Power surge and toasted electronics -- (Update) -- Whole Home Surge Protection (1 Viewer)

[gianmarco]

Maybe I've been super lucky and also used surge protectors regularly, but so far I've never had anything really happen of importance.

This past Saturday we had an awful lightning storm and have had a few casualties.

1). Cable modem had an issue and was no longer working. Cable company has already replaced the modem, no big deal.

2) DirecTV bridge for genies got hit and no longer turns on. Replacement coming today. Again, no big deal.

3) Sound bar over main television got hit and also no longer turns on. Nothing I can do here.

4) Main TV where Sound Bar is and which connects via HDMI to DirecTV now has 3 of 5 HDMI ports that no longer work. Strange thing is that it was working the next morning and then went out.  I've read that HDMIs are often the first ones to go. And unfortunately I picked up a new sound bar and it's not working with the ARC HDMI anymore.

Of course, the TV is now almost 3 years old and out of 2 year warranty. My question is this:

1) Anyone gone through this with a TV? Ever tried to get it repaired? 

2) Both the TV and the sound bar were plugged into a surge protector. Has anyone ever tried to get the cost covered by the surge protector company? How did it go?

3) Any other things to do to prevent in the future since the surge protector didn't cut it (and it's newer, so should have been good).

 

[Captain Cranks]

1) Anyone gone through this with a TV? Ever tried to get it repaired? 

TVs are cheap.  Just get a new one if the lack of 5 HDMIs is that big of a deal.  

 

[gianmarco]

TVs are cheap.  Just get a new one if the lack of 5 HDMIs is that big of a deal.  

They are definitely cheaper than they used to be, but I'm not shelling out over $1k for another 70 inch TV for some HDMI ports. 

I actually don't care as much that 3 of 5 don't work, but not being able to hook it up to external audio sucks.  Not enough to buy another, but enough to look into other options of getting it taken care of.

 

[Punxsutawney Phil]

You can file an insurance claim.  Figure out how to destroy a few older appliances while your at it to trick the adjuster.  Maybe a car battery?  

 

[Sullie]

Regarding the television, I will relay this quick story for you.  Back in March this year, our television in our living room went out.  We have a lot of power surges and power outages in our area as there is constant infrastructure work going on.  In my specific instance, on our television, I would hit the power button and I was getting a "blink code."  If you ever work on a computer you get something similar except it will be a "beep code", check engine light in your car is the same idea, the light will blink in a specific repeating pattern.

I googled the blink code in my case, it pointed to one of three boards in the television.  I bought all three of them (two new, one used) on e-bay.  The first one I replaced called a T-Con board was the problem.  As soon as I replaced it, the t.v. (52-inch Sony) fired right up.  I bought a replacement t.v. anyway (because it took 2-3 weeks for the boards to come in) but I have a working t.v. now and I put that in my office.  I used google and youtube videos, it wasn't very difficult at all.

For ALL the televisions and stereos in the house, I'm running brand new (highly rated) surge protectors on everything.  I was running inexpensive, old, outdated surge protectors before so I was due.  One thing I keep thinking about is running a whole home surge protector, they're not too expensive.

 

[gianmarco]

Regarding the television, I will relay this quick story for you.  Back in March this year, our television in our living room went out.  We have a lot of power surges and power outages in our area as there is constant infrastructure work going on.  In my specific instance, on our television, I would hit the power button and I was getting a "blink code."  If you ever work on a computer you get something similar except it will be a "beep code", check engine light in your car is the same idea, the light will blink in a specific repeating pattern.

I googled the blink code in my case, it pointed to one of three boards in the television.  I bought all three of them (two new, one used) on e-bay.  The first one I replaced called a T-Con board was the problem.  As soon as I replaced it, the t.v. (52-inch Sony) fired right up.  I bought a replacement t.v. anyway (because it took 2-3 weeks for the boards to come in) but I have a working t.v. now and I put that in my office.  I used google and youtube videos, it wasn't very difficult at all.

For ALL the televisions and stereos in the house, I'm running brand new (highly rated) surge protectors on everything.  I was running inexpensive, old, outdated surge protectors before so I was due.  One thing I keep thinking about is running a whole home surge protector, they're not too expensive.

I used to dabble in putting computers together (swapping out drives, graphics cards, fans, etc.) back in the day but that's about the limit of my experience with that kind of stuff.  More complicated than that?  I don't know if my TV has a separate board for the HDMI inputs which would be really nice instead of having to change out the entire main board.  I'll look that up, I suppose.

 

[Sullie]

I used to dabble in putting computers together (swapping out drives, graphics cards, fans, etc.) back in the day but that's about the limit of my experience with that kind of stuff.  More complicated than that?  I don't know if my TV has a separate board for the HDMI inputs which would be really nice instead of having to change out the entire main board.  I'll look that up, I suppose.

I don't think it's complicated at all, I'm not an expert by any means, I'm a systems admin so I work on servers, networking gear, etc. but that's mostly software / operating system level, I hardly do much hardware work if at all.  I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10 handy, I'd give myself a 3, maybe a 5 on a good day with a lot of coffee and a good youtube video!   Anyway, so the trickiest part, to me, are the micro ribbon cable connections.  There are tiny little ribbon cables connecting things together, you have to be very careful and take your time and figure out how the connection works but that's about it.  Usually there's a little tiny flip up lever (for lack of the correct terminology) that holds the cable down if that makes sense?

Again, I cannot stress this enough, google and youtube are your friends.  I've never touched a flat screen t.v. in my life and I successfully disassembled it, replaced the bad board and re-assembled it mostly by watching some guy on a youtube video that was very specific to my make and model of television.  I will say this, the t.v. was already broken, I spent about $150 on all three of the boards I bought so I figured "what the hell" the t.v. was already broken so I had nothing to lose except $150.00, big deal. 

All told, I think it took me an hour and that was with me taking my time, being very careful and keeping track (mentally) of how it all went back together and which screws went where.

 

[ChiefD]

I've been buying cheap power strips for years for my main TV. That's so at the first sign of trouble on the TV, I just tell my wife we must have gotten struck by lightning.

wala - I get a newer TV that is slightly bigger than the last. My wife hates buying big TV's. I started using this method about 10 years ago. Started off with a 32" TV and we are now up to a 50".

Next stop should be 60" when the fall storms start coming.

 

[IMAX 3D]

I had a 50” Visio TV repaired recently for about $200.  Picture went completely grey, I did some googling and saw there were several possible root causes so found a local shop to do the work rather than guess and be wrong

FWIW I won the TV in a golf outing originally, so I was more inclined to just pay the repair rather than spend $500+ on a replacement 

 

[Penguin]

I have several Furman power conditioners I use for my TV's, computers and audio equipment.

 

[bigbottom]

They are definitely cheaper than they used to be, but I'm not shelling out over $1k for another 70 inch TV for some HDMI ports. 

I actually don't care as much that 3 of 5 don't work, but not being able to hook it up to external audio sucks.  Not enough to buy another, but enough to look into other options of getting it taken care of.

You can get an HDMI switcher and incorporate the switching into a Harmony Central remote.

 

[Punxsutawney Phil]

Power strips probably aren't going to help anything in a direct lightning strike.  Even if your house has lightning rods, those don't always work either.  A large house nearby recently caught fire when struck, and it had professionally installed lightning rods.

 

[gianmarco]

Considering getting whole home surge protection. Anyone here with experience doing this or having it installed? Any input appreciated.

 

[Runkle]

One thing I was told is that surge protectors will all wear out over time, no matter if there are major surges or not.

That is, if you have one rated to stop, say, 1000 whatev's (volts? amps? I can't remember), it'll stop a +1100-whatev surge and then burn out and die. However, it'll also burn out and die if it gets +10 whatevs 100 times. Or a micro surge of +1 whatev 1000 times. 

So if you have had your TV plugged into a surge protector for a few years and haven't had a blackout/brownout/power surge in that time... it could still be dead even though it's apparently done nothing. Just line noise over time will use up its capacity.  

 

[shuke]

Considering getting whole home surge protection. Anyone here with experience doing this or having it installed? Any input appreciated.

Had one installed after a lightning strike years ago.  Not really any input I can give.  Haven't had any issues since.