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TV Repair · Troubleshooting

How To Fix A Broken Flat Screen LCD LED TV With Lines or Cracks

If you have a broken LCD LED TV Screen that has any type of damage such as lines running vertically, spots or patches, cracks or breaks, this page will give you tips to get it fixed. Many TV’s nowadays (Plasma, LCD, LED) are large and delicate.

If a large flat screen TV is not attached to a wall, it has a higher chance of falling over and cracking the screen. If your flat screen LCD TV has fallen over, most likely the screen has taken a hit. See below for some ways to possibly fix this without having to buy a NEW TV.

How To Fix A Broken Flat Screen LCD LED Plasma TV

If your TV does not have a cracked screen and the problem has just appeared on its own, you may be able to fall back on the TV manufacturers warranty. If your TV screen has developed spots, vertical lines, small dots, unusually bright pixels, fading, distorted shading, or color issues, you may be able to use the warranty.

To make contacting your TV manufacturer easier, we have included links to most TV manufacturers below. Be sure to have your purchase receipt, and take note of the model number and serial number on the back of your TV.

TV brand links for warranty claims listed by popularity: Samsung, Vizio, LG, Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, Insignia, Toshiba, JVC, Philips, Magnavox, Sanyo, and Emerson. These links will help you to contact the manufacturer to file a warranty claim. If the TV has a been cracked or a hit to the screen has caused colorful vertical lines, then this is something that has happened from physical damage and is not covered under warranty.

If your flat screen TV has the dreaded vertical lines, half of the screen has turned darker, the screen is cracked, or the screen is broken, this can be repaired but may cost more than you paid for the complete TV. If your screen is cracked or broken, you can try replacing the Screen, LCD, Plasma, or LED part. On some flat screen TVs there is a glass panel on top of the actual screen. You need to determine which is broken before you attempt to order parts.

Repairing a Broken Flat Screen TV
If you are going to be repairing a flat screen TV there are certain problems you may encounter. The most likely issues on broken TV’s will be a cracked screen, picture lines or black spots, or image distortion problems. If the damage to the screen has NOT gone past the screen, and has NOT gone into the LCD, LED, or Plasma behind the screen, then fixing the flat screen TV is going to be possible if you get the parts you need cheap.

If your TV screen is severely cracked and the damage has penetrated beyond that, then it is deep enough to have damaged the LCD, LED or Plasma. If this is your case, then it may cost more to repair your TV than to replace it.

There may be some LCD LED PLASMA TV repair shops near you that can answer some questions for you. Some flat screen repair shops do not repair broken screens as the cost is not worth it. They will however replace different internal parts in the TV that may have failed. These failed parts in the TV may have caused the TV to not display the screen correctly, ghosting, or a screen that is not turning on.

lcd tv parts identification

If the screen is not broken but the screen does not come on but your warranty is no longer valid, here are some things you can do. One single part has probably failed in your flat screen TV. There are many circuit boards and wiring harnesses inside your flat panel TV. Some of the parts in an LCD or LED TV are power supplies, t-con boards, capacitors, inverters, controller boards, IR sensors, signal inputs, and more.

One of the best places to purchase TV replacement screens is on eBay. If you need parts like control circuit boards and wire harnesses, useful parts online has LED, LCD, and Plasma TV replacement parts at good prices.

led lcd tv partsCheap TV replacement parts are available to fix your TV.
If you need a main board, T-CON, LED driver, or signal input board.

One of the parts may have failed in your TV therefore causing the screen to not turn on. Determining which part that may be bad inside your TV may be difficult. It can be done but is not recommended if you have no knowledge of using a multimeter or have no electronic repair experience. However if this is your situation, you can take the TV to a repair shop and they can troubleshoot the issue for you.

Have them tell you the part that has gone bad, pay them the $40 or so bucks it cost to troubleshoot, and go home and buy the part online yourself. This will save you money and your TV should work like new.

If your TV is NOT fixable, most people take out the circuit boards and part them out. Selling the audio and video components in your broken TV may be the only way to try and recoup the cost of the value of your TV. This is not recommended as some used TV parts are not worth very much. If you do decide to remove the parts, you could try selling them on eBay.

To see how to take apart and repair a flat screen TV or monitor, there are a few videos below which can guide you in the right direction. Be careful when taking apart a television as power may still be stored in some of the parts which can cause electrocution.



LED TV Repair Tutorial – Common Symptoms & Solutions


LED LCD TV FIX, How To For Double Image, Black Vertical Lines, Screen Problem


LCD TV fix: bad picture screen rainbow colors

4K Ultra HDTVsDiscount 4K Ultra HD TVs ON SALE!

If you have some advice to repair a broken flat screen TV or monitor, please help out our other readers with the same TV problems and leave a comment or a helpful tip below.

Keith Schneerer

Written by Keith Schneerer

Certified Appliance Tech · Founder, RemoveAndReplace.com

Keith has spent 30+ years repairing machines, starting as a military mechanic and later maintaining food processing equipment before moving into appliance repair. He founded RemoveAndReplace.com to share field-tested repair advice.

More about Keith →

348 thoughts on “How To Fix A Broken Flat Screen LCD LED TV With Lines or Cracks”

  1. DIY Project Help Tips

    Yasir,
    If the TV was pressed down on hard, something behind the screen (board, hardware) has made contact with the screen or the screen may have been cracked, or “pushed in”. You will need to determine where the damage is and replace parts from that point. You can find TV replacement parts online for a decent price if you do some research.
    -RR

  2. I have an LED TV – VESTEL SMART 40FA7100 40″ LED 27. During pickup from shop my friend pressed strongly on right hand side corner while TV was off. But after I switched it ON, a black area appeared on right corner with horizontal and vertical black/colored lined from right-to-bottom left and from top-to-bottom down. Now the only lines free visible area is about 2/3 of the screen while rest is covered with crossing lines. VESTEL service apologized for not covering such damage by warranty. Can this damage be fixed with minimum cost??

  3. Model number 42FL 3603d/27th have a black dot on the screen spider cracks coming from it a grey screen with then turns black with vertical lines that are rainbow colored coming from the. Dot

  4. I have philips 47inch 3d smart tv.
    My son hit the tv screen and it shows a cracked area in the middle of the tv. And now the whole tv is showing linea i cannot see anything inside but when the reciver starts i can imagine through colors that it is dtarted i cannot see anything clear.

    What should i do please help me

  5. My screen is damaged nkt from outside it doesnot look any crack at all

    This is my model noPhilips/47PFL5708|F7/47

    But when i seitch on the the tv the crack is not letting to show anything just the top area of the tv is clear with full colora but middle and bottom area are lines and also incan see the damage spot on tge left side of the tv. My child hit that spot. Plz need your assistance if u want i can share picture with u plz give me your email

  6. We have a 50 inch LG flat screen. Son knocked it off table. It comes on and has sound but no picture. Is it fixable without costing alot??

  7. I have a 65″ Seiki 4K LED tv, it’s just over a year old. It has recently developed a shadow of sorts, it is circular but seems to be attached to the bottom of the screen. Within the shadow are slight vertical lines. It is not always notable but is always there. It is most apparent when there is a dark picture, such as an underwater scene, and the contrast is quite obvious. The size is about 20″ in diameter, but does not seem to be getting bigger. Obviously out of warranty, I am wondering if there is anything I can do to fix it. I have fixed computer screens, but don’t know how these bigger screens work.

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