From: Eric Stein
Model #: LN52A650A1FXZA
As many may or may not be aware, Samsung and probably some other manufacturors are having a huge problem with leaking capacitors on the power supply circuit board prevents the TV from tuning on. I believe the problem is specific to two 10V capacitors that start to leak after about 3 years. Some may or may not also be aware that Samsung is offering to repair this problem for free. My question is what is causing these capacitors to leak? Did Samsung purchase a bad batch of capacitors or did Samsung use the wrong capacitors on the board? I have heard that Samsung purchased cheap capacitors but there are several other capacitors on this board that are from the same manufacturor. I have also heard that Samsung chose to use 10V capacitors even though they are on a 12V circuit.
My most important question is what is going to be done when repairing my TV? Does the repair involve replacing the capacitors with the same capacitors or are different capacitors going to be installed? One would need to know what caused the problem in order to repair the TV correctly. If the capacitor manufacuror is at fault, then all of the capacitors from that manufacuror should be replaced. However, if Samsung is at fault for using the wrong voltage capacitors, then the capacitors would have to be replaced with ones of a higher voltage.
Date: 06/15/2011
Eric, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It looks like we got your TV fixed and billed to Samsung. To answer your questions, in short, the original capacitors failed below their stated value so the manufacturer of he capacitors is to blame for the failure. However, we can only speculate if Samsung knew they were cheap and to be fair, Samsung is neither the first nor the last TV manufacturer to have major capacitor issues. We replace the capacitors with higher quality and a higher voltage tolerance capacitor and to this date have not had a repeat failure. If you need to know more about the theory behind the failure and the history of capacitor failures in TV’s, then call me when you have an extra hour or two and I will be more than happy to talk you through it.
Thank you for your post.