Self-Repairing My Vizio VP322 Plasma TV

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

OK,I'm starting this thread because I plan on repairing my Vizio VP322 Plasma TV by myself. It won't power up & it's been sitting dead in a corner for over a year now. I dissected it last night(out of boredom) & saw that 2 of the capacitors were bad. I plan on ordering a capacitor replacement kit for about $16.00 from Amazon(along with a solder kit). I figure for $16.00 & the TV being dead anyway,what have I got to lose.
Here is a question,if my project is a success & I have a working TV,how hard it is to DIY replace the main board afterwards? I know that one of my HDMI ports is bad on my Vizio & my component cable input has lines running through the picture when using it. This is just a project to bring it back to life & put it in my bedroom if it works,if not,i'll just put it on the curb.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

ShopJimmy has a power board for $69.33 plus shipping. I may go that route since I have never soldered before. They also have a main board for $45.12 plus shipping. I can order both & then put them both in at the same time. I don't want to go back into my TV until I have both items because I'm afraid of stripping one of my TV's many screws. I'll be able to order parts on the first of the month & then I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

 

[teachsac]

Keep us posted. We'd like to know how it goes. Worst case: Out a few bucks Best Case: Working TVs to use or sell.

S~

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Keep us posted. We'd like to know how it goes. Worst case: Out a few bucks Best Case: Working TVs to use or sell.

S~

? Yeah it's a win/win no matter what.

 

[teachsac]

That's how I learned to repair Mitsubishi DLPs.

S~

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Well I bought a new power cord to replace the old one that I misplaced & it arrived today. Plugged it in & confirmed the obvious,my TV is dead as a doorknob. Now I'm just twittling my thumbs waiting for the first of the month to order the parts I need(power board,main board) to repair my TV(then twittle my thumbs waiting for UPS to deliver said parts).

 

[navychop]

I think replacing the main board would be easier than soldering capacitors- neither being a tough job.

Congrats on finding a replacement board. I don't think they plan on many repairs and stock accordingly.

I look forward to reading about the process and outcome.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I think replacing the main board would be easier than soldering capacitors- neither being a tough job.

Congrats on finding a replacement board. I don't think they plan on many repairs and stock accordingly.

I look forward to reading about the process and outcome.

? It'll be like playing the game Operation.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I sent off for the capacitor replacement kit,so it looks like I WILL be soldering. I'm in twiddling my thumbs mode until the kit,along with the soldering equipment,comes.

 

[mike123abc]

I sent off for the capacitor replacement kit,so it looks like I WILL be soldering. I'm in twiddling my thumbs mode until the kit,along with the soldering equipment,comes.

I hope it fixes the problem. It is very annoying when companies cut $1 off production cost with a part that will be prone to early failure...

 

[waylew]

I sent off for the capacitor replacement kit,so it looks like I WILL be soldering. I'm in twiddling my thumbs mode until the kit,along with the soldering equipment,comes.

Find an old junk circuit board and do some practice soldering(remove parts,replace parts,reflow bad joints),before you go for the real thing.And make sure you install the new caps with the correct polarity,or poof will occur.

 

[. Raine]

Find an old junk circuit board and do some practice soldering(remove parts,replace parts,reflow bad joints),before you go for the real thing.And make sure you install the new caps with the correct polarity,or poof will occur.

Excellent advice!

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Well,soldering was a bust for me. I'm going with phase 2,buying a new(or refurbished) powerboard. That was what I originally wanted to do,but I had to try soldering. When the capacitors & the soldering equipment came to my house yesterday,I suddenly felt like the clueless individual that I am. This is definately a growing experience. I certainly have taking apart & putting back together my Vizio down to a science now.

 

[. Raine]

Well,soldering was a bust for me. I'm going with phase 2,buying a new(or refurbished) powerboard. That was what I originally wanted to do,but I had to try soldering. When the capacitors & the soldering equipment came to my house yesterday,I suddenly felt like the clueless individual that I am. This is definately a growing experience. I certainly have taking apart & putting back together my Vizio down to a science now.

What type of soldering iron/station did you buy? Some of the cheap soldering irons just don't get hot enough, especially with the new lead free solder and double sided boards with connections that go through the board from one side to the other. Size and type of the tip makes a huge difference in how easy to use an iron will be too. The type of solder can make a big difference too, small diameter rosin core 60/40 lead/tin solder is about the easiest to work with for me. [Definitely always use rosin core solder for electronics, not acid.]

A desoldering iron can make things easier too for simple stuff like caps, resistors, etc, although a good one can be expensive. Radio Shack used to sell a cheap one for seven bucks that didn't really get hot enough for through board connections but if you put the soldering iron tip alongside the desoldering tip it'd usually work pretty good. Don't know if RS still sells them or not. Some people use solder wick/solder braid and solder pumps for desoldering too, me myself i never was too good with either of them and prefer a desoldering station/iron.

 

[aaronwt6]

What exactly is the symptom on the TV? When you say dead do you mean no standby light or any sign of life whatsoever? Blindly replacing boards is usually a bad idea without some idea first of what is wrong. More times than not you will blow money on a bust. Trust me on this one. I've learned from experience and have dozens of repairs under my belt. Plasmas are particularly hard to troubleshoot since they contain a number of additional parts over LCD/LED TVs.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

What exactly is the symptom on the TV? When you say dead do you mean no standby light or any sign of life whatsoever? Blindly replacing boards is usually a bad idea without some idea first of what is wrong. More times than not you will blow money on a bust. Trust me on this one. I've learned from experience and have dozens of repairs under my belt. Plasmas are particularly hard to troubleshoot since they contain a number of additional parts over LCD/LED TVs.

2 capacitors were blown on the power board. The tv doesn't even light up when plugged in,even after replacing the blown capacitors. I'm thinking about replacing the cables inside for newer ones,especially the power cable along with a new power board. I also know that I need a new main board because at least one of my hdmi ports is bad. eBay has cables that I need listed for about $24.00.This is just a project to bring an old TV back to life that would otherwise end up on the curb.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I know that my plasma panel is still good because there are no visible signs of cracks or other damage. I'm thinking of replacing the cables inside along with new circuit boards for the important functions like the power board,main board,YSUS board,& maybe the main logic board. I also need a new can of compressed air to blow alot of the dust & tiny spiders out of the inside of the TV. Again,like I said before,this is just a project. I can play with the old power board to try to perfect my soldering skills for another project another day.

 

[. Raine]

What exactly is the symptom on the TV? When you say dead do you mean no standby light or any sign of life whatsoever? Blindly replacing boards is usually a bad idea without some idea first of what is wrong. More times than not you will blow money on a bust. Trust me on this one. I've learned from experience and have dozens of repairs under my belt. Plasmas are particularly hard to troubleshoot since they contain a number of additional parts over LCD/LED TVs.

Gotta agree with Aaronwt6 about blindly buying boards, I went to school for electronics repair, [long, long ago!] I've been a repair tech for thirty years, had my own shop for twenty of them. But, obviously there is a problem with the one board with the blown caps on it. The problem that caused those caps to blow may not necessarily be on that board though, even though the caps are swelled and blown apart, you could put in the new board and blow the new board out.

The HDMI problem you may want to wait on until you get the TV fired up again and then check into that some more. It may just be the HDMI plug or there may be a firmware update, something like that. Your screen could still be bad too, even though there's no cracks or such.

Definitely not trying to discourage you away from fixing your TV, exactly opposite, think that's fine, more people should try fixing stuff rather than just tossing it, but it would really suck to throw in a new board and have it blow because the problem lies elsewhere.

Maybe you could buy a cheap digital multimeter [if you don't already have one] and learn how to check fuses, resistors, diodes, transistors and such and check as much stuff as you can before putting the new board in. Keep us posted on how you make out with this. Kudos to you for spotting the bad caps too, observation is a huge part of repairing things like this that many people fall short on!

Plasma TV's for me are a real PITA sometimes, they can be very daunting.

 

[jayn_j]

Actually, I would say it was the other way around. There was a period where a lot of electronics got defective Chinese capacitors. It had a huge impact on the industry.

More likely when the caps went out, they allowed voltage spikes to propagate through the system, destroying other active components like ICs. I agree with a. rayne that the problem may be on a different board

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Actually, I would say it was the other way around. There was a period where a lot of electronics got defective Chinese capacitors. It had a huge impact on the industry.

More likely when the caps went out, they allowed voltage spikes to propagate through the system, destroying other active components like ICs. I agree with a. rayne that the problem may be on a different board

That's why I'm considering a wholesale board & cable replacement strategy. In essence a "rebuilt/refurbished" TV.