Technical Difficulty

Last week, our apartment experienced a major technical difficulty. The flat screen TV in the living room went dark! There was sound, but no picture. As a person who watches more TV than she would care to admit, this was a serious situation and we needed immediate action.

Obviously, we call for backup. The TV people say it will cost $150 alone just for diagnosis. What the crap. The TV costs maaaaybe 180 bucks. This route was not economically sound. If the TV people are going to rip us off, at least be a little smart about it and charge $150 to diagnose and fix the telly.

So before we decide to sell off the telly as "The Perfect TV for the Blind!" I did some internet research. I found this video and decided that the backlight inverter thingy was dead and we needed a new one. I put my sister's muscles to work as she took the TV part. I would have done it myself but my brain is far more useful in these type of situations. Also, unscrewing is a lot harder than screwing!

But you know what was harder? Trying to figure out which board was the backlight inverter thingy. There were two board thingies and I could not figure out which was which. But seriously, which one is it?!

 

Those yellow gift boxes did not have diamond rings in there. And I also wasn't able to pull any of the wires out to look at the boards. What was I looking for? I've no clue. I found some model numbers and letters and did another quick google search with the numbers and "backlight inverter" and found the white board (which I hoped to be the right board, see what I did there?!) on ebay sold by a small TV store in good ol' North Carolina! The account had excellent seller reviews so I took a chance and added the $45 part to my cart.

When the part finally arrived, I carefully yanked out the wires and replaced the board and held my breath. My sister was out of town and therefore, wasn't present to put the screws back in so I had to do it myself! This was the most frustrating part. All the screws were different sizes so I had to do a lot of troublescrewing to put the TV back in one piece. I plugged it in. And omg, it WORKED. And the screws haven't fallen out! I can't believe it. Google is my best friend. Whenever I need or want something, Google has it for me in an instant and makes me feel like I can do anything!

And my reward?! TV aaaaand a month of lime sodas courtesy of my sister. BOOM!