Panny Plasma Dead, what to replace with?

Panny Plasma Dead, what to replace with?

Author
Discussion

toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Monday 22nd October 2018
quotequote all
My nice TX-P50GT60 has the 7 blinking LEDs of doom and won't power on. Local repair shop are not optimistic.

What to replace it with? Looking at 55" OLED I guess, richersounds would be my preferred option. Budget is probably around 1600 quid but could stretch it a little if there was a significant benefit.

Unexpected bill :-(

Thanks

belleair302

6,913 posts

213 months

Monday 22nd October 2018
quotequote all
Sony OLED 55 or 60 inches. Epic picture and great sound too.

toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Monday 22nd October 2018
quotequote all
Will take a look ta, sound not an issue as I've got 5.1 through an amp.

welsh blackbird

690 posts

250 months

Monday 22nd October 2018
quotequote all
toastyhamster said:
My nice TX-P50GT60 has the 7 blinking LEDs of doom and won't power on. Local repair shop are not optimistic.

What to replace it with? Looking at 55" OLED I guess, richersounds would be my preferred option. Budget is probably around 1600 quid but could stretch it a little if there was a significant benefit.

Unexpected bill :-(

Thanks
Same happened to me. Replaced the plasma with a 55" Panasonic OLED (when they were £2,000!), then the plasma started working again! Gave it to the mother-in law.

The OLED is brilliant, though, so I'm not complaining!

B17NNS

18,506 posts

253 months

Monday 22nd October 2018
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LG C8 worth a look too.

AndrewT1275

784 posts

246 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
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My Panasonic plasma got the 7 blinking lights a couple of weeks ago and I thought I was in for a big bill for a new oled or a slightly smaller bill for a lower quality led.

Luckily I was able to fix it myself. The replacement power board to fix the 7 light problem was £100 (kits to fix your own board are about £25 but looked a bit too fiddly for my soldering skillz). Once this was in it became apparent that the other board had also gone as it was now 8 flashing lights. The second board was only £12.

It's a very easy test and fix if you can use a screwdriver and multimeter.

I figured it would be better to risk £100 trying to fix it rather than get an led that I wouldn't be happy with. If you want to go down this route I can dig out the useful links as there is a lot of garbage to filter out if you do a search.

toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
Bit of an update.

Took it to local independent and it's a bit of a surprising turn up. One of the boards has arced to the back of the screen, massive black marks on the pcb apparently - this would explain why the TV had pushed the hinged frame downwards (fairly loose anyway). He's claiming it's dead and beyond economical repair as any board fix might not fix an underlying issue, he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it. I'll try and get a photo tomorrow if it's worth it.

Thought I'd ring Richersounds in case my memory on the guarantee was faulty and got a result, or so I thought. RS claim it should be still under guarantee but Panasonic are disputing this. My next steps tomorrow are to get the serial number and the TV back, register it with Panasonic, prob get a receipt off RS and then phone it in to a Panasonic repair centre, most likely I'd get a contribution to a new TV, when I was checking the guarantee and mentioned the 7 LED blink they seemed to think they'd junk it.

bristolracer

5,624 posts

155 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it.
Water can get into a perished aerial cable and track down the cable and into the tv.


toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Sunday 28th October 2018
quotequote all
bristolracer said:
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it.
Water can get into a perished aerial cable and track down the cable and into the tv.
TV is on the wall, only cable connections are a 3 pin socket behind it and a HDMI lead routed behind plasterboard from the amp below it.

AndrewT1275

784 posts

246 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

One of the boards has arced to the back of the screen, massive black marks on the pcb apparently.
Apparently the grounding screws on the pcbs were often not tightened very well from the factory which is why this is a fairly common problem. When I took the back off mine a number of the screws were loose and there was clear arcing across one of the grounding points on both failed boards.

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

176 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
bristolracer said:
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it.
Water can get into a perished aerial cable and track down the cable and into the tv.
I have never, ever seen that happen, ever.

tdm34

7,397 posts

216 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
Alucidnation said:
bristolracer said:
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it.
Water can get into a perished aerial cable and track down the cable and into the tv.
I have never, ever seen that happen, ever.
I have to say that I have seen it happen a few times when I was selling TV's

Alucidnation

16,810 posts

176 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
There is almost no way water can get into the back of a tv from a bad cable.



More than likely a leaking vase or someone spilt something on top of the set.


Most cables droop down when coming out of the back of a tv.

Teddy Lop

8,301 posts

73 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

Took it to local independent and it's a bit of a surprising turn up. One of the boards has arced to the back of the screen, massive black marks on the pcb apparently - this would explain why the TV had pushed the hinged frame downwards (fairly loose anyway). He's claiming it's dead and beyond economical repair as any board fix might not fix an underlying issue, he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it. I'll try and get a photo tomorrow if it's worth it.

Thought I'd ring Richersounds in case my memory on the guarantee was faulty and got a result, or so I thought. RS claim it should be still under guarantee but Panasonic are disputing this. My next steps tomorrow are to get the serial number and the TV back, register it with Panasonic, prob get a receipt off RS and then phone it in to a Panasonic repair centre, most likely I'd get a contribution to a new TV, when I was checking the guarantee and mentioned the 7 LED blink they seemed to think they'd junk it.
I thought richer sounds big thing was their supposedly amazing TV warranties? I walked out the swiss cottage store after the mare basically wouldn't let me have the telly without one!

bristolracer

5,624 posts

155 months

Monday 29th October 2018
quotequote all
tdm34 said:
Alucidnation said:
bristolracer said:
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it.
Water can get into a perished aerial cable and track down the cable and into the tv.
I have never, ever seen that happen, ever.
I have to say that I have seen it happen a few times when I was selling TV's
I've been installing Aerials and Satellite dishes for some years and have seen it a handful of times.
I have had occasions where you unplug the aerial and it pisses water out like a hose.
The dielectric insulation in the cable is sometimes hollow and the stuff will work just like a pipe, combine that with a missing cap on the aerial dipole and you have a perfect rainwater drain.

tdm34

7,397 posts

216 months

Tuesday 30th October 2018
quotequote all
Teddy Lop said:
toastyhamster said:
Bit of an update.

Took it to local independent and it's a bit of a surprising turn up. One of the boards has arced to the back of the screen, massive black marks on the pcb apparently - this would explain why the TV had pushed the hinged frame downwards (fairly loose anyway). He's claiming it's dead and beyond economical repair as any board fix might not fix an underlying issue, he thought water had got in the back (no chance). He'd never seen anything like it. I'll try and get a photo tomorrow if it's worth it.

Thought I'd ring Richersounds in case my memory on the guarantee was faulty and got a result, or so I thought. RS claim it should be still under guarantee but Panasonic are disputing this. My next steps tomorrow are to get the serial number and the TV back, register it with Panasonic, prob get a receipt off RS and then phone it in to a Panasonic repair centre, most likely I'd get a contribution to a new TV, when I was checking the guarantee and mentioned the 7 LED blink they seemed to think they'd junk it.
I thought richer sounds big thing was their supposedly amazing TV warranties? I walked out the swiss cottage store after the mare basically wouldn't let me have the telly without one!
Thing is (and I speak from being ex RS ) Most TV's come with a 5 Year warranty as standard from the manufacturer these days, they (like JL and Currys
etc) sell the set as if it's their warranty when all RS are doing is tack an extra year on to make it appear better value, when statistically most TV's tend to fail "out of the box".

peterperkins

3,202 posts

248 months

Tuesday 30th October 2018
quotequote all
To be honest get rid of the damn thing.

They used a lot of electricity and a decent modern telly of equivalent size and better picture quality will use about 1/10th the power..

toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Tuesday 30th October 2018
quotequote all
It's probably going anyway now I've been browsing OLED. Picked up the Panny today, no visible effects of damage on any PCB but repairer reckoned that from his investigation if only one PCB had gone he'd be amazed and probably also some parts on the screen as well (forgot the names of them, nothing I'd heard before in my limited knowledge of electronics).

RS are honoring the guarantee (turns out it expires in Jan) and there's an engineer arriving Fri/Sat, probably get carted off and hopefully not worth repairing. Even if it gets fixed it'll be on ebay or at the in laws where previous TVs have ended up.

Currently watching a 3 year old cheapy LG LED that I got secondhand for the eldest/xbox. Picture is quite crisp but I prefer the Panny's depth of colour/better motion. I know an OLED won't compare.

MrHamster

6 posts

111 months

Friday 2nd November 2018
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From one hamster to another, I'm sorry for your loss frown
I too have a Panny Plasma and it hasnt missed a beat so far (7 years and counting).

toastyhamster

Original Poster:

1,703 posts

102 months

Friday 2nd November 2018
quotequote all
Had a n00b engineer who was pretty clueless on plasmas but he rang a mate who said "PSU board", anyway, it's gone to the workshop. I'll know early next week whether RS have approved a repair or not. If it's dead then reading up on the RS guarantee I'll only be offered a similar replacement or value of current TV - hopefully not the latter as ebay suggests £200 quid. Similar replacement or value of and I'll put the rest in for an OLED. Or I might have the plasma for a bit longer.

Cheapy LG has been surprisingly bearable and it's probably peanuts running costs in comparison.