Question HISense TV going dark after a minute

[hyankov]

I have an issue with a 55h8g TV. I will preface this by saying I am tech-savvy. Need help from someone who is familiar with the technical details of the following issue.

After I turn the TV on, it goes "dark" in about 1min of uptime. None of the changes I make to the TV seem to persist - adding/removing accounts, soft resetting (erase settings), etc. Before this happened, I've had a prolonged period of time where I was getting "out of storage" warnings. I disabled some apps and removed others. Not sure if that's what bricked it. It's currently unusable.

Using the serial number, I've downloaded the latest firmware and put it on a FAT32-formatted USB drive. I am trying to reset/update the firmware, but none of my methods work - especially powering it on with the Power button pressed, does nothing for me. Once booted, if I manage to get to the firmware upgrade on the menu, I see a choice: Reboot or Cancel. When I reboot, it does nothing.

Any advice?

PS
I am never buying another HISense TV.

 

[COLGeek]

How long have you owned this TV?

 

[hyankov]

For a while, it's been acting up about storage for a long while, but bricked in the last 1 week

 

[COLGeek]

I doubt a firmware update will change anything. Sounds like a hardware failure. Those really aren't too serviceable.

 

[hyankov]

I am leaning towards replacing the motherboard now ...

 

[COLGeek]

If you can find the right one, that might help. With the relative lost cost of 4k TVs, you need to account for how much time and money to sink into this one.

 

[hyankov]

I am getting it for $73 shipped, so I think it's about fair. I'm not looking forward to dismounting the TV from the wall and then back on, than replacing the board itself.

 

[COLGeek]

Good luck. Please follow up with the results.

 

[hyankov]

I wasn't going to write anything, because it's a job so simple, a monkey with a wrench could do it. However, the monkey was busy, so I had to do it and a few events made it story-worthy, so here goes it ...

I've received the "main board" part I've purchased online and scrolled through a 30s video (I have a short attention span) to get the idea, pretty straight-forward. So I took the TV off the wall and in the process nobody was seriously injured, so I was already feeling ahead of myself.

Easily took out the few screws that hold the panel and got to the board.

Out with the old, in with the new:

Put it back together:

... only to discover that 3 of the screws are missing. When I rattled the 55" hunk of Chinese plastic, my worst suspicion was instantly confirmed - the screws were in the TV, behind the panels. Of course, to make things worse, they've found their way down under the lower panel. So I had to undo that as well. Now that I think about it, I could have gotten away with uncovering the lower panel ... anyway, after turning a 5 minute job into a 30 minute one, I felt "that's more like it, it was going too well to be true".

Everything back together and all screws present, time for a test-run. TV turns on and stays on just fine, but to my surprise, a Google account was already logged in. But my surprise would pale to Jon's surprise, when he receives a notification of his old TV coming back to life somewhere in the Midwest, possibly years after giving up on life.

My 110lbs wife (who was /in spirit/ helping me) and I exchanged glances of disbelief, when we mounted the TV back on the wall from the first try within the span of 10 seconds. I spent the next 20 minutes looking behind the TV and trying to figure what did I do wrong, because surely it couldn't be so easy, given it took us 30 minutes last time.

But no, there it is, in its fully glory, the collaborative result of used TV parts, Chinese engineering and Jon's account.

Jon,
If you're reading this, please renew your subscription to Hulu and Disney, you only have Netflix and Appl TV, you chpskate.

 

[COLGeek]

Good job.

You should be able to factory reset the TV and start afresh with your info.

Funny story. Well done.