Power Surge: TV Damaged?

aether: A power surge problem would usually exhibit itself as a problem with the television not turning on or other control issues. Subjective picture issues like you described are things that could be contributed to source material or other problems.... but definately not power surge related. electricitym

- - - - - - - -

Doubt it. If it's a plasma I'd say possibly since anything of the slightest nature can affect them, but if it's a CRT or LCD I seriously doubt it. As another poster said, power surge damage ususally results in a totally dead TV.

I'd check the picture settings in the menu. Some newer TVs like my Sony Wega will display a greyish film picture when the TV is in menu mode and the menu keys haven't been pressed for awhile. I also thought there was a problem until I figured it out.

Another source for surge that many overlook is when you plug in a vacuum cleaner, power tool, or a fitness equipment on the same multi-outlets surge suppressor. Surge suppressors don't protect what's plugged in the outlets from each other. They only protect from outside sources(from the wall outlet).

This has happened multiple times. Since there are so many appliances, and in the area, so many air conditioning units on, using the microwave, for instance, will sometimes result in the power going out.

Also, there seems to be faint, horizontal lines. Little waves, almost. They're not so apparent, but are so when you look closely. They weren't present until a couple days ago.

Another possible explanation: what if someone in the residence had increased the brightness, for instance, and then there was a (localized) power surge? Could this have damaged the picture? Stripping the picture, and leaving a kind of imprint? I appreciate the responses I've gotten.

aether: NO, as it has been indicated in a couple reply posts now... a power surge, local or otherwise is NOT the source of your complaint. Maybe it's the other folks in the residence that are playing with the picture settings..... everybody is an expert. If you are still having problems it may be time to have a service shop fix it for you.... things do break and components do go bad.... and as has been said, you can not logically blame it on the power company so they won't be paying the bill to fix it for you. Maybe you should call Philips.... they might extend the warranty? electricitym . . . . . . . . . .

I'm not one to return items like this unless there's great reason to. If it went dead, for instance. As it stands, other people will perhaps notice a slight change in the picture if I ask them, but it doesn't phase them. As yet, I've no idea what brought about this decline in picture quality. It seems to have happened out of nowhere, but I know something caused it. Maybe it's simply a bad CRT tube? Are Philips TV's known for this?

Something odd happened a few hours ago. There was a lightening storm, and the power went out for a minute. When the TV came back on, there was a reddish imprint on the bottom right portion of the screen. However, in less than an hour, the imprint was essentially gone. What was this exactly, and does it indicate any type of damge?

Hi...

Betcha a dollar against a donut that the power flickered on for a fraction of a second and off again during the outage.

That may have started the degaussing process and then was rudely interrupted. Leaving you with a bit of a kaleidoscope effect for a while.

If this is the case, then a couple of on and off cycles with ample cool down time between will leave it good as new, with no problem.

Take care.

Ken

Try unplugging it overnight, and then plug it back on the next day. Normally

aether: There was NO damage done by the power outage..... AGAIN... one more time.... .... the picture problems you are seeing ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT related to power surges. Power surge damage usually results in a dead set that will not turn on. The reddish imprint you saw was probably residual magnetic disturbance from the most recent power outage that went away as a result of the automatic degaussing circuitry. AGAIN... one more time.... .... the problems you are seeing ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT related to power surges. AGAIN... one more time, for the last time.... .... the problems you are seeing ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT related to power surges. electricitym - - - - - - - - - -

aether wrote:

So, are the problems I'm experiencing in any way related to the power surges?

I'll try unplugging it overnight. Appreciate all the help I've received here. Even Mr. Electricity. ;)

Probably not a surge, but a brief interruption, close enough to the average non-tech person. I have seen nearby lightning strikes magnetize the shadow mask as well and cause the same problem, again it goes away after a degauss cycle or two.

FYI, the reason I said to unplug it(not just turn it off), is that some TV's will not do degaussing unless the TV has been unplugged for a long time, plus there maybe some settings in its memory that were corrupted by a brief power outage that might have caused it to misbehave. My TV's manual for instance says to unplug the TV for 30 minutes if it was relocated...

At this point, it's on the cusp of returnable. It's not yet evident enough, however, that it would be accepted back. If you know what I mean. Subtleties are lost to most people. You could change most peoples screen font to 'clear' instead of standard, and they wouldn't notice. If this tube is in decline, as I suspect it is, it'll eventually be returned as I do have a warranty.

Also, I failed to mention the horizontal lines. They're especially apparent when the background provides the proper shade. All in all, I doubt I'd ever purchase another Philips.