TV Fault

There's a crack in the glass just up from the bottom left corner. The panel is covered with a grid of thin transparent conductive traces (typically indium tin oxide, ITO) that connect the drivers around the periphery to the individual pixels (LCD or OLED). The crack has broken the traces so the pixels downstream from the crack (vertically above in this case) are no longer connected and remain dark.

You need to replace the panel, but unless you can find a donor TV with the identical panel it's unlikely to be economical to repair. I'm afraid it's new TV time.

Theo

IMHO it's had it.

You could try reposting in sci.electronics.repair in case anyone has successfully fixed this sort of fault.

I was wondering what might fit the symptoms, and I believe you have 100% hit the nail on the head.

Since the cost of a TV is about 90% the LCD screen, unless you want to find another one with bust electronics and spend a day for an uncertain result, put it in the trash

at 10 years old it doesn't owe you much.

Yup, the LCD is physically broken - look close you will see fine cracks.

Yes, but, typically the new panel will cots more than the TV!

True, but sadly that means dealing with the modern spyware / ad slingers that modern TVs have become.

Many thanks for the replies - good to know, save wasting too much time on it.

Shame, it was a good telly, excellent UI and a really good picture. Previous owner discarded it as it could no longer do Netflix etc. I tried to persuade him to get a firestick etc, but he wouldn't have it and bought a new OLED.

I am all in favour of keeping old gear going, but part of that is knowing when its really reached end of life

A while ago I took the TV off the wall and carefully placed it face down on the sofa. When I re-hung it on a wall mount part of the screen was as you describe. I think it was about 2 years old ... to the tip it went :-(

We have a newish LG TV. If we want to watch any of the LG channels, we basically have to sacrifice our first born child.

So far I’ve resisted but it’s a PITA if you press the wrong button and have to jump through a few hoops to avoid it.

Tim

While not solely a LG problem, they do seem to be leading the pack in surveillance capitalism...

I did look into this a few years ago, and then they were amongst the best, privacy wise. That video suggests not any longer. And how they can hire a convicted scammer as head of advertising is, well . . .

I've got all (that I can see) of the snooping and microphone settings off on my 3 year old LG. On the LG channels I get very few ads - usually for Arab banks or expensive cars. The rest of the time it's an LG or scenic screensaver. But I've no idea what if anything they mine from me. I've not noticed anything from the email I set up to register.

Seems they've cut their hardware margins so far that the best money is now made in data mining and ads. The only way to protect privacy is with a non-smart TV or a computer monitor.

Mid-term capitalism, what's not to like ;-)

Not if you don't connect the tv to the internet. Yeah I know I'm old fashioned. If I want to watch something that's not on Freeview I plug in a cheap Roku & remove it when I'm finished.

Of course, and that's why there is pressure to turn off OTA broadcasts. When everything has to be streamed, you'll need to be connected to the internet if you want to watch TV. Then you're at the mercy of the data collectors and advertisers.

And what else might the Roku stick be doing while you're watching TV and it's connected to the internet?

I think they have got worse with time - my 7 year old LG OLED (screen now approaching "knackered") predated the modern fad for auto content recognition - and originally did not even have the settings option to "Don't sell my data" (It's not currently in use, but I will have to check if it has acquired one via firmware update before setting it up again).

With many manufactures now, the TVs are sold at a loss... All the money is made selling the "owner's" (any anyone they share a house with!) data.

New non smart TVs are practically unobtainable now (and the maker can plausibly claim that the smart ones are cheap enough and will do anything a dumb one would do)

LG even had a go at getting smart with monitors in collaboration with MS. If you plug one into a windows PC, the PC recognises the make and model via the EDID info sent over HDMI[2], and then windows update auto installs a LG "app" that slings adds at you and tries to convince you to install McAfee! (curiously MS also own a snooping based ad marketing platform that is used to run the LG setup)

"Commercial" TVs are still and option - they will let you knobble the telemetry (although whether they are secure against attacks is another matter). As would be large format monitor with a media PC or some other source. The price difference between those and a smart TV show how much money they expect to rake in from the TV though!

Some smart TVs will already probe for open access wifi points they can reach even if you don't provide the connection yourself. Wonder how long before they come with a cellular modem installed?

Dunno, but all the information I input is fictitious apart from a working email address kept for such occasions.

This thread prompted me to play with my Smart TV features, which because I use it as a dumb monitor for an orange pi5, I'd never looked at before.

I found a quick start option (5 seconds) as opposed to the normal 43 second boot time, result!

The stuff you enter is not what they are interested in... what appears on your screen (regardless of source), and a list of all the other devices on your network would be of more value.