Last night I was watching the Oscars. I was a couple of hours in and Billie Eilish was singing her James Bond song (minutes before Will Smith punched Chris Rock) and the picture went out. I could still hear singing, but no picture. I turned the TV off and then back on, but got the same result, plus a sizzling noise. Eventually I noticed a pretty strong smell of burning electronics. The TV sometimes would have a darker than normal screen that I could reset by unplugging the TV, but this was worse than that and obviously something was physically wrong given the sound and smell. First I looked up whether it might possibly be under warranty. I had used my Best Buy credit card to buy it at Best Buy so I could get 6% cash back, but the Best Buy card does not double the warranty, which wouldn’t have helped either since it turns out I bought it more than 2 years ago. TV’s have been getting better and prices have been dropping, so I shopped a little to see what was out there, but it would clearly be $1000 to $2000 to get another 75-inch TV that was any good.
Then I started looking for other people who might have had similar problems. I did find some things, but not for this particular model of TV, the TCL 75R615. There are places that sell replacement circuit boards that can often fix the problem, but there are 4 main boards where the problem could be. The other possible problem source would be the LED’s that backlight the screen, which are harder to replace. It seemed like it would be the power board, given the sizzle and smell. It seems like the lower power electronic boards wouldn’t melt down like that and the LED’s probably wouldn’t all go out at once. I found some videos online showing how to take the rear cover off of the TV to reveal the boards and hoped I could see something that had burned out. I had to remove over 20 screws to get the cover off but didn’t see any damage.
Since the Oscars were being recorded on my Tablo, I was still able to watch a little of the broadcast on my iPad before I went to bed, including the altercation. Plus I looked up who had won and was happy that The Power of the Dog was largely shunned, though even CODA didn’t make my Top 5.
The next day I moved my old 55-inch TV back to the living room. It sure looked small, but I was able to watch just a few more minutes of the Oscars to confirm it was working okay. I removed the power circuit board of the broken TV to take a look at the back. I found a few brownish solder points, but nothing obviously burned out. A place called ShopJimmy that had online videos of how to replace boards did not have any of the parts in stock for my TV, but then I found a place called Encompass that has 4 warehouses and one of them happens to be in Lawrenceville, so not that far away. And they had the part in stock, which kind of amazes me. It was only $76, so a lot cheaper than a new TV. The main board for the TV was more like $125, so if I had to replace multiple boards it was going to get expensive, but probably worth the risk if it was really the power board. One diagnostic you can do is turn the TV on and shine a flashlight at the TV screen. If the light reveals a picture, then you know the TV works except for lighting up. I did this, worried I might start a fire or something, but could see the picture. I quickly unplugged the TV again and could smell the burning electronics, which seemed to be coming from the power circuit board when I whiffed each board. I went ahead and bought the replacement board and said I would pick it up.
That afternoon, they said the item had “shipped” meaning it was ready to pick up, so I drove up there before traffic got terrible. When I got back I put the board in place and tested out the TV and it lit up! Then I put the 20+ screws in place that hold the rear cover in place, moved the old TV back to its usual spot and put the giant TV (so heavy! so big!) back on its shelf. I can’t believe I was able to fix my TV myself for less than $100 and in less than 24 hours.
