The TV Broke, Old Journals

Sticking info here about the broken Vizio.

Yesterday, we were watching TV when the screen went blank, sort of a bluish black. The TV emitted a high pitched whine. When we realized it wasn’t the dish box shutting off, I turned off the TV with the remote. Then I turned it on again and the high pitched whine was gone, but the screen was still bluish back. The Vizio logo was lit up in white. After that, the TV would not respond to the remote or the buttons on the side again.

Each time I try, I get the main set of symptoms described in the thread here http://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/home-video/590118.html:

The screen has power, but it is blank/black/blueish.
The “Vizio” lights up when the set is turned on.
The set will not respond to any commands…i.e. changing channels, volume. Nor will it power off.
There is no sound.

A few people are reporting similar but not exactly the same symptoms. Ours shows exactly the same. Of those with exactly the same, it looks like it could be one of the components of the main board. I could either hunt down and replace whatever component it is, or just replace the mainboard. Or have someone fix it, I suppose.

Particulars:

VW37L HDTV10A
100-240V~, 2.5a, 50/60Hz
10225030022
LSPAKBH3828189

It looks like (at least) two different mainboards offered at vizparts.com were used for this model.

Close, but no cigar.

There are several mainboards listed at shopjimmy.com but they’re all out of stock anyway.

Looks like I’m gonna need to capture all the numbers on the mainboard we’ve got in order to order the same kind.

We could pull the mainboard and send it off for servicing. Here’s somebody who does that through eBay. [Edit: I went that route and am completely satisfied.] Or we could take it to an electrical appliance repair place and have them do it. Some people report quotes of $300 to $500 doing that.

HDTVboards says that this one goes to both the model and serial number. Oh hey, you get a core credit when you return the part it’s replacing. Oh, the core cost is added and then credited after return. So the upfront is:

Order total preview:
Subtotal: $156.95
U.S. Shipping: $15.95
Order total: $172.90

Ugh. Cost after returning the core is $122.90. FAQ here.

Old Journals

Some of this stuff is embarrassing.

The TV Broke

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