Viewsonic N3250W LCD (dang Chinese garbage)

[radiotvnut]

Someone asked me to fix a 2005 32" Viewsonic LCD TV model N3250W. When I first pressed the power button, the green light came on and it started making a pulsing squealing sound like when there's a short. So, I removed a ton of screws and unfastened a bunch of clips just to get the back off. Then, I had to remove a bunch of other screws to get the metal shield off so I could get to the PC boards. Once this was done, the first thing I saw were two swollen 68uf, 450 volt caps. I thought, "good, this should be an easy one". So, I went to the local parts house where they gouged me $8.63/ea. for the caps! I could have probably ordered a half dozen for that price from some place like Mouser; but, you know how it is when you're in a hurry. I installed the caps and it still does the exact same thing. I checked the heatsink mounted semiconductors for shorts; but, could not find any. In this set, the power supply and inverter are on the same board. I'm about ready to put the old caps back in and give the POS back to the owner. And, some people wonder why I have no desire to actually OWN one of these sets. From now on, if someone ask me to look at an LCD or Plasma set, there will be an upfront check out fee charged before I pull the back. I'm real tired of spending my valuable time opening these things just to find out there's nothing I can do with them.