Tv screen goes dark

I have a 3 yr old Westinghouse flat screen TV. On occasion the screen goes quite dark. Way too dark to watch. If I turn off the TV, and immediately turn it back on, the problem goes away. It may be days before it happens again. Does anyone have any idea what is happening ? A precursor of a completely failed TV ?

Re: Tv screen goes dark

Having been a tv service engineer for more than 40 years you would think I could help. Unfortunately that's a new one on me. The only thing I would say is How old is the tv? Is it time it took early retirement?

Re: Tv screen goes dark

You need to keep peddling on the bicycle to power up the generator. Stop peddling and no electricity.
SIMPLES

Re: Tv screen goes dark

Sounds like in might be the power supply to the backlighting, or at least that would be my first check. It is working at first but then something is breaking down. Having a look for a bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitor would be a good start.

Then again it could be something else entirely but it is purely guess work without actually testing it.

Re: Tv screen goes dark

Check thorough the settings menu to make sure its not in 'eco' mode. That can get a tad uppity and hold the back lighting in turn-down mode for too long. All brands differ slightly, but the eco mode can cause problems across many ranges and for what little power it could save, its not worth the hassle.

Re: Tv screen goes dark

A quick search of Google for "Westinghouse TV going dark" gets quite a few answers.

Main suggestion seems to be a capacitor failing.

Where you are, is it more cost effective to get the man in to fix it?

Or would a new TV be more value?

Re: Tv screen goes dark

Apart from what LongDriver has suggested looking into, it's just a fault that probably isn't repairable from the outside of the TV. Perhaps time to think about getting a new one as hardly anyone gets them repaired these days.

Now, if it had been years ago when big old CRT televisions were the norm, I might have been able to hazard a guess or two without looking at the TV but even that would have been hit or miss. I don't know anything about what goes on inside modern flat screen TVs apart from them being backlit LED or using OLED.

Re: Tv screen goes dark

A lot of electrical goods these days have become throw away items, they go wrong then get thrown away.