The year I started my little company, I made two costly mistakes: I bought a piece of crap HP Pavilion desktop computer and a piece of crap AKAI 42-inch LCD display. I paid too much for them and both failed after just a couple of years of use. The HP desktop computer's graphics card failed and several capacitors in the AKAI LCD display failed, rendering it useless. Both were out of warranty, of course.
I never bothered to get a new graphics card for the desktop computer. It ran Windows Vista and I have no interest in ever using Windows again as long as I live. It may be worth fixing and installing Linux on it for some reason but I doubt it. The next time any money is spent on computing devices will be to upgrade the iMac and iPad. No rush, though. Both of those are still running just fine after six years of hard, daily use.
The AKAI LCD display was another matter. It was very expensive, being one of the first 42-inch LCDs available at the time, and I hated to give up on it after spending so much money. So in 2012 I googled the web for any traces of others having the same problem with their AKAI LCT42Z6TM model LCD display and eventually found a fellow living way down in Tierra del Fuego who described the same exact problem I had with mine. He recommended replacing several cheap capacitors of Chinese manufacture which had come from a bad lot which AKAI had used in their displays. He even provided photos of which ones should be replaced. The cost of the capacitors was just $4. It was worth a try. The display was a piece of junk as it was.
So out came the soldering iron, a quick trip to Radio Shack and a few hours later the capacitors had been switched out. I put the circuit board back into the display's plastic case, screwed the back panel back on, connected it to the DVD player and powered it up. The fix worked like a charm and the display was as good as new. A few years later, I donated the repaired LCD display to Collins Lake Ranch where it's still in use and working fine today.
Moral of this story: If All Else Fails, Google It!
