My Sharp Aquos tv screen goes blank!
 

Will do it with no rhyme or reason. Turn it off, smack it on the back and it comes back on. May work for 5 minutes or all day. My online research shows this to be a somewhat common problem, but of course can't find the solution. One person suggested it may be the lcd controller. Any of you guys have any ideas? Maybe my google-fu skills are weak.

Two words: rubber mallet

Hopefully you didn't buy it from Circuit City! :)

Next time it goes black, take a strong flashlight, get really close to the screen, and shine the light on there. see if there's still a picture being created with the actual LCD. If so, it's the backlight that is bad. For a computer LCD, that's a trivial fix (the internal power supply has busted), but for a TV it might be a big pain.

diy hdtv repair.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKJcBx9cXKo

Probably a bad capacitor. I had to replace two SMD capacitor on my NEC 50 plasma display.

How would I figure out which one it is? Or is this an off to the repair shop sort of thing?

The first time it happen I sent it to the shop. I found a tech guy that work for NEC on line and he was blogging. He gave me the answer to the problem and I pass it along to the shop. The second time it happen the tech guy sent me pictures as to were the capacitors were located. I brought the capacitor and spent an evening disassembling my plasma screen to remove the scan board and solder in the new capacitors. The capacitor was about 75 cent each, two capacitor had to be replaced.

I sent the tech guy payment to his paypal account for his help even though he didn't ask for any type of payment.

I brought a 40" LCD tv for my brother and after a couple of years the screen went blank. It wouldn't turn on afterward. He brought it into a shop and they replaced the power supply. It is back up and running.