Quote:
Originally posted by bgadow
At first glance there is some nasty stuff, like a bypassed ac interlock and fuse.
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bypassed fuse? 
!!!!!! IMO, it's a miracle that set didn't have very major damage by the time you got it. Any time a person jumps a fuse in anything, he/she is courting trouble at best and disaster at worst.
Many TVs have been seriously and irreparably damaged (and fires started) because of bypassed fuses.The fuse is in the circuit to protect it from shorts and/or current overloads, of course. When it blows, it almost always means there is trouble somewhere in the set. I say "almost" always because, in rare instances, very old fuses will open on their own, for no apparent (to the average person) reason. The problem is often corrosion at the end caps or a very brittle fuse link which opens (crumbles) if there is the slightest amount of vibration near the set.
The AC interlock shouldn't have been bypassed either. That was a safety feature to prevent electric shock when the back was off. I say "was" because modern TVs aren't built that way anymore; the line cord is hard-wired into the power supply, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore since today's TVs are designed to keep unauthorized persons from even removing the back cover for any reason. The average person wouldn't be able to do anything anyhow even if he/she could somehow get the back off, since there are no user-serviceable parts in today's electronic equipment or appliances.