Vertical Lines on a Panasonic TC-P54G10

I bought a Panasonic TC-P54G10 in late November of 2009 and now the TV has developed vertical pixel-width lines in an approximate 2 to 3 inch area from left to right. I would say that the TV has at most 500 hours of use on it since I purchased it. The TV has a build date of Sept 2009.

A few days ago, I was watching a TV show with my dad when he accidentally hit the power button and instinctively hit it again to turn the TV back on. Then after watching the TV show for about 10 or 20 minutes, I noticed some vertical lines about a 1/3 from the right edge of the screen. I changed the channel and then tried another input but the lines were still there. I walked up closer to the screen to examine it and there were about 20 lines, a pixel-width each, which stretched from the top to the bottom of the screen. It's sort of hard to describe what the pixels looked like exactly. When viewing the TV from farther back, the affected area looked a little darker or like a slightly different tint. From up close, I remember that the pixels were not a uniform color; they seemed to be different colors depending on the colors in the area, but the pixels obviously weren't displaying the colors they were supposed to. The lines were all in the same area on the screen (about 2 to 3 inches wide). There were other lines of pixels which were operating normally in between the faulty lines of pixels (ie. there wasn't a solid block of random color on the screen). I turned the TV off, waited 10 seconds, and turned it on, but the lines were still there, so I turned it off again. The next day, my dad told me that he had turned the TV on again that night (I wasn't there) and he saw that the lines weren't there at first but then appeared again and may have been worse than before, so he turned it off.

My dad says that Panasonic probably won't do anything for us as the limited warranty expired in late November 2010, but I still want Panasonic to fix the issue for us. I did a quick search for implied warranty laws and it seems that in my state (Massachusetts) there are such laws which may protect us. I'm no lawyer, but it said that the manufacturer's statement, which said that the implied warranty would last as long as the limited warranty (1 year), would be unenforceable. I don't know how we would convince Panasonic of this, though.

I feel absolutely ripped off right now (especially since we didn't even use it that often). It's like the TV was made to develop problems after a year. The lines weren't that noticeable, but I have a feeling that the whole affected 2-3 inch area of the TV may go completely if I keep using the TV. What should I do? What would be the best way to go about getting Panasonic to repair or replace the TV? Should I make the case that my dad caused the problem by turning the TV on and off quickly? I've noticed that when I turn the TV off, it takes a second to shut off the display, and then about five seconds later it makes a clicking noise. I've always taken that clicking noise to mean that the TV was completely off. Is it possible that my dad (just by hitting a button twice on the remote, which isn't that out of the ordinary and should not be harmful to the TV) gave the TV a surge of electricity while it was shutting down and messed something up? Would this help or hurt my case with Panasonic, who could say that this would qualify as "misuse" or "misadjustment of consumer controls" (although I would entirely disagree)?

Lastly, if Panasonic won't help, what would be my next course of action? Should I unplug the TV for ten minutes and then plug it back in and turn it on? Could this cause any problems? I'm thinking that the TV may forget how many hours it's been in use for, and so would provide the wrong amount of voltage and royally screw itself up. This seems unlikely as the same thing could happen after a power outage, but who knows? It seems like Panasonic doesn't know how to create a reliable product.

Update: Problem solved below.

Thank you for your reply and your advice about a new TV. For a while, I actually did pretty much the opposite of what you suggested. After it was too late to return to the store I saw the thread here on the avs forum about Panny black level issues. I was sort of afraid of the rising blacks, so I avoided using the TV for a while. Once I started to use it, however, I still tried to do so only occasionally. Now I see that I should have been using it as much as possible.

Now I'm thinking that if Panasonic won't do anything for us, we will start using the TV again and it will get worse and worse until it is too annoying to watch. My parents probably will not want to shell out another $1K+ for a new TV, and yet we have the whole living room (including my PS3) set up for a large screen TV.

I guess before I think too far ahead of myself I will try contacting Panny first. I won't get my hopes up, though, as I agree that it is probably too late. Maybe I could threaten to file a complaint through the BBB or contact the Massachusetts Attorney General's office?

Thanks for the advice Randy. I called today but unfortunately didn't get far. The first guy couldn't help with the out-of-warranty issue, so I talked to his supervisor. We tried to convince him, but in the end the supervisor said that we would have to contact an authorized repair center and have them evaluate the problem (at our expense). Then, according to the supervisor, Panasonic will tell us what they will pay.

Panasonic may not pay anything, though, and we may be stuck paying for the evaluation (and the repair if we decide to go ahead with it).

At least I have some more information about the problem, as I had to turn the TV on today to describe the issue to the Panny rep. I've attached some pictures to give you a better sense of the problem (please excuse Ray Allen's head). I unplugged the TV for 10 minutes and plugged it back in, but as expected it did nothing. However, I can now tell you that the lines are not permanent. When I first turned the TV on, the lines weren't there for about a minute, and then they suddenly appeared. Later, after I finished talking to the Panasonic guy, the lines disappeared for a good five or ten minutes and then came back. Could this mean there is a loose connection, and not a faulty part?

Lastly, would it be a bad idea to use the TV while these lines are on the screen? Would that lead to burn-in or imbalanced use of the phosphors if we continue to use it the way it is?

I've scheduled a local repair center to come look at the TV on Thursday. It's gonna cost $75, but hopefully it will be money well spent. I'll keep the thread updated.

The repairman came today and said he was 99% sure that the A Board is bad. He estimated it would be about $300-$350 to replace, but for some reason he was very confident that Panasonic would cover the entire cost, even though the TV is out of warranty. He said that the A Boards are known to go on "these TVs" after about 14 or 15 months. Does this mean that the replacement part will go after another year or so?

Just faxed the information to Panasonic. The repair center quoted a steep price, but I think any other repair center would do the same. Let's see if Panny does what's right (morally and legally) and fully covers the cost of the repairs.

Thanks for the reply; I looked up prices a few days ago and found a brand new A Board (part # TXN/A1DVUUS) from a reputable online site for $130. The authorized repair center quoted $370 for the part, and $200 for the repair.

Panasonic just called. They were willing to cover cost of the part, but not the repair. That still leaves us having to pay $200 to get it fixed. Of course they said that they're being generous by covering the part when the TV is out of warranty, but it probably costs them $10 to make an A Board. I asked if they could send us the part and let us install it ourselves, but they wouldn't do that, and made up excuses for why they couldn't.

I'm not sure what we're gonna do yet. We may appeal to someone higher up, but that may prove difficult to do. We may end up not repairing it at all. Can someone just tell me if it would harm the TV to keep using it the way it is? If it will cause an imbalance in the phosphors?

Oh yeah, and I ran a self-check (page 88) on the TV and everything came up, "OK". What could this mean? Does this mean the A Board is fine?

Wow, thanks for the wake-up call. I'm gonna see if we can convince Panny to send the part straight to us. If they won't do that, I think we'll buy and install it ourselves. I am very familiar with removing and installing computer components, so this should be pretty easy.

As you mentioned, we will probably open it up and see if there is a loose connection. Should I lay the TV flat on it's front before opening it up? I have a carpet in the living room, and I'm guessing carpet is not the greatest surface for a TV. Will it suffice if I lay a cotton sheet over the carpet?

I will update again once it's all sorted out. I haven't opened it up yet as I'm still in talks with Panasonic.

Why do you say not to lay it flat? I'd think that the TV would not be secure leaning against a wall while I'm unscrewing parts and applying pressure to the set. I believe the service manual even says to lay the TV flat for repairs.

Finally an update on the situation. We decided to have the service rep do the repair as we felt it was worth a little extra money (versus getting an A Board off the 'net), especially if the A Board turned out to be okay and another part was faulty.

The service rep came to the house, rotated the TV around and sat it upright on its stand. He replaced the A Board and turned the TV on but the lines were still there. He disconnected and reconnected a connector that aligned with the faulty area of the TV. The connector was one of many connectors on a horizontal board that runs along the bottom of the screen (there are actually three boards I think: the C1, C2, and C3 boards, each controlling a different horizontal section of the screen). Sure enough, the lines were gone after the repairman reseated the connector. The repair guy claims that the software on the original A Board was faulty, and you sometimes have to reseat the appropriate connector for it to "recognize" the software on the new A Board. However, I wholly believe that the connector was simply a little loose and the original A Board was fine. When he left, he had to take our original A Board and send it off to Panasonic.

I should have opened up the TV before we went through with the repair to look for a loose connection, but what's done is done. The repair guy seemed so sure it was the A Board, I really thought the A Board was bad, so I figured it would be pointless and possibly harmful for me to mess around with some random connections. It seems so obvious that a connector was loose now that I know there are several connectors going along the length of the TV. Each one lines up with and controls a different vertical section of the screen.

If anyone has a similar problem, I highly recommend you keep the TV upright, remove the power cord, unscrew the 24 screws on the back, take off the back cover and reseat the appropriate connector before paying for a repair guy to do it for you. Make sure to keep track of which size screws go where, as some are slightly bigger than others and may damage the panel if you screw a bigger screw into a smaller hole. You can get the service manual (SM) for your television or a similar model from elektrotanya.com (disable your ad-blocker once you get to the download page, and be careful not to click the ads). The SM details where all of the screws go and how to remove different components, including the connectors, among other useful information.

Sorry, I remember I did a google search and it came up on multiple sites. There were also posts on ebay when I looked. I just checked again and couldn't find anything.

And FadedMaster, it's too bad you didn't see my post back then! I think they knew the A Board was fine -- they just wanted to make money off of me. If it was just a faulty connector they wouldn't be able to charge me for a new part.