[opendtv] The "black" screen of death

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:34:21 -0500

There is much glee in "Mudville" whenever Bill Gates does a demo and 
the infamous blue screen of death pops up. CE manufacturers 
apparently take pride in the fact that their products are virtually 
bulletproof - i.e. they never crash.

It's time for a reality check.

We have had our new Samsung 50" DLP--RPTV since just before Christmas 
(not quite a month).

Yesterday when I got home from my visit to the CE retailer, I walked 
in and my father-in-law asked me what he was doing wrong with the TV. 
The screen was black.

I presumed that he must have changed the remote from TV to one of the 
other devices it can control. But the source was set to TV. Then I 
checked to see if he had changed the source input to DVD or VCR. The 
TV did not respond.

I tried cycling power several times. When the power was on there was 
a red blinking light above the normal power on indicator. The "black 
screen of death," stared back at me.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the set has lost its 
brain. A few days after we installed it the picture turned red. I'm 
not sure how this is possible with a rotating color wheel, but it was 
screwed up.

  The fix that time was to pull the plug out of the wall; when the set 
was turned back on it was fine.

About two weeks ago it hung up again; this time it seemingly would 
not turn on, but it could be the same problem I saw yesterday. Again, 
pulling the plug fixed the problem.

So yesterday I pulled the plug...again.

So much for the myth that TVs cannot crash...

Regards
Craig
 
 
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