I opened the TV up and extracted the power supply board. On close examination I spotted this:
Electrolytic capacitors should have a nice flat top surface. When they bulge it indicates excess pressure within the electrolyte. When that happens the capacitor doesn’t work so well.
And as I explained here, ripple isn’t good for 5V and 12V electronics. Now I’ve banged together 125VDC supplies to trigger a coin relay on a pay phone, so ripple doesn’t matter as much. But discrete electronics want a constant voltage and current in many cases. And ripple plays havoc with that.
I’m so glad I have the knowledge and experience to be able to take things apart, identify faults, and fix them. That all started with my great grandfather, he’s the one who taught me how to solder wires together at the tender age of 6. My great grandfather was also an engineer himself – and one of his sons was also an engineer. So on my mom’s side of the family – it was a pretty sure bet I’d pick up some engineering skills.
Spewing Truth in the face of Lies 
Wonderful that your greta grandfather did not have low expectations for young children. In my family it was teaching kids to read by the age of four (a great relief for the parents, the kids now ca[pable of amusing themselves in a new way) and doing advanced math in the 4th and 5th grades. Children LOVE to learn, especially from a cariumng and patient family member.
Yup – up until he died in 1975 my great grandfather taught me a lot about electronics and engineering in general. Then of course my paternal grandparents knew how to nurture the inner geek in me with books and magazines on the topics.
neato