Philips 42" Flat Screen Plasma - blinking red light 7 times - HELP please!

I had the same issue with 2 of these sets. It ended up being 2 capacitors were bad on the power supply. They are located towards the bottom of the board, you can visually see they were buldging and leaking slightly. I replaced them with 2 I salvaged out of an old computer (of same values) and the tv works as it did before.

Took moldymac's advice. Seven blinks/no pic. Checked capacitors, both bulged at top. Pulled connectors out of board (careful!!), pulled the main board out (do not drop screws!!) took it to local tv repair guy, he soldered two new, higher rated capacitors. Put board back in, plugged everything back up, bingo- back up and running. Heck with Phillips service centers ($500 is b.s.). $58.00 total repair bill plus my time. Something else may be a problem next week, but this sure fixed this problem today. Simple and cheap. Playing today with no problems.
Thanks moldymac!!

TV is 1.5 years old. It's a Philips 42PF9631D/37 42" flat screen plasma. turns on for like 15 min then turns off then a red flashing light comes on, seven times in a row, then it stops and cycles again, seven times in a row. Help, please!

MoldyMac,

Thank You! $62.00 and it worked perfect.

We had this problem once before, tv lasted about a year before it started the 7x red blinking light , had it fixed, 500 some odd dollars to repair, now it started happening agian, same problem, just 7 months after original fail, so now we are going to go MoldyMac's way and look for the caps and see if a old computer can help supply the needed caps. There is a temporary fix to this problem if you need the TV now and not later, although it is temporary , because the problem just gets worse as the "capacitors" get worse. I imagine this may be tough for those who have the TV up on the wall. Stand to the right of the TV and you will see the power cord under it, which looks like a standard PC power cable , put your hand on this cord and get ready to pull it out, use the other hand to press the power button which is conveniently placed right where you are standing, the green light will come on and you will hear two clicks from inside the TV, wait a moment and you will hear another set of clicks that sound like the TV is shuting down, this is when you pull the power plug out of the tv by pulling and wiggling it out, wait for the Green light to go out, then plug it back in, it will attempt to start agian without you needing to do anything else to it, where you will here the initial two clicks, and then the TV should come on, if it didnt then repeat the process agian and agian till the tv starts. Thats my temporary solution, but remember the tv may start on the first try but will get harder to start each day.

I have found that by using small space heater behind the TV for a short time before turning it on I am able to bypass the problem. Of course this isn't going to work if you don't have any space behind the TV. Might work if in general proximity but not sure. Good Luck. I'm not anxious to spend $500+ on a TV that's ~ 2 yrs old and costt $2000 to begin with. Seems to me there should be a recall.

What kind of capacitors are we talking about, so I can get them before tearing my ste up?

The problem is the Plasma Panel $1000.00 repair and Phillip knows about it .You can repair and replace everything on this tv . you will still have a problem somewhere else until you replace the Plasma Panel. There can be the same amounts of blinking ,but not everyone one has the same issue (figure that out ) A phillips repair center told me what the problem really is thank God for the honest people i suggest contacting phillip first get a complaint number from them and then contact consumer protection . like i'm doing . if it is going to get considered for recall this has to be done by all of us first .

I HAD the power supply replaced.... that was it. $270. The end. :)

i HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM THE RED LIGHT BLICKS 7 TIMES

Our tv was doing the same thing. Would not turn on and red light would blink 7 times. We opened up the back and low and behold there were the bulging capacitors. We took the mother board to our local tv repair shop and $70 later it is all fixed. Until the next thing goes wrong. Yahoo!! I would like to just put out there that there will NEVER be another Philips product in this house again! Thanks to everyone!

tailsfurse, thank you!!!!!!! The quick fix seemed to do the trick so far all tho it may not do it for long, moldymac suggestion will be next. I agree that there should be some kind of recall. I just cant justify spending 1500 for a tv and within 2-3 years having to shell out another 300-500 to fix it. What ever happened to quality made? Thank you again Tailsfurse....

Awesome, I saw the bulging capacitors and came here after a google search. I knew they looked fishy, Geek Squad which came here on a warranty issue (unrelated) several days ago told me a repair would be about 500 bucks. Thats just off the top of his head w/o looking at it.

Future note, get the warranty at Best Buy its worth it, service is awesome.

Now I am going to get the 2 replacement capacitors and solder them in, I would rather have a tech do it but I didnt buy service on this one.

Thanks for the help I will update progress!

Can somebody offer a little more guidance about locating the capacitors? I've pulled the back panel of the TV, but I'm totally lost. Somebody said they're near the bottom -- bottom right, bottom left, bottom center? I didn't see anyting bulging or leaking, either. Thank you!

The solution involving changing out the capacitors is spot-on. I had the same problem on Sunday, ordered the parts from digikey.com and had it in-hand by Wednesday. Now, with very minor soldering I am back in business. All told, it only cost $7.45 with shipping!!!