We have a Samsung HDTV 55″ inch LCD TV which is showing lines (vertically) and getting extremely hot. At times it powers on at only half of the brightness for a 20 seconds or so and then goes completely black like it is turned off. I do not know what I should be looking for or how to diagnose these TV problems. Do you think that replacing the power boards would be a good place to start? Maybe I need to open up the TV and start to check to see if the capacitors are okay? Where do I even get these TV repair replacement parts? Please help.
The issue could be related to a bad capacitor or capacitors. Maybe 10 years ago there was a Chinese capacitor supplier company selling faulty and low quality caps. Your TV may have these.
THINGS TO TRY TO FIX YOUR TV FAST:
- Try to connect all connectors including HDMI, coax, etc, to be sure all inputs are producing same issue.
- Push the HDMI connector firmly into the back of the set.
- Be sure your actual cable is not bad and causing the issue.
First: Open up the TV case (unplugged of course) and look for a bulging or leaking capacitor. If you see any that are leaking or fat and bulging, replace them. If you find no bad caps, you could replace the complete circuit board but that may be more than the TV is worth. Some of these issues are common on Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and Toshiba. Here are some places to buy caps and circuit boards for replacement HDTV parts.
2 Types of lines on a broken LCD TV screen
Possible Components That Could Be Bad:
Bad T-Con Main Control Board can cause vertical lines or half of the screen is black. Horizontal lines usually indicates a defective screen not a bad t-con board.
Bad Power Supply (Bad Capacitors, Blown Fuse, Bad rectifier) This means that the TV won’t turn on or shuts off randomly.
TV repair – Vertical lines on flat panel TV
- You have to find out, are the lines vertical or horizontal?
- Are the lines a certain color or black and white?
- What section of the TV, do the lines show up in?
- The top half?
- The lower half?
- The right side?
- Or the left side
- Is your screen discolored?
- Do the lines always appear on the screen when using different inputs?
- If you switch from HDMI-1 input to HDMI-2 input, are the lines still there?
- Do the lines on the screen show up over the menu or behind the menu?
- Do the lines always appear on the screen or are they intermittent?
HOW TO FIX LED TV VERTICAL LINES ON SCREEN
Do you have experience in fixing these types of TV issues? Please leave a comment below.
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 →
Chris,
If your LG TV does NOT have a cracked or indented screen, you may have loose ribbon connectors/wire harnesses in the TV that connect the circuit boards. Be sure everything is secure. While looking, check if you have any burnt or scorched boards and if any of the small capacitors are popped or bulging. If everything is secure and no visible signs of damage, a component on a board may have fried or possibly the TV screen itself is bad or has become defective.
Be careful when opening up the TV as some components can still hold voltage.
-RR
I have LG TV 42LM6200 and apparently at first. It has only 1 vertical thin gray or white line in the right panel and after a day it adds another vertical line. Now it has 3 lines. What could may possibly the cause of this. Is it the t-con or some of the capacitors? No fracture for the LED panel.
Kriminal,
Change t-con.
The image we saw looked like the t-con was the cause.
Let us know what you find.
-RR
Nathan,
Yes wiping down an LED TV screen with too much cleaner near the edges can damage the screen.
If there is no actual physical damage to the screen that you can see, and no indentations, then possibly getting the screen edges did not damage it.
The issue may be with a board or cap in the TV.
Possibly bad or loose ribbon cables.
Do you think the wet paper towels liquid may have gotten down in between the screen and the frame?
Are the lines near the edges, corners of the screen?
Did this issue occur right after you cleaned the screen with wet paper towels?
-RR
My 46″ LED Toshiba has horizontal lines on about bottom 4″ running across left to right. Also, about the same height on top of that region I can see some fresh new lines are starting to appear. Depending on the color on the screen the lines appear to be very bad and sometime with dark colors they do not look that bad (still not good though). I don’t know what might have caused that, but after reading comments here I feel like I might have done some dumb thing. Sometime I used wipe screen edges with wet paper towel (not too wet though) to clean dust accumulations. I wonder if the screen has gone bad? I saw a youtube video where a person sprayed a radioshack cooler spray on the edges to repair horizontal lines. I am thinking how that works? Any suggestions or explanation will be appreciated. Thanks!
Tapped everywhere, but nothing changed.
The screen is not physically damaged.
I’m serious thinking to change the t-con board, maybe can fix the issue.
Kriminal,
With some Samsung TVs you can try tapping near the input where the component is connected such as an HDMI input.
If this clears the lines you most likely have a loose component such as a ribbon cable loose.
If this is not the case, you may have a bad screen or possible popped caps, bad board, etc.
Is the screen physically damaged in any way?
-RR