Should I be concerned? (Toshiba TW40X81) (1 Viewer)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Should I be concerned?

I have a Toshiba TW40X81 HD Set, which is now 2 years old (I purchased it from Tweeters with a 3 year extended warranty). Over the past few months it has started acting strangely if there is a bright blue background and the camera pans in any direction the blue color flashes (blinks)

I have run both AVIA and Video Essentials and have adjusted my set but it still has this problem.

There have been a few other problems for example on the standard NTSC color bars in both AVIA and Video Essentials on the blue bar on the right there is an “S” curve with the color to the left of it. Also the over scan seems to be off as on the Superbowl I could not see the score bar (except for a tine bit) which was shown on the top of the screen.

Because of my extended warranty I decided to call Tweeters and have my TV looked at and I also requested my free yearly cleaning.

Yesterday 2 guys came over my house and asked me what the problem was, so I showed them and they both agreed there was a problem, in fact one of the guys noticed another convergence problem on the left side of the screen that I didn’t notice.

(Here is the part where I started getting nervous)

I told them that I requested my annual cleaning and they said no problem, the one tech instructed the other to go behind the set and clean the set. The 2nd tech grabbed what looked like a dirty orange shammie and asked my wife for some paper towels. He thank began rubbing down the lenses of the guys on the set with them (I was unsure if he used the paper towels or the shammie) He then put the cover back on the set and said he was done. (He didn’t clean the mirrors or anything else in the set)

The first tech was talking how besides the blue flashing problem that he thought my set has a convergence problem. So next he asked me how to get in to the menus so that he could check the convergence. I showed him how to get into the 9 point consumer convergence screen and all the convergence was fine. I asked him if the convergence screen in the service menu would be better and was told that he did not think that the Toshibas has a convergence screen in their service menus. (Being a member of AVSforum.com and HomeTheaterforum.com I KNOW there is a 64 point convergence screen in the service menu.) He said when he got back to the shop he would check Toshibas website to see what was in the service menu.

Shouldn’t a television technician know how to access these things?

He then stated now what the problem with my set appears to be a main board problem, and that the voltage from the main board was not being outputted correctly which is causing my problems with the blue flashing and the S curve on the NTSC color bars. While this does sound like a valid idea of what is wrong, he never took my set apart or went into the service menus to see if anything was wrong.

I am sure a main board is probably a very expensive item to replace. I would hate to see these guys put a new one in an not have it fix the problem, and even worse I would hate to have these guys make my sets performance decline more. I am already worried that they probably already scratched my lenses by using that dirty towel or a paper towel.

What should I do? I do know that Tweeters subcontract these service people. I have no problem with Tweeters or with anyone at Tweeters, they have always been a good company to do business with.

These guys have probably ordered the main board already, should I let them come in and see if they can fix it? Don’t get me wrong they were nice guys, however they did not seem to have any clue on how to properly service my set.

A copy of this message is being posted to avsforum.com and hometheaterforum.com in the hopes this can get resolved. My contact information is below.

Regards,

Scott Greczkowski

The rest of the personal information omitted.

 

[Scott_G]

Yikes ... you don't clean things inside the set with a dirty rag ...

The 64 point is the only way to go on the Toshiba. (I've got a 56x81 that's almost 2 years old).

Sounds like something is wrong. Could be a board problem but I'll let some of the experts respond.

I don't know. You need to get it fixed, but not by these guys.

 

[Paul A. Robinso]

Do you let them service your set? YES, YES, and YES>...

The 3lemon policy agreement is ifthey have to fix it(Bring it in their shop) a third time, you get to choose to repair the set or simply get a new set (The cost of the old set is post to the new set, additional cost of the new set is paid by you.)

I have a TX40X81 since May/2000 my set was in the twice.

Once to replace the convergence board.

2nd time to replace the Brightness Board.

And right now i'm looking at the 56-point convergence

and i can't get the lines straight......

And I will be (after some time and patience) calling them soon to replace this set.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I decided to wait awhile to see what the techs would do, they were suposed to call me back on Monday February 3rd. It's now February 19th and I still have not heard a thing from them.

So today I decided to give Tweeters a call and spoke to Greg in the Customer Service department, I told him my story and he groaned and asked me to hold, and then Greg came back and told me that he was transfering me to his Boss who was incharge of the service department for the entire company. Next Art came on the phone and I explained to him what happened. He looked up my account and appologized to me and promised to make a call and get back to me in a few minutes.

10 minutes later I got a call back from Greg, who advised me that the two techs will not be working on my set again. Now they are sending over one of their top techs to take a look. Again Greg appoligized to me up and down and said that Tweeters would make good to me.

I now have to wait till March 1st for the tech to come but now I don't think I have to fear about an unqualified tech working on my set.

I am glad I purchased my equipment from Tweeters.

Scott

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Scott, kewl! Best of luck. If I can assist you, simply blast me an email. I am in your area quite often.

Regards

Gregg

 

[SHAWN SZILEZY]

Scott,

I hear about these stories far too often. I pray that nothing happens to my set. I would hate to have some inexperienced tech mess up what Gregg did at the time of my calibration.

Good luck Scott!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

As you may remember I have a Toshiba TW40X81 HDTV that I purchased from Tweeter.

For the past 6 months or so I have had a problem where certain colors of blue “flash” on my screen. After putting up with it so long (and convincing my wife that there was a problem) I called Tweeter for service.

On January 30th I had my set looked at by the company who Tweeters subcontracted out to in my area. In came two guys who did not appear to know anything about my set. I had to lead the tech through the menus to get him to the consumer convergence screen. The other tech gave my set its yearly cleaning by removing the back of the set and cleaning the lens with a paper towel or some kind of shammy. He did not clean any of the mirrors or anything else in the set. The entire cleaning took less the 90 seconds and that included the removal and replacement of the back cover.

The head tech was checking on my blue problem, and lucky for me he did see it and said my set had a problem. We also noticed that if I ran color bars the right hand bars were not straight but had an “S” curve to them.

Without going into the service menus the tech diagnosed the problem as a bad main board and said that the main board had a voltage problem. He said he would order the new board and would call me in 3 days to let me know when he was coming back.

I did not feel confident with these guys working on my set. They were nice guys but I found it funny they did not know how to clean a set, how to get into the consumer convergence screens or even how to get to the service menus. I was going to give the guys the benefit of the doubt and let them do the work. I myself do not know how these things work and these guys have the job so I figured why not.

The callback date of February 3rd went by and no call from the tech. On February 19th I called Tweeters to get a status of my repair. I spoke with a gentleman named Greg, as we talked I told him about the above listed concerns, Greg immediately transferred me to his boss Art, who I guess got really upset about this. That night I received a few calls from the head tech who came over the first time, and explained how his helper used a special cloth to clean the lenses, when I asked him about the mirrors he was silent. I told him my concerns and he did seem to understand but sounded depressed like I got him in trouble.

Later that night the tech called me again and asked a few more questions and explained to me he has been working on TV’s for 20 years now, that he knows what to do. I again explained my concerns with him and again he sounded depressed yet he understood. (As I said before the guy seemed like a good guy, just did not seem qualified on my set.)

A few minutes later I got a call from the Techs boss, he is the owner of the company that Tweeter subcontracted my service call to. He again told me all of the head techs experience and again I told him my concern and also stood up for the head tech (Tom) and told him that he was not the person who tried to clean my set. I then again explained my concerns. The owner understood and told me that I should have contacted him first to get the problem straightened out before contacting Art at Tweeter, I explained to him that I had no idea who his company was or how to contact them.

Tweeters then rescheduled me for another repair for March 1st (today as I write this). At 9:30 am Bruce from Tweeters arrived.

Immediately I explained to Bruce what the problems with the set were, he asked me to show him and immediately he knew what the fix was! I asked him if I needed a main board like the other tech suggested and he told me that no parts were needed. Within seconds Bruce was in the service menus tweaking and adjusting things.

He then asked me why I thought I needed a main board, so I told him the story of the last service visit. Bruce acted professional and understood and told me he would take care of everything.

Again back to the service menus he went, then he did a full convergence on everything. He then adjusted the overscan, and then adjusted the focus.

Next he popped off the front covert of the set and told me that whoever tried cleaning the set before did not know what they were doing. He took a flashlight and showed us the haze that was build up on the mirror. He then surprised us by taking a paper towel and some liquid to clean the mirror and lenses. He explained to us that a paper towel by itself is bad but with the special cleaning liquid it was ok. (The liquid was not Windex) He then went to work cleaning explaining everything he was doing as he did it.

Once was complete cleaning the insides (he went through quite a lot of paper towels, we have a fireplace in our theater and my wife smokes like a Chimney) he reassembled everything and went and finished all the conversions in the service menu.

When he was all done he asked us if we were ready to see how good he did, we did and surprise all the problems were gone, the S Curve on Color bars, the blue blinking problem and the cleaning were all perfect! I asked him about what he did with the blue and he told me that for some reason the refresh rate was somehow off on the Blue CRT and he was able to adjust it back to correct the problem.

I was amazed! Bruce did an excellent job; the entire time he worked he talked with us explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it. He did not want to go until he was sure that we were 100% happy with his work and to make sure we had all our questions answered.

This service call was a total 180 from the last one. While it was never my intention to get the last guys in trouble (I was more upset that no one called me back than anything) I was happy I took the step I did to get the quality service I got today.

I must state that I am really happy that I made my purchase from Tweeter. Greg and Art at Tweeter were able to tell that I was not satisfied when I talked to them And they worked to make sure I was happy. So hats off to them and hats off to Bruce for a job well done.

A copy of this message is being posted to HOMETHEATERFORUM.COM and AVSFORUM.COM

Thanks to everyone,

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now I should also mention while I set looks good, I can't wait to see what Gregg's Calibration Magic does for it.

Scott

(PS Note the Gregg, the GPS unit should be going out to you tommorow!)