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I have a 2006 electronic dictionary whose LCD screen is starting to show some problems (entire vertical lines of pixels are invisible).

I want to ask what can be done to repair this, if anything can be done at all.

I don't know which category this question falls into. Is there a Stack community that could help me with this?

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    If you are able and willing to do board-level repairs like soldering, etc., maybe electronics.stackexchange.com?
    – TylerH
    Aug 17 at 18:28
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    @TylerH Consumer electronics repair is outlawed there.
    – Mast
    Aug 17 at 20:25
  • @Mast Good to know, thank you. Guess OP is out of luck, then.
    – TylerH
    Aug 17 at 21:30
  • Maybe such a site should exist. Aug 18 at 7:03
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution don't know. A site about this - sure. A Stack Exchange site... that's more difficult. It wouldn't really fit a Q&A format I would say, these kind of problems are all about diagnosing and narrowing down which can take many iterations. And quite frequently will boil down to "You need a donor device to swap faulty components out".
    – Gimby
    Aug 18 at 13:20
  • @Gimby You could be right. It could be difficult. I never really repaired home electronics and I guess that even in repair shops nowadays they hardly repair much, although it might be desirable from an ecological point of view. On the other hand, I could imagine that repairing stuff is a bit like programming. You find out what the problem is and then fix it. Every big step can be broken down into smaller steps along the way. Q&A should work there. Furniture, car, bike repair is what people are doing, electronics repair maybe not so much. Maybe it's more difficult. Aug 18 at 14:10
  • @NoDataDumpNoContribution As someone who has repaired electronics and does a bit of programming on the side, programming is much easier and less frustrating.
    – Mast
    Aug 18 at 15:05
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    An alternative is to find a YouTube video that covers the particular problem. EEBlog had one where there was some connector / connection / contact problem for an LCD display. There is also Learn Electronics Repair, also covering very complex electronics, like repair of PC motherboards, with an instructional (learning as the channel name suggests) bend; though the videos are not edited down, making them way too long. Aug 18 at 15:25
  • What about Home Improvement? Aug 23 at 17:06

1 Answer 1

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Is there a Stack community that could help me with this?

No.

While various people will redirect you towards Electrical Engineering (electronics.stackexchange.com), you'll note the following in their help page:

This site is for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. We ask and answer questions about electrical and electronics engineering topics, which include electronics, physical computing, and those working with microcontrollers, Arduinos and embedded systems. We feel the best Electronics Design questions have a schematic, links to pertinent datasheets or some source code in them, but if your question generally covers …

  • a specific electronics design problem
  • the theory and simulation of electromagnetic forces
  • a communication scheme
  • the writing of firmware for bare-metal or RTOS applications

You have neither.

and it is not about …

  • a shopping or buying recommendation
  • consumer electronics such as media players, cell phones or smart phones, except when designing these products or modifying their electronics for other uses

I see no valid reason for people to keep recommending Electronics for general consumer electronics repair questions.

Some repair questions are on-topic, but that applies to faulty circuits. When you're somewhat adept at electronics and have an understanding of what's going on, it's possible to phrase it as a perfectly valid question about the electronics involved. Parts identification, circuit board routing and possible causes when measuring voltages across the boards can be on-topic. However, that's much more specific than the example you ask about.

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