Hardware Monitor doesn't work. Can it be fixed?

[DiscostewSM]

So, my brother drops off an HDTV monitor (Emerson LC220EM2) at my place, saying I can have it, but it needs to be fixed because it won't turn on. He had opened it up and looked at the circuit boards, but could not find anything out of the ordinary, and neither could I. He tried replacing the fuse, but the fuse blew out the 2 times he tried. I'm not very knowledgeable with hardware this in-depth (I'm more of a software kind of guy, and can build computers and work with individual parts), but I was wondering if there is a cheap way to trouble-shooting this issue. Some ideas of what to look for would be helpful, and if anyone else has had this kind of monitor before that had a fuse blown, what was the culprit?

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

This might help but I am not sure....

http://www.fixya.com/support/p3399293-emerson_22_class_lcd_720p_60hz_hdtv_lc

 

[DiscostewSM]

From what I've check on that website, the problem lies with the power supply inverter, so I guess I have two options. One is to find a TV repair shop, and see if they can repair the existing board, or go order the part and replace it myself. I'm afraid to think that if I took it in to some place for repair, I'd be paying more than the TV is actually worth. I can easily replace the board myself. The hard part is finding that particular part, as it seems any online places that did have them have been out-of-stock for some time. The part number is "A1775MPW-002".

But honestly, is this TV even worth fixing if I were to find a replacement board for the supposed $30?

 

[Sicklyboy]

For 30, sure. Most inverters require a little bit of soldering to disconnect and remove the old one and attach the new one.

Much more though and I'd say no. You can buy 22" tv's/monitors for ~$100 and not have to worry about anything else going wrong with them due to them being used (the old tv being used, that it. If you were to buy one it would obviously be new.)

 

[FAST6191]

Others have already started on it- you will probably not find a replacement power board unless you are already in the TV world. You might be able to make a replacement if you are feeling flash but save that for later.
Three things I tend to replace on TVs
1) Fuses
2) Capacitors
3) Switches

Any of the three can break, they all break often enough and can cause exactly your problem (turning on and depending upon the fuse- external, internal, internal to the post that can cause fuses further down the line to pop).
Fuses are a fairly obvious check.
The capacitors usually fail visually and are usually the through hole ones which makes soldering easy. Various schools of thought on the matter and if you are suffering only a frys or radioshack to get your parts from they might not have a great selection and you will pay over the odds.
Switches- was it temperamental to turn on for a while before it landed on your desk (either turned off and then on or took ages to "warm up")? Granted that can be capacitors too. Two culprits for me are the rocker switches on the side and push buttons switches which are hopefully on an extra board. The simple test here is bridge the relevant connections and see if it springs back to life.

On laptops and such like I might replace other things and if it was a transformer that has failed (happens enough but nowhere near as often as the others mentioned) I might replace that too should I be able to find one.

On capacitors- these usually do not cost a lot (for an average TV that crosses my bench if you pay more than $10 something has gone quite wrong or you are buying from real world shops and paying the premium for it). You definitely want ones of equivalent capacitance (for bigger ones you might go slightly higher but some lesser designs will not like it), if they are electrolytic (that is to say there is a stripe down one side of them to indicate the negative leg- they usually are) and same or higher voltage rating (I have seen badly designed boards use lower ratings than the parts they deal with require/are built for but let us not go there now). Depending upon the board you might have to find low profile ones (the hard to find in real world thing) and they might be temperature rated (cheap caps are rated for 85 Celcius where nice ones are rated for 105) which you may want to observe unless you feel like fixing them again two years down the road.
The big debates come in whether you get low ESR capacitors and whether you replace the lot, the ideal is you get low ESR and replace the lot but finding low ESR in the real world is hard and they might not have come with them in the first place, many monitors come with a selection of odd capacitors (including ones at high voltage ones no real world shop tends to carry) and that are probably just fine- I usually replace all the dead ones and if I have enough then all the ones of the same type (brand and brand series) as the dead one that are not huge, it does mean I am more likely to see it back on my desk at some point in the not too distant future. However if it is yours to toy with it is OK to be a bit cheaper.
Actual fixing though it just a matter of desoldering the dead ones, sticking the new ones in and soldering them back up. Good news is this happens all the time in many devices and such things can be fixed often by replacing them- in addition to what I imagine is your status as local/family PC fixer you are now local electronics repair.