[frank_f]

I have a Sharp Aquos LC-C4654U I bought at Costco 22 months ago (still under the 2 year Costco extended warranty). It has thick vertical color bands that happens on all inputs and even with inputs unpluged. Also, when you press the menu button, volumn, or change channels, you don't see the on screen display. Basically the color bands are permenently on, all the time, no matter what I do. The sound works fine. Just the video has a problem. I tried unplugging, holding power for one minute, and plugged back in, to try and reset. Also, I plugged it into a different outlet. No luck. I called Costco and a technician is coming over next week to attempt repair.


Anybody seen anything like this? I searched the forums and don't see anything like this. There are a bunch of threads on the obvious "Sharp banding" problem. But the problem I'm having seems to be entirely different.


Image is attached.

 

[westa6969]



Quote:
Originally Posted by frank_f /forum/post/18204366


I have a Sharp Aquos LC-C4654U I bought at Costco 22 months ago (still under the 2 year Costco extended warranty). It has thick vertical color bands that happens on all inputs and even with inputs unpluged. Also, when you press the menu button, volumn, or change channels, you don't see the on screen display. Basically the color bands are permenently on, all the time, no matter what I do. The sound works fine. Just the video has a problem. I tried unplugging, holding power for one minute, and plugged back in, to try and reset. Also, I plugged it into a different outlet. No luck. I called Costco and a technician is coming over next week to attempt repair.


Anybody seen anything like this? I searched the forums and don't see anything like this. There are a bunch of threads on the obvious "Sharp banding" problem. But the problem I'm having seems to be entirely different.


Image is attached.

That's definitely not the "Banding" as it's become known. You appear to have something far more serious. The only time I saw something close was when cables were installed incorrectly but a picture still displayed with the colors screwed up.


Does your Sharp have a reset button on the rear? Check your owners manual for a system reset button that is inset on the rear of many Sharp models as three of mine have those resets which are needed to correct when power outages occur and the panel temporarily prevents a display of picture.

 

[Ice Cold]

I swear these HDTV LCD's and Plasmas have software time bombs (like recently with Panasonic Plasmas after x amount of hours they get really deep black levels for no reason)


Your Sharp, after 22 months and x amount of hours triggered some sort of failure.


Imagine if you apoted for the 1 year warranty only.

 

[frank_f]

When I spoke to the technician on the phone the way to "reset" the LCD is via the on-screen menu. The problem is I can't see the on-screen menu. We did to an unplug, hold power button, and replug but that didn't work. There doesn't seem to be any kind of physical hardware way to press a reset button.


I guess I'm just lucky that it failed a month and a half BEFORE the two year extended warranty ended. Murphy's Law would usually dictate that it would fail a month and a half AFTER warranty ended.


At any rate, I have an appointment for the tech to come to the house next week. I'll post back the results of the visit.

 

[frank_f]

The tech came over to the house to look at it. He turned it on and said that it was not fixable, defective panel. Then he took pictures of it. The tech's company is sending the information and pictures over to Costco for next steps. They told me to call them tomorrow for a status. I'm not sure how Costco handles TV's under the 2 year extended warranty if they can't be fixed. I guess I'll find out and post back. It seems like it is handled on a case by case basis. Basically, the TV is out of manufacturers' warranty, and covered by Costco's extended warranty.

 

[frank_f]

Gotta love Costco.


Costco called me and gave me a return authorization number, and transmitted that number over to my local Costco store two days later. I took the LCD over to the store and a person in the electronics department checked it out, then the manager checked it out. They then asked if I wanted to get another TV today, I said not right now. So they went to the back office, and came out with cash (even though I originally paid with credit card on costco.com). They return 100% of my money back. Purchase price, shipping & handling, and sales tax.


Entire process from the day the TV broke until the day I walked out of the store with cash in hand was 9 days.


I haven't seen any posts on this forum for anyone returning an LCD under Costco's new 2 year warranty. (1st year is manufacturer's warranty, 2nd year is Costco extended). So I wanted to post back that it worked out very well and very fast for me. Costco even called me at the house about every other day during the 9 day process to keep me posted with a current status. Other than the initial call I made, I never had to call them back to get a status of where things were. They kept calling me to keep me informed in a very timely manner.

 

[TNG]

Wow, something worked out for you. I think I would buy there again and keep with the Costco warranty.

 

[frank_f]

The problem now with Costco is the display of LCD's is very limited. When the economy was good, they were busting at the seams with selection. Now, the shelves are kind of bare. I went to look for a replacement 46", and they had nothing, no 46" LCD's whatsoever. All they had was a leftover floor model Sharp 46" and a floor model Sony 46" from last season (2009). The only new LCD they had even close was a 47" Vizio... That's it... They had a couple 52" models then a couple more 55" and 60", and a handful of 36" and below.


I guess either the economy is hurting Costco's flat panels, or we are between seasons or something. Maybe they are unloaded the 2009 leftovers before they get new models. Even costco.com has next to nothing in flat panels. I wonder what's happening, other than maybe nobody's buying panels at Costco anymore. I guess the economy is so bad, people are just buying food at Costco.