Television Repair. If you need to send or take the TV to a service center, the repair could easily exceed half the cost of a new television...

Television Repair

A basic knowledge of how a TV set works and what can go wrong can be of great value even if you do not attempt the repair yourself. It will enable you to intelligently deal with the service technician.

You will be more likely to be able to recognize if you are being taken for a ride by a dishonest or just plain incompetent repair center. For example, a faulty picture tube CANNOT be the cause of a colour television only displaying shows in black-and-white. The majority of consumers probably do not know even this simple fact. Such a problem is usually due to a bad capacitor or other 10 cent part.

Television prices have been dropping almost as fast as PC prices. Therefore, paying such prices for repair just may not make sense. Except for picture tube problems, most TV faults can be corrected without expensive parts, however keeping a five year old TV alive may be well worthwhile as basic TV performance and important features have not changed in a long time.

If you can do the repairs yourself, the equation changes dramatically as your parts costs will be 1/2 to 1/4 of what a professional will charge and of course your time is free. The educational aspects may also be appealing. You will learn a lot in the process.