White Spots

Let’s Fix the TV

This adventure started when My Dear Wife noticed some white spots on the TV in our bedroom. At first I thought it was a reflection, but after studying the screen carefully, I deduced My Dear Wife was, indeed correct.

I Googled “white spots on Samsung TV” and after scanning the various hits, I figured what had happened was some of the diffusers had fallen off the grid and the light was hitting the screen undiffused.

The description of how to “fix” this problem entailed taking the entire set apart and gluing the diffusers back on – and reassembling the TV afterward. I realized that even if I could do this, it would take me quite some time, so the decision was made: get a new TV or find someone to fix it.

We had purchased it at Best Buys so I contacted their Geek Squad and they said to bring it in to one of their service centers. I set up the appointment and headed off. Unfortunately, the nearest was in Devon – 35 miles away. Luckily, even a 40” TV is quite light, so I had no problem getting into My Dear Wife’s SUV.
My thinking was that if the repairs would be more than $100, I’d just keep the set, try to repair it and buy a new TV in the meantime.

When I got to Best Buys the fun began. Suddenly, I was told they “don’t repair TV’s that aren’t in the Best Buys ‘protection plan.’”

I told the person that it would have been really nice if the person I chatted with online about the TV had mentioned that. If I knew, I wouldn’t have driven the aforementioned 35 miles (one way) and just gone to my local BB and bought a new set. She said it was on the web site. Too bad the person on the chat evidently didn’t peruse their own site.

At that point I was really ticked off and told the person that I had planned to purchase a new TV then and there, but because of the screw up, I wasn’t going to buy anything at BB, but will hit BJ’s, where the set is exactly the same price, picked up my derelict TV and left in a huff.

I opened my phone and set the gps to our local BJ’s and headed off.

Pulling into the parking lot, I grabbed a flat truck, headed to the TVs, pulled the new set off the rack and on to the flat and headed to the register, pulled out my BJ’s card and paid for it – all in less than 5 minutes. I did buy a 2 year extended warranty for $30.

Yes, I know: they’re usually not worth the money but the extra 2 years beyond the manufacturer’s 2 seemed like a comfort – though, considering the old set was 9 years old….

The new set was even lighter – it seemed – than the old and I had no trouble carrying it upstairs, setting it up and turning it on.

One little problem: the old set had a center stand, the new had 2 sets of legs and the old table we purchased for it was just wide enough, with the legs at the very edges of the stand.

Fearing possible disaster, I decided we needed a bigger stand and the next day went to IKEA (next to BJ’s, BTW). I wanted something simple and similar to the stand we had but there was nothing the right size; the only one similar was just too wide for the space.

I had to go slightly “upscale” and purchase a stand a bit taller, with 3 drawers.

If you’ve ever been in IDEA’s, you know that it isn’t easy to get out, except at the end. I asked one of the staff and she indicated a “shortcut” that I quickly lost myself in and ended up at the beginning, all the time waving the order slip in my hand.

Down the steps and into another IKEA maze to the registers, then to the pickup area which a flatscreen TV listed the receipt numbers of the items about to be presented. Seeing my number was way down on the list, I got My Dear Wife’s car and backed it up into one of the pickup slots and went back in to wait.

After about 10 minutes, my order arrived on a flat and I rolled it out to the car and manhandled it into the back. At that point I knew that, even though this was real wood, unlike much of IKEA stuff which is particle board, this was not going to be easy to get upstairs, so I resolved to open it in the dining room and carry it up in pieces – many pieces.

Up and down I went, plus trips to get tools including my power screw driver, for which I had hex-nut drivers, fortunately, and this really made the job easier (IKEA customers will understand), however, it was still a major job and with all the exertions of up-and-down the stairs and assembling it, dinner was a welcome respite from my labors.

Finally, after dinner, I finished and moved the TV on top and the old stand into the office beside My Dear Wife’s desk in the office.

I checked the pedometer on my phone and it recorded 14 round trips on the stairs. Not surprisingly, it took me two days to recover from my exertions.

Next up: trying to fix the old TV. If I’m successful, I have a person in mind for it, if not, trash, but that will be another blog entry.

I promised an update on this and, sadly, it didn’t go as planned.

I was able to disassemble the old TV relatively easily by following the various YouTube videos I found and took pictures of each step of the disassembly to aid in putting it all back together. I now have a nice set of suction cups that I got to move the screen out and back.

I had to borrow a hot glue gun because Superglue didn’t hold the diffuser disks. With the gun, they held nicely and I was able to reattach all the disks: the ~5 that had originally fallen + gobs of others that fell off during the disassembly.

Putting it back together wasn’t as easy as taking it apart – big surprise! The clips around the edge of the screen were put on the wrong end of the TV and had to be removed and reattached but, all in all, it went fairly well except for the speakers: they had been attached by plastic grommets which had dried out from the heat and age and fractured when I took them out. I, therefore, has to glue the speakers in. This wasn’t as bad as it seems, as I told myself, “If this doesn’t work, there’s no way I’m going to try to take this sucker apart again.”

Alas, after I put it all back together [with NO left over parts] there were now about 15 pox marks on the screen. It seems that the glue didn’t work as well as I’d expected and didn’t let the light through the way it was supposed to. Oh, well, anyone want a TV with the pox?