Repair-abilty of flat panels..

default -- Wed, 12/24/2008 - 19:22

I realize that crt's are cheap enough that people rarely repair them, but it is possible to repair many components that commonly fail. Since one might spend $1,000's of dollars on LCD or Plasma screens, it seems worth considering whether they are repairable (and whether one type is more repairable than the other). Is there any obvious difference from a repair standpoint? Seems that plasmas run much warmer (some might say they run hot) - maybe that will cause additional electronics wear & tear as the circuit boards heat/cool and expand/contract? Am I correct that the panels themselves (LCD or Plasma) are non-repairable and if that goes, the whole unit is basically worthless?
Any insight would be appreciated.

Steven Stone -- Fri, 12/26/2008 - 12:26

Most LCDs and plasmas will not "break" or fail all at once (unless the power supply croaks from stress, which occurs with some plasmas that are installed at higher altitudes) but instead you will experience "death by 1000 pinpricks" as pixels die slowly one by one.

And, yes, the "fix" would be to replace the panel which makes it too expensive to repair since the unit will of course be out of warranty by then, and cheaper replacements will be available (flat panel prices have come down an average of 30% in the past year.)

Steven Stone
Contributor to The Absolute Sound, EnjoytheMusic.com, Vintage Guitar Magazine, and other fine publications