Tv blanks out

[Tom7227]

I have Comcast service and a problem has developed.  The Samsung 50 inch TV is about 6 years old.  A couple of times in the past few days the screen goes blank.  The audio still works.  I have tried a few things but eventually found that what works is to simply unplug the entire system and let it sit for a short time.  Once plugged back in and the thing is allowed to reboot it works.  Any ideas?

Thanks for your time.

Tom

[leech~~]

Next time it happens call them before unplugging. They can run a system check to see if it's on their end our yours. Then you know it's time to buy a new 55" inch set!

Edited September 26, 2017 by leech~~

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Another option is once the TV goes blank, plug into a DVD player to the same HDMI port and see if the DVD shows video.  If no then its definitely the TV.  Possibly a cap on the video board.

[Blackhawkxp]

Probably a bad board that was discontinued the month you bought the TV and no replacements are available because a million other people had the same problem.  I have had 2 Samsung plasma screen televisions go out in similar matter.  Fortunately i had a replacement warranty from Best Buy that replaced the first one and when the second one went out within a year they refunded my money and i went LG.  I believe it was a power supply board that was the issue with mine.  MY brother in law had the same TV and the video board went out in his but luckily i was able to swap the video board out of my defective television and his is still working.  Keep in mind this is when a 42"-50" television was $2,000 so a guy can understand the frustration when you only got 16 months out of it.

[Grainbelt]

Go to the menu screen if you can and you can use a flashlight and shine it into the screen and look close to see if you can see any video. If you can then the backlight LED's quit working and your video bd is good. If you cannot see anything the video bd may not working or possibly it isn't receiving power from the power supply. I had a bad solder joint on the connection between the LED driver and power supply. The whole connector wiggled through the bd from bad soldering. I touched up the solder joints with a soldering pencil and it has not blanked out since.  My TV is a Vizio 55. Most likely you can find parts on hsolist. Good info on how to fix HD TV's on youtube.

[Tom7227]

Grainbelt - the rig is 6 years old.  Is it likely that a solder joint would go bad after that time?  I have another TV on comcast and I hope that if it still works I can eliminate the cable system as the problem.  Is it likely - reasonable - that the TV would crump out after 6 years?  I have no idea what the life expectancy is on these things.

[delcecchi]

Tom, you can buy the equivalent to that TV for about 300 bucks these days.   So, unless you think it is a personal challenge, just accept that you got a good 6 years and go pick up a new, better, more efficient 4K or 4k oled tv and stretch out in the recliner.

[Grainbelt]

 

13 hours ago, Tom7227 said:

Is it likely that a solder joint would go bad after that time?

 My TV was 3 years old, I was a bit surprised. I  was power cycling to get it going till it just wouldn't come up anymore. I expected a bad board but was pleasantly surprised to find the bad connection.  It could be as easy as to reseat the bd connections, They oxidize over time building resistance. Sliding them out and in helps to scrape that stuff and make a more solid connection.

If you can see your comcast video with a flashlight to the screen you can rule out comcast. The backlight isn't working. There are LED's around the screen powered by the LED driver bd which derives it's power from the power supply. Pretty much the same if it is LCD.