2006 Samsung SP-S4243 plasma tv smoke

[JohnCT]

Originally Posted by pac.attack76

So I picked this tv up at the curb and brought home. It had been rained on at least once but was 48 hours before I picked up. Decided on plugging it in which I usually don't do for a few days in case their damp but this time, I got impatient and wanted to see what it would do. I plugged in and it played a tune and the blue led around the power button came on. 3-4 seconds after, I noticed smoke coming from the top right in back. I immediately unplugged figuring something might be damp and waited till next day. Figuring I may have blown something and caused it not to do anything at all, I tried again and it still played the sound and blue led but within 2 seconds, I seen smoke again and unplugged. Any idea what is going on. Wondering if I did this or maybe it was already doing.

Those years of 42" plasmas were known for having the buffer boards fail. When you get it apart, you will see two small board on the left side (from behind) between the Y Sustain board and the ribbons from the plasma panel.

Each board will have at least 4 and maybe 8 black ICs on them. Under a loop, look for a pinhole in one or more of them. If you see a pinhole, the buffer board(s) are bad and they usually take out the sustain at the same time. I used to rebuild these when the TVs were expensive to replace but don't bother any more.

The problem with these Samsungs is that a blown scan IC on the buffer board will damage the sustain. If you put in two good buffers and don't repair or replace the sustain, the new buffers will fail immediately. If you were to just repair or replace the sustain without replacing the buffers, the bad buffers will damage the sustain again. It's a big circle jerk.

There are no new buffer boards made for these and using used parts mean you have the balance of time left which could be mere hours at best since these board fail with age and use.

If you don't see any pinholes, I can tell you how to check the buffers to about 98% confidence.

John