The Problem: The screen on my 5 year old (conveniently out of warranty) Sharp Aquos LC-50LB261U LED TV won’t light up. After pressing the remote or the power button on the left side of the TV, the blue light comes on but the screen remains black.
“TV is getting power but it isn’t lighting up”
The Solution: While leaving the TV powered on, I pressed the menu button on the remote. I held a flash light up to the TV and I could barely see the menu in the middle of the screen but it was there.
Great news! A swap of the LED back lights inside the panel was worth a shot!
It was time to do a little internet research and source the replacement LED backlight specific to my TV model Sharp Aquos LC-50LB261U LED TV.
$53.48 ($44.99 + $8.49 Shipping) from Amazon was definitely more appealing than trashing an awesome Sharp Aquos TV. Also, I picked up some heavy duty screen suction cups ($8.89 w/ free shipping) to safely remove the LED screen. Better safe than sorry!
$53.48 Sharp LC-50LB370U LC-50LB371U LC-50LB261U 500TT65 500TT66 500TT61 V3 500TT62 V3 12 PCS LED Backlight Strips Replace
$8.89 Kaisiking Heavy Duty Suction Cups 2 Pcs Screen Suction Cup
$62.37 Total Cost (minus sweat equity)
I was confident enough to open the panel and replace the LED back lights myself, but I found a tear down tutorial on Youtube just in case.
Followed the video, reassembled the TV, and it fired right up! Excited to see how long the new LED back lights will last. A big thanks to ShopJimmy.com for the video.
The Problem: Microsoft Office tried to update itself this morning and wouldn’t complete the process. Instead, Windows threw the error “EXCEL.EXE Application Error. The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)”.
Fantastic. We can’t open Microsoft Excel/Word for a mail merge and a client deadline is approaching.
After some digging, the most common cause for this error is a corrupted or missing system file.
Another failed update for Microsoft and Windows 10 in 2020.
Here’s a few that have stopped/delayed production and rendered legacy printers useless (for a little while at least).
https://www.techradar.com/news/new-windows-10-update-fail-could-break-your-start-menu
https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-10-may-2020-update-common-problems-and-how-fix-them
The Solution: We are going to “Repair” the Windows Office installation.
1. Press your “Windows Key” on the left hand side of your spacebar and start typing “remove programs”.
2. Click “Add or Remove Programs” under “Best Match” in the Start Menu. Don’t worry. We are going to “Repair” the software instead of “Removing” it. A window labeled “Apps & Features” will open.
3. Scroll down to “Microsoft Office 365 – en-us” and click “Modify”.
4. A “User Account Control” window will pop up and ask permission to make changes to your device. Click “Yes”.
5. Another window will then ask “How you would like to repair your programs?”. Click “Quick Repair”. Wait for the process to complete.
After double-clicking Excel or Word, we are back in business! Hopefully this will save someone else the time and hassle.