Our Magavox Television Repair Job

There are some days that I really get my knickers in a knot over shoddy workmanship.  So it was with our three year old Phillips/Magnavox television (model number 37MF331D/37).  I blogged about the power problem on this television back in September along with a fix I found online.  First let me say we will never buy a Phillips/Magnavox product again.  There is a class action lawsuit in the US regarding this very problem with their televisions failing often as soon as 90 days.  All I can say is they should be down right ashamed of themselves and their customer service is one of the worst I've ever dealt with!  We were in the position to trash the television or pay upwards of $700 to repair it so I figured doing a bit of research wouldn't hurt.  I found a website explaining how replacing the burned out capacitor with an inexpensive replacement capacitor from Radio Shack solved the problem.

Radio Shack is not in Canada but we have The Source so we stopped in and bought a package of capacitors (1).  The website had recommended a 30V capacitor but their customer service said we could go as high as 50V without a problem.  The package cost us $5.99 for 6 capacitors meaning the actual cost of the repair would be $1 plus time.  My husband took the stand and back off the television (1) revealing the port where the power supply circuit board was (2).  Opening the port (3) he disconnected the circuit board to work on.  The oval highlights the burned out capacitor (4).

Surprisingly taking the television apart to get to the circuit board was not difficult at all.  What ended up taking the time was getting the old capacitor freed from the solder but a bit of gentle persuasion did the trick.  Once the burned out capacitor was removed it took very little time to solder in the replacement capacitor then reassemble the television.

The green arrow is pointing at the tell tale signs of the burned our capacitor.  It was oozing black gunk at the website said it would.  Eventually the capacitor would have failed entirely.  At the point he replaced it the tv was taking a good 20 minutes to finally turn on.  Beside the burned out capacitor is the new one showing what the end should look like.

Now here is where I really get ticked off at Magnavox.  They know the capacitors are faulty yet they fail to resolve the problem.  They would rather lose customer loyalty rather than fix the problem.  The sad thing is the replacement capacitor cost us a whopping $1 so I'm pretty sure buying in bulk Magnavox would get the part a lot cheaper than that!

With the television put back together my husband reconnected all the extraneous equipment that goes along with televisions these days.  We waited with baited breath as he hit the power button on the remote.  The look on his face was absolutely priceless when the television powered on with no hesitation.  It was amazing!

Here I had done a bit of research to solve the problem while he had all the know-how to take the television apart and do the actual repair.  So we really worked as a team on this one.  The best part is our lemon of a Magnavox television is working perfectly at the cost of $1 and about an hour's worth of time.  It's too bad that Magnavox couldn't have put in the proper capacitor in the first place and their customer service really is horrid but in the meantime our television is working.

With that in mind I will say avoid Phillips/Magnavox products at all costs!  They use shoddy workmanship, shoddy and inferior parts destined to fail prematurely and their customer service is beyond horrid.  Perhaps customer service will change their attitude is enough people stop buying Phillips/Magnavox products to the point their jobs are on the line.  As I said we will never buy another one of their products and you can bet your bottom dollar I will give them a negative review on Epinions!  If you have a problem with your Phillips/Magnavox television with powering on this is likely the solution you need.  On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being easiest and 10 being the most difficult I would rate this DIY project a 5.