eBay fraud: "SAMSUNG BRAND NEW UPPER AND LOWER BUFFER board LJ41-02760A & LJ41-02761A KIT"

The title of this article is purposefully made to match a particular listing on eBay.

I am sure it will eventually become invalid , so I am not going to post a link to it here, but I am going to post a picture of it while it's still active and explain why is it a fraud and from there, how many eBay listings in the "electronics>parts" category are fraud.

Here is the listing (click to see full screen):

This listing is definitely a fraud!

First, the specified buffer boards have been manufactured in 2006/2007 and because they go bad so often (as I've written before) at some point in 2010 pretty much all vendors here in USA exhausted all their availabilities. There was a period of time during which the boards could simply not be found and we, like some others, had to rely on repairing the original buffers.

Repairing the old buffers did not prove to be cost-effective (for reasons explained in the above referenced article) , but luckily Samsung has responded in a fast manner (for a company their size) and produced the new batch of buffer boards , which now have 4 buffer ICs (100 bits each) as opposed to the original ones that have 6 ICs with 64 bits.

Granted, this is a logical argument, not a proof that the boards listed here are old and used.

But wait, there's more!

All OEM buffer boards of this kind come with a revision model stamped on them.

The oldest ones are revision A1 and the latest ones (of the 6 - IC model) is A5; every TV sustain set we have seen here that has never been opened before (and we've seen easily hundreds) comes with buffers that have A1 to A5 on them.

Oddly enough, buffers sent to parts distributors come without revision label on them. I am talking about the ones that were in the distribution network before they got exhausted.

I don't know if that is on purpose or not, but again all the old style replacement buffers we have seen have never had revision label on them.

This, by itself, is still not a definite proof that the listing is a fraud, but you have to agree it adds up to the logical conclusion.

The final argument is probably the weakest one, but I'll present it anyway since it does have value to me.
As I've blogged before,  we are not new to importing from China.

My conclusion working with various electronic components vendors is that they are not so much committing fraud on purpose as they are simply not at all understanding what are they selling.

Perhaps someone in the supply chain there is clearly aware what they are doing , but it's usually not the dealer you communicate with; those dealers are often willing to learn and provide feedback back to the chain so that they do not lose your business.

How well does that work is another story.

But my point here is that based on experience I can easily guess that the seller doesn't even know that what they describe is, well, a nonsense. They probably offer it in good faith hoping to earn some valuable American dollars.

Looking at their other sales and the listing's description only adds to that theory; oh, and referencing the boards by their pure PCB IDs instead of the assembly ID (LJ92-XXX) or the marketing component ID (BN96-xxx) is yet another strong indicator that they have no clue what are they selling.

Bottom line?

Beware what you're buying...or you'll get what you deserve :-)

What to do before calling for tv repair?

Somehow someone landed at our site as a result of asking a searching engine this very question.

I did a google search myself and found this article. While generally agreeing with what it says I couldn't help but notice that I'd give rather different answer to the question, so I decided to post this article.

Here's what I'd suggest you do:

1) Unplug the TV from the AC power, hold on like that for 3-4 minutes, then try plugging it back again to see if it makes any difference.

2) Go behind the TV and look for the unit's manufacturing details label. What you need to find above everything else is the model of your TV.

It's an alpha-numerical combination usually following the word "MODEL" on the label and sometimes after it.

The make and the model of the TV are the two most important pieces of information that every repair technician should ask first when getting a new call.

The first two digits often (but not always) indicate the TV's display size, e.g. 42PC3D indicates a 42'' TV.
When first characters of the model are letters they often abbreviate popular things like the technology or particular series of the TVs made by this manufacturer. For example HP's PL5060N refers to PL[asma] 50 inch display.

3) Do a quick search on www.walmart.com, www.costco.com, www.frys.com, www.bestbuy.com and whatever other large store you may have nearby and like, to check how much would it cost to buy a brand new TV of the same display size.

In today's market TV prices have dropped so much compared to 3-4 years ago that many people don't realize they are being charged for service what it would cost to buy a new TV!

So before calling anyone, find out what's your practical target for repair expenses.

My personal rule of thumb is that no repair should cost more than half of what you can buy a new TV for.

Your mileage may vary.

4) Try to describe the problem you're having with one sentence , e.g. "sound but no picture" or "bad picture" or "cracked screen".
(if it's a cracked screen then don't even try to spend more time - it's pointless!)


5) Google for the TV model you've found out and your description, e.g. "HP Pl5060N sound but no picture"


Take 5 minutes of your time and see if others have hit the same problem and if it sounds like they have, then what solution did they find.


It's five minutes that can save you 5 days and a few hundred dollars, so take them!


However, be careful to avoid the trap of assuming that if someone else had the same problems that you have then your TV will absolutely have the same problem and the same solution!

If many people had the same problem and many people confirm that the same solution worked for them then you've likely found your problem and likely your solution.


All too often, however, people stop reading at the first description that sounds like theirs and assume they already know the problem.


That's wrong!


First because whatever you read may simply be another assumptions; Internet is full with well-meant people (as well as self-promoting people) who give free advices on anything, even if it is not correct.

So the fact that one person says your problem is caused by a bad power board does not automatically mean that you have a bad power board!


6) Before sending TV for repair (or before going to a service technician) try to research them.
Internet makes it very easy to find information on people and businesses.

Search for the business on both Google and Yahoo and see if there are reviews from local users for that business.

See if the business is present somewhere online (e.g. on Amazon, eBay or other prominent and independent website) and see what other users say for that business.


The more you know about who you're dealing with the easier you can transfer them ownership of the problem.


7) If all of the above sounds too complex just open your local Yellow Pages and call the first company advertising there.

You'll probably be paying at least twice on what you could otherwise do, but if that doesn't bother you you'll definitely save yourself time and effort.

HIU-811-M and HIU-811-S replacement in Toshiba 37AV500U

This post is for everyone whose Toshiba 37AV500U powers on without picture.

I apologize for not posting accurately guiding pictures, but at the time I was just fixing the TV, not planning to write about it.

---

A while a go I got a Toshiba 37AV500U LCD TV broght in store for repair.

The problem was it powered on without a picture and I was quickly able to narrow it down to one of the backlight inverters. Do not remember if it was the master HIU-811-M or the slave HIU-811-S.

Turned out there was only one place where I could buy one and it was like $160 - an insane amount at a time when a practically new 37'' can be found on Craigslist for about $350.

While searching , though, I realized that a completely different inverter was listed for the same Toshiba TV model. It was the LG Philips board 6632L-0506A / 37VT-Y / PPW-EE37TV-0 .
(not sure which label means what so I'll use the shortest one here - 37VT-Y. When searching you may want to search for all of them separately and 6632L-0506A will likely yield best results.)

It is not unusual for manufacturers to switch parts within particular model, usually due to supply problems.

So I figured chances are the above said inverter may be used as a substitute.

I took the leap and ordered one for $80 as opposed to paying $160 for the original HIU-811 board.

Guess what, it worked!

The 37VT-Y board replaces BOTH HIU-811-M boards as it has TWO lamp outputs.

I mounted the board on the place of the left HIU inverter looking from the back. I did so because with a little stretch I was able to directly plug the left cable for the backlights directly into the board.

I also remember that since the board was of a different size I only fixed it using the bottom two bolts; the top of the board was up in the air and I used isolator tape to stick it to base...maybe not the best solution one could think of, but I was impatient to get it working :-)

So the problem was with the wire for the lamps powered with the HIU inverter on the right side. I had to cut and extend the original right sided cable , passing the extension under the LCD (where typically the speaker cables go) and attach it to the second output of the 37VT-Y board.

Here, hope this helps...the TV worked like a charm and not only I paid less for inverter, but I was able to sell the working HIU inverter for about $40 or $50 as well, ending up with a nicely working solution for about $30!

Hope you can do too!

Check out my store at http://stores.ebay.com/coppelltvrepair/ ...

I may have a 37VT-Y board...and even if I do not, look for it elsewhere...that's the beauty of it, isn't it? :-)