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How bad did I break my vizio E551D-A0

1381 Views 17 Replies 5 Participants Last post by The Coolest, Oct 23, 2017

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2015

Tv is about 1.5 years old. Used very little, maybe 50 hours on it. Was watching it the other day and I saw what looked like dead pixels. After a little time I realized it was debris between the panel and light. My ocd wasn't gonna let that fly. I took the tv apart to clean, sure enough there was contamination that I cleaned out. I didn't pull the panel out or unhook any cables, just tilted the panel back and cleaned. Put it back together and had sound with a lot of pretty colored vertical lines, no picture.

I stepped away for 24 hours and dug back into this. I messed with the cables and shifted the panel and now I have a picture with sound. Problem is left half of tv is noticeably darker than right side and on the extreme left side any moving objects leave a blur or slow motion like affect. I tried messing with all the tabs to see if the screen would change, didn't help. Tried messing with the tconn ribbons, didn't help.

Did I mess up my panel or maybe the tconn board??

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 9, 2015

Anyone have thoughts on this?

BleedRed

· #3 · Apr 9, 2015

Could you upload a photo of the screen?

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 10, 2015

Blurry and dark on left

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mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 10, 2015

Turned my tv off, then on now it's back to the colored vertical lines. I didn't touch anything!

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mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 10, 2015

Sorry for the tractors but it's all I could find with constant motion. Any idea what's going on?

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BleedRed

· #7 · Apr 10, 2015

Hmm. That's weird. When you first mentioned one half of the screen being dark I assumed something with the back light was affected. It's obviously not an issue with the panel if it's coming and going (at least not likely). A component issue of some kind. A vague answer I know but that blur effect on only one section of the panel is just strange to me. I would say it wouldn't be a terrible idea to contact the manufacturer and have them diagnose the issue. I wouldn't mention you opened it up, obviously.

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #8 · Apr 10, 2015

When you say component do you mean something like the tconn board?

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 10, 2015

Mfgr will tell me to have a service tech look at it

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #10 · Apr 11, 2015

Any other opinions?

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #11 · Apr 13, 2015

Top

mopar4u

Discussion Starter · #12 · May 8, 2015

Top

Otto Pylot

· #13 · May 8, 2015

Either call Vizio and pay for a service call or start looking for another tv. It's been a month since you posted so it looks like there isn't an easy fix based on the responses to your query. Besides, it doesn't look like you have good luck opening up your tv so maybe a DIY job is not wise

Reactions: 1

SVTarHeel

· #14 · Oct 21, 2017

I ran across this thread while looking for answers on this model. I have a Vizio E551d-A0 that only shows a group of vertical lines on the screen. I?venot Done much TV troubleshooting so I?m not sure what replacement part might fix it. Any thoughts?

SVTarHeel

· #15 · Oct 21, 2017

I accidentally hit the post button while trying to attach a pic. Here?s what I have...

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The Coolest

· #16 · Oct 22, 2017

@SVTarHeel

This is usually caused by a bad connection between panel and one of the ribbon cables or a ribbon cable and PCB, or the ribbon cable itself has deformed due to heat build up or something else.
It could also be a result of physical damage.
A TL;DR answer is: Start looking for a new TV (unless this one is under warranty).

SVTarHeel

· #17 · Oct 23, 2017

?A TL;DR answer is: Start looking for a new TV (unless this one is under warranty).?

Thanks, but no warranty, not even close. I refurbish older computers (Win98-2000), so I?m always thinking along those lines. This TV is from a friend who didn?t know what to do with it - I thought I?d see if it could be an inexpensive 55? TV for someone via a board replacement, recapping, etc., but my TV troubleshooting skills are pretty nonexistent. I was thinking that a batch of vertical lines might be a common enough symptom that someone could give me a short list of things to check, like you did.

Thanks again.

The Coolest

· #18 · Oct 23, 2017

@SVTarHeel

You'd have to open it up and dig deep until you reach the ribbon cables that attach the LCD panel itself to thin\long PCBs.
Sometime these deform, causing this problem. I have a Toshiba 40" with the same problem. I managed to sort of fix it, but it's not a 100% fool proof fix.
My Toshiba has these at the top, I know that newer TVs have them at the bottom to prevent heat related issues, can't say where they are located on your Vizio, though.
What I did was tap on each of those ribbons until I found the one causing the problem, then I stuck a bunch of toothpicks between the ribbon and the panel casing to prevent it from deforming when it warms up.
You can't fix the ribbon as it has thousands of microscopic traces + a silicon die/chip. Replacing them is also problematic because you need special tools to solder them to the LCD panel and also would probably be tough sourcing one of these...

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

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