Thursday, January 11, 2007

Death in the Family

A very dear friend of the family died tonight... Our 32" Phillips Magnavox TV.

I woke up about midnight and smelled something not right, but I wasn't sure what it was. I got up, and I'm sniffing the WHOLE HOUSE! (my house is over 100 years old so you never know).

Anyway, I could not track down the smell. I finally decided it was strongest in the living room. My daughter was still awake, so I had her come in and sniff it. (she thought I was sniffing something else if you know what I mean). But when she came in, she agreed it smelt like burnt plastic. It wasn't anything overwhelmingly strong, but I have a super sensitive nose.

Anyway, I started sniffing everything that had electric. When I got to the entertainment center (this took a bit) I heard a clicking as well. I moved the entertainment center out so I could see what was wrong behind it, but when I did, I found the clicking was coming FROM the entertainment center. Well, I tracked it to the TV. Which is where the smell of burnt plastic was coming from too.

From looking online, it appears that I've had a capacitor burn out.

Now I'm left with a difficult choice. Buy a new TV, or try to replace the capacitor. The capacitor will be cheap (if I can find one. Others that have had this problem said repair shops didn't want to part with it without installing it themselves and charging a huge amount), and a new TV will not be.

The TV is over 7 years old (but under 9). So it's lived a good and relatively long life.

Guess I'll go sleep on it. At least I know the house wont burn down. That would be a lousy present for my son right before his birthday.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow - definitely post what happens on this - I have the exact same TV at home and would definitely not be adverse to doing the repairs myself if it meant I could get more life out of the tv. The TV was a gift so I don't mind putting money into it since I have none invested. Thanks for sharing the pictures too - they're awesome.