Philips 150S4 15" LCD Monitor Problem
If it just fails to turn on, the main power supply is probably at fault and without some
technical background and a couple of test instruments, you will not likely be able to do the repair
yourself.
Modern power supplies are designed to shut down if
the current drawn exceeds the design level, which indicates that something the
supply services or the supply itself has died.
If you are adventurous, you might pull the plug on the set,
allow the set to sit overnight, gain access to the innards, and with good
light, inspect any boards inside.
If you see one that has few ICs but many more larger
discrete parts, this will be the power supply.
Again, before touching anything inside, especially on that
board, allow at least several hours to be safe since the larger capacitors can
hold a painful voltage charge for some hours.
You are looking for components called electrolytic
capacitors that are almost always cylindrical and mostly installed upright at
90 degrees to the board with leads passing through to the solder side.
This same type of component in smaller dimensions
is still used in a horizontal package with leads bent down and passing though
holes to the solder side.
The latter are becoming more rare since they don't
lend themselves well to robot assembly.
Many failed caps (not all) will show signs of
pregnancy when they fail, bulging unnaturally at the top when compared with
others. Now and then, there may be traces of a crystalline deposit around the
end where the seal failed from internal
pressure.
These will have values listed on them in uFd
& VDC and sometimes, a plus/minus number lying about the precision.
Some also have a date code (rarer) that will look
like four digits:
2403 = 24th week of 2003
Most electronics suppliers have a stock of
the various values but if they have a date code at all, try to get only those
made before 2002 or after 2006.
The larger caps will probably be OK since the failure is
likely related to functions other than brute-force filtering. A pretty good
'rule of thumb' is to replace any caps you see bulging of any value but
especially those that are 100 uFd or less.
If you see signs of overheating such as discoloration of
the board material, it may not be repairable but if you can find a part number
on the board, you might be able to buy the power supply and install it
yourself.
If there are no signs of heat damage to the board, there
may be companies offering to repair it as a subassembly instead of repairing
the whole set which could be much more expensive.
If you choose to replace it or have it done, the power
supply still may not be at fault since most
are capable of switching on and off if a downstream problem is causing an
overload.
If you choose to replace failed caps yourself, you will
need a quality soldering iron with a small, preferably iron-plated tip, rosin
core solder and a sponge which when wetted is used to frequently wipe oxidized
solder from the tip this should be kept bright and clean and fresh tinning will
keep it that way.
You should also buy some solder 'wick' with the iron; this
is used to place on the solder you wish to remove and then heated with the
iron. Properly used, the wick will absorb nearly all of the solder from the
lands from which you wish to remove a component.
