Master thread for Panasonic plasma not turning on - Page 2

OK, this is a follow on thread after Panasonic service technician did 1st visit this morning. He was very nice and experienced, so I got quite a lot out from him:
1) 42" 7 blink problem root issue was firmware problem (software compiled put in a chip to run). It caused sync pulse out of spec and blow up the power supply. So if someone come to fix your 42" blink problem, make sure the technician upgrade the firmware, too. I believe this was once an occasion happened bug just like most of firmware problem, so I am not sure all other 42" out there like a time bomb to set off. I did not ask him whether people can upgrade firmware themself easily or not since we concentrated on my 50" PZ77
2) 10 blink is catch all fault indication so there could be anything wrong in the TV except other blinks indicated. So it is not easy to fix. The rate was way lower then 42" and he said Panasonic sell twice as much 42" over 50". So it is really unluck for me, but the fault rate was still a bit high then normal even 10 blink could mean anything wrong in the TV.
3) After some diagnostics, he narrow down to one board. He took it off and looked around any burn mark. Nothing. Then we saw an obivous burn mark and 2 surface mount component blowed off on one of the vertical line driving board. This cause the main video driving board he took down shut off for protection, therefore 10 blinks. He was first time saw a such failure. And the horizontal/vertical line driving board failure could indicate something wrong with the pannel itself, so he immediately offer to replace the TV all together instead fixing.

He left a 42' 720p plasma as a loaner and I had to wait 2 weeks for the replacement. And he said it might be a new model if they could not find PZ77U any more. Anyway, he helped me plug all cables back and hang the loaner TV on the wall.

The whole process was very professional. And in the end he actually thank me to help him to take down the TV and put into his van. He works for Panasonic and he is not an independent contractor. So he defend Panasonic name, but admit 42" did have firmware bug causing power supply fail, therefore 7 blink, but now the root issue was fixed. He insisted no such thing on 50". Wow, at least, my one was suffer a totally other issue. After he saw this, he admit it was an embressment from his company so offer to exchange for new one right away.

I am waiting for his email now to see what they will offer.

I got the dreaded 7-blink LED error Tuesday night on my 42pz77U (purchased from CC in Nov. 2007). Tech was scheduled to be here on Friday, but called this morning to say the parts won't be in until next week.

I'm in an older house (1950's) with original electrical box; at times, I notice a slight dimming of overhead lights (when washer kicks in, etc.). If the 7-blink is a fried power board, do you think it could be caused by minor surges - even when a powerstrip is used to prevent damage? None of my other electronics (HT receiver, computers, DVD players, appliances, etc.) have ever had any problems. Basically, I'm wondering whether my house caused the problem, or if it was a faulty board in the TV itself. I certainly don't want to have to go through this again, if I can help it.

svkowalski -
I am getting the same exact situation that you are seeing. The only difference, is that I am able to replicate the problem by simply turning off the TV, while the htpc is powered on and connected to HDMI1. Just as you said, plugging it into HDMI3 "fixes" the issue, but it looks ugly. I'm going to call Panasonic in the morning. Hopefully, if they realize that this isn't an isolated incident, it will be given a higher priority.

Hi everyone,

I just joined the forum. I bought a Panasonic THPZ4285U, hooked it up today and turned it on . . . came on for a second and then went off. LED blinks 11 times. I called Panasonic's concierge service and they said it needs service!!! I said it never even worked right in the first place . . . so here I am with my new TV that doesn't work. They are ordering some parts and sending a tech out on Thursday. Is this TV worth keeping?? There appear to be similar issues on other models. If I keep it, should l I get an extended warranty?? I bought it because it was relatively inexpensive ($1,094 bottom line cost delivered). I guess you get what you pay for . . . anyway, I appreciate all of your thoughts.

Just thought I would let you all now that the manufacture date is March 2008 and I believe this is a new model. Probably should have bought an older model with a track record of reliability.

The older models are no more or less reliable than the current models. The occasional power supply failure has been occurring on all brands of plasma and LCD TVs since their inception several years ago. The Panasonics are regarded as the most reliable brand of any TV maker - you just got unlucky. It's a great TV so if you're happy with it stick with the same one.

Since the TV never worked since you got it home, why don't you just have the vendor replace it with a new one instead of hassling with getting it repaired? Just about everybody has a DOA policy where they'll take the bad one back and give you a new one.

My TH-42PZ80U gave me the blinking LED the first day I had it. 10 blinks to be precise. When I looked up that that meant a bad video board I wanted to cry. I'd never had a defective TV before.

After some reading and fiddling, I got it to turn on. I had to unplug both my DVD player and PC (which use HDMI), hold the power button for a few seconds so it'd reset, press the power button again and then plug my DVD player and PC back in.

Has anyone else had this problem and "fixed" it how I have? It's moot anyway since I'm going to trade it in for a new set on Friday, but just thought I'd share.

I haven't heard anything from Panasonic since reporting my experience (10-blink when PCis plugged into HDMI1 or 2 & turned on before turning on TV), as well as the workaround (plugging PC into the HDMI3 port). I reproduced this on 2 sets (after Sears replace my 1st set). I'll ping my Panasonic support guy again to see if they have a resolution.

jmc96001, be sure to post any resolution, if you get one from Panny.

Wow this is my exact problem too. I thought it was any HDMI device but I unplugged my PC while keeping my DVD player connected and it turned on fine.

Please don't tell me it's going to be like this with every 80U...

Thanks for the suggesion Pibbo but it didn't work for me. Please not that I have 11 blinks onthe LED not 10 - anyone know what 11 blinks means???

Just wanted to update you all. The technician was out today and the 11 blinks represented a fan issue. He took the back cover off and one of the wires to the fan was cut when the wall bracket was mounted to the TV. It appears that the wire was between the back panel/case and adjacent to the hole that the screw to the bracket goes into. Technician said this is a common issue and easy fix.

I have a TH-42PE7U (not a 77u) with 8 blinking lights, after being repaired once previously. Any suggestions?

Wow I'm so lucky I found these forums.

I have the exact same problem as you. I have a 50PX80U and I had my PC plugged in via DVI/HDMI into HDMI1 and the TV wouldn't turn on. It just blinked at me 10 times. After freaking out that I got a lemon (I bought it online and returning/replacing it would've been a hassle), I did basically the same experiment that you did and ended up with the same result. If I had the computer on, then the TV WOULDN'T boot on and would instead just blink. If I had the computer off, the the TV WOULD boot on. Changing the PC to HDMI3 fixed all of the problems.

Let me know if the Panasonic guy comes up with a solution to your problem. I'd be really happy to know it. Thank god for the Internet!

THANK you sooo much for posting this. I just bought a TH-42PZ80U the other day to use as a pc monitor. I was running it on the component and it was working fine, but my dvi-hdmi cable arrived today so I switched to that.... It seemed to be working fine at first... I shut it off.. went downstairs to eat... tried to turn it back on... guess what- 10 blinks! I just reproduced the issue the same way you listed, switched it to HDMI 3, and now it works fine. Annoying that it does that, and looks bad too, but it works! Thanks a lot for posting this! I was so disappointed at first....

I'll be sure to contact them regarding this also.

Add me to the list of folks with the "10 red blinks" issue. Same as others on this thread: HTPC connected through a DVI-HDMI cable. With the PC on, switching inputs to another HDMI port is enough to have the TV not come up again (after turning it off). The front port workaround works, but I don't like cables hanging from the front of the TV. My older Panasonic plasma had the VGA cable in the front and I lived with a fat cable hanging from the front...don't want to go through that again. I'll speak to Panasonic tech support first thing tomorrow morning and see where that goes.
I know someone reported this problem with a PS3. Anyone around with a PC with an HDCP video card connected to the TV who can confirm if they see this issue? I've got a DVR connected to one of the ports using HDMI and that setup seems to work fine...it's just the HTPC. I'm curious if an HDCP card will fix this.
This thread is a lifesaver, BTW.

My card has HDCP (evga 8800GT) and I still have this issue.

My card (9600GT) has HDCP and same issue. Can you please post the response from the Panasonic tech when you figure it out? That'd be much appreciated.

The first rep I spoke to recommended trying out a graphics card with HDMI output (not DVI) and if the blinking light issue still persisted, they had a fix for it. I called again and the second rep I spoke to said they had no such fixes for the PX80U. She said since this TV does not have a PC input, they don't really expect people to connect it to a PC. So there are no upgrades that will fix this. I did mention that the problem can be worked around using the front port and she had no idea what that was.
I guess I'll have to use the front port till there's a fix for this (if it ever gets fixed). But as workarounds go, this is a brilliant one. Great find, svkowalski!

I contacted my technical contact at Panasonic, and he sent me this information about the 10-blink problem for connected PCs:

"I have received recent information from our Engineer. He states the
following:

'The HDMI1 & HDMI2 inputs (at the rear) unlike the HDMI3 input do not have the equalizer/buffer circuit between the HDMI input and the HDMI receiver. They are dedicated HDMI ports for Audio/Video components (Blu-ray, Satellite boxes, Cable boxes, PVR). Without the equalizer/buffer circuit, the tv will not display picture and/or sound.

'If the PC cable is sending the 3.3v typical of pc connections, the tv may shut down and go into this 10 blinking pattern. For now, only HDMI 3 is recommended for PC connections, which does have the equalizer/buffer circuit.'

"This is the information I have received. I hope it helps in answering your questions."

Regards,
Al Blake, TSR III
Plasma TV Concierge Rep
Panasonic Customer Call Center Company In other words, the front HDMI port workaround appears to be the only option for now. I'll do some research on how exotic the equalizer/buffer circuit is, because, like many others here, I don't esthetically like a cable hanging off the front of my HDTV.

Just so others know, I just got a 50PZ800u today. I seemed to have run into the same issue that many of you have had. I had it connected to my Media center PC via HDMI. I had it connected directly via HDMI, no DMI. I had to unplug the HDMI and reset the power, and the TV finally came back.

Nearly gave myself a heart attack because I've had the TV for all of 2 hours.

OK, thanks man. I'll probably still bug them about this because it's pretty unexcusable.

Wow, like everyone else I was pretty worried when I first starting having my 10-blink problem. While I'm still quite unhappy, it is reassuring that others are experiencing the same issues. However, at the same time, I was hoping since my TV (850U) was so new that it just had a few software bugs to have worked out still. Seeing some of the previous models still having issues is worrisome.

I'm curious though, I just got the 850U model and it has 4 hdmi ports. Everyone is stating that hdmi port 3 temporarily alleviates the issue and that it is the port in front. My front port is hdmi port 4. I'm at work and don't have access to the TV atm, but guess I'm hoping that I can still use port 3 which will still be located in back...

For reference, I'm trying to hook up a PC with a DVI->HDMI cable from an 8800GTX video card. Don't have any other hdmi components to test out. Darn early model xbox 360 .

Unfortunately this thread is great for everyone wanting to discuss their inoperative television, but it's not very informative:

If it blinks 7 times, your power supply is shot <<< very very wrong information
If it blinks 10 times, a video board went bad. <<< really? which video board?

Also different models have different boards that behave different, and some boards no longer exist from one year to another, so this thread cannot rule them all. Better off to let the technicians figure it out.

Ok, so I exchanged my first PZ80U for a replacement yesterday. Not surprisingly, I'm still experiencing the 10 blink problem. However, I still consider it a good trade because the old one had a dead pixel as well as some vertical bar issues, neither of which the new set has.

Now, getting back to the problem at hand, what graphics cards is everyone using? I've got a GeForce 9600 GTO and it seems others are using nVidia cards too. When I brought my set into BestBuy they hooked it up to one of their computers to try to replicate the problem. They said the TV powered on just fine. I asked what they had in their computers and they said some kind of ATI card.

Is anyone with this problem using an ATI card? Is everyone using the latest graphics drivers? I don't want to have to get a new card but it would be interesting to know why ATI cards work (if that is indeed universal).

actually this thread is quite informative about the 10 blink problem, if you actually try reading it....

and 7 Blinks means there's something wrong with a Scan Drive board... (on the PZ80U/85U screens).

Talking on my own to a Panasonic developer, who in turn went to his engineers and replicated the issue I was having at least. I don't believe it has anything to do with the video card on the PC, however for the sake of argument, I'm using an 8800GTX like I mentioned earlier.

The thing that PC videos cards apparently do is send out a voltage signal like another user posted. This was confirmed by the people I spoke with at Panasonic. After a little bit of troubleshooting there are a few ways to get around it at least on my set (850U).

HDMI 1-3 - In back
HDMI 4 - In front

The only port effected by this extraneous voltage signal is HDMI 1. Seems that it is a hardware issue. Not sure why they have a port that is built differently than the other ports so I dunno.

The other thing you can try is once the TV is on, if you have a TV where only the front port works, and you'd rather use a back port is the following:

Assuming, you have it powered on and functioning correctly. Prior to turning it off, turn the input to a different input, perhaps the component or TV input. The developer I spoke with, mentioned this as a possible work around w/o having to plug into a front port, if all back ports produced the same error. He said, that you either have to have the PC off when you turn the TV on (which was unacceptable for me since the PC runs 24/7) or try what I just mentioned. I tried HDMI input 2 first and that was successful so never got around to testing this method.

Unfortunately this is most certainly a Panasonic issue and nothing else. Maybe they were trying to save a few $ to sell the set cheaper by not including some components they didn't think were necessary. Well, seems like in small cases like what we have, they are necessary.

I don't have nice and concise quotes to post as all correspondence was over the phone.

Best of luck.

My mistake, I should have said the original post is not very informative. In fact, it's very misleading. As the recipient of many phone calls referring to this misinformation, I can tell you it does frustrate people

Add me to the list of 10 blinking lights. I posted on the official PX80U owners thread as well but don't want this getting lost. I have my CPU connected to the HDMI 2 on the back of my 42PX80U. Well I had the computer on working on programming my Aeros MX850 remote. Well I tested the commands and sure enough when I tried to turn it back on, 10 blinking lights. Very underwhelming for sure.

I have corresponded with the online chat concierge service and they are aware of the HDMI problem for the Computer due to voltage readings (false or whatever). They don't have a fix yet except using the front HDMI input which I think makes my setup look like poo.

So my question for you guys is to figure out if this is an issue with the PS3. I haven't noted this yet but I think my TV is always on before the PS3. Then on top of that, can I power up the TV then the CPU and be fine?

BTW, I purchased my 42PX80U on June 7th, 2008 and I will get back to you and the manufactured date.

Model #: TH-42PX80U.
Purchased: June 7, 2008
Manufactured: April 2008

After reading this post I have come to the conclusion that the rear inputs are a pain for my model with a CPU. However, I was thinking and thinking of workarounds and I thought of one possible one and wanted to confirm to the others and share my thoughts to your similar frustrations (posted on official Panasonic PX80U thread but wanted to add so others who found this post would see a possible solution)....


I was thinking that if you got a 2 in - 1 out HDMI switcher and had the CPU input running into HDMI #1 on the Switcher, if you had to turn on the TV, you could hit the remote to switch the input on the switcher to #2 temporarily and then back to #1 once the TV was up and running.

Would this work for the Panasonic? I guess what I'm asking is would the TV see a signal from the CPU if you had another input first? THoughts comments? Thanks. If that would be a good workaround, then I could program in the remote the additional IR command for a switcher and use a macro when I turned on the TV.

Also, has anyone had success use a receiver with HDMI switching and taking the same steps basically I suggested above?

I have a quick question for those out there experiencing the issue-

Has anyone placed an AV receiver between the HTPC and the set? Does this seem to fix the issue?

I have an AVR-2308CI sitting in the box right now, and I'm kind of tempted to pop that in and see if it works better.