TV Repairs

Problems/advice relating to your PC/Mac/Phone/Television/ Satellite TV/DVD/Blu ray......

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malcolm4664
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TV Repairs

Post by malcolm4664 »

Would appreciate the name and contact details of an expert in repairing our 2012 40" LED TV please.
Can deliver TV to location, Perpignan area preferred, as consider that the repair is not an at home job..
It is the TV software that is believed to be the culprit not the LED screen, remote or cables etc.

We feel a bit like seeing our first DYSON cleaner on the scrap heap last year for the first time. Always thought they, like LED TV, were good for at least 10 years.

As an example our Bang and Olufsson 36 TV gave us 20 years faultless service before we gave it to a local retirement home. Our Sony TRiNitron 36" lasted even longer and couldn't give it away, even with a perfect picture!

Happy and healthy New Year to all readers.
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Post by Santiago »

Have you tried doing a "factory install" from the system menu? It might work.
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malcolm4664
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TV REPAIRS

Post by malcolm4664 »

Thanks for the prompt reply. WE have done all the obvious checks including refreshing the software and then doing a factory restart, resetting every possible setting, changing cable feeds etc., all this with the help of a very helpful multilingual factory service team (based in Poland). Trouble is the service team appears to plateau out at a certain level of problem solving and we are now (after six months of emails and phone calls) left on our own, to all intents and purposes, as we are not getting any positive feedback to our enquiries.
In addition our supplying dealer does not want to get involved as the TV is three years old.
It appears that it will be cheaper to get a newer, cheaper and more simpler, TV than to try and repair this one as we have been unable to locate a decent TV repair facility in this area.
Its not the end of the world though as I have a library of books to get through and, even as I write this, am sitting on a sun drenched terrace drinking my first coffee ( Colombian, what else!) of the day. The best and worst of La Belle France in fact.
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Post by montgolfiere »

i think modern LED TV's are prone to failure. My Boys Samsung only lasted 3 years too!! Too cheaply made and now seen as throw away items.... which as it only cost around 130€ is perhaps the case. It is the 'Pollution' caused that worries me.....i come from the era before all this madness!!!
malcolm4664
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Post by malcolm4664 »

Cannot say the same Monty. This no longer Smart TV cost us in excess of €1500.00. The 3D extras another€300. You know from your visits that we hardly use it in the day except for the BBC News and Politics. In my book that's not "chuck away after three years money". We also have a 36" Smart Samsung in the bedroom that we purchased at the same time from Darcy, shop soiled ex demo for €295 plus DVD. Faultless performance in every way, I would even say that the sound is far, far better. Probably used more than the other.
In addition my 21" computer/TV LED screen is over 10 years old, in use every day, sometimes 24/7 when I have a project on the boil, never had or expect a problem, so cannot agree with your own experience.

Someone somewhere has gained the specialised technical experience that enables them to troubleshoot without chopping and changing, willy nilly, in the hope of finding a cure. Probably learnt Chinese to boot.

There's a bottle of Myra Lympany 2013 Red for a positive reply.

Happy New Year. Google, Freddie Frinton "Man who came to dinner" at 3 pm on January 1 and you will join over 10,000,000 Europeans who are toasting absent friends. Daft I know but it goes back years to BAOR days. Strangely the Brits do not indulge but in Florida they have TV parties to celebrate.
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Post by russell »

malcolm4664
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TV REPAIRS

Post by malcolm4664 »

Thanks for the suggestion, Russell. As a person who tries to spend his money with the French whilst we enjoy their hospitality, that site, and the three others dealing with services in this neck of the woods were in fact the first places we went to earlier this year. There were only two experts who wanted to do more than pass the time of day with us and both of them were not interested, not because they could not do the repair but more because of the problems they had dealing with the manufacturer of our set and the local dealer.

In fact we are hoping to make a return to one of them early in the New Year accompanied by a very attractive young French lady who has offered to put our case for us in her eloquent, technical French or Catalan, whatever is required!. I will keep you in touch.

As a matter of interest my recorded delivery letters translated in their local business language were sent personally addressed to the heads of the French dealers, European distributors and the Chinese TV manufacturer in October couched in very cordial terms and asking just for assistance and advice. Up to today they not been answered. Can't blame La Poste for everything, can we?

Have a Happy New Year and thanks for your interest.
Malcolm
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Post by Smiley G »

If you supply the make & model, someone may be able to help.
It may just need a new "Tuner" card installed. (or WiFi card if that's how it works.)
Have you tried a complete "re-set" and then skipped the Smart TV element and just set it up as a TV linked to your arial & internet source (iPad, Android Tablet, Laptop etc?)
If I'd spent, 1,500€ + 300€ for 3D, for a TV only 3 years ago, it would have gone back to the supplier by now. Even after a guarantee expires, EU retailers do have some obligations to preserve their reputation and that of the brand.
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martyn94
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Post by martyn94 »

montgolfiere wrote:i think modern LED TV's are prone to failure. My Boys Samsung only lasted 3 years too!! Too cheaply made and now seen as throw away items.... which as it only cost around 130€ is perhaps the case. It is the 'Pollution' caused that worries me.....i come from the era before all this madness!!!
I don't know that they're more prone to failure (in fact I'm sure they're not: when I was a lad the TV repairman almost had his own latchkey). But I think they are less "prone to repair". The LG TV at my other place developed a recurrent fault under guarantee (going blank after a few minutes). Their repair agents first replaced the screen, to no long lasting effect, then they replaced the motherboard. Since then it has worked perfectly, but the plastic casing is about all that's left of what I originally bought.

I don't think you can hope to get that sort of service out of guarantee at a sane price. Diagnosing faults in modern circuits, let alone working on tiny surface-mounted circuit components, is a difficult art which is needed very rarely.

If it's the software/firmware it ought in principle to be more tractable, but Malcolm seems already to have done what might be done.
malcolm4664
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TV Repairs

Post by malcolm4664 »

Thank you all for your suggestions all of which we have seemed to have already trawled over including setting it up just as a TV, ignoring the 3D and other toys and using same as a TV but with no long term success.

As for going back to the supplier. That's a case history in itself.

No, I going to rely on the diplomacy of my French assistant first and then, if that fails, we will pick up a new TV from John Lewis when we are next in the UK.

And Martyn, thanks for jogging my memory. As a matter of interest I started up a TV rental business in the mid 1950's and ended up with 12500 sets installed in the south of London and the West End. Even in those days although the TV's were a mite unreliable they were better than those sold by the retailers as they were hand built for us by Philips, their 17" black and white in its highly polished wooden case was our top hire and a sturdy plastic 17" by a small Scottish company called Baird, familiar? All these sets had a quick access chassis so we could leave the set in situ and just pop in a new bank of valves etc. No need to have a key to gain access, it was always on a piece of string behind the letter box in those days. My Delta, Planet and Western Electric outfits were all morphed into J and F Stone who are now Curry's of course, or were the last time I looked. The reason we sold out? I had seen the SONY Trinitron 17" colour in the States with its 10 year life guarantee and knew our TV industry, like our motorcycle and small car industry, was doomed. Our manufacturers were still squabbling over valves and fighting the unions..

Have a Happy New Year
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Post by russell »

It could be argued that it was a hidden defect that caused the problem:
http://www.europe-consommateurs.eu/en/c ... ice-cache/

Russell.
martyn94
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Re: TV Repairs

Post by martyn94 »

malcolm4664 wrote:Thank you all for your suggestions all of which we have seemed to have already trawled over including setting it up just as a TV, ignoring the 3D and other toys and using same as a TV but with no long term success.

As for going back to the supplier. That's a case history in itself.

No, I going to rely on the diplomacy of my French assistant first and then, if that fails, we will pick up a new TV from John Lewis when we are next in the UK.

And Martyn, thanks for jogging my memory. As a matter of interest I started up a TV rental business in the mid 1950's and ended up with 12500 sets installed in the south of London and the West End. Even in those days although the TV's were a mite unreliable they were better than those sold by the retailers as they were hand built for us by Philips, their 17" black and white in its highly polished wooden case was our top hire and a sturdy plastic 17" by a small Scottish company called Baird, familiar? All these sets had a quick access chassis so we could leave the set in situ and just pop in a new bank of valves etc. No need to have a key to gain access, it was always on a piece of string behind the letter box in those days. My Delta, Planet and Western Electric outfits were all morphed into J and F Stone who are now Curry's of course, or were the last time I looked. The reason we sold out? I had seen the SONY Trinitron 17" colour in the States with its 10 year life guarantee and knew our TV industry, like our motorcycle and small car industry, was doomed. Our manufacturers were still squabbling over valves and fighting the unions..

Have a Happy New Year
I worked on industrial policy as a civil servant in the late 70s when it was all about identifying "sectors" which were promising, or at least not yet totally doomed, and throwing money at them. We gave a big wodge of money to Thorn to design and tool up for the TX chassis which was going to drive the Japanese back into the sea. I believe it wasn't bad, but the target had long since moved on by the time it came into production, and UK-based TV production duly disappeared soon after.

On the other hand, I also recommended a few bob for the firm that ultimately became ARM..
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russell
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Re: TV Repairs

Post by russell »

martyn94 wrote:
malcolm4664 wrote: I worked on industrial policy as a civil servant in the late 70s when it was all about identifying "sectors" which were promising, or at least not yet totally doomed, and throwing money at them. We gave a big wodge of money to Thorn to design and tool up for the TX chassis which was going to drive the Japanese back into the sea. I believe it wasn't bad, but the target had long since moved on by the time it came into production, and UK-based TV production duly disappeared soon after.

On the other hand, I also recommended a few bob for the firm that ultimately became ARM..
I worked as a research engineer for Philips in the '70s and there was nothing wrong with European or British design. The biggest problem was British management. Most big engineering firms were managed by accountants with little engineering knowledge. When the same factories were taken over by the Japanese with their management techniques they became successful.

At another company I worked for the managing director, when being told of a problem, would respond with, "who was responsible?". His more successful successor's response would be, "just f*****g well fix it".

Russell.
martyn94
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Re: TV Repairs

Post by martyn94 »

russell wrote:
martyn94 wrote:
malcolm4664 wrote: I worked on industrial policy as a civil servant in the late 70s when it was all about identifying "sectors" which were promising, or at least not yet totally doomed, and throwing money at them. We gave a big wodge of money to Thorn to design and tool up for the TX chassis which was going to drive the Japanese back into the sea. I believe it wasn't bad, but the target had long since moved on by the time it came into production, and UK-based TV production duly disappeared soon after.

On the other hand, I also recommended a few bob for the firm that ultimately became ARM..
I worked as a research engineer for Philips in the '70s and there was nothing wrong with European or British design. The biggest problem was British management. Most big engineering firms were managed by accountants with little engineering knowledge. When the same factories were taken over by the Japanese with their management techniques they became successful.

At another company I worked for the managing director, when being told of a problem, would respond with, "who was responsible?". His more successful successor's response would be, "just f*****g well fix it".

Russell.
That was pretty much my point: the UK management needed and expected (and got) a subsidy to do no more than last year's more-or-less best practice, and then made a pig's ear of it on the factory floor.
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