So I bought this Advent years ago back when HDTVs were still way up there. Anyways I got back one weekend from being out of town and the thing won't turn on. It will act like it wants to power on but then it won't fully "turn over" if you will. If I kept hitting the power button eventually it would turn on and work just fine. That slowly quit working. I know it has to be something in the power supply area. PS must be good because it still gets power and tries to turn on.

I am not too worried about this because I am getting ready to get the Samsung HL61A750 very soon, but if I can fix this on the cheap by replacing a cap or a regulator or something it would be nice. It is still a decent bedroom set. I have found a source for replacement parts just kind of wondering what to buy or if I can source the service manual.

Take a look here, FixYa.com topic (http://www.fixya.com/support/t183237-advent_ht2751a_display_no_good_until) and google your model. I believe you have 1 or more bad capacitors. I had a Zenith TV do similar, as it warmed picture got larger until it was OK, bad 50 cent capacitor. Sometimes, the capacitors leak brown fluid or bulge up, pop the top of metal can.

I confirm what jdre said, with the recommendation that you change ALL capacitors in the power supply area, regardless if they are bulged or not. The whole job shouldn't cost you more than $15 seeing that you have soldering equipment, so it's totally worth it.

I guess that makes sense....the caps give it the extra "punch" on turn on it order to get everything up and running? Maybe?

I took the back off the set the other evening so I will try and see what the P\N are on the PS caps. I looked at the caps for the bulde on the top. Didn't see anything really. I will pull out the components tray to look for the brown goo.

Any advice on how to discharge these? I know caps can hold a charge for a pretty good while. Would bridging the + - poles discharge any leftover electricity? They are not that big but it only takes a little jolt to do a lot of damage.

The larger capacitors do hold a jolt unless they are very bad. I slipped with a meter probe and the spark melted a black mark on a heatsink and meter tip, on a power board that was removed from the set for a day. But, usually the circuits bleed down after a few days unplugged and off. Check across each cap + to - with a voltmeter before working on it.