Two Dark Days

The old burned out "lamp"

Yes, we had two dark days ... and for once, I am not talking about the weather!

We have more than a few functioning, antiquated items of technology in our household. For instance, in the graveyard of old things that is our basement, we have an old Commodore 64 computer from 1982 that still works! The cumbersome Beta video camera from the same era might also work with a little persuasion.

The 50-inch rear projection television in our living room is also reaching antique status, in terms of electronics. Not knowing any better, we think it still has a pretty fine HD picture.

And so we were saddened on Saturday morning when the TV went dark. Every 2 or 3 years the "lamp" burns out and we have paid dearly to replace it. The last bill, from 2014 was $135--$55 for the lamp and $80 for the service call.

All our programs were recording according to schedule. Everything was fine except the lamp had gone out. We have another old TV (I hate to admit), in the same room. (See why we keep it??) And a small newer one in one of the bedrooms, so it was not a big deal.

The question was whether or not we should spend more money on the old TV which originally was like $2000 or so, (although we purchased it refurbished). It fits perfectly into the center of a 5-piece teak wood unit.

On the last bill we found that the serial number and part number of the bulb had been noted by the repairman. He is an old dopey guy who works out of his home, but is familiar with our old-fashioned set. He probably didn't imagine we would use the information to fix it ourselves.

So the husband went to--what else--Amazon and found the lamp for $22, arriving in two days!

This afternoon the moment of truth arrived. A flashlight and a screwdriver was all that was needed. After the removal of two screws, out came the old unit and in went the new one, pictured above.

We struggled to get the door closed. With a little extra push on plastic, the door finally snapped into place and closed. We plugged the TV back on and the channel it had been set on popped on immediately.

The blue twisty tie just inside the door was still in place--the one which fixed an issue several years ago (when the TV would turn off mysteriously and arbitrarily, sometimes when the furnace turned on.) Hmm. Our furnace guy Mike told us it was an electrical problem and we should re-wire the whole house! We didn't. I blogged about the magic of the twisty tie repair previously. At that time the husband also went on-line, to a trouble-shooting site and ingeniously fixed the problem with a simple twisty tie from a loaf of bread.

Once again, another Samsung product was problematic, but this time there is a happy ending. Our old TV will likely now work for another 2 or 3 years. And who knows--by then we just might be ready and willing to buy a new one.