"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
...
Worst case, if you really can't fix a particular power supply, the
whole module is often available at an unrealistically cheap price...

Did the world suddenly change overnight?



In this particular case William, yes. I can only assume that the
manufacturers heavily subsidise the cost of replacement PSU boards in order
to preserve their (good) name in the market place. They don't seem to have
caught on to the fact that engineers will often order one of these cheap
boards to fix a set that is from a completely different manufacturer, but
happens to use the same power supply, or even complete chassis. No chassis
number or serial number or old power supply return, is required. From some
sources, you don't even need to be trade.

If you look for instance at the Vestel 17PWxx series of power supplies, used
in a lot of different manufacturers' sets, and many of which are actually
interchangable if you know what you are doing, or have adaptor harnesses
(although almost identical circuitry-wise and physically, later versions
have slightly different connector pinning), you will find that the proper
price is anywhere around the £100 ($160) mark. However, they are for sale,
brand new from many sources, including manufacturers' direct spares agents,
for as little as £32 ($50). I do a repair service on them for a little less
than that.

These are a very complex and well built supply, and at least £80 is what you
would truthfully *expect* to pay for one.

Arfa