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TV - failed repair

I wasn't going to post this because the repair failed but what the heck, maybe someone can learn from it. I have a 30" widescreen Sony WEGA TV, a really heavy picture tube TV. Several months ago it wouldn't come on and the light on the front flashed 7 times. I googled it and found out that this meant there was something wrong with the high voltage board, specifically two chips. After debating rather to bring it somewhere to fix it (probably $200 range), replace the board (also $200 range), or replace the two chips ($70 for the parts and a new soldering iron with a small tip and a couple other supplies). I finally decided on the $70 option even though I was leery about being able to unsolder the chip's pins, get them out, and then replace with new ones.

So I ordered the parts, got a new iron, took a bunch of pictures of the inside of the TV so I could remember where all the connectors went, and disconnected everything. I actually did a good job of getting the old solder out and after some delicate prying without breaking other stuff I finally got them out. The new ones went in easily, which means I got most of the solder out - a good thing. I got all the pins soldered with help of a magnifying glass. I then screwed the board back in, put all the connectors back in place held my breath and turned it on. But it wasn't to be. Now I get 3 blinks on the power light. Searching again showed that it was not uncommon to have this as a secondary problem after fixing the original problem.

I added this one on this blog even though it wasn't "successful" because there were some successes. Even though I was concerned about being able to get the TV apart, with a lot of help and advice from my older brother, I got that accomplished. I was also able to get these little pins on the chips unsoldered and soldered, which was my major concern. And I have never worked on a TV before besides the old days when dad and I would take the tubes out of our TV and bring them to Sears to the tube tester and get replacements. So even though the overall project was a failure I did get up the nerve to try to fix it and had a couple of small successes. Moral - don't be afraid to try, you can learn from success and failure.

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