Possible to hack a broken 50 inch TV and use the working LCD panel - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: pd2
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 05:15:44 pm
content: Hi, first post here.So 50 years or so ago I used to do some hobby electronics and built ham radio stuff, a quadraphonic amp, some early computer stuff too.But I haven't touched any electronics for years apart from a few small repairs. Anyhow my hardly used, less than 3 year old but out of warranty, Samsung 50 inch GU50AU8079 tv just reboots all the time but the rebooting display is perfect! A common problem they say. Workshop says beyond economic repair. Crazy economics.So would it be viable to remove the tv electronics and drive the display with some controller board and make a display monitor out of it?My gut feel is that you'll all say "No" but... the tinkerer in me would love to have a go if it's feasible.Thanks

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 05:36:42 pm
content: could be power supply issues or even the backlight power supply, normally you need to keep al the tv electronics to make it work ORfind lcd tft etc ... controller who can drive this huge panel, dont forget at that size its a lot of clocking frequency and other thingsthis board needs to be configured the the pixel amount horizontal vertical, clock data etc .... it is not easy as it seemsyou need the lcd panel specs first and see if its applicable ... if its an Q-led, O-led etc ...

author: wasedadoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 05:52:31 pm
content: Could be a power supply problem. Usually a separate board that is just the power supplies. Post a good photo of it.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 05:58:12 pm
content: Quote from: pd2 on January 27, 2025, 05:15:44 pmNo.Unfortunately, this seems to be a very common failure, likely a damaged firmware or flash.To drive the panel, you need the main board, which in your case, is not working correctly.Unfortunately (2): Modern TV sets are optimized for low production costs (and low sales price), but one should consider them hardly repairable. Your set *might* be fixable by replacing the main board with a known good one. However as this is a common fault, the available used parts might exhibit the same error.

author: pd2
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 07:31:56 pm
content: Thanks for all the answers, it's much appreciated. Such a shame to throw away some perfectly good parts.Anyhow I already have a nice HD satellite receiver with motorised dish connected to my stereo and I'm going to buy a 50" display to use as a tv with it. I'm old enough that it doesn't matter if the display doesn't have HDR, Bluetooth, smart, internet, adaptive this and that.Cheers.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2025, 07:45:36 pm
content: I had my 10 years samsung tv did the same. common problem. it is the eeprom chip that looses memory, and has to be replacedyou need to find the same chip, with the exact same model as yours, with the exact almost same firmware in it.you need a special programmer for this chip, the blank chip is easily obtainable by chinese sellers like ali or ebay.I found a preprogrammed chip on ebay for my tvthen you need some fine hot gun to desoldier the chip and solder the new onemy rework was successful. it took time and research to achieve it. it is not beyond economic, unless you buy the whole main board...

author: OLderDan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2025, 02:14:00 am
content: i may have slipped into a parallel universe, but here in mine if you get the numbers off the panel then search for a lvds board (ali express has lots of different options) then you could do exactly what you want to do.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 28, 2025, 02:26:58 am
content: Here's a video with the same problem in similar TV model (likely the same HW). The fault was in LCD panel itself. Fix (not a proper repair) was by isolating some flex cable (driver data) pads at 10 minutes. So replacing any board without figuring out if it's even at fault will likely result in waste of money for nothing.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2025, 03:23:05 am
content: There are universal LCD driver boards available, you just need to find the exact specs of the panel.