help, TV reverting back to 5 day old settings!?! TCL L40FHDF12TA

Hi,
Something very strange is going on with a new TV I just purchased (TCL L40FHDF12TA 40-Inch). Am at a complete loss & was wondering if anyone had any ideas.

Every time I turn off the TV it loses *all* settings that were changed. Yes -- every single one. Picture settings, sound settings, input settings, etc... and worst of all, it doesn't even save the results of a channel scan!! Even tested the parental control (just out of curiosity), & it too gets reset as soon as the TV is shut off / turned on again.

But the really odd thing is, it's not reverting back to the factory defaults either. Instead it gets reset back to the exact state it was in about 3 days after I got it. (From Dec 27 or so).

For example: I had the TV speakers set to off then (factory default is on), so now I have to go into the menu & enable them each time I want to use them. The TV now turns on set to the "personal" picture setting. But with a sharpness setting of 0. ("personal" default was 50). And the TV always turns on to channel 71.2 no matter what. (for those curious, a free preview of NBA TV going away soon).

I've repeatedly gone into the menu & cleared all settings / rescanned channels / done a complete reset of everything. But no matter what I can't fix this. Have tried everything including leaving it unplugged overnight, stopping mid channel scan, updating the firmware, etc...

So, has anyone had a similar problem & found a fix for it? Or know how to enter the service menu? (not really sure how that would actually help, but completely out of ideas). Was trying to avoid having to exchange it, since it works perfectly except for the not saving settings.

Thanks.

yes, I was turning it off using the remote.

Well the thing is I bought it mainly due to the price -- was only $259 with free next day shipping. But the picture quality was surprisingly not so bad. I looked at the back with a flashlight & saw it uses a Samsung panel.

Samsung LTA400HM09 --
(blah, don't have enough posts to put a link)


Hmm, so I guess I'll return or exchange it if I can't figure this out by Monday. I had really good luck with another sub-par brand that I ended up giving my parents (that one had a Sony panel for what it's worth).


EDIT: I make a kind of long, but detailed reply after dfp's post, but it hasn't shown up? Something about it needing to be approved or something. Guess it's since I'm new?

Thanks a lot for the advice. Unfortunately I've already tried all that. Since the problem started I've spent at least 10 actual hours going through every single menu option in every possible order over & over & over. Tried on every single input. (TV, 2 AV, S-video, 2 component, PC, & all 3 HDMI) Unplugged the TV, even overnight once. Redid all the initial setup. Yet nothing works... beyond frustrating.

I'm wondering if there isn't some undocumented button combination that locks settings? But the TV definitely isn't in any Store Demo Mode... (there's not even an explicit menu option for it)


wish it was. anyway, on this TV if you make changes while in a preset mode it overwrites "Personal" mode. So if the TV is in "Cinematic" preset and you even turn down the contrast by 1, that's your new "Personal" setting. BTW, factory default mode is "ECO". But picture mode not being saved is just a minor annoyance. The big thing long-term is that channel scans aren't saved -_-


It's like Groundhog Day.
1. Ok, I turn on the TV, up comes cable channel 71.2, speaker turned off, 0 sharpness personal picture mode, input settings erased, etc, etc...
2. There's 2 reset options on the TV -- "Reset All", & "Reset Picture Settings". I do them both, on every input to be sure.
3. Do a rescan for cable channels, but cut it short. (erases channel memory while on at least)
4. I disconnect the cable, connect a UHF antenna, change the RF setting to Antenna, scan for channels. Turn on the speaker, make other minor tweaks. Watch an over the air broadcast.
5. Turn off TV & turn it back on... back to #1 (tuned to cable channel 71.2... & all cable channels, digital & analog, are back in memory!?!)


It's always back to #1. No other steps alter anything post shut-off in the slightest.

at the moment, just an old Series 2 Tivo / DVD player to one of the component inputs, & a Motorola Comcast (SD) box on one of the AV inputs. Had a VGA cable connected too, but took it off on the slim chance that would make any difference.

Well, to give this some closure...
Ended up getting a replacement (same model) & the new one works perfectly. Absolutely none of the problems I outlined before.


Yeah, looks like that was probably the case. Btw, On the replacement TV the "Reset All" menu option actually works!! After restarting it gives the option for home/retail, erases time zone & channel memory, etc. The old (defective) one did *none* of that after restarting.