Lightning strike- Can my new flat screen be fixed.
 

During a lightning storm the house got hit and sparks flew out of an electrical outlet that my new 40” Sony was plugged into. The outlet still works fine, no other visible damage to the house but the TV is not working. It will not turn on anymore. Does anyone think that if I pull it apart I might find an easy repair. I’m not a tech geek and it would have to be something readily visible that looks burned up and can be replaced easily. So, can this be fixed, would you even bother with it, or should I try it out as a surfboard.

It's dead.

Homeowners might cover depending on deductible.

It's already broken. So no harm/foul to take it apart and see if you can fix it. If you cannot, send it to the e-recycle.

Maybe you will get lucky and it is just the power supply portion that has failed. More likely there are several things damaged and the cost to repair it will exceed the cost to replace it.

angela

Depending on how new it is the availability of system pull parts will vary.

New parts will almost surely be too expensive to make fixing it worthwhile.

Do a search for the manual / schematic.

If it's got a protection fuse you may get off easy.

If not I doubt I'd bother.

What she said.

If you DO decide to open it up and see what you can do, look for the obvious: burned solder joints, popped capacitors, etc. When items such as this take an electrical spike like that, it can be as simple as a single circuit getting blown, or as bad as a whole lot of internals getting fried. If you're not wanting to upgrade (go bigger), 40" TVs are really pretty cheap these days...like, cheaper than your homeowner's insurance deductible, probably.

Just scored a 50" Samsung plasma from Costco for $700 out the door.

As has been said, most likely cost more to fix than it is worth... and I am a tech.

For prevention of this happening again, may I suggest:

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=HN.6080...4&pid=15.1&P=0

Going forward, one thing to consider is a whole-house surge protector. They usually cost about $75-$200 and are attached to the main electrical panel.

Many times there is a fuse on the board thats only accessible when you take the back panel off. Maybe you'll get lucky!!

SmileWavy

A power conditioner would be even better.

Here's my .02:
If sparks were flying from the outlet, I doubt a surge protector would have helped, but they're good to have for anything besides a direct hit.

I don't think Homeowners insurance would pay for that because, its an act of God, but you can check anyways.

If your house was a direct hit from lightening, I think that TV is completely fried.

When our house was hit by lightning (in Hawaii no less), homeowners covered replacement of virtually the entire house wiring, and all the blown components. I got rid of all CFLs immediately.

My edit ;)

Depends on the policy.

Lightning strikes are very common around here. I've had several friends, houses no more than a few doors away, who got hit and anything that got fried got replaced by insurance.

Electronics are the least of the worries. Every year in our community a house will catch fire or burn down completely during "the season".

we had a Sony 40" that got fried by lightning a few years back, it was still covered by the Costco warranty (the Sony warranty had expired, gotta love Costco/AMEX warranty extension). They sent a tech out, he declared it dead, and we got a check that covered a new Samsung 46".

My guess would be dead....

Was it plugged into a surge protector? We were struck by lighting and the power strip had a 25K $ policy for lighting protection. 2 TVs, Amp, VCR, Telephones and some other stuff was all covered and we got a check for $2300. It was fast and easy.

Open it up and take a look. You should be able to tell of something is blown. I got a new main board for an FG 46" for 100 bucks, good as new. As already mentioned, could be a simple fuse...

There doesn't seem to be any other damage to house wiring or appliances, and the deductible turns out to be higher than the price of the TV. Looks like I'll do a little exploration given some of the info I've gotten here and hope there's a fuse or something easy to fix.

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it.

How new is new? Did you buy with your Amex? Visa? Many credit cards have damage coverage included as a benefit.

Amex bought my wife a new iPad when hers fell off the treadmill while she was running.

Also... some TVs do have replaceable fuses inside.