[androophalous]

Hi All,

I've got what seems to be a dead pixel problem that has become a significant issue with my Toshiba 47HL167 TV. It had started with a reasonably large grouping (120ish?) pixels failing seemingly at once and has since over the past week spidered up the screen in a row of vertically failing pixels.

Here are a few shots of the travesty itself

A bit of back story as it may be significant. I had moved last month and the TV was stored in an unheated garage for roughly 3 weeks wrapped in a large blanket. Over the course of those 3 weeks there were several days where ambient temperatures dropped to -25 Celsius. The TV was not exposed to any water while stored. After installing the screen at my new location as I recall the first set of pixels had already failed when I first powered on the TV. One other thing to note is that the LCD may have had pressure applied at the point of failure as it may have been lowered into the corner of my set top box briefly.

Cycling through colors and tapping doesn't seem to have a significant effect but the pixels in the vertical line appear to be recovering and failing somewhat randomly over time, possibly due to heat buildup.

This TV is long since out of warranty and I'm not expecting much but I still wanted to see if anyone had thoughts on the problem as I'm quite fond of this particular tube.

Thanks in advance for any support and / or recommendations people are able to offer!

Andrew

 

[cableRules]

For what it's worth, the sales clerks have mentioned HDTV's can be loaded on the back of a pickup for the ride home, even in -25. Less then 3 weeks but...

 

[BGY11]

Given that the color of the pixels seems to change, it sounds like the panel may have suffered pressure damage. Usually if the pixels were just "dead" then the color would remain the same.

 

[androophalous]

thanks cableRules and i agree. i would suspect if the cause was cold the issue would be evenly dispersed instead of in such a concentrated spot.

hi BGY11. i'm starting to think more and more that you're correct and pressure is the culprit. if it's significant the dead pixels don't change color, the "aftermath" trail of pixels just occasionally seem to fluctuate between a failed and working state.

i would guess the complexity of repairing a panel with this type of damage would make it extremely cost and / or time prohibitive?

 

[ScaryBob]

It looks like physical damage to me as well. It's unfortunate but nothing can be done since the cost of repair would be too high. Warranty would not cover this either. Just chalk it up to the cost of the move and start looking for a replacement TV.

 

[FrostyButters]

If you had movers, they may have insurance. If you have home insurance, it may be covered.

If it was purchased on credit card, it may qualify for extended warranty. Most credit cards double the warranty for up to 2 years.

 

[androophalous]

hey ScaryBob. unfortunate indeed

that's an interesting idea dscott01. i often sign up for store credit cards for big budget purchases to get extra discounts / store incentives / etc. and just pay the card off in store and never use it again. as i recall i had done that in this case. i guess i could call up CHASE and HSBC, see if at one point i had a BestBuy account, see if they had historical info for the purchase and whine that they need to give me something for my suffering.

because the failure was almost certainly due to my negligence, the TV is definitely way over warranty (it's at least 4 years old) and the idea of spending a significant amount of time on the phone with different support reps makes me shudder i think i'll instead just start watching for good deals on a new, nicer picture box.

i appreciate everyone's consideration on this. now i'm off to browse threads for info on current technologies. see you all there