A few months ago my decision to buy a plasma TV in 2006 finally caught up with me. I’d just finished watching the Blair Witch Project, when my TV suddenly clicked, popped and then turned off indefinitely. In its defense I should mention that leading up to this lackluster finale it had been suffering some occasional flicking and picture distortion…so at least I got some warning of its impending doom. I now own an LCD TV, but I haven’t quite given up on my first (then $1500) entertainment investment. One lesson I have learned though is that I will never, ever buy a Philips Magnavox product again.
My TV (model 42MF230A-37) has been busy racking up bad reviews on the internet in the past few years as one of the most unreliable TV’s out there (just my luck). In retrospect, I guess I should have waited a few months, but hindsight is always 20/20, right?. I’ve taken the TV apart and upon initial inspection (smell test) and some searching the repair forums I found that the most common issue was a broken Y Main board (part LJ92-01200A). So I bought a replacement on eBay ($140 w/ shipping) and installed it myself. Unfortunately that didn’t fix it. The TV still shows no picture and starts smelling funny after a few seconds of operation.
Now my only options are replacing the buffer boards (part LJ41-02331A, LJ41-03461A, etc.), and the power supply board (part LJ44-00092C). So when I get around to a low bid on one of those parts I’ll try replacing one of them to see if I get any better results. Otherwise this baby is going to the Hazardous waste dump next time I move.
———-UPDATE 1————
I’ve got some replacement parts in this week and will try to install them in the next few days. I’ll update the post with pictures of the installation.
———-UPDATE 2————
Okay, so far I’ve replaced the Y-Main board, left and bottom buffer boards, but still my TV doesn’t work properly. So in total i’ve invested $150 for a new y-main board and $34 for each of the buffer boards. I think the main power supply board may be the culprit but it is also running for $150 on eBay and I’m low on spare cash at the moment. This project will have to be put on hold until the sufficent $150 can be located to fix the power supply before I’ll get angry enough to haul this thing off to the hazardous waste center.
———-UPDATE 3————
I finally found a reasonably priced main power board for my TV (part# LJ44-00092C). Now I can finally determine whether this was the part that needed replacing after all. I’ve also attached some pictures of the opened TV below so you can see what parts I have replaced so far.
——-FINAL UPDATE———
After further inspection I found that due to excessive heat, some greasy heat conductive material from one of the chip heat sinks had melted and dripped into the bottom of the TV where it caused some of the ribbon cables coming out of the glass to fuse/melt. When I saw that, I sold all the parts I had and the ones I bought and invested 1200 bucks into a nice LCD replacement. The LCD TV I bought as a replacement in ’09 has been working perfectly.
Comments
14 responses to “TV got scared to death”
If you throw in the towel, I’d be interested in your
LJ92-01200A
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
i have the same tv….i dont want to spend money on this tv.
i had a tv repair place, estimate, and said my tv needed upper and lower y buffers, and they cost $128 each….i dont beleive them..
@clark
Replacing the upper and lower y buffers is relatively straight forward. I got the parts on ebay for $17 (upper) and $34 (lower), so to replacing them both was pretty cheap. But in my case that didn’t solve the problem, I’m no expert and can only assume that my power supply board is also damaged.
The part number for the upper y buffer was:LJ41-02331A
The part number for the lower y buffer was:LJ41-03461A
I have no way of determining what exactly is wrong of my TV so I’m stuck replacing the parts one at a time and hoping for the best. So far with the y-main board and the 2 buffers I’m 300 bucks in the hole.
@Johnny Comelately
I’ve given up. I’ve tried replacing the X and Y main boards and the power board and my TV still won’t display a thing. I’m hauling this piece of junk off to the hazardous waste center and selling the parts on eBay if anyone’s interested.
Hey I need your Y board! email me back at ceraldi (AT) gmail (dot) com
thanks
@David Vielmetter
[…] a bad experience with a Magnavox Plasma TV I had some reservations about the brand, but at $98 bucks I just couldn’t resist and picked […]
This Magnavox 423MF230/37 suddenly went black last night. We changed channels, tried to use the dvd, dvr; the audio was fine, but no picture. Several minutes later a strong burning smell filled the room. I immediately unplugged the thing. It sounds like you guys know your stuff. My hats off to you. As for me, this thing scarred the hell outa my wife and me. Not likely that it will ever play in my house again. It’s only 3 years old. Wasn’t planning to buy right now but maybe with the holiday sales, I may shop for one closer to Christmas. Question: was there any chance this television would have caught on fire?
Yea, Probably. I opened mine up and found that due to excessive heat, some greasy heat conductive material from one of the chip heatsinks had melted and dripped onto one of the circuit boards, but also into the bottom of the TV where it caused some of the electronics to fuse permanently. I unplugged it when I saw and smelled the smoke immediately, but the fusing of the electronics in the bottom of my TV indicate that a short was able to continue long enough to cause solder to melt and insulation to burn…and in my book that’s good enough for ignition and thus fire.
@David Vielmetter
I’m not surprised. A plasma is a hot appliance at best. You can feel the heat coming off of these things when you walk by them. This will be my last one. Since my last comment, I have shopped for a new flat panel. I was delighted to see how much the prices have gone down. I’ve narrowed it down to a SONY LCD 1080p 40 inch. Do you have any suggestions on how to properly dispose of this old plasma heap?
Don,
Yes, you should contact your local waste or refuse service company or the number on your refuse bill to ask how to dispose of it. In my case I had to contact the Ventura County Hazardous & Electronic Waste Collection Program website and it turned out that I could dispose of one large piece of hazardous waste (such as a CRT or Plasma TV) per year free of charge. Unfortunately I had to shove the thing into my car and drive it there, but at least I know that it was disposed of properly.
@David Vielmetter
David,
I see on Ebay that some sellers are calling the LJ41-02331A an “E” logic buffer with the same part number. And LJ41-03461A “F” buffer. Are these the same as the “Y”buffers?
Thanks in advance! And thanks for the great info. I’ve been trying to find a cheap way to fix this tv after a repair guy told me it would cost $500.
MW
Right from the start foul smell means you blew your power supply along with the click and pop. You blew the transformer most likely. Also the X and Y boards typically die first in all plasma tv’s. It’s like the doom that all plasmas get. Luckly my X and Y boards are fine only my main board and signal board are bad. Only a 422.14 dollar repair. It is a 42″ sony. but anyways, yea flicker and fail was most likely cause the psu couldn’t keep supplying power to that massive plasma panel for a long time and then it said im retied puff.
i have one of these so equipped tv’s. mine is displaying lines horizontally across the screen, would that be the buffers that might cause this?