for certain plumbing jobs I could do.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Josh, that’s a tough one. Is $600 a large percentage of what you originally paid for the TV?

Yes, the set was $800 when it was new.

I will not be paying $600 to repair it.

But an *LG*, ~7 years old...get the parts while you can, another year or two and forget it

It is already impossible to get that part new. I saw the same website that the TV repair shop was referring to in my own travels before consulting with them, and on that site and others, it's about $300-400 for a new main board. Then, they wanted $200 to install it on top of that. It's just too much money for something that can't be guaranteed to work long term. If the repair shop offered a five year warranty, I'd feel better about doing it. But they only offer a 90 day guarantee on parts and labor. $600 for a repair that's only guaranteed for three months is a lot of money.

I will try to get it back from the repair shop - I live in a city and don't have a car, so that's a little tricky, but should be doable. I have found a couple different electronics repair vendors online who do main board repairs on this particular model for about $75. You pay them $75, they send you a mailer to send it to them, they repair the board, test it, and send it back - if they're unable to repair it or if it's not broken, then they refund you that $75 minus shipping costs. So, for $75, I'm willing to give it a shot to see if the board can be fixed and reinstalled. If that works, great. If not, I'll buy a new TV.

I had previously removed the back of the TV on my own to see if there were any loose wires or obvious causes of the failure. While it was an obnoxious pain, it wasn't physically difficult to do, just time consuming. But I think it's worth the twenty minutes it took to pop the back off to try one last time to save it.

It's just not worth it to me to spend $600 to repair a TV when there's no guarantee that it'll last for another seven years. I don't want to pay that much and then have something else go wrong in a few months or in a year that would require another expensive repair. Although I will be sad to lose the 3D functionality, the truth of the matter is that I haven't used the TV to watch anything in 3D since I got a 3D projector in 2014. So, if I haven't used the 3D functionality on the TV set in four years, I probably won't miss it as much as I think I will.

 

[TJPC]

The big problem for me now is 3D. I would not mind replacing my TV with a new one, but none exist with that feature. I live in dread that mine will conk out.

I guess we were looking at it too much and not enough at him one night, so our 25lb cat jumped on the TV stand and proceeded to walk behind the set, which wabble accordingly. I find myself now going to the basement when I don’t need to to see if the set is ok!

 

[CraigF]

I think I lack the patience and attention span that I used to have in my younger years...either that or I find the dis/re-assembly of newer gear a lot more difficult/frustrating. I have noticed that (a lot) younger people seem to have no problems with it, it's what they're used to, they know all the tricks. Whereas if a hammer and crowbar don't work for me... Good for you if you get it working following your plan, I like it that you're not just throwing up your hands and throwing it out, it's what "they" want.

 

[Matt Hough]

I agree. I admire Josh's perspicacity about this entire matter. I would have already had that TV at the electronics landfill outside Charlotte and a new LED in its place, my bank account weeping in frustration.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Part of the reason for my dedication is that it's not my primary display device any longer - if my projector had died, you can bet that would have been taken care of sooner.

I'm also not eager to upgrade to UHD set just yet if it can be avoided. Nothing else in my chain of electronics is UHD compatible, and I am not prepared at this time to purchase a new receiver and new disc and streaming devices. Even if I got a UHD television, I likely would not be able to take advantage of those UHD capabilities because my receiver isn't up with the latest HDMI standard needed for that content, and I can't justify replacing the receiver yet when it works perfectly and when a new UHD TV still wouldn't be my primary display device.

And then on top of that, there's simply no way that I can afford or justify a $2000+ OLED display to be used as the non-primary display device. That means that I'd be getting some kind of LCD TV, which obviously may be a step down from plasma. I'm not nearly as "LCD is the devil!" as some people are, but there are certainly good LCDs and bad LCDs, and I know there's the potential that what I could get would be a step down from what I had.

In the meantime, the bedroom TV has been re-purposed for the living room as all of this gets sorted out, so I'm still able to pretty much go about my day-to-day watching as normal.

But I am hoping to bring this saga to an end at some point sooner than later.