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Cable and source testing first
Because a R150 cable should never cost you a mainboard.
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HDMI port repairs
Dead HDMI ports, and the ‘no signal’ message
HDMI inputs sit directly on the mainboard, which makes them the first casualty of a power surge and the most-used mechanical part of the television. Both facts make them fail — and both make them repairable.
Surge damage
Port-level repair
Whole-chain testing
Before you blame the television, check the cheapest thing in the chain
HDMI cables fail more often than people expect, and they fail in a peculiar way: they work for years and then, quite suddenly, they do not. A cable that has been bent tightly behind a wall-mounted television, or repeatedly plugged and unplugged, will eventually break internally while looking perfectly fine on the outside.
So the first thing we do is swap the cable and try a different port. It costs nothing and it resolves a meaningful share of the calls we take. The second thing we do is test a different source device, because a failing decoder, console or streaming stick can look exactly like a failing television.
When it genuinely is the port, we can very often repair it. HDMI ports and their protection circuitry are surface-mounted components on the mainboard, and they can be replaced without swapping the entire board. That is the difference between a modest repair bill and an expensive one.
The detail
What is actually going wrong
‘No signal’ is a symptom with several very different causes.
One port is dead, the others work
Almost always a physical or component-level failure of that specific port — surge damage, a bent pin, or a failed protection diode. This is the most repairable HDMI fault there is.
All HDMI ports are dead
Points at the HDMI processing section of the mainboard rather than the individual ports. Often a surge has taken out a shared protection component. Still frequently repairable at component level.
The picture flickers or drops out intermittently
Usually a loose or worn port, a failing cable, or an HDCP handshake problem. We test the port under gentle mechanical load to reproduce the fault before we condemn it.
‘No signal’ even though the source device is on
Could be the port, the cable, the source, or an HDCP copy-protection handshake failure. This is why we test the whole chain rather than assuming.
HDMI-ARC has stopped working
Your soundbar has gone silent. ARC is fussy at the best of times, and it is often a settings or firmware issue rather than a hardware failure — but the ARC port can also fail physically.
The port is physically loose in the chassis
Years of plugging and unplugging eventually break the solder joints holding the port to the board. It is a classic dry-joint failure, and re-soldering it is straightforward work.
What you get
What we do about it
From the free fix to the board-level repair.
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Individual port replacement
The failed port is replaced; the board stays.
03
Protection circuit repair
The component that sacrificed itself in the surge gets replaced.
04
Dry joint re-soldering
For ports that have worked loose over years of use.
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HDCP and handshake troubleshooting
The invisible fault that makes working hardware look broken.
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Surge protection advice
So the replacement port does not go the same way.
Included
Every HDMI repair includes
The whole signal chain, not just the socket.
Cable testingWith a known-good cable, on every port
Source device testingDecoder, console, laptop or streaming stick
Port-by-port testingEach input tested independently
Mechanical inspectionBent pins, loose sockets, cracked solder
HDCP handshake verificationThe copy-protection layer that silently breaks things
Full test on every inputWith your actual devices, before we leave
Our process
How an HDMI fault gets resolved
01
Tell us which ports fail
One port or all of them? Which devices? Does it flicker or is it dead?
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We test the cheap things first
Cables and sources, on site, before anything is opened.
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We diagnose the port at board level
Component testing, mechanical inspection and continuity checks.
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We repair and test with your equipment
Your decoder, your console, your soundbar. Not a test rig.
FAQ
HDMI port repairs — your questions answered
The things people actually ask us on the phone, answered straight.
Not sure what is wrong?
WhatsApp us the make, the screen size and a short video of what the TV is doing. We can usually narrow the fault down before a technician is even dispatched.
WhatsApp 063 866 0971Can a dead HDMI port actually be repaired?
Yes, and more often than people assume. HDMI ports are surface-mounted components on the mainboard. A failed port can usually be replaced, and the protection circuitry behind it repaired, without replacing the whole mainboard. That is a substantial saving.
Why do HDMI ports fail?
Two main reasons. Power surges — the HDMI protection circuitry is designed to sacrifice itself to protect the rest of the board, and it does its job. And mechanical wear — years of plugging and unplugging eventually cracks the solder joints holding the port in place.
All my HDMI ports stopped working at once. Is the TV dead?
No, but it does suggest the fault is in the shared HDMI processing section of the mainboard rather than in an individual port. That is usually still repairable at component level. Get it diagnosed before you replace the set.
My TV says 'No Signal' but the decoder is on. Whose fault is it?
It could be any of four things: the port, the cable, the source device, or an HDCP handshake failure. Swap the cable and try a different port — that is free and it resolves a lot of these. If it persists, it needs proper testing.
Will I lose my other ports if you repair one?
No. Individual port replacement does not affect the others. If anything, repairing a shorted port can restore function to inputs that were being affected by it.
How do I stop it happening again?
Surge protection on the wall socket is the single most effective thing you can do — the cheap neon-light multi-plugs do very little. And be gentle with the cables: support the weight of a heavy HDMI cable rather than letting it hang from the port.
Book a TV technician
A dead port is not a dead TV
Tell us which inputs have failed and which devices you are using. We will tell you what it is likely to cost.
HDMI port repairs · component-level board work
Contact
Speak to a TV technician, not a call centre
- Call us
- 0861 995 085Open 24 hours · 7 days a week
- 063 866 0971Send a short video of the fault — it speeds everything up.
- Where we work
- Johannesburg, Pretoria, Sandton, Centurion, Midrand, the East Rand and the West RandSee every area we cover →