You can find it on the web...

No matter what you want, it's out there somewhere, right? Well, phooey I say, PHOOEY! Try to find a 100µf 200v electrolytic capacitor with radial leads! Go ahead, try it. I dare you. Let me explain...

Late last year my TV broke. Just in time for all those wonderful holiday specials. I missed out on Nick & Jessica, the present-day Donnie & Marie. YES! I mean, awe, what a shame, I was so looking forward to it. Anyway, being the tinkerer that I am, I decided to try to fix it. I mean, I didn’t want to toss it and buy a new one. The set’s only 9 years old. My last TV was my first TV! A Zenith 19 incher and I had it for about 20 years. This one, with all it’s cutting edge technology, should last at least that long, right? Besides, how hard could it be? I can read a schematic and solder with the best of ‘em, ahem, and I figured it’d be fun. I also doesn't hurt that my brother knows a lot about this stuff.

Well, after some careful spelunking in the backside of my ailing boob tube, I decided to just take the whole main board out and give it a good look see. Surely there must be something obviously wrong, right? When the power supply in one of my PC’s crapped out a few years ago it went with a bang, not whimper, that’s for sure, and the pieces of that capacitor were hard to miss, literally falling into my lap. Hmmm. I think I found the problem. Anyway, I knew I heard a click when the set died, but there was no smoke. That’s a good thing, usually, but in reality it just makes it harder to find the problem. I’d much rather see remnants of something sticking up from the board than just…pretty normal looking components.

So, I went to that Website From Heaven, Google: “Magnavox repair 25ts52”.

Lo and behold, a veritable cornucopia of TV repair info. There’s tons of stuff out there on the most common problems with TVs and such, and it wasn’t long before I came across a posting that described my problem to a tee. To a TEE. According to these guys, I probably have a bad voltage regulator IC and a fried 1K ohm resistor. Well, I can’t tell if the IC is bad, not without the proper test equipment and a practical, safe working area. Now, I’m doing most of this in my cramped living room – not the best place to be troubleshooting anything that has the ability to ZAP you with 29,000 volts. That’s TWENTY-NINE THOUSAND VOLTS! Trust me, that’s what’s in there. And No, I didn’t find that out by sticking my tongue inside! I bought the service manual! It was only 24 bucks, online!

So, anyway, I have the board out and am looking for a fried IC and resistor. I can’t tell if the IC is good or bad, but that resistor…well, let’s just say it’s seen better days - you can even see scorch marks an the circuit board. But that's not uncommon, my Bro tells me. Actually, Bro didn't see any cracks so he's not that concerned about it., but clearly it's taken a lot of heat, so I decide to put it out of it's misery and eliminate the chance that it is causing a problem. So, having found this overheated resistor, I figure there’s a good chance those helpful guys from the web have me at least pointed in the right direction.

Now, the other possible culprit I read about, the capacitor that started this entire diatribe, also looked OK, but caps are funny things. They're not simple to test and there are many things that can go wrong with them. Did you know that an electrolytic capacitor can simply dry out over time? It has an electrolyte inside – hence the name – that just leaks through the seals little by little until one day, when you least expect it (do we ever really expect is?) it just stops doing what it’s designed to do. I guess you could say it becomes an incapacitated capacitor! Hmm. Who’da thunk it? Anyway, as it turns out nine years is a fairly good life for one of these bad boys, so I figure I’ll replace it, too, while I have the set apart. They only cost a buck or two. So, now it’s back to Google for parts.

I found a place that seemed to have all the parts I needed. It was great! I entered the model of my TV and up came a list of what are probably the most common repair parts for that model. They listed the regulator IC, the resistor, the picture tubes, flyback transformer – that’s the thing that makes the 29,000 volts I mentioned – and even a booklet of some kind (I ordered it, but with my luck it’s probably just a few pages of soldering tips), but no 100µf 200v electrolytic capacitor! Hmmmm. Well, everything else I wanted was listed as in-stock, ready to ship the next day, so I ordered what I needed and decided to look elsewhere for the cap. Shouldn’t be a problem. Right? Caps are not exactly specialty items, right? Famous last words…

Holy crap. I’m having such a hard time finding that thing. I found one place that does carry them, but they cost $3.10 . Sounds a bit steep for just a cap, but what the heck. I’ll get two! So I’m ready to checkout on the web site and I see that for orders under 1 lb they charge a flat $10 shipping fee! Even if I only wanted one, that’s ten bucks for a three dollar part! Being someone who doesn’t like being taken for a ride, I said – or rather, exclaimed – out loud, “Screw that!” As God is my witness, Sassy even heard me. I think I scared her, too. Sorry, Sass.

So, now I’m looking for another supplier for the cap, but I just can’t find any. I’ve found sites that say they carry it, bit when I go to look at it specifically there’s no picture and no description, just some manufacturer’s part number and a price. That doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling, ya know? I mean, if I’m gonna order something and wait for it to come in, delaying the overall repair operation, I want to be sure I’m getting what I want. So I keep looking. All this and I’m actually not even sure I need it. I just figure it’s either dead or close to it, so I might as well replace it. Well, I’m to the point where I think I’ll just take the old one out and make a simple test. I found out how on the web, but even if it looks okay that doesn’t mean it’s really okay, ya know? But, unless it fails the test, I’ll just use forego it’s replacement. That’s all I can do, at least for now.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes I did check Radio Shack. The Shack desn’t seem to stock any caps above 50 volts. Must be afraid that someone will hurt themselves or something.

Anyway, remember I said all the other parts were in-stock, ready to ship? Well the next day I get a confirmation email that only one item was shipped, the rest are back-ordered. Luckily, it was the most unusual part, the regulator IC. The resistor I probably have in a drawer somewhere. If need be I can get it at Radio Shack. The booklet I’m sure I can do without, but I sure wish I had that cap. At least now I can get on with the repair. I’ll start with checking that old cap.

I’ll keep you posted.