How to Fix a Westinghouse LD-4680

Our friends were given a 46" LED LCD TV that didn't work. The previous owners were watching TV when it just turned off. It sounded like it was worth a shot to try and fix.

With the TV plugged in, there was no LED, no beep, no picture, no signs of life. 

When I unplugged the power supply from the TV, it measured 19V as it should. I grabbed an old 19V Dell laptop charger and plugged it in to the TV and the green light on the power supply turned off. I figured the TV was shorting out the power supply.

So I checked the internet and found that a common problem was the LED ribbon cables short out. I went straight for the common problem, hoping nothing else was wrong. This was one of those lucky cases. Here's how I did it.

Take the stand off the TV by removing the six screws. If you're following along, I hope you have enough sense to lay the TV flat before removing the stand.

Remove the back, by removing the screws around the perimeter and the two screws near the I/O ports. Slowly lift the back cover, being careful because the cable for the buttons is attached. You can peel off the tape and unplug the wire.

The five screws along the top row are machine thread screws. Also the two screws next to the inputs are machine threads.

Remove the small metal panel (centered between the two speakers) by removing four screws.

Remove the screw holding the remote sensor to the front bezel. Then remove the front bezel (the front frame around the entire TV).

Remove the 15 clips that secure the front glass in place.

Remove the screws that secure the plastic trim pieces on the sides and bottom.

After removing the bottom plastic strip, you can see the LED bars and the ribbon connectors on the edges, one on each side. The usual problem is a short between the ribbon cable and the aluminum light bar frame. 

I left the top plastic piece in there because I didn't want to deal with all the LCD panel connections. But I removed the side and bottom black plastic strips.

I lifted up the panel, including the plastic sheet at the bottom and unscrewed the LED light bars using a right angle screwdriver. I used the speakers as spacers to hold up the display panel.

You can disconnect the ribbon cable by flipping the socket's black lever up, then sliding the ribbon cable out of the slot. This style of connector is commonly used with this type of ribbon cable. I then cut and attached black electrical tape around the edge of the light bar.

Carefully re-insert the ribbon cable and flip the black lever closed to secure the ribbon cable in place. Then screw in the light bar and it should look like this. I had to peel the cable off the frame to get a little more slack to screw in the light bar.

Here's a quick power-on test before re-assembling the TV. It works, so it's going back together.

Here's the TV connected to a computer as a monitor. There are a few LEDs not working on the bottom left. It looks like a connection problem. I'm not very motivated to take it apart again. Allow yourself about two to three hours for this repair if you decide to try it.