Television Repair

I speak of repair of the hardware, not the industry. A while back our brand spanking new Philips 27″ television mysteriously began denying that it had any knowledge of electricity. Our GE died after 12 years, so we expected the Philips to last a bit longer than four months. So, we called Philips regarding the situation, and, so sorry, we only cover labor for 90 days, feel free to take it to Stanton TV in Danbury, CT, for repair.

The unit has two components: the CRT and the circuit board. It’s simply a solid-state, single-purpose computing device attached to various means of I/O. It took longer to unscrew the back than it does to remove the board and swap it. But, after arguing the point with “Support,” it appears Policy prevents them from sending me the part. I might shock myself, after all. (Maybe I shouldn’t mention the Macintosh SE/30 lying disassembled on the floor of the basement.)

So we took it in. It’ll be $75 for the labor, they say.

Time passes.

“What’s taking so long?” I ask. “We’re waiting for parts.”

Time passes.

“Well?” “We’re troubleshooting the problem.”

Time passes.

“And?” “We’re waiting for parts; they should be here by the end of the week.”

Time passes.

“Oh?” “We’re troubleshooting the problem.”

Right.

They called today to tell us that it’s ready. If they think we’re paying for four weeks of labor, they have another think coming. I can pick up a Bigger, Better, More Feature-Rich Boob Tube at Wal*Mart for under $300. Why would I pay to have this one repaired?

Why doesn’t Philips do as Dell does, and send a guy to swap parts? Or, like IBM, just send the part?

265 Comments

  1. I have a large screen Philips TV 50FD9934/17S that came with the two year old house I bought last spring. I think it’s some kind of commercial model because the Philips website doesn’t list it. It clicks a few times when you turn it on, but is otherwise dead. Philips and their authorized service people both tell me that no service manual is available anywhere to anyone. The TV is only 3 years old! I know it’s out of warranty, but I can’t even pay to have it fixed! It’s a $6,000 boat anchor! I love my Sonys!

  2. I have a 27″ 27PT6441/37 from Phillips. Came home after a long days work and tried to turn on the tv–nothing. Deader than dirt. I check my house fuses and it’s not that. Came across this site. I wrote Phillips but I’m not expecting much. Judging from what I’ve read here, they built a product with flaws and don’t want to hone up to it.
    Nowadays, companies are getting more and more concerned about the environment. Many, if not most, corporations have a green policy. The feeling is that down the road government may legislate that they be responsible for the full life of their product. What happens to it after it’s not useable. I think Phillips should be ashamed and embarrassed. They just created a mountain of large TV’s in landfills around the world. There were probably 100,000 of these units built, and most people wouldn’t have a clue about repairing it, they would just put it to the curb and head to Best Buy.
    Well, hang your head in shame, Phillips. You should have at least acted on a total recall of these tv’s, knowing the problem with them. Maybe I should send this letter and the website address to my Member of Parliament.
    B.

  3. i just found 2 of the so wonderfull phillips 27pt543s37a 27inch tvs along side the road hoping that it would just be a blown fuse but thats not the case. took the boards out to look for signs of a blow and see nothing. i think i could fix them if i had the diagram for them but cant find one. i see that many ppl have asked for somplace to get one and no one has got a strait answer so i figured i will ask agean. if any one know of were to find the diagrams please let all of us know so that way we might be able to get a little use out of the hunk of trashes. thanks

  4. Glad to have come across this blog – we bought a Philips 42″ LCD TV (42PF76521D) from COSTCO six months ago. Two days ago, it would not switch on and gives 8 red blink, stops and does the same again. We were going to get it repaired but after reading this blog, we decided to return it (still under warranty). Whilst in Costco, there was exactly the same Philips 42″ LCD TV being returned with a label attached to it (would not switch on).

  5. I have the Phillips 32rf82 5327 and it died yesterday. I have the two flashes of the Red LED on front. I turn it on and it stays on for a minute and then shuts off – got progressively worse. Someone said they would try to order a transistor kit to see if this fixed the issue. Anyone have any suggestions? I’ve had this TV for abour 4 years and weighs a freakin ton.

  6. Imagine a resort with 1300 of the commercial version: model 27ST6210/27. Yep, each weighing in at 116 backbusting pounds.

    When one of these suffers the sudden death in a guest room it has to be manhandled to a service area where the “Product Modification” is performed.

    I’ve seen instances where expressing discontent and disappointment to Philips has granted an extension on warranty. The thermistor and fuse replacement is needed because of the design flaw where one was under-rated.

    About 400 have died to this point in time. History repeats itself.

  7. Thanks one and all for the great information abt the fuse issue in Philips #27PT6441/37.

    Philips sucks and I am not going to buy it ever again. I will also demotivate other from doin so.

    Any way….. After opening the TV, I saw the old fuse from the TV. It had a thin wire in it. I was expecting the wire to be fused but the thin wire was still there in the glass fuse. I assumed that my TV had different issue. BUt when I compared the old fuse with the new fuse(Radioshack 4Amp 250V slow blow) I learnt the difference. The new fuse had a small thick lump in the center of the thin wire inside the fuse. Where as in my old fuse it dint. So i conculded that the fuse had blown off. I just replace the old fuse with the new one and my TV started in jiffy.
    Thanks once again Every once.

    Philips sucks!!!

  8. I acquired a (well, OK took it out of a dumpster at a storage unit facility thinking someone didn’t pay their bill or skipped out and the owner dumped all the stuff iin the dumpster) 32RF52 S327 thinking Wow, what a find!! Figured though when I got it home to my shop it wouldn’t work but surprise, I plugged it in and it worked for about 4 hours. Beautiful picture. So in the house it came. Watched it for a couple days then yep, I find myself a member of the club, works for a while, shuts itself off, unplug it for a while, plug it back in it works for a little while then nothing. Since it didn’t cost me anything I figured I’d take it in that surely it wouldn’t be tooo expensive. HA HA on me. Shop said it was the SSB board whatever that is and would cost close to $300 for repair. Saw the same thing on sale for brand new for $389. Told them I’ll pick it up after the holiday. Only charged me a diagnostic fee of $20 but hey I figured now that I know whats wrong with it I’ll order the part and put it in myself. Can’t find a friggin thing about what an SSB board is. Anybody?
    Anyway brought it home, plugged it in my shop and had it on all day, maybe 7 hours when it finally shut itself down. Being somewhat a tinkerer and used to work on older TV’s I just had to tear into it. What I have found out is the thermistor intermittemly gets extremely hot then the tv shuts down. So, I cool it down by blowing on it, turn it back on and it stays on, thermistor not getting hot. It satys on. I shut it off and go inside still plugged in but shut off, thermistor cool to touch when I leave. I come back about an hour later, TV won’t turn on, I check the thermistor its hot hot hot. I blow on it to cool it down while pressing the on button when it eventually turns on again, thermistor warm but not hot so I believe I will try replacing thermistor and see what happens. I’m already into it for $20 so why not? I don’t have any other expensive hobbies. Wish me luck.

  9. becareful to remove all the screws i forgot to remove the screws to the componet connections and snapped the circuit board. i tried to sauder it as best i could but i could only fix the s-video. it turns on though. I need the componnent plugs so ill have to buy a new tv anyway

  10. I have a magnavox 32MF231D-37 for 1 year the warranty ran out three weeks ago, and the tv shut off last Monday night. My husband and I will neve purchase another Magnavox product again and will gladly participate in a class action suit if our problem is not resolved. I feel for all of you as well, who were raped by this manufacturer and their get rich quick scheme.

  11. I too am having trouble with a model 27pt6441/37.
    It has a filp in the screen at the top, the top two inches of the picture bends under and is upside down and covers the next two inches of the picture. I called the service dept. their big idea was to unplug the tv to see if it would reset. it did not work, big surprise. They then told me about 50 times that it was out of warrinty and I would have to pay to have it fixed, also a big surprise. They then provided me with the address of their service center,…. in another state.

  12. i have a 32PS60 – ok, so it’s 5yrs old, from the sounds of this group – i’m lucky it lasted this long, but i did expect more. i have an rca and zenith that have been around 15+ yrs.

    any how… it started not turning on or coming only very slowly. i had to turn it on / off 5 – 10 times before it would “catch” and finally turn on.

    now, nothing at all. except, when ever it’s plugged in, it sounds like a cricket… chirp chirp chirp.

  13. I came across this site while looking for Phillips manufacturer phone number. WOW I had no idea. We received our Phillips (32PP663 R37A) as an service award gift from my husbands company in October 2003. Just recently decided not to turn on. We’ve had it in the shop, paid over $200 to fix it and within 2 weeks started doing the same thing– would not turn on. The shop kept it for over 2 weeks and decided to refund all but our the initial $35 service charge they couldn’t get it to turn on. My husband wanted to try to see if someone else could fix it but after reading this I’m sure he will change his mind. Well I guess we should be grateful it lasted almost 4 years and only cost 30 years of service. At least we know we won’t replace it with a Phillips. Thanks for all the great information.

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