Main Control Board

first replace the solenoid behind the front display. than replace the mother board on the back side of the fridge due to a relay being burned out on it.

GE Wanted $300 + to come out and do the repair.

With partsselect and a little time I cut that cost in half.

Thank you,

Mike

First my wife and i took the panel off the back, unscrewed the old mainboard, unplugged all the switches from it and prayed that the new one would work. We were without a fridge for 2 weeks beginning 2 days before Christmas!!!!! Gingerly, we put the new board in place, screwed it into the fridge, connected the switches, attached the ground wire, and held our breath as we plugged it back in. Within seconds, the familiar sound of water filling the icemaker was hear and there were cheers all around!!!

I ordered the part on Sunday and had it by Tuesday. It only took a few minutes to install. Basically, I unplugged the unit and removed the cover over the motherboard with a nutdriver. The wires were easy to unplug and reinstall. There was no way to incorrectly install since they could only fit in the correct position. I reinstalled the panel pluged it back in and now the fridge is working great.

Removed old circuit board and replaced with new

The refrigerator was staying in defrost too long allowing the temperature to rise to the point that part of the ice (probably some of the food too) to melt then re-freeze. I first changed out the temp sensor and thermostat because I wanted to try the cheap stuff first but that didn't fix it, I should have gone with the mainboard first as it was the most likely cause. After putting in the new mainboard in the thing has worked perfectly since. The board was extremely easy to change, take the metal cover off with a nut driver. Carefully unplug the wires from old board and remove the board. The board is mounted on some plastic standoffs that expand after passing through the board, some of these came out while i was disconnecting the wires but some were there to stay until I figured out that I needed to squeeze the top of them to release the board. After getting the old board out just put the new one on the standoffs and connect the wires. Put the cover back on and DONE!

NOTES: The new board had some extra connectors that my old one did not, but the correct connectors were still in the old locations. The instructions that came with the board did talk about making some modifications to the refrigerator wiring on certain models, but that didn't apply to me. If I remember right the models requiring modification were all bottom freezer type. But even if you do have to do this the instrucions looked easy, just cut a couple of wires, no splicing or anything.

Initial diagnosis indicated faulty cold air damper, so first action was to remove the light assembly and then the plastic housing that contains the FF fan and damper. The two hidden screws at base of housing required removal of lower decorative plastic duct that turned to be held by snap in-tabs at top and slide away fastener at bottom. The damper housing is held to the roof of the FF chamber by two screws that were taken out to remove the light assembly.

When the plastic housing is pulled towards the front of the refrigerator, the multi-pin wire connector can be disconnected and the damper assembly easily removed.

Installation required need of a thin plate to seat a sponge rubber seal without damage, so I used a thin metal kitchen spatula. Nothing unexpected was encountered in reversing the disassembly process.

Although the new damper corrected the excessive cold situation, the temperature max-min span remained in excess of 15 degrees F, so the control panel was swapped in the small covered cavity located in the outside back of the refrigerator. A 1/4" nut driver and needle nose pliers were all the tools necessary for this operation.

Together the two replacement components have solved the frozen food problem and the over night max-min FF span is now 5 degrees or less.

As it turned out much of the electronics is driven by 13.5 volts off the Main Control Board. The Ice Dispenser caused the problem because it over currented the depleted board power. You could hear a clicking noise from the board which was the main relay short cycling and not staying energized. While waiting for the replacement board I unpluged the condenser fan which is a DC motor and uses the Board power. In place of that fan I use a small table top fan to keep the condenser cool. As it turned out I only needed it for 3 days because Parts Select did a super quick job of delivering the new board. Thanks for the super service!!!!!! Removal of the board only required unpluging the electrical connections squezing the retaining board pins with pliers and pulling the board out, pushing on the new board and connecting the electrical plugs. If the board locks like mine did, just unplug the main board power plug, let the memory clear and replug the power plug. The unit should then start and run with no problems.

Took the three screws out of the cover, took the six plugs off of the board and removed board.

Everything looked to be working but the compressor. As a pro checked every thing came down to a relay on the main board.

Just removed cover from back top left. marked and removed all wires. removed old board and installed new board very easy. Must read paper sent with it,
you may need to cut wires on some models.

First, we called Sears Repair and had a technician come to our home. He stated the motherboard had gone bad probably due to a power surge (we had no surge protector on the appliance). His price for repair was $465.00. We opted to go online for the part and found it for $165.00 through PartSelect.com. It was a very simple procedure of removing the old and installing the new. A few turns with the nut driver to uncover the part, a few tugs with the pliers to disconnect and voila!.. The fridge was back to cooling in no time.

I had Sears comre and check it out. They wanted $188. for the part and wanted $211 to put it in. They had the part in the truck. The fridg is a GE Profile and only 2 years old. Told them to forget it. Took me literally less than 10 minutes. They did a diagnostics, cost me $77. they told me the problem. I ordered the part here. It came in 3 days and the directions included were awesome. straight forward. Nice to know there is a place to go to avoid getting the shaft from appliance giants. Thank You !

The details: removed the 3 screws, took a picture of the board, didn't need it, unplugged the 6 plugs. pushed 3 clipds holding the board, unscrewed the ground, removed the board, lined up the 3 clips and snapped the new board in place, replugged the plugs and screwed in the ground. Plug the fridg in, done. Literally that easy.

Checked the internet for reports of similar problems and concluded that it was probably the main control board. Not being particularly handy, I would never have attempted to change the board myself if I had not read the comments and instructions from people on this site. Thanks.

The job was as straight forward as others have described. The only time I had a problem was pushing in the white tab to be able to pull the old board out. That was a bit of a fiddle.

The only thing I found different was the grounding wire. On the original board, this wire was at the bottom of the board and hooked into a wire that ran into the refrigerator. On the new board, the wire was at the top of the board and had a metal loop on it. If I understand it correctly, with the new grounding system the wire is pushed into the space above the board. Then when the back plate is reattached the metal loop makes contact with it , thus grounding the refrigerator.
I chose to run the grounding wire through the original wire into the refrigerator. That meant cutting off the metal loop, slicing in an extra piece of wire to connect the grounding wire on the board to the grounding wire into the refrigerator.

I also now use a surge suppressor for the refrigerator. The “Moaning Myrtle” syndrome started after Hurricane Ike. I suspect the surge when the power was restored damaged the control board. And as so many people seem to have this “Moaning Myrtle” problem, I suspect the control board has little or no surge protection.

first i removed the three screws that covered the circuit board that was bad. then i removed the 6 connectors that went from the refrigerator to the board then popped out the old board , popped in the new board reconnected the circuit connectors covered everything back up and my refrigerator is back on line. this all took about 10 to 15 minutes time ... thank you for your product it really did the job..

Removed the back cover over the control board, and made sure that the board was the same. It didn't look exactly the same, but figured that it was the same, just updated. Took out the board, moved the wires to the new board and reinstalled. Plugged it in and it came on, so I reinstalled the cover. Seems to be working to this day.

Unbolted the back cover, pulled out old board, replaced with new bored and powered back on. It is working great now.