HDMI Cables and Lightning!

[zach attack]

Last night we had lightning strike our house or extremely close to the house, not exactly sure yet. But anyway 2 TV's were on but lost input when the lightning struck. After doing some testing and screwing around we figured that the HDMI cables are no longer working. The TV's are fine and were just using AVI right now.

Anyone heard of this happening?

 

[soundguruman]

Some of the circuitry in the TVs may be lunched. AVI works but HDMI does not. What happens when you use a new HDMI cable?

 

[zach attack]

Well we solved the problem. The output on our stereo system for the HDMI cables must have fried. We figured out that it came up through the phone line since we discovered our phone was not working. That's why there was no surge protection because it was through the phone line.

 

[bmesc]

Just thought I'd add my experience for others who have had their HDMI ports blow out due to a nearby lightning strike. It happened to me. My belief is that whatever charge the lightning generated somehow traveled through my DirecTV dish, passed through both the DirecTV receiver box and my AV receiver and landed on my 50" Panasonic plasma HDMI board. I googled for Panasonic repair and found a web site that offered TV repairman answers to your questions. I paid $17 and correctly got the part number I needed. I bought it online from ShopJimmy for $150, got it a week later and installed it myself. After talking with local TV repair shops, I estimated it would have cost me over $450 and loss of my TV for over a week. Now I am in the market for a surge protector that includes a coaxial input.

 

[01bush]

Just thought I'd add my experience for others who have had their HDMI ports blow out due to a nearby lightning strike. It happened to me. My belief is that whatever charge the lightning generated somehow traveled through my DirecTV dish, passed through both the DirecTV receiver box and my AV receiver and landed on my 50" Panasonic plasma HDMI board. I googled for Panasonic repair and found a web site that offered TV repairman answers to your questions. I paid $17 and correctly got the part number I needed. I bought it online from ShopJimmy for $150, got it a week later and installed it myself. After talking with local TV repair shops, I estimated it would have cost me over $450 and loss of my TV for over a week. Now I am in the market for a surge protector that includes a coaxial input.

i had the same thing happen to mine. lighting came in through the directv and fried the dvr and the tv 50'' panasonic. i just took the back off and its burnt. can you tell me the part #

please email me @ personal information blasted into a million rainbows.

 

[01bush]

the tv is a plasma and its burnt at the port where the hdmi was pluged in.

 

[01bush]

the tv is a plasma and its burnt at the port where the hdmi was pluged in.

 

[avisjohn]

I my case the Sony Bravia LCD 40 inch will no even turn on - see no lights whatsoever. It was plugged into surge protector along with HDTV cable box, which no longer works, but other things plugged into the same surge protector work. I know either lightening hit the cable splitter outside my house or too much rain got to a loose connection - either way we heard a long noise and then some of the electricity went out as well as the cable to several TVs, those the cable boxes work, the TVs will not turn on any longer.

 

[mattcha]

always check your cables first!

 

[bmesc]

i had the same thing happen to mine. lighting came in through the directv and fried the dvr and the tv 50'' panasonic. i just took the back off and its burnt. can you tell me the part #

please email me @ personal information blasted into a million rainbows.

Sorry I did not see there was a reply to my post when you sent it. Hope you figured it out. I don't have the part# offhand, but I think your best bet is to research the model number to find the part# because they may be different for different models.

I have been using the set with no problems since I replaced the part, but ever since then, the TV picture (only) will go black for about 2 seconds maybe a couple of times over 3 hours or so. Annoying, but otherwise it looks good.

 

[niederbergerjm]

I had the same happen to me, it blew out my AV Receiver, DVD player and 55"Samsung LED TV. I replaced the Receiver and DVD players and the mainboard on my TV. You can find the part number on the mainboard. I googoled it and found it at DiscountTVparts.com for about $150. It was an easy replacement.

 

[pspanhel]

Sony Bravia TV's have an on board fuse which often blows with local lightning, need to take back cover off, look at PCB near mains connections.
I replaced a fuse and all was fine again.

I my case the Sony Bravia LCD 40 inch will no even turn on - see no lights whatsoever. It was plugged into surge protector along with HDTV cable box, which no longer works, but other things plugged into the same surge protector work. I know either lightening hit the cable splitter outside my house or too much rain got to a loose connection - either way we heard a long noise and then some of the electricity went out as well as the cable to several TVs, those the cable boxes work, the TVs will not turn on any longer.

 

[Albert Blanton]

Just had a similar problem on 10/03/2014. The problem obviously comes in through the satellite cable. I lost HDMI cable output ports from my Scepter 40", Viore 24",and Vizio 55" TVs. There was no direct strike so it had to be transient static electricity from a lightning strike in the near vicinity. All of my computers and TV power inputs are protected with high quality surge protectors and they are still fully functional. The only damage was to the HDMI TV input ports. I also lost my internet connection through AT&T but their systems fuses at the main box blew which kept any surge from reaching my computers. Is there a fuse set up that could be installed between the coax cable and the boxes that would blow at a low enough voltage to protect the TVs. It is a shame to spend more than the TVs cost to repair the HDMI board. This repair will be cost prohibitive for me and will actually be cheaper to replace the TVs in most instances than to repair..

 

[snowg1]

Last night we had lightning strike our house or extremely close to the house, not exactly sure yet. But anyway 2 TV's were on but lost input when the lightning struck. After doing some testing and screwing around we figured that the HDMI cables are no longer working. The TV's are fine and were just using AVI right now.

Anyone heard of this happening?

Lightning strike took out all HDMI inputs on my ground floor that had a cable connected, whether powered on or not.
My home theater receiver, TV monitor, and network hub, connected to it were all fried (there were arc marks around the HDMI connection on the TV). The cable modem connected to the fried network hub was fried as well as the cable company's splitter at the side of the house. Ground floor computer connected to cable modem port had motherboard and display board fried with the DVI inputs blown on the attached monitor. Additionally cat-5 connected whole house audio flamed out and all electronic components are toast. Second floor computers, networks, etc all okay.

Also several neighbors had HDMI inputs to their TVs blown.

HDMI is obviously not rugged to Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). What a risk!
I'm avoiding HDMI wherever possible.

 

[mscamry2]

Just thought I'd add my experience for others who have had their HDMI ports blow out due to a nearby lightning strike. It happened to me. My belief is that whatever charge the lightning generated somehow traveled through my DirecTV dish, passed through both the DirecTV receiver box and my AV receiver and landed on my 50" Panasonic plasma HDMI board. I googled for Panasonic repair and found a web site that offered TV repairman answers to your questions. I paid $17 and correctly got the part number I needed. I bought it online from ShopJimmy for $150, got it a week later and installed it myself. After talking with local TV repair shops, I estimated it would have cost me over $450 and loss of my TV for over a week. Now I am in the market for a surge protector that includes a coaxial input.

i had the same thing happen to mine. lighting came in through the directv and fried the dvr and the tv 50'' panasonic. i just took the back off and its burnt. can you tell me the part #

please email me @ personal information blasted into a million rainbows.

 

[mscamry2]

I live in Waco, TX and Friday we had a terrible power outage and the dish tech said that my HDMI port is out. Is this the same thing that happened to you and you said you were able to repair it yourself. Are you a service tech and was it very hard? Was it the whole board? I am afraid that if I get the part that I will not be able to have the right equipment to repair it. Can you give me some details on what you had to do? Appreciate your help.

 

[westom]

I live in Waco, TX and Friday we had a terrible power outage and the dish tech said that my HDMI port is out. Is this the same thing that happened to you and you said you were able to repair it yourself. Are you a service tech and was it very hard?

Your answer is unique to each TV. Often the HDMI port is now part of one big main board. You might open it to learn.

Two problems exist. First is to fix the TV. Second is to learn why and eliminate future damage. OP only assumed why damage happened. And got it wrong. All phone lines already have effective protection installed for free. You probably had damage for similar reasons.

A surge is maybe a lightning strike to wires far down the street. That is a direct strike incoming to every household appliance. But electricity (a surge) only does damage when both an incoming and outgoing path exist. Only damaged are appliances that also had a better outgoing path to earth. In your case, that outgoing path is easy - HDMI port.

HDMI port connects to equipment (ie satellite box) that connects to what is already surge protected. Surge protection is always about a connection to earth. So a best outgoing path is HDMI port, via satellite dish to earth ground.

Incoming on AC mains. Outgoing to earth via HDMI port. Damage is often on an outgoing path.

Lightning was all but invited to hunt for earth via appliances because a 'whole house' protector was not properly earthed on AC mains. Protection must be where a surge enters the building. Otherwise a surge will go hunting for earth destructive via appliances.

A second scenario is possible because so many dish installers fail to properly surge protect (earth) the dish and the cable where it enters the building. It must enter within feet of the same single point earth ground used by AC electric and phone.

HDMI ports (the outgoing path) tend to be easy victims when a 'whole house' solution is not properly earthed on AC mains.

 

[Arthur_1975]

Hi, this exact same situation happened to myself I was wondering which circuit board did they tell you needed to be replaced I am going to try to fix the problem myself also any help will be grateful thanks

 

[n9zn]

HAVE ISOLATED TEMP CONTROLLED SOLDERING IRON DESIGNED FOR SURFACE MOUNT - CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT.

I had this problem nearly 3 years back, bought a new main board and that fixed my Panasonic TC-P42ST30 plasma TV. Today another close by lightening strike, nothing except the same TV was damaged. When these lightening strikes occur I only seem to lose the HDMI port that runs to my cable box. I moved the same HDMI cable to another HDMI port on the TV and all is working again.

ANYONE KNOW WHAT IS BEING BLOWN OUT ON THE PANASONIC TV MAIN BOARD? If we could nail this question down I would bet one tiny surface mount component is the culprit that is going bad. When we identify the component(s) on the main board that go out it would not be surprising to find that one or a very few component parts can be replaced for next to nothing, mostly time and solder skill.

WHO IS THE ENGINEER OR ELECTRONICS TECH THAT CAN SOLVE THIS QUESTION. I can not wait and it will make a lot of Panasonic owners very happy I would think! EDIT: Today was the fourth lightening strike that took out an HDMI port on the TV. Each strike occurred weeks or months apart and they only blow out the TV HDMI port with the cable going to my BrightHouse cable box. Something on the Panasonic main board controlling only one HDMI port is very delicate when it comes to very small static discharges. I need to know what component it might be. Based upon my experience with this problem I believe the component(s) are located in the HDMI port circuit before the input signal is processed after passing through the specific affected HDMI port circuit.

EDIT: --->>> PROBELM SOLVED, I HAVE POSTED WHERE THE PROBLEM IS LOCATED AND HOW IT CAN BE REPAIRED WITHOUT PURCHASING A NEW MAIN BOARD.

 

[n9zn]

Last night we had lightning strike our house or extremely close to the house, not exactly sure yet. But anyway 2 TV's were on but lost input when the lightning struck. After doing some testing and screwing around we figured that the HDMI cables are no longer working. The TV's are fine and were just using AVI right now.

Anyone heard of this happening?

ZACK, when it comes to Panasonic plasma 3D TV's I can assure you it is not the HDMI cable that is always affected. After 4 lightening strikes over more than 4 years I have lost only the TV's HDMI port that is connected to my cable TV box. Everything else in the house is fine, just the single HDMI port on TV goes out.