I found this enormous RCA flatscreen…not sure how big it is, but if I laid it flat it would just about cover the table, which would seat four.
The power cord apparently works, because when I plug it in, a blue light comes on beneath the screen. But the on/off button doesn’t work, so I can’t turn it on to see what else is happening. There’s no remote.
The good news: I found it sitting beside a Dumpster (which often is a good sign of working-ness) so I don’t have any money in it.
Is it worth hauling it to a repair place (or a handy electronics guy I know) to see if it can be fixed? I don’t know if this may be an easy fix…once upon a time, you could just rejigger the wires or something, but technology on these newer items is beyond me.
I would suggest trying a universal remote, which you can get some places under $10. Perhaps buy one from a place where they will accept returns. Try to use that if it works great if not, perhaps making a 4 person table top out of it may be a idea.
Hard to say. It could be something as simple as a loose connection or as complex as a fried logic board. You won’t know until somebody can pop the cover and eyeball it. But I’d definitely give it a shot.
I wouldn’t go anywhere beyond trying a universal remote, as mentioned above. Pretty much the only thing fixable without spending more than 50% of the cost of a new TV would be a bad contact on the power button.
Curious why you’d think that’s a sign that it works - if it worked, wouldn’t it still be in the house of the person who owned it? Or do you mean because it was beside and not inside the dumpster? I’d assume that just meant it was too heavy to lift into the dumpster.
The reason it was sitting beside the dumpster (and not in someone’s house) is it’s broken, and the previous owners determined it couldn’t be fixed economically.
My bet is you will spend a bunch of time and money, and then leave it outside by the dumpster.
Get the model number or part number off of the back of it and start Googling to see if there are known issues with that TV. Or start searching based in the symptoms.
Almost all “tier two” TVs are disposable.
Premium brands like Panasonic, Sony, LG, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, etc. can be economically repaired most of the time, but off brands like Vizio, Westinghouse, Dynex, Insignia, etc. will become landfill when they fail. Unfortunately, RCA has gone from being one of the best brands back when 25" console TVs roamed the earth, down to being a vestigial afterthought left over from a string of mergers and buyouts.
I wouldn’t even waste the money on a universal remote. Chances are, you already have a remote, such as for a cable box, that can be programmed with the codes for this TV. Probably the only reason the TV was next to the bin, rather than in it is that it wouldn’t fit.
Weight is the more likely reason it was not placed in the dumpster. So it must have a defect of some kind.
If you got far enough to plug it in then you are invested somewhat already. It was worth checking out anyway because sometimes people have to move and do unload things. Even without cable input, a working TV would provide a screen menu. Play with any controls you have available. Remotes are available even at the dollar store and they work.
When you turn it on and press the power button, it is common to hear a relay click on and off when there is a circuit board failure. They are programmed to protect the balance of the electronics. If you are getting that sound, I would not be hopeful of fixing it. All the circuit boards are micro surface mount technology that a DIY person can’t diagnose and fix.
If you have an interested friend who WANTS to play with it, go for it.
Can you not take in somewhere for a free estimate?
Re: in/out of dumpster–typically in the area where I find good discards, things left beside Dumpsters are workable or fixable unless there’s a “broken” note taped to it. (Or the power cords will be cut off, another sign of not-worth-fixing). Of course that’s not always the case…but I’ve found enough perfectly workable tvs, appliances, etc, that I think there are a lot of move-outs who leave stuff behind, students who let parents replace stuff instead of fixing them, and angry exes who discard their former lovers’ goods. People who have money or relationship issues throw away a LOT of good stuff!
Al Bundy, it doesn’t make any noise at all when I press the power button.
It’s a shame that things like this are really designed to be disposable. I’ve never used a universal remote and I wasn’t sure if it would work on a tv that couldn’t be turned on initially? I guess I just figured you would turn on your tv manually and then configure the remote to work with it.
Sell it on Craigslist “AS IS”. You might be able to get $20 or so from someone willing to put some effort into getting it working again.
I just realized that if I can’t get it to work, I could prime it and paint a really cool garden sign on it. 
At least in my area, there is not a single electronics repair shop that gives a free estimate. They all have a “bench charge” (usually equal to one hour’s labor) to even look at a TV.
The reason for this is simple. The shops got tired of spending their time to come up with an estimate that turned out to be higher than the cost of a brand new TV/computer/amplifier/CD player/whatever only to have customers say “never mind.”
If papergirl decided to have the TV fixed, she could get the estimate applied to the bill. If not, she’ll be out at least $50.
My sister fixed her completely non-working TV for the price of a single part, less than 20 bucks.
Course, it helped that my dad used to be an instrument technician and diagnosed the problem for her free of charge.
I have fixed some LCD monitors that had the classic bad caps problems. Not turning on can be a symptom of this.
If it were me, I’d open it up and check for leaky/popped capacitors as well as any other fried looking parts. (The later is not a good sign.)
But you sort of have to know what to look for, what kind of replacements to get and where to get them, and how to solder in the new caps.
Be very careful. A lot of used appliances sit by dumpsters because they are full of roaches, ants, bed bugs, or god knows what
I’m willing to bet that whoever threw it out tried the remote route: who wouldn’t?
I would take it apart though, and fiddle around, but I have an education in electronics.
It’s a nice table top, or a boat anchor at this point.
The cat likes to walk on it like a balance beam. All is not lost.
Turns out I have a FOAF who fiddles with electronics. So maybe I’ll send it his way before I buy a can of primer.
I have picked up more than my own share of discarded electronics (I disassemble them to use the parts inside for my own projects) and haven’t ever had any problems with live vermin save for a bug or two, which may or may not have come from the house it was from since it was sitting outside.