It’s amazing the range of consumer electronic equipment that’s
now available. However, while this is good for consumers, it does make it
difficult for technicians to be proficient with all brands and models when it
comes to servicing TV sets and displays. Fortunately though, most TV sets are
variants of the "original mousetrap" and so similar troubleshooting procedures
apply to all.
We also get the odd "orphan" that has strayed into our part of
the world. For example, some months ago, a young man brought in a 51cm Panasonic
TV/VCR designed for the US market. He had been given the set and it had a US
mains plug fitted to the power lead.
I explained that it needed a 240/110V transformer to start with
and even then it would only work with NTSC signals and the tuner wouldn’t work
in Australia. Disappointed, he took the set away and I thought that that would
be the end of the matter.
|
Items Covered This Month
Philips 43PP295 rear-projection TV set (A10PTV chassis)
Philips 29PT2152/79R TV set (L01.1 chassis)
Philips 32PW4523/79R TV set (L2K3 chassis)
Philips 32PW6516/79R TV set (A10E chassis)
Philips 29PT6361/79R TV set (A10A chassis)
Philips 32PW8806/79R TV set (MG2.1E chassis)
Samsung CS-721APF TV set (SCT52A chassis)
|
I was wrong. A year or so later, a young woman brought in a
similar set which she said was dead and which, she thought, probably needed a
new fuse. Apparently, she had been given the set by her male flatmate in lieu of
rent, her "friend" being well in arrears when he left.
At first I didn’t recognise the set but it looked awfully
familiar. Anyway, I searched for the model number on my computer database and up
it popped.
It wasn’t until I checked the serial number that the penny
finally dropped and now I could piece the sequence of events together. Someone
had fitted an Australian power plug and the fuse had indeed given out – after
all, 240 into 110 won’t go!
It turned out that what the cunning little rat had done was
scavenge the set from the footpath during a council clean up and then deceived
the poor girl into thinking it was a fair swap for the rent. After all, he said,
it only needed a fuse!
