How Did This PHILIPS LED TV Model 32PFL3305-V7 Survive A Bad Solder Of Cap For Last 12 Years?
This TV belonged to my elder brother’s classmate, staying in my town. He was referred to me by yet another classmate, who was very close to me from childhood days. He used to bring his Sharp two-in-one for belt changing occasionally and was also instrumental in bringing his brother’s set for repair long back. He reported that his TV, which was working perfectly fine for more than 12 years without ever opening it for service, developed some problems like presence of lines in the display and picture jumping with RGB. Following are extracts of the videos sent by him on my request to evaluate the extent of damage:
From the videos and explanation of the problems by the customer, I could gather that the video goes off before which some lines with or without RGB display appears. In order to have a look at the problems personally, I visited his home on my return from my hospital duty and confirmed the same. The problem was there even when the inputs were different like a USB, confirming that the causes were indeed hidden in the TV and not in the associated peripherals. The customer brought the TV to my home and kept it on the verandah as per my request. The second picture you see in the beginning of this article is after I opened the back cover and subjected it to a thorough cleaning.
As we all know, there were many possibilities and we need to check and eliminate the suspected sources in order to arrive at the real cause. I began from checking the voltages at the power supply. The voltages were present both in the power supply as well as in the panel such as VGL, VGH, AVDD, V.com and VCC. They too were very stable. I did not find any regulator ICs or associated parts getting hot. I checked and found that the blue screen remained stable until timed out, but starts jumping only when a video was fed; that too after a few minutes’ of operation. So, this indicated a problem in the video section, which could also be due to noisy power supply. I removed the power supply board and did a visual inspection. Believe me; I was surprised to see an electrolytic capacitor with one leg abnormally lifted in the primary hot section. When I checked it with my finger whether it was holding the connection, it just came off! The other side of the PCB showed that the leg had not gone through the hole and it was just remaining touched perhaps on a very thin solder! Let us have a look at this miraculous survival:
The yellow arrow indicates the portion, from where the leg came off from the other side on touching. Anyhow, this was a strange case and it could have caused unstable power supply. But if this was not making proper contact to pass on the required voltage/current, primary would have got shut down.
So, why was the PS board working might remain as yet another unresolved mystery. Anyhow, the PS board had enough dry solders and almost all the electrolytic capacitors were out of range. So, I replaced all of them and also did a thorough retouch of the board including the many tiny SMD components. After cleaning and ensuring that there were no man made mistakes like overlapping solders etc., the PS board was refit. Let us have a close look of the PS Board & Mother Board :
The flickering and video going off still persisted on testing the TV. Then I checked the electrolytic caps in the video section of the mother board. Found these to be dry. So, replaced all the electrolytic caps in the mother board too.
Since it was a double sided PCB, and the legs of the caps were soldered within a circle marked with white boarder on the other side, I took care not to overshoot the soldering area. I also checked and rechecked the solderings done using a X10 lens to make sure that no shorts were made by mistake. Then fit the MB back and checked. This time the video remained stable and the TV worked properly even after testing it for several hours continuously. So, it was a case of bad electrolytic capacitors and bad solders in the power supply too. Let us have a look of the crystal clear picture on this 12 year old TV using LCD backlight:
The speakers were found torn and I replaced both of them after taking consent from the customer. A new RC Unit was also purchased as the old one was found malfunctioning.
Informed the customer after ensuring that the TV worked satisfactorily for hours together and fixing the back cover.
Mission accomplished with satisfaction, which got qualified to get entry to the collection bag.
This article was prepared for you by Parasuraman Subramanian from India. He is 76 years old and has more than 30 years’ experience in handling antique equipment like Valve Radio, Amps, Reel Tape Recorders and currently studying latest tech-classes conducted by Kerala State Electronics Technicians’ Association. He has done graduation in BBA degree, private diploma in Radio Engineering and retired as MD of a USA company. Presently working as Consultant to Hospital and other institutions.
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You may check on his previous article on Peculiar Case Of Secondary Wire Found Open In 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System Model Deltron
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Mark J
May 23, 2026 at 9:39 am
Great job on the repair. Thank you again for sharing.
Parasuraman S
May 23, 2026 at 10:24 am
Many thanks for your comments, dear Mark!
Anthony Paterson
May 23, 2026 at 12:22 pm
Parasuraman,
You are the 'King of Electrolytic Capacitors'. Your many articles show that electrolytic capacitors have a limited life and are likely culprits for circuit malfunction.
Which brand of electrolytic capacitor do you use or recommend?
Jestine would not have a repair article without your continuous contributions.
Well done and thank you.
Parasuraman S
May 23, 2026 at 12:53 pm
Many thanks for your wonderful comments and encouragement! Jestine Yong is very kind to me and do accommodate me to the maximum extent possible, in spite of his busy schedule in his passion of teaching. I developed the flair for writing articles only because of his support, guidance and encouragement!
Normally I use Keltron capacitors which are locally made caps of international standards of best quality. But many times, size matters and I then use Samsung caps.
Albert van Bemmelen
May 23, 2026 at 2:53 pm
Sherlock will be proud again! The mystery to me however was still the part where you took care not to overshoot the soldering area?