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Repairing and replacing the bad caps in a Samsung SyncMaster 204e LCD Monitor found while Dumpster Diving.
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[@robohalloran3614]

I had never tried to repair electronics equipment before and thanks to this, I'm now looking at my newly repaired monitor. It had a bad Capxon caps, soldered in replacements today (first time soldering too), whole repair cost me 1 euro 15 cent. You're a hero!

[@soylentgreenb]

Dodgy caps is the perfect choice for planned obsolescense.

[@krisztianszirtes5414]

CapXon. Being the base of crappy electronic products since 1990

[@bigbulldozer9708]

Company's hate people who replace caps

[@SE45CX]

I doubt it is planned obsolescence. As you can read on Wikipedia article for planned obsolescence it is a risky strategy for companies in competitive markets like LCD monitors. As consumers with a bad experience with Samsung will likely choose a competitors product. I bet the original design engineer (with pride in his design) didn't choose CapXon. But that decision was made later in the production department for the purpose to save costs. Maybe a stupid deal was made with CapXon to have them supply all the caps in certain production lines. It might be a continues conflict between management and the engineering staff for those decisions.

[@CypherAod]

SE45CX It seems like the perfect choice for a company like Samsung. Samsung are the largest supplier of "Name brand" monitors in the world because they're the cheapest and have "decent quality" for the price. Dave's teardown shows exactly how well made the monitors are inside with the sole exception of the cheap caps. Someone buys a Samsung monitor, it lasts a few years and then dies, most likely, they'll buy another Samsung because they're the cheapest "known brand" like I mentioned. Another benefit to Samsung is when they sell monitors with service-contracts or warranties, if a monitor fails and it's under warranty, it's literally the work of a moment to repair it as Dave's demonstrated in the video.

[@killer25318]

SE45CX this is also what the Wikipedia article said about planned obsolescence Planned obsolescence is sometimes achieved by placing a heat-sensitive component adjacent to a component that is expected to get hot. A common example is LCD screens with heat-sensitive electrolytic capacitors placed next to power components which may be 100 °C or hotter; this heat greatly reduces the lifespan of the electrolytic capacitor.[7]

[@cougarhunter33]

I watched this video a couple of times while waiting for my caps to come from Digikey. Performed this very same surgery on Friday to my 10 year old Acer monitor that was boot-cycling for a minute before staying on. The power board was full of bulging CapXon's. Back in business for 7$ US and an hour of my time.

[@donaldfilbert4832]

I gotta tell you - you made me laugh out loud !! A highly trained and greatly experienced Electrical Engineer like yourself - with all of the amazing electronics tools that you have!! You have only 2 phillips screwdrivers ... and you lost one of those !! LOL !! Thanks for all of the great videos !!! ;)

[@thomasfowler2964]

I wouldn't mind betting that Samsung said "hey, let's make a shit hot monitor that everyone will want", so they did. Then the marketing department said "hang on, we want it to look nice and perform well, but if they last, we'll won't sell any more monitors for the next 20 years", so the designers then replied with "Easy, we'll fix that! These caps will fail in 5! You can even put a 3 year warranty on the suckers and still make a killing". Management then promptly fell to the floor with shudders of joy vibrating through them. After changing their pants, they approved the product and here we are!

[@TamerlanRespawn]

+Thomas Fowler That's what a lot of manufacturers do nowadays, sadly.

[@RmFrZQ]

+Thomas Fowler I know! They place capacitors very close to hot transistors on purpose!

[@JohnDoe-qx3zs]

+RmFrZQ Using low ESR won't work if the connection to the switching transistor is too long, because you have to add the ESR of the connection. So of cause ESR capacitors need to be really close to those hot transistors and need to be rated for the unusually high temperature shown in the video.

[@RmFrZQ]

John Doe So good design decision should be to use larger caps with more capacity? Caps will last longer than 2-3 years. I also very disappointed with pricing of authorized Samsung repair services, who charge half of the price of monitor to change 3 caps.

[@k1mgy]

Having one of these same models in the basement - it would turn on but the display took 30 minutes to become visible - and needing a spare monitor, I decided to go for the fix. I've already fixed a beautiful ViewSonic monitor where a $5 capacitor change saved $800, so charged forward. Indeed, two adjacent capacitors of 820uf, 25v, were visibly bulging at the top. These were replaced along with a 330uf 25v capacitor nearby (it looked ok but was in a heat area so replaced it proactively). The failures I saw were not quite as dramatic as Dave's dumpster treasure, but left in place this would have been their fate. The monitor now works perfectly. Thanks to Dave for showing how that plastic case comes apart. Especially helpful.

[@Trailtraveller]

In 2001 or 2002, if I remember correctly there where caps manufactured which where wrongly calculated, these caps where used in cars, motherboards, etc. All these caps died within 1-3 years. For a moment there even was a shortage on caps. About 7 brands sold these caps. See "capacitor plague"

[@MikkoRantalainen]

According to same reports, the actual root cause was not-pure-enough aluminium used to manufacture the capacitors. Some claimed that the reason would have been poor quality electrolyte but I think it was later pointed out that it wasn't the actual cause of the problem.

[@namecollision]

This is great. I've had a broken one sitting in my office for a year or two, waiting for me to properly dispose of it. Now I have a weekend project. Thanks!

[@NickSklias]

You are the BEST, Dave! I love your voice, and how you explore and explain so much. Your expertise is inspiring! Thank you for your work!!!

[@EEVblog]

Yes I did. What I meant by that I was already quite knowledgeable in electronics before I got to formally study it. And I did so much outside of study (work and hobby), that I like to think I've learnt more useful stuff that way than through formal study.

[@jonremmers7723]

Probably the best clip I've watched for several months on KZbin. This with dodgy caps is probably common knowledge among most of your subscribers. But newsflash to me. Big thanks for passing quality knowledge on.

[@tontingkoblet5706]

Today, I just spent $2 for replaced caps and labor and yes my syncmaster is now back online. Truly your video is worth watching. Ty Sir

[@yelnil]

Im sad you fast forwarded the repair part, it's actually why I clicked on this video. Also, my theory is that they purposely picked those caps to shorten the life time of those monitors. The people who threw them out had to buy new ones right?

[@jippenfaddoul]

Thanks for doing this, I did a replacement like this for a DSL modem with bad caps, but was not sure what specifically to do for the replacements. This answers a lot of questions.

[@alexgochenour8740]

Content starts at 04:01 Great video, full of valuable insights. Thank you!

[@WheezerK9]

I want to say thank you so much for these videos!!! After looking at the crapxon caps that had puked I knew I had a chance of repairing these 2 TVs. After a total of 2 hours and 6-330~25v + 2-1000~25v caps,both TVs work beautifully!! Thanks again for the inspiration and confidence!!!! BTW I used Taicon caps and the Samsung sprung to life from oblivion,the Philips was teetering on the brink with intermittent function.

[@Psychlist1972]

Great work, Dave. Glad to see you save good stuff from the dump.

[@kalimosho6755]

I have a TV-Monitor LCD SyncMaster 711MP that showed the same problem and thanks to this video I have been able to fix it the same way you did. Thanks for sharing :-D

[@ussharmic4505]

Followed your video, replaced the caps. Monitor works great now. Thanks!

[@devyp2theizo]

You sir, have earned my sub. Exactly what i needed to see and explained quickly and in an easy to understand manner!

[@TheSurvivalists2013]

Hey Dave! A few summers ago, during an IT internship, I was given a pretty nice looking Samsung SyncMaster 226BW monitor. After watching this video, I decided to finally pop it open and take a look, and I found the exact same thing that you found. Unfortunately, I didn't have the exact same value (or even close to) caps. I just decided to then solder a few caps in series to match the capacitance on some protoboard. I got it working on the first try, and I'm enjoying it so far. Thanks for making this, and all of your other videos. Keep it up, man! (Greetings from Oklahoma)

[@AaronHendu]

First of all, just want to say thank you for all your hard work and excellent channel! I have learned a ton since subscribing awhile back, one of the best electronics channels on the web! I've made quite a few repairs directly related to videos of yours, and I can't express enough thanks for what you. Most recently, my girlfriend brought home a 19" Samsung 920BM...plugged it in, no power at all. No dis-assembly videos on the web, that I could find, so I ended up here. The monitors appeared to have very similar construction, and sure enough, they did. Was tough separating the two halves of the shell, but the insides looked to be a very similar design. Got it apart, had a look at the power board, and there was a huge scorch mark right through the PCB, right between the mains plug and the fuse. Checked continuity on the fuse, and fuse wasn't popped, strangely. So I figured if I could solder some wire directly from the mains plug right to the input side of the fuse, I might be able to get it working, as long as the scorch hole in the PCB hadn't damaged any other traces. Luckily, it appears the PCB was single layer, so I soldered in the little piece of wire from plug to input side of fuse, and sure enough, up and running perfectly, been using it since last night. Without your videos, I would never have even thought to try such a thing and probably spent $30 on a power board for the thing.

[@JosefdeJoanelli]

Thanks Dave, I fixed myself 2 new monitors at uni today after seeing this blog!

[@kamilhorodynski4097]

Thank You very much Dave! My brother have epilepsia and it's recommended for him to use LCD monitor. Unfortunately his 22" HYUNDAI IT N220W LCD monitor wasn't working... until yesterday :D I've replaced four 680uF 25V capacitors with two 1000uF 25V and another two 680uF 25V caps. Now mine brothers LCD works perfect, so we can afford any epilepsion attacks that can be eventually caused by CRT monitor. My repair cost me nothing, because capacitors for mine replacement were taken from an old PC motherboard, so I've also spared ~200PLN (~65USD) which I would have to pay for repair in service. I'm not good in soldering, but I've managed to solve the problem :) Thank You again and greetings from Poland!

[@JanTuts]

Thanks for this! I just received a Samsung SyncMaster 223BW that "takes a long time to stop flickering, and the flickering is getting worse". I immediately thought "bad cap?", and now I'm pretty sure that's the case, and that I can fix this. :)

[@Blayzn18]

Thanks to this video I was able to revive my acer x203H that I had almost thrown away! Encouraged by your can-do attitude I open up my monitor and found similarly bulged caps in almost the exact same location. After calling around I was able to find some caps that weren't low ESR and they are working until I can get the right ones in the mail. Thanks for the video! Liked, favorited, subscribed :D

[@JohnHessGA]

An oldie but goodie! I'm going to work on one next week. Thanks!

[@seba2882]

Even though the video is pretty old it has been very useful for me nevertheless, I successfully repaired my Samsung monitor. Tank you a lot!

[@JoaoKost]

Thanks. I was trying to fix something else on my Television (not LCD) and I thougth that this could be the problem, I had one bad cap and I change it!! Didn't fix my problem, which after I solved, but solved a problem that I had for about 2 years, the screen was always a little too red (shades of red) and now the image is perfect!! So thank you very much!!

[@Fir3Chi3f]

Amazing! Made a tutorial for this not too long ago and just further verifies that I did it right attention to ESR! Great stuff mate!

[@00Skyfox]

I'm glad to see this video. I've been sitting on an old HP LCD monitor for years that never powered up, and I've been wanting to find one for sale with a cracked screen or something, selling for parts only, to fix it. I'll have to pop it open and see if any of the caps are blown.

[@nikkicarlson8511]

You are the coolest person that exists, I learned much about the caps.

[@aserta]

The SyncMaster 793S 17", we're and are one of the clearest screens i've worked with. Cheap but really clear. What i liked about it and what people were saying at the time was that it lacked definition and color. But as usual as with most inexperienced users they wouldn't bother setting up the display properly. Once you do it's a beast. I still use it from time to time when i have a task that includes digital manipulation etc.

[@thadleingang]

IT'S ALIVE......Thank you. My Daughter (16) made her first electronic repair!

[@godgivesgoodhead7471]

thank you for the tv good sir, found a 32 in visio tv dead on the side of the road and replaced some caps2x 10v3300uf and 1x 10v2200uf now i'm rocking a $5 tv, thank you for showing me how

[@ixamraxi]

These type of videos are why I subscribed, loved it, thanks very much!

[@Seaabb]

Thanks for posting this up!

[@revolcane]

I am staring at the exact same board on a Samsung Syncmaster. Same bulging caps. Will be trying this out and see if I can bring this year old dead monitor to life.

[@revolcane]

Yep, it's working now. Thanks for the tip.

[@n3iyr]

Being from the US it was fun to just listen to the accent while following along. Thanks for this.

[@zwz.zdenek]

I do these kinds of monitor repairs as well. It helps to wire the cap further from its original position so that it doesn't get heated by the heatsink. I also always step up the rating, using a one step higher voltage is a good choice.

[@yagowap]

Im inspired to find something to fix my experience has been mostly determining "why" things don't work - troubleshooting. But i havent the internal strength to fix them yet - lazy. Great vid!

[@thomashamiltom]

I really enjoy following you! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[@TheDirkor]

(Sorry for my suck English) This morning have repaired a monitor LCD about this. My model is a sync master 203 and has find the elettrolitics caps crushed. Thanks David L. Jones for all!!! :D

[@kf7tkj]

I really like the repair videos, these were simple and I as a beginner I can understand them!

[@BurstNibbler]

Hi Dave, I have these monitors at work. When they go pop from now on I'll open 'em up and check this out - thanks!

[@SaccoBelmonte]

Good one mate :D that's a great piece of advice. I didn't know how to diagnose caps.

[@binarybox2003]

I enjoyed the video, thanks. I've got a 37" Hannspree TV which failed to start up. It gave a really loud crack so I opened it up to discover the caps in the psu had split on the cross.I ordered some low ESR caps and job was a good un. I used to repair tv sets when I was still at school for a rental shop back in the 60's in my summer holidays. It's a shame so many electronic items are just thrown away when they go wrong. I bet you had a big grin after winning 2 monitors.

[@EffendiChung]

got 4 dead samsung monitors in my office, and they all mine. thanks to this im going to open apart those monitors to see if its the same problem. if it is, then i'll probably have 4 of these monitors for spare to built a personal media room. thanks man this could save me lots of money.

[@DennisPadul]

I should say, this video inspired me today.

[@IvanStamenkovicSeemsIndie]

I fixed my monitor yesterday thanks to you mate, I remember watching this video couple of months ago and decided to try it. It was those pesky capacitors, my faulty ones were called "Elite" hahaha Thanks a lot man

[@explosivegardenreboot]

same with mine mate, dodgy caps on a Samsung SyncMaster 226bw. 6 caps were bad and as you said no need to test. Was evident they were dead. Filter cap was ok so left that in. £2 quick repair and runs perfect now. Not bad for a scrap find

[@thatradkid]

I am so excited dave! I found a samsung TV in the trash last night. it turns on but black screen with back light. I waiting to open it up to check the caps!

[@EECPOWER]

Yea nice video. After watching this video i realized that the 50A 13.8V SMPS i have found in the dumpster might now be as useless as i thought!!!! I took it apart and saw two 450uF 400V caps were blown!!!!! I have replaced then with some Nippon Chemi-Con caps of the same ratings, and is started to work. Not bad for a power supply that stayed under rain for a week. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!! a lot!!!

[@mvdswaluw]

Samsung bedroom TV here has almost the same board, and the same startup problems... Did not repair it yet, but this clip woke me up. New caps are now in the mail.

[@JoelGarcia-ml9jx]

Love jaycar for the "get it done now!" aspect!

[@Hamsterzilla1349]

Nice video, Dave. I've myself revived many screens bought for nothing or simply got for free by replacing some caps. It's especially interesting for screens that have reputably good panels (it's the case for some SyncMaster series, regardless of the electronics that drive it) or formats that are barely supported by manufacturers today (like 16/10 screens. Even today you'd be hard-pressed to find better than those 24" 16/10 Iiyama displays).

[@Verid1st]

My friend wanted to trash his Samsung monitor because of some picture flickering and occasional refusal to turn on but luckily I managed to stop him in time. Searching YT for "how to" - few seconds. Watching EEVblog #347 - 17min37sec. Cost of few JAMICON low ESR caps - next to nothing. Dissassembly, soldering and reassembly - less than half an hour. Now I have " brand new" SyncMaster 226BW monitor - thanks a lot Dave :-)

[@jlucasound]

You're so right. I experienced this in a company I worked for. A woman who was subsequently fired, took it upon herself to "shave" money. She (without authorization) went looking for the cheapest parts. Her purchases never went through engineering authorization. These were bearings. Total junk. Thank you again Dave, for bringing the seemingly obvious to our eyes and ears.

[@johnyonggee3684]

Great presentation! I like the comment at the start when you open the case " what a bastard!". Yes time to fix those dead monitors i have around the house in my to do list.

[@joemama7031]

Last week I found a monitor sitting out with somebody's trash and I decided to take it and find out what's wrong. With a little research, I figured out a few capacitors were blown. I ordered a replacement kit and I now have a secondary monitor that I spent a total of 20$ on to fix.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Got a Samsung, round same time but different model. Caps have also gone in exactly the same area. This is helping me fix mine. I have the replacement caps.

[@Funbot15th]

Today I fixed my Samsung 203B monitor. Thanks again for this video.

[@bfhben]

Did this with my monitor not long back. Found the right caps on another PCB too, cost me nothing to fix it and saved me some money.

[@smk666]

I had exactly the same caps blown in the exact same monitor model - coincidence? I don't think so. Also, like 5 years ago, I got 4 same Acer 17" LCDs and all of them had exactly the same problem - a cold joint on one leg of a 220-something nF cap in the CCFL socket area which led to destruction of the inverter transistors. After the repair and preventive replacement of all PSU elctrolytics, they still work like a charm, being used for 8hrs+ a day at my old school.

[@alexsiegwart4519]

same happened to my old working place. was lucky enough to grab a lot before they got into the dumpster. replaced the faulty capacitors for like under a few bucks and voila, working like a charm.

[@marksykes8722]

Thank you, Dave. New set of Panasonic ESD caps on order; I'll see if I can get my wife's Hannspree going again.

[@LellePrinter82]

I've fixed a couple of monitors with the same problem. A month ago, I've got an LG Flatron L246WH 24" 16:10 monitor that didn't poweron. There were two 3300uF 35v caps in parallell (6600uF) that had leaked. I replaced them with a single 6800uF 50v nichicon cap. Works like a charm now. :)

[@NathonDalton]

I have a Princeton LCD monitor that a friend gave me that is having the exact same problem. I am going to drop by the electronics house on my way home from work and pick up 5 of the 470uF 25V caps to repair it. What surprised me is that those ViewSonic monitors are almost identical inside to my Princeton one. Great video!

[@cuddles-ii6ns]

ViewSonic was probably selling Princeton monitors with there own name. I had a Sylvania CRT which was actually a Princeton monitor without paying the Princeton price for it.

[@bertdorf3]

Fine video thanks for the good detail. Entertaining and informational.

[@feralferret]

Thanks for sharing your insight! Very informative.

[@skinoku]

Fantastic! This morning I fixed a similar monitor with the same problem!

[@esavarem]

I was once repairing a display module of an old CNC machine. It had intel 80-something cpu and a few other chips on it. Attaching a scope to the +5v pin gave a nice looking sawtooth waveform with peak-to-peak of about 2-3V. On the other side of the board was a closed switch mode power supply generating hv for the display. The problem was with the internal caps on the input had gone bad. It was not easy to replace them, so we just added another outside

[@Pharadoxon]

That was one of the 1st things ive done myselve. replacing the caps on my Samsung LCD some years ago. very easy fix ^^

[@JackalGYT]

The capacitors in my Technika TV bulged as well, only took £1.40 to replace them, instead of the £20 for the new board, or £200 for the new TV.

[@SolarServer]

Excellent instruction video, excellent quality. Thank you very much

[@JamesLewis]

LOL!, catching up on some of your old videos.... Ironically I replaced the caps in my Samsung SyncMaster 204Ts a few years ago.

[@pomonabill220]

I just LOVE your videos!!! I bought a Rigol scope and "updated" it after I watched your video... YOU made the decision for me to get the Rigol and I really like it! True it isn't a Tek of HP, but for the price it is a great piece of equipment! About the input cap... it probably isn't bulged because it is filtering 60hz and probably isn't a low ESR, where the other ones have to deal with the SM frequency (~35khz?). Just my guess and experience.

[@gkruntz]

I've done a ton of work on LCD monitors and allways it has been bad caps that were the issue. Made hundreds of dollars on collecting bad LCD's, repairing and selling them to people in need. :) Love to repair LCD's cause it's really easy, costs are extremely low and you make a shitload of money on it. :)

[@evahle]

Awesome, thanks! Nice work.

[@gnif]

I have fixed quite a few LCD screens that show a common fault where they power up, give a picture and then go blank about 10ms later, or if you hold a torch up to them you can see the picture. The back-light drivers fail for the CFL, which can be simply replaced along with the caps that are paired with them which brings them back to life.

[@elrichvolshebnik]

I have repaired about 15 Viewsonic monitors this way - replacing the capacitors. However I have noticed that anything newer than about vintage 2011 I can't unsolder anything off the boards. I have just a basic soldering iron.

[@EEVblog]

There is a service menu showing hours used?

[@electridan69]

Love your videos Dave!!

[@skingusmc]

Another fine tear-down and repair.

[@cinewillp6391]

entertaining and informative, feel i can fix my SOny LCD now!

[@XeveL2]

Great video. Just fixed my screen that died two days after I watched it with what I learned from it :)

[@tcort]

I fixed a big flat panel TV for a charity fund raiser last year. It was an expensive TV taken out by a single cap in a power supply module. Those 85C rated caps will pop every time. It costs a few cents extra for 105C rated caps, but they actually do the job.

[@bfriesen75]

Awesome video! I've repaired about 15 monitors, all from bad caps. If the manufacturers would use better caps to begin with these would last at least twice as long. I suspect they use crap caps to A) save a few cents per monitor and B) planned obsolescence so we have to buy more.

[@Vnix]

this video helped me replace the caps on my monitor.

[@fabulousfabricationsimmacu4962]

I have the same problem with an Lg monitor power board caps going to replace Them and fingers crossed it works but If not I'm only out a couple of capacitors The monitor was basically a dumpster dive as well so no big loss. Love to find love to fix!!! Thanks............,,

[@EEVblog]

Internal heating due to the ESR, and external heating from the heatsinks.

[@Roflsponge]

Whoops, I meant solid polymer capacitors. I'd like to see more of those in electronics! Very tired of my recent purchases having the point of failure at the cheap electrolytic ones. I'm sure they just cost pennies more. By the way, great videos! I'm gonna register at your forum. Keep up the good work!

[@Bakamoichigei]

Sweet! One of my five Samsung 240BXs (Almost identical) crapped out, and I hadn't gotten around to checking it out yet. Now I know what it's gonna take to crack it open. :D

[@HighTechLab]

I had the exact same problem as you and the same thing fixed it.

[@patagualian]

Hi Viktor, don't know where you're writing from, but here in Chile, you can insert the plug in either mode: So, a two-pole mains switch has to be a must. I just think the UK's insistence on grounding is absolutely valid. I would say it has saved more lives over the years thanks to any any other single precaution. Also, UK plugs have fuses rated for the appliance fitted to the plug. I agree that most things today do not need "grounding"...but you take whatever precaution against shock & fire.??

[@Julepalme]

Funny, did this exact same replacement procedure on a friends samsung monitor a week or 2 ago. Replaced 5x820uF 25V caps :p cost 2-3 euroes total overnight ordered from farnell :) and it worked.

[@davidgiga1993]

Had exactly the same problem with my old syncmaster, also the same ratings for the caps. I replaced them and it's still running :)

[@refa42]

I repaired my monitor the same way just recently. In all the monitors I've repaired, the symptoms were completely different and could be misleading. For example, my monitor only showed white screen (backlight) but other brand monitor needed 15 tries to turn on. I would say bad caps in this one are intentional. Build quality shows they know what they're doing, with crappy caps it's planned obsolescence. Lastly I'd like to suggest a subject for a follow-up video: safe discharging of caps. Thanks.

[@phuturephunk]

Did this for my television, which died a couple years back suddenly. Worked like a charm and cost me 15 bucks to fix. Pretty good for a 2K dollar television. Works to this day.

[@jimc52]

Love it! Thank you!