There is some important information at the conclusion of this piece for anyone running HDMI from their cable box or satellite receiver…
My life is a swirling storm of busy-busy go-go right now. We have Little League playoffs and the neighborhood pool opening and my full-time is twice as busy this time of year. So when my 10 year old woke me up this morning, early, and said, “Daddy, the TV won’t turn on,” I knew that life was fixin’ to deliver a death blow straight to my nuts. You see, late last night or early Sunday morning, severe thunderstorms blew through the region. And the flat screen is just a little more than one year old, conveniently just out of the warranty.
Sure enough, as I fiddled with the remote control, standing bewildered in my boxers, I knew the TV was not going to turn on. I knew that after I unplugged it and let it sit that it was not going to turn on. I knew that the damn thing was fried. And sure enough, it would not turn on. However, the red light that shows it is getting power was still on.
So I went through the steps. Unplug. Wait. Plug back in. When I plugged it back it in, it clicked, once. Hmmm. Never done that before. Red light appears again. Tried turning it on again- no luck. I did notice some strange white noise type stuff faintly emanating from the speakers.
By now, both boys are awake and antsy. They were banned from the Wii the day before for beating on each other when one whooped the other in Baseball 2K11. Their only hope for morning distraction is that I get this TV to turn on, and it is not happening.
If your entertainment center is like mine, it is a snarl of wires and cables hidden just out of site behind the equipment. As I started to dismantle it, to get the TV separated, I disturbed a substantial dust bunny hutch. How does dust collect were it can’t fall, between shelving? Anyway, I got the TV free, and laid it face down on the ottoman. Within a few minutes, all the screws were out of the back casing.
I have dismantled a fair amount of electronics and built computers from parts, but I am in no way an expert or an electrical engineer. What I was hoping for was that the fuse that ALL of these electronics seem to have, was blown. It is an easy and very very cheap fix. Find a decent stereo at a yard sale that doesn’t work? It is likely the fuse. Anyway, my fuse was crystal clear and perfect. Shit. The power supply looked good, too. There were no blown capacitors and no obvious signs of a severe surge. I now knew that in order to fix this, I’d have to consult an expert.
I should note that everything was on a surge protector, and the TV was the only piece that seemed to be having a problem. I began to wonder why the fuse wasn’t blown and why the DVD player and cable box was still operational if it was truly a surge due to the thunderstorms.
After some googling, I found a local TV repair expert. God bless him that he answers emails on a Sunday morning. After a few emails back and forth, we became fairly sure that the main board of the TV was fried. Looking online for the board, a new one runs about $180.00. Not bad, compared to buying a new TV. Of course every vendor was out of stock. However, the expert cautioned me, “The surge may have been sent via the HDMI output of the cable box to your TV. Don’t hook up a new TV before determining if the HDMI processor in your cable box is shorted.”
Look, my family is not fat and we love to be outside, but we have got to have a working TV downstairs. It is an imperative. We took a trip to Best Buy and picked up a greatly inferior TV, compared to the fried one, to hold us over. My thinking was that I’d either return it and pay the restocking fee, or if I really loved it, I’d replace the TV in our bedroom.
An hour later, after vacuuming the dust bunnies and removing stuff and re-hooking up stuff, I turn the TV on, and set it to pick up the signal from the HDMI out from the cable box. No signal. You are fucking kidding me. I mean I’ve given up the better part of what was already going to be a busy day for this shit. So I switch over to HDMI 2, and lo and behold, it gets a signal from the DVD player. So I switch the cable box over to HDMI 2, and nothing. I switch the HDMI cables- nothing. I’ll be damned, it is the HDMI processor on the cable box. Luckily, I didn’t fry the HDMI input on the new TV by hooking it up to the bad cable box.
A call to Comcast was made. After jumping through hoops and much un-hooking and re-hooking of the same shit I had been un-hooking and re-hooking all day, Comcast concurred- the box was bad. I told them that I was sure their equipment had allowed a surge from the cable line itself to the HDMI processor and into my TV. They filed a damage claim for me and will call me tomorrow at work for more information.
Now most of you smart asses out there are fixin’ to tell me that I need a surge protector on my broadband cable line. As best as I can tell, that is simply bullshit. I’m sure Comcast will try to tell me the same thing. However, the internets provide a wealth of information, and I intend to geek them with as much jargon as possible, as well as show them that there is no ground wire running from their junction box into the earth. It seems their installer may have forgotten a crucial step.
What, dear readers, does this mean for you? Beware that power surges can come from HDMI outputs to your TV and make sure that your cable or satellite line is grounded! I’ll be sure to let you know if Comcast comes off any of their billions to make this poor biscuit eater whole again on his flat screen idiot-box loss.
Bummer. Let’s see if Comcast does the right thing.
If they are anything like State Farm, they’ve already started following you on Twitter and sent some spam! 🙂
This sort of shit only happens to people down south. Us northern masters have pristine utilities that protect the currents running throughout our homes. Yes, in case you are wondering, more yankee aggression.
Fuck Utah!
Flyseph, may you bring some northern technicians down to North Cacalacca to room with you and fix all of the shit us Southerners have fucked up. If not, sounds like you’re fucked, too.
I hate how customer service always make you jump through all these really obvious hoops before they’ll do anything for you. “reboot the machine” “unplug and reattach the power” etc…. even when you have demonstrated mastery of the subject and the hardware. It’s insane.
I have to admit, typically Comcast customer service is decent to good.
I’ve been there so so many times!
I’ve had two lightning strikes run in through the coax and blow out or gauss all the t.v. s in the house. The last strike I was working on the computer listening to music downstairs unaware of the thunderstorm. The lightning ran from the cable modem, through the router to my computer and into my index finger through the mouse. It nearly threw me out of my chair and burned my finger.
Dave, need to check your co-ax where it enters the house. Should be a grounding box there and you should make sure the co-ax is properly grounded. Do some googling and you’ll find some good information to check and see if it is grounded properly. There were people throughout the area that lost TVs. I think Comcast is going to have to pay some damages. Obviously they are not grounding their co-ax properly, OR something they did caused a surge.
Another caveat to consider…I have a “whole house” surge protector. That didn’t help my extra refrigerator and freezer in the garage when lightning hit the invisible dog fence line which plugs into a garage wall receptacle. It fried my in-ground sprinkler system too, also plugged into the garage wall outlet. Beware of “back-door” power surges!