I recently had an issue with my Samsung HW-JM45 Soundbar, sound was only coming out of one speaker. I've had it for a couple years but it had gone unused for most of the time. We moved twice so it was probably bounced around a little and I was thinking it might be something fixable. I googled around a bit looking for people that may have had a similar problem with the same model, but didn't really find anything helpful so I decided to see if I could repair it.
Samsung Soundbar HW-JM45 disassembly.
The soundbar was easy to disassemble. There are several screws on the bottom and back (see pictures below). To take it apart:
- Remove the screws on the back and bottom and set them aside.
- Take out the 2 connector cover plates (you cant remove the cover otherwise).
- Stick a couple fingers in the end speakers and slide off the cover gently.
Removing the bottom cover screws:
Removing the back cover screws:
Removing the plastic connector covers:
Loose Connectors causing sound not to work in one speaker.
Once I got the cover off, careful inspection revealed that one of the pluggable connectors on the upper left portion of the main HW-J450/470 circuit board had come loose and was not fully inserted into it's mating connector.
Fixing the soundbar.
In my case the fix was easy, I simply had to push the connector back into the board. You can see how the connector is now fully inserted into the mating connector compared to the previous picture.
Hopefully this will help others that may come across the same problem.