TIL a 30 year old CRT TV still had a perfect picture inside a busted shell

I was picking up some old gear from a guys garage last Saturday and he mentioned a TV that 'stopped working' years ago. He was gonna throw it in the trash. I popped the back off and saw the tube neck was fine, but the plastic shell had a huge crack right where the main board mounts. Ended up swapping the guts into a similar chassis I had sitting around and it fired right up with a rock solid image and no geometry issues. Made me think about how much we assume old gear is dead just because the case is busted or the plastic is brittle. Do you guys ever bother saving the circuit boards from cracked shell TVs or is it usually not worth the bench time?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan.mary19d ago

Whoa, hold on. That's a great point about the boards. I actually keep the mainboards from old CRT TVs just for the capacitors. Those old caps are way more durable than modern ones, especially the electrolytics. Pop them out and they work perfect for audio gear or retro power supplies. The boards themselves are usually scrap, but the parts are gold. People throw away a whole TV over a broken case and miss out on a lifetime supply of quality capacitors.

nelson.cameron19d ago

@morgan.mary I get where you're coming from, but I've had mixed luck with those old CRT caps. Some brands like Nichicon or Panasonic are solid, but I've pulled plenty from cheap sets that tested bad or drifted way off spec. They're still worth grabbing for the cost of nothing, but I wouldn't call them a lifetime supply unless you're careful about which ones you actually use.