My soundbar:
Disclaimer: I am not an audiophile nor movie addict or pixel peeping.
It was super amazing being able to enjoy my Popcorn Time or Netflix or simple TV on this set up. The sound was really immersive, with base strong enough I must set it as minimum, else I would make the neighbor trembling. As I am living with housemates, the feeling our members watching movies and enjoying snacks together partly filled my empty heart.
While the TV is still functioning as expected, the soundbar did add about 40% of the immersiveness. Losing it, watching TV is half as good as it was. Lesser the gathering we had. Act I must.
The quest for repairing and the truth of consumer electronics:
As working adult, thankfully they open on Saturday morning (8am to 1pm). I reach at about 11:30, and the queue was about 1 hour + . For speakers and home theatre items, Phillips charges 60$ upfront for out of warranty item, excluding parts. I was told that the control board will cost ~ 65$, and the same for power supply board. They didn't have the stock for power supply board, so I was lucky/ unlucky that they couldn't do any repair. If I left it to them, it will cost me 125$ to replace the power board.
I bought the soundbar for way less than that amount, so I did determined that if the cost to repair was too high, I might have to:
- Try to self repair or
- Send it to Vietnam to repair or
- Disassemble it for parts ( I have made speaker before).
I did have a heated discussion with one of my tech journalist friends from GENK.VN about the cause of phone power supply explosion. One of the major reason discussed was the aged capacitors. I knew of capacitor aging in sizing power supply for CPU, so for my speaker, I went and checked out all the capacitor. A bit of google check pointed out that when capacitor is spoilt, it has the cap popped out and start leaking electrolyte. I checked mine. Bingo
Anyway, according to the label, I needed to buy a 50V 1000uF. 1.2$. Removed the old one with the help of the new desoldering pump, put it the new one, and I have my system back and running.
My total cost : 1.2$ for the capacitor and 3$ for getting my ass back and forth Sim Lim Tower
- For most electronics, capacitors for power supplies are things that fail the fastest.
- Capacitor from China / Taiwan is worse quality in comparison to Capacitor from Japan. Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
- In my Phillips soundbars, it is full of China made capacitors (brand DECON).
- Rated hours for cheap capacitor is 1000 hours @ 85C. High quality capacitor is rated 2000 hours
- After 1000 hours at 85deg C, the capacitor will fail. Without electronic knowledge, you have to replace the entire board, which may prove to be so costly you want to throw away the old one and get a new one instead.
- For every 10degC , the capacitor last twice as long. Working temperature of these capacitor is assumingly at minimum 45C (could be way higher). So by right, my capacitor should last 16000 hours. 8 hours a day watching TV, the system will last about 5 years.
- After 5 years, well beyond any warranty and extended warranty ever covered, the system will ultimately fair, and you must replace it.
- If Phillips choose better quality capacitors, the system will last another 5 years.