If you have a Samsung LCD TV and are experiencing a growing number of startup issues with it or weird sounds, this post is for you.
Many users on AVSForums have reported experiencing delayed starts, “clicking” sounds, and eventually having the Samsung TVs stop being able to power on. This apparently is being caused by faulty capacitors on the power supply board. These issues stretch across numerous models of LCD panels and seems to be caused by the use of bad capacitors during manufacturing.
The most evident symptom is a “clicking” noise after powering on the TV, which is the sound of the power supply relay cycling on and off. At first the TV clicks 1-3 times before the unit finally comes on, but over time the evident “clicking” takes longer, and then one day the unit fails to power on at all.
Most of the sets started experiencing these issues after the manufactures warranty had expired, leaving some to either pay for the repair, or trash the set. However, some crafty users over at AVSForums figured out the specs for the faulty capacitors, and have had success at soldering them off, and new ones on. But since the numbers of angry TV owners have been growing, Samsung has kindly stepped up and started offering a “one time in home repair” to the owners that qualify.
About 4 weeks ago my Samsung LNT-5271F started the dreadful clicking of impending death. I was already aware of the issue because of the members in the “owners thread“ for my TV on AVS, I quickly gave Samsung a call. I was lucky enough to qualify as having a set manufactured during the problematic time period, and a tech was scheduled to come. The repair was super quick, it only took 10 minutes to swap the board out and get the unit powered on. As you can see in the pictures below, the capacitors are bulging and leaking.
I want to thank Samsung for stepping up and repairing these units.
You can call Samsung at: 1-800-Samsung (1-800-726-7864)
And a big thanks to the community at AVS because I wouldn’t even know about the warrantied issue! And if you own any TV/receiver/home theater device, do yourself a favor and subscribe to the thread for your respective model.
It looks like the class-action lawsuit against Samsung for these failing TVs was settled and you may be able to get a reimbursement from them. More info here.
EDIT: If you have success could you please leave the model number of your TV to share with others 
PLEASE READ, I WILL try to BE BRIEF.
Thank you to all those who came before me. The on/off, clicking, etc. just happened to me. I have spent several hours online researching.
PLEASE, do yourself a favor and go to http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/ (thank you Rio, above)
and then READ the FULL CLASS ACTION NOTICE.
I am only half way through so far (its relatively short, 13 pgs), but it contains valuable information on related topics such as mother boards, manufacture date cut off, model types, multiple repairs, compensation for out of pocket attempts to fix the problem.
I still have to make the phone call, but wanted to help everybody here, as you have helped me.
Thank you and best of luck to all of us.
My Samsung TV LN-T5271F was making a clicking sound when I turned it on. It would click on and off for about 2 minutes and then finally turn on. I found this website selling a capacitor repair kit for this exact model, so I bought it – and was I glad I did. I learned that if you don’t fix that clicking caused by bad capacitors in a short time, the clicking relay could burn out causing a very expensive repair. Their
repair guide was step by step and I followed all the pictures – it was really very easy to do. When you know how to do this and have the correct replacement parts, it’s easy. It only cost me about $20 and 40 minutes. LN-T5271F.prnc.net Good luck
Richard, you can be reimbursed for what you spend fixing the tv. More importantly, you (and all of us) are entitled to an 18 month settlement warranty.
Thank you Alex for your awesome comment. It made this process so much easier and so much faster. I called the number on your link and got my appointment setup to fix my tv. Free of charge. I hope it turns out well.
And also Thanks to Chris Hunkele for originally posting this. It provided amazing help.
Good luck to all those with this issue,
I have a model UN55B8500 TV very expensive LED TV and it was purchased in Dec of 2009 My trouble started out where the tv was changing channels by itself or shutting down buy itself and sometimes I would come home and find the TV on and say to myself I no I turned the TV off when I left the house. Anyway I still am covered by insurance and the repair man came out and he said he could not fix it. He thought it was the LCD Model not the LED Model like I have. So he left and said it looks like the LED Panel is bad and may not be available anymore and would have to check and see and get back with me. In the meantime it looks like I am going to be without a TV for at least a month or more. Looks to me they used bad parts in all there TVs durning that time period on all there TVs not just the certain models listed here.
Hi All
I’ve had this problem with my Samsung 37 inch lcd (LE37C530) for the last couple of months.
I bought the tv on 5th Oct 2010 so it had just come out of warranty.
I called samsung and they were useless! They just gave me a contact number of a service centre who wanted to charge me a fortune just to carry out an assessment on the bloody thing.
Anyway, i deceided to contact the online retailer’s support line where I bought the tv.
Simple tip … unplug the tv … press and hold the power on button for 5 to 10 seconds. Then plug the tv back in … hey presto the tv works fine!
According to the tech guy i spoke to … some flat screen tv’s store power which needs to be released every so often. This procedure releases the power that is stored up.
Seems that Samsung don’t inform people of this .. or maybe they’re not aware of it and have spent a fortune replacing capacitors unnecessarily! Either way Samsung customer services are terrible!
#mynexttvwillbeasony
My TV went out 2 weeks ago. i called Samsung, mentioned the “1 time free capacitor repair” (thanks to a little internet research, that seems to be the magic phrase) they scheduled the repair. The Tech arrived to my home this morning, knocked out the fix very quickly and professionally and now my TV is working again. I would rate it as an excellent customer service experience.
BTW by “little internet research” i mean the comments in this post, thanks everyone.
Cannot praise samsung enough.my 4 year old tv went down with the usual capacitor problems and after finding out on internet about the 1 time free repair called customer services gave model number a guy came out 2 days later and replaced curcuit board f.o.c. Thank you samsung .
Hello,
I wanted to post a very big thank you to Chris Hunkele for writing this article. I had the “clicking” issue and was ready to go out an purchase a new TV when something “clicked” in my head…why not check online if others are experiencing the same problem and if there is a remedy…
I am happy to report that the clicking is gone and it no longer takes 10 mins to see a picture on my TV. I simply called the number above and Samsung immediately issued a service ticket which put me in contact with a local technician who was at my house in two days.
Samsung was very open about the fact that if the problem was due to the Capacitor, then we would recieve a one-time free replacement, however if it wasn’t the Capacitor, then I would be responsible for the cost of repair. The technician was quickly able to determine that the issue was in fact the Capacitor and installed a new mother board in less than 20 minutes. Our TV is now as good as new! Thanks again.
I had to replace the same 2 caps again, but this time I got higher voltage caps. I found a TV repair shop that sold caps as well they had everything. I took the power supply out and brought it down there and told the guy give me every electrolytic cap on it. Cost me about $30 but now I won’t have a problem. The TV works great no problems now turns on normally without any problems.
My 50″ Samsung Plasma HD (PN50B860) has a clicking sound in the back of it. Nothing comes on (no sound or video) however there is a clicking sound in the back which suggests that it is trying to come on but cannot. The red PWR light comes on. SAMSUNG says my model is not the one with the capicitor problem. Anyone else? Any videos of how to fix the 50″ PLASMA?
Not sure why Samsung only thinks some TVs have bad capacitors. I have a 3-4 year old 50 inch plasma (fpt5084) which was clicking but not covered under the lawsuit. 2 of the 2200 10v capacitors were bad. One bulged and one bulged and leaking. once I replaced them TV turns on fine. Only cost $9 for parts, solder iron and solder and under 2 hours of time. But it should have been covered by Samsung, they are the ones using inferior products.
I have the LN52A650A1FXZA model. It’s currently out of warranty and was purchased March of 2008. I called Samsung at the above number and it was no hassle at all. Within 15 minutes I spoke to the “capacitor settlement” department and described the “clicking” issue. They scheduled a service appointment with a local service company and notified me that this was a free of charge service. Oh, and I did mention that I was looking for the “one time free service capacitor” issue. I’m not sure if that mattered but it looks like it’s a breeze to get the issue fixed! Thanks so much for this post. Had I not seen this I may have spent the money to replace it.
Thanks to everyone comments, I too was able to reach out to samsung and get an appt for my capacitor problem. I went through the online chat service. At first they try to walk me through troubleshooting and I informed them that I knew I was entitled to a free home repair. 2 mins later I was setup for a tech to reach out to me in 2 bus. days.
Model: lnt4061F
I have a 46 inch Samsung probably since 2008. I had the green line and the clicking problem about 1 1/2 years ago. I did some research and found out it was the capacitors. Samsung said they would do a one time only fix.
The guy came and fixed it within 10 minutes for free. But here’s the catch. In doing my research I found out that the capacitors that Samsung uses are too weak. So in other words this problem will happen again. I asked the tech if he could use more voltage in the new capacitors, and he said that Samsung won’t be responsible, blah, blah, blah. So I let him use the faulty weak capacitors and low and behold. . . I’m having the problem again. The green line is back and I know the clicking noise problem and on off switching will follow soon. So I’m wondering if Samsung will fix this problem again?
Any ideas?
Thanks
Jen
I have a 43″ Samsung LCD and I still have warranty my daughter had a bottle of nail polish and,hit the screen the TV dont want to turn on anymore I called Samsung and they says they would send a technician i’m afraid they might charge me anyone had the same problems???
You’re kdding right? Your daughter throws a bottle of nail polish at the TV and you think it should be covered by the warranty? Good luck with that. And no…….I don’t think anyone else has the same problem.
I have a Samsung LN-R1550P with the start up problem. After reading the class action document I called Samsung and was politely told that this is normal wear and tear and not part of the capacitor problem. They will not fix the problem and told me that smaller tv’s have smaller parts that don’t last as long. Off hand, my last desk top tv lasted 11 years.
I WILL NEVER BUY SAMSUNG AGAIN!! They cheated an honest customer and will be repaid by the universe.
I have a Samsung LN-R1550P with the start up problem. After reading the class action document I called Samsung and was politely told that this is normal wear and tear and not part of the capacitor problem. They will not fix the problem and told me that smaller tv’s have smaller parts that don’t last as long. Off hand, my last desk top tv lasted 11 years.
I WILL NEVER BUY SAMSUNG AGAIN!! They cheated an honest customer and will be repaid by the universe!!
I was contacted by Samsung and they set up a repair for the capacitor problem with my TV. The TV was shutting itself off and on. We finally gave up on it and put it in storage till we could decide what to do with it. After the contact with Samsung, a repair person came out and replaced the capacitors. Two days later, the TV was STILL shutting itself off and on…. So much for that “repair”… (they replaced the 10v capacitors with 10v … they did NOT upgrade them. The repairman said they were only authorized to “replace”) SO … still not working … back to storage.
What the heck does this have to do with the issue of Samsung capacitor problem?