Samsung forum: Samsung LNT5265FX/XAA infamous "power on/off cycling"

I have the LN52A650, and 13 months from the purchase date it began the on off on off cycle. The only way to stop it is to unplug the unit. The problem sounds slightly different from the capacitor issue that most forum's note. Just am wondering if anyone has solved the problem of the on off death cycle without incurring a $400 service charge on a $2500 TV 13 months old.

I have a Samsung LN52A650. It developed the ON/OFF Cycling Problem and I came to this Blog and discovered the problem is widespread. That made it easy, so I took it from the top. It has previously been discovered that capacitors are the culprit. You can repair the problem yourself for ten bucks or less. Take off the back panel and locate the motherboard in cage on left side. Open the housing cage. You will probably see capacitors that have bubbled on top. Remove mother-board (screws and plug-ins). Replace the capacitors if you dare (why not - You'll be no worse off). Or take the motherboard to someone who can replace your capacitors. I replaced mine and I know NOTHING of electronics. I had to learn what a capacitor looks like. It wasn't too tough a job. In my case, I only replaced the ones that had bubbled on top (they were obvious with a good look). Be cautious soldering, and note that there is a positive and negative terminal that must be soldered into the correct places. Neg and Pos are marked on the capacitor. It cost me $10.00 plus my own labor. I used larger capacitors with the same value with the idea of them dissipating heat better (just a thought - maybe bogus). Take your time. If you destroy your motherboard in the process, you can replace it for $179.00. It is plug in and unplug-you can't go wrong. A girl Scout could do it. You still save $250. You can find pictures of the mother-board and bubbled capacitors in the Internet. There appears to be an engineering problem with this television, so if it's too late to help you, maybe it will help somebody else. Good luck.

I am glad if my note to you helped. You have provided some good information as well. My TV is more or less one year old. It is nice to know that Samsung will front me a new power supply if needed. There is something congenitally wrong with the TV since so many have suffered the same issue during the TV's youth. I am hoping it was their factory built capacitors that I have replaced. I am afraid that whatever blew the Capacitors in the first place is likely to be lurking still (perhaps an overheating problem). I do not know if capacitors ALWAYS show signs of pain and suffering if they are no good, but I am wondering how many defects can cause the same result, the dreaded on and off cycle. I would have changed the capacitors on a whim just to know for sure since they have been clearly identified as a culprit. Is it possible that your repairman is wrong or seeking to pad his bill? That's why I ALWAYS try to beat the pros, because I am successful enough of the time to easily cover my failures. The capacitors are actually about a buck apiece. I was fleeced when I bought mine, but it was Saturday, and I wanted to watch football Sunday. So far my Samsung continues to work (knock on wood). The price I quoted on the motherboard was found at first look (just to see what I was up against) and it did not become necessary for me to shop for the board competitively. I bought my Samsung based upon the praises of Consumer Reports. Let me see if I got this straight. The repairman told you your TV was not working and charged you $95. Am eager to hear of your future success and anything you learn in the process. Still best wishes.

Guys,

Thanks for this info.

I think I'm also close to facing this problem pretty soon. Of late, I have started noticing that my 2-Year-Old Samsung-LNT5265F is taking too long to startup. From the point I press the power button on the remote, I start hearing the clicking sound for about a minute after the TV powers on.

Will Ken's solution resolve my problem ? Or should I wait until the point where the TV doesn't turn on and then change the capacitors ? Please advise.

Thanks.

Hi winmac01,

I did the 'change the capacitors' thing this Easter Weekend for my LNT5265FX/XAA and the multi-click issue is fixed. The 5 capacitors, solder iron and solder lead cost me about $30. It was straight forward. YouTube 'samsung capacitor' and find the 2 part video of 'milosmommy', this will definitly help.

Happy Fixing!

YOU CAN DO IT! There is a total of up to nine capacitors that may be at fault. Five; 10V 1000uf, and four; 25V 1000uf radial capacitors. Simply ordered #20 10V caps. off (that auction site)for $3 and got the 25V (radio shack has 35V)$1.65 ea . Buy a cheap pencil type soldering iron and a roll of desoldering copper braided wire (radio shack) and carefully go for it. I unplugged the tv while it was on and waited till the next day to take the back off (residual voltage). It works GREAT now and wife thinks I'm smarter than I am.

Where do you get the capacitor to replace. Can a computer repair person do thi?

I just had my Samsung TV repaired under warranty for the re-cycling problem. My TV is two years old. The service tech new exactly what the problem was and said it happens on all sets not just Samsung. In my case as with most the capacitors on the power board fail from constant on and off use. The surge weakens the capacitors over time. In my case 2 of the 5 capacitors were bad but the tech changed all 5. He replaced the capacitors not the entire power board in house. He said he had two LG units last week for the same problem. Samsung has a firmware fix online you can download for this model but it did not fix my problem.

Same problem here, out of warranty. Given this is a frequent problem, in my opinion, like car recalls, it should be covered and fixed by Samsung free of cost even though out of warranty. I am going to into it. Others please post your experience.

Looking at forums, certainly it is not a random problem.

Did you ever get the problem solved with this Tv? Ours is doing the same. After power went off last night, tv will not come on at all.

Buyer Beware!!! Samsung will acknowledge & fix the problem on a SUBSET of TV's. No acknowledgement for others. Mine survived for 1 yrs & now failed. They will not acknowledge the problem even exists on this model - how they can say that when the symptoms & now the repair man I had to pay says it is the capacitor issue. I do not expect this type of quality in a TV that I spent a lot of money on. Will not buy a Samsung in the future. So glad I found this forum. I will check this out for any future purchases....

*** This is a system-generated email from an unmonitored mailbox. Please do not reply *** Your request for service has been processed successfully. Please review the following important instructions carefully. Your In-home service request has been sent to Samsung's Authorized Service Center. The Service Center should be in contact with you within the next 2 business days to set up a date and time for the service appointment. In the event you are not contacted by the Service Center within 2 business days, please contact them directly at the number below. To track the status of your service request online, click the "Repair Self Tracking" banner at the top right of this email. Ticket Number 4007958042 Please use the "Ticket Number" shown above on all communications with Samsung concerning your service. Service Type : Repair Warranty : Labor (05/31/2009), Part (05/31/2009) Product Information Model Number : LNT5265FX/XAA Serial Number : AJ733CNQ305166N Product Symptoms : Quality/Trouble/Power/Unable to turn on Service Information

We had the same problem with our tv. Samsung sent out service person that was in our area. They ordered the part and replaced it. Samsung was aware of these problems with these Tv's and replaced the part without any cost to us.

I have this set and my parents have two of these sets. All three televisions were experiencing the power cycling options. One TV sometimes took a couple minutes to start-up, sometimes not at all. Also they would sometimes start-with colored dots all over the screen.

These sets were purchased in 2008. These sets were years outside of the warranty period. I called Samsung the other day and they sent someone out to replace the capacitors on all three of the TV sets. The only charge was $100 to the repairman to take the TV off the wall and put it back on. If you have this set Samsung will repair it.

Stemming from a class action suit, Samsung will send out a technician to inspect your TV, even if it has been manufactured AFTER the dates within the class action suit.

Check out page 5.

http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/documents/20120214%20Full%20Class%20Notice.pdf

I came across this post and was wondering if anyone has had the same problem with a Samsung UN55C7000? I read the terms of the class action lawsuit but our TV isn't covered by it. We are experiencing the same issue with it cycling on & off. It started when we owned the tv for approx. 9 months. We contacted Samsung and had it serviced many times but it has not resolved the problem. They replaced the main board & power board at least 3 times each. We are so frustrated because it has gotten progressively worse and now we can't watch it for more than a few minutes before the cycle begins. We hear a clicking noise in the back of the TV (sounds like a car turn signal) We unplug it and wait a few seconds but that doesn't always work. It sounds like the same problem other people in this forum experienced. What really upsets me is that at no time did they ever let on that they even knew a problem like this existed. They made it sound like we were crazy every time we called for service. The problem was only sporadic at that time and we could never get it to do it while the service tech was here so he just replaced the parts he thought it could be. It would seem to fix it and then a few weeks later it would happen again. We were told by the company Samsung contracted for service in our area that the only thing they could do would be to take our tv to their shop to see if it would happen for them. We asked if we would could have a loaner tv while ours was in their shop but were told no. We didn't want to loose our tv for a few weeks and the problem was so sporadic so we figured they would not be able to find the issue. Unfortunately the problem is now so bad that we can't even watch TV. We spent a lot of money on this TV and are very frustrated especially since I found this post and now realize Samsung had know about this issue even before we purchased our TV but never fixed it.