With a little work, it's sometimes surprising how easy things are to repair. My TV died a few years ago and just refused to power on. I don't really know much about electronics, but I assumed since there were no lights of any kind that it was probably a bad power supply. I opened it up and it turns out the power supply is a separate board with an easily detachable cable. I ordered a new one for less than $40 on eBay by looking at the part number and it only took a few minutes to replace and saved me several hundred dollars.

I'd imagine someone more familiar with electronics possibly could have figured out what specific component was wrong and replaced only that for an even smaller fraction of the cost.

I'd imagine someone more familiar with electronics possibly could have figured out what specific component was wrong and replaced only that for an even smaller fraction of the cost.

Probably electrolytic capacitors (usually in the tens of cents each, or less.) They are the #1 suspect in any electronics as they have the most well-known and finite lifespan of all parts. They became particularly infamous for failing when this happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

The term has even created a noun in other languages: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kondensatorpest

As long as the small PCB is $40 it's fine. I had a central vacuum fail like that a couple of years ago, and the small PCB would have cost $350.

The PCB had already been replaced twice during the warranty period. Googled the major components and they were $3 - $5 a piece, just a couple of half bridge rectifiers, resistors and diodes.

Didn't want to risk a fire from a DIY job, which would have definitely voided my insurance, so I spent $400 on a new central vacuum unit (from a different brand).

Power supplies may fail in a cascading manner. Unless it's something like a fuse that was blown due to a known external event, one broken component can take out a couple of friends with it.

If you can get a new board for 40$, that's probably the best course of action.

This would be a $1000 custom part in a Miele appliance though.