Help! I seem to have killed my telly!

[Roger Mills]

I turned on my Pamasonic TX-L26X 10B TV last night and, as often happens, it reported that new stations had been found. I usually press Exit at this stage in order to watch the existing channels but, for some reason, I pressed OK to add the new stations.

This seemed to invoke an automatic tuning operation, where it went through all the channels starting at 21, and listing what it had found. All the muxes here are in the 20s and 30s. After 37 it scanned more radidly until it got to 68. Then the screen went blank, and the green status light under the screen was flashing quite fast.

After quite a while, I turned it off at the mains and started again - but still nothing. It just sits there with a blank screen and no sound. There's an occasional click from an internal relay and a slightly less dark flash on the screen.

It doesn't respond to any buttons on the remote. I can't get a menu - so I can't reset it to factory conditions, which is perhaps what it needs.

Anyone got any ideas - other than a trip to the tip?

[Jeff Layman]

Depends on how much you want to bother with a 10+ years old TV. You could open it up and have a look at the power supply, and perhaps check for bulging capacitors (not usually a problem with Panasonic). But it it isn't something simple and obviously fixable. It looks like a trip to the tip is on the cards.

[Roger Mills]

You're probably right! But why would a re-tune have caused this?

[Jeff Layman]

It was probably coincidence. Or the power supply chip was on its last legs, and the stress caused by a retune rewriting the new station arrangement to memory pushed it over the edge.

[Richard]

These?

[Martin Brown]

Doesn't it have real physical buttons hidden on the set somewhere?

My older Panasonic has its buttons on the RHS back. Others I think have them hidden under a cover on front centre.

Some keychord or other (check manual) will force a factory reset.

You might want to unplug the aerial after it has scanned your local MUXes - perhaps if found something nasty in the woodshed on ch 68.

I have had the opposite problem after digital day when the Welsh transmitter came in range on a sidelobe of antennas potined at Winterhill. The older Panasonics put first found into channels 1-5 so that an auto retune would turn the main channels into Welsh!

This dis not go down well with my parents so I disabled auto rescan warnings when new channels are found.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I don't know that vintage, is this the one with a sat tuner as well? Does any specialist forums exist for tvs? Back in the days of paper mags, Television magazine used to have a lot of things about weird faults and how to fix them, Normally as sets got more modern such fixes were more hold this down for x seconds then tap this key on the remote then etc etc type things as bugs always seem to exist in software.

Brian

[alan_m]

Turn it off at the mains switch for more than a couple of minutes before switching back on. The time will give all the internal power supplies a chance to fully discharge.

[John Hall]

In message [e-mail]>, Roger Mills [e-mail] writes

Do you have a user guide? If so, does it have anything helpful? Might there perhaps be a button hidden away somewhere on the set for resetting it to factory conditions?

You could try a web search to see if anyone else has had this problem and resolved it. There might even be a technical manual available on Pansonic's site which might help.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

There is also the fact that now we have sd channels on the had muxs and that seems to confuse the heck out of similar vintage Sharp tvs such that all the channels get muddled up. I guess it could just have run out of memory? The flash memory may also have some duff sectors causing an error it does not recover from. My old Goodman's SD box went this way in the end, it started with random lock ups. Brian

[Andy Burns]

This is for another Panasonic, but might be worth a try

Or a different method using buttons on the TV instead of remote

probably worth searching for other panasonic combinations, before taking it to the skip.

[Paul]

The manual says there are six buttons on the side.

F Volume/Contrast/Brightness/Colour/Sharpness Tint(NTSCmode)/Bass/Treble/Balance/AutoSetup (page 35)

+/^ Up/down controls for things that -/v need a slider adjustment

TV \__ Input mode selection AV /

Power

It's probably not the TV/AV selection, because if there was no signal on the AV inputs, the OSD would say "No signal" rather than just bobbling along with various shades of black.

Firmware is loadable via SD, but you'd most likely need menu sanity for that to kick off.

"Model Number

LCD model ... TX-L26X10B ...

Update Version Ver. 1.014 Update File Name / Size

P091_1014.zip / 7,535,616 bytes <== "SDDL.SEC" file inside

Update Date Aug 31, 2012"

PDF manual download, is just below the page image.

Apparently, if you start the AutoSetup, you're supposed to be able to stop it, then manually program channels. But that was some other UK website that had the info.

Summary: I would fiddle with those side buttons, just to get a menu on it. I don't really know what the best operation to try on it would be, after that. If you get the menu to appear, a visual check of the PSU board would not hurt.

Paul

[Andy Burns]

Maybe storing the new channels to FLASH memory was the final write that wore the chip out?

[Martin Brown]

Well done Brian! You have reminded me of another mode of failure of these older sets that still have an analogue tuner in them - they reset to using the analogue tuner by default if something goes wrong.

Many also leave the digital tuner continuously enabled by default using about 20W even in standby (it can be disabled - dig deep in the menus).

Happened to an elderly neighbour with a Polaroid! TV last time they messed about with the MUXes round here - just prior to first lockdown. If the tuning goes wrong with digital tuning it does a factory reset alright but reverts to looking for analogue channels which aren't there!

[Theo]

I'd also try plugging in an HDMI source (eg DVD player) and seeing if it manages to detect that. That'll allow you to check three things:

- whether it's working enough to detect and display the external source

- possibly wake it up enough to access the menus from where you can select a factory reset

- whether a fallback plan of using an external STB / PVR / streaming stick would be feasible if you don't find a way to reset the tuner

Theo

[Java Jive]

+1, disconnect it from the mains completely for as much as 24hrs or so before trying again.

[Fredxx]

It may have used the microcontroller's own flash memory. I might wonder if some corruption during the write process caused this.

Some TVs are on eBay for parts. They don't go for a lot with a cracked screen if you are willing to swap parts.

Otherwise it's either tip or even eBay?

[Roger Mills]

I turned it off for several hours when transporting it from A to B. Still no joy!

[Roger Mills]

I have a user guide (but not a repair manual). The only thing I can find is via the menu - but I can't display the menu!

[Roger Mills]

Thanks. I've tried all the button combinations in these and similar articles - but no joy so far.