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

[Nelson Au]

Well Josh, my saga is just beginning. I’ve found a local indie Panasonic repair shop and I’ve arranged for an in-home appointment next week for the tech to diagnose the problem with my plasma. His cost is $125 for this visit and is applicable to the repair cost. He said it was unusual for my set to be completely lifeless. But worth the cost to repair given its a VT30. What I’m happy about is that he will not take the set, it’s all done at my house.

Regarding disassembling things, I find it therapeutic. It’s probably associated with my tendency to tinker and also my job in the design field. It’s fun when you can determine a problem and fix it! . But I’m not familiar with the electronics so I need help here.

Good luck Josh with your repair.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Nelson, if you feel like flying out to New York and would like to take a crack at repairing my TV, I would be happy to provide you that therapeutic opportunity free of charge!

 

[CraigF]

Sorry there Nelson, somehow I transposed my own "problem" onto you and said you had a Pio...I've never even opened a Panny plasma before.

It's the dis/re-assembly of plasticky stuff that gives me fits. All the interlocking/groovy stuff that is a bit of a puzzle sometimes to me, and I normally like "puzzles", but not so much when I just want to get at something. e.g. I don't know how opening an LG OLED would be, but lots of plastic, and that's a pretty nice display, so it's the way things are gonna be. I like metal and screws.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

When I initially removed the back of my LG to look inside, it was something like thirty screws that had to come out. I think it took more time just finding all of the damn screws than it did to actually open it up. So I'm not looking forward to doing that again, but... it's a hail mary. If I can open it up, pull out the defective part, spend $75 to get that part fixed, and have the TV working again... well, then that just saved me the cost of a brand new TV.

But clearly this isn't something I'm doing cartwheels over, just looking at when the TV broke to now - it's been two months. If I felt life or death urgency this would have been dealt with already.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Josh, I’m afraid I might not be much help with the electronic part of the problem. . Maybe you can learn some Zen or meditation whilst removing the screws.

Craig, I actually do have a Pioneer too, I believe I mentioned that earlier which is where you might have picked that up. Since I have a second media box for it I got from eBay, would be nice if I could get the main board to replace on my original Pioneer media box. The glass panel is still great on this TV.

I never thought this would happen but it’s interesting to be discussing how we can nurse along and maintain our plasmas.

 

[CraigF]

Speaking of "hail mary", that is the only time I would see a broken display. It would have to be out of warranty of course, and there would also probably not be anybody locally who does repairs on that model/brand. Or a very high quoted repair cost. I guarantee nothing, least of all speed.

But plasma and/or 3D are a bit of a special case, not easily replaced, so I can see spending a bit on that if they have the option...that's what I tell 'em, only gve it to me as a last resort before the trash. Decent large displays are rather inexpensive these days, I actually do value my time, even though I like to tinker, but I'd rather tinker with something that *I* deem "worthwhile".

It will be a very sad day here when the Pio plasma dies. I will do my best to resurrect it, but truth is I feel I've easily gotten my value from it. And I know it's a situation easily fixed with a relatively small amount of cash (compared to how much that plasma cost!) for a similar-sized OLED. But I like it, I use it almost exclusively and my 4K LCD rots away. I find plasma easy on my eyes, comforting almost, not sure why.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Latest update: somehow I was able to persuade the repair shop to actually drop the TV back off at my apartment instead of making me come to pick it up. I called up and tried to reason, with my idea being that since they picked it up, they should drop it off; afterall, if I had chosen to go through with the expensive repair, they would have dropped it off, and I had paid an extra fee for the pickup originally. I was fully expecting this to not actually work, but to my surprise, they went for it. So, the TV got dropped off this morning. At some point in the next week, I'll try to pop the back off and remove the main board and see about getting it sent in for repair.

As you can tell from my writing, this isn't my top priority at the moment.

(However, the lack of color fidelity and uneven backlight on the LCD that we've temporarily moved from bedroom to living room might be enough to inspire me to get moving on this.)

I have a funny feeling, though, that this ends with me buying a new TV in a few weeks...

 

[Matt Hough]

I'm very interested in your journey with this, so please keep us posted on further developments.

 

[Mike Frezon]

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Please feel free to stop by with a lawn chair and bucket of popcorn to observe my insanity

I can guarantee that when I have to open it up again, you'll hear some, umm, interesting variations on English language phrases...

 

[Nelson Au]

Colorful metaphors?