What's up with my TV?

GuruJockStrap

GuruJockStrap

GuruJockStrap

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,261
Have a 55" Samsung TV that's just over 12 months old.

Over the last couple of weeks, it's seems to have developed an issue where a line is running down the centre ish of the screen from top of panel to bottom. It looks like a perfect line of dead pixels:



The annoying thing is appears to be intermittent.

The TV has one of those boxes where all HDMI devices connect to it and a thin proprietary cable from the box connects to the TV and transfers power and image/sound.

I've disconnected everything apart from the Freeview box to rule out other HDMI devices causing the issue. When it came back this evening, I swapped the HDMI cable from the Freeview box witha brand new one. Line was still present.

My next thought is to connect the Freeview box directly to the TV, bypassing the all in one box. Or has the panel developed a fault and I'm basically wasting my time?
 
99 out of 100, this is a problem with the screen. Not the box. Not the cables. Not the source. Not the settings. Nothing else. It's the screen. Specifically, the little ribbon cables that get the signal from the control board to the edges of the LCD panel. They're fixed to the edge of the screen by a heat process to form a connection, and sometimes it fails.

YouTube has videos on this. Some of the mad ones have people hitting the edges of the TV screen with a baseball bat. The daft thing is that it works. Well, for a short while, the few minutes that it takes for them to crow that they fixed it. When the camera is off though it doesn't take long for it to give up again.

There's a very good instructible on this here: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-remove-and-re-attach-LCD-Ribbon-from-a-PCB-/

The thing is, with a TV just over 12 months old, you shouldn't have to mess around with this. This isn't something you're going to 'fix' by pressing buttons on the remote or the telly. Something inside is broken, and it needs the TV opening up for it to be fixed. It isn't going to improve on its own. It will only get worse. Waste no time. Get in touch with the retailer now. If you bought on a credit card or with a HP agreement then get in touch with them, too. You have rights, and the way you paid may add to those rights.
 
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Thanks Lucid, I suspect the panel to be at fault. First time in TV ownership that a TV has developed a fault on me like this.

Purchased from the Samsung website on a credit card, so I'll give them a call later this week.
 
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