TV problems - fixed!?

[Dave2002]

We have a so called smart TV - 49 inch made by Toshiba. About a year ago some functions seemed to go wrong, such as the set not recognising some of the HDMI inputs - including an Amazon Fire stick. We tried all sorts of work arounds, depending on what we wanted to watch.

Sometimes I'd get things going using a computer connected with an HDMI cable - since the set did seem to recognise my Apple devices. Recently we wanted to try Netflix - again - but the film was very distorted, like an old analogue set which has lost sync. After consulting the Netflix help pages a hint of a solution emerged, so I turned the set off completely for a few minutes. I may even have unplugged the power socket. Then turned it back on.

After this, Netflix now works fine and the HDMI inputs are now working so the Fire device (which allows Prime Video) is also back in operation. I was dreading having to reset the TV to factory settings, or some other solution - and I had noticed that there had been a sofware update roughly around the time when the TV started to become problematic - though in truth I can't say the update was responsible for the problem.

The electrical engineer's equivalent of hitting a mechanical devivce with a hammer, perhaps. Though I did also change the network feed to the set, which may also have had an effect. I'm not going to undo things to check!

[gradus]

The latest US stealth fighter had similar problems when RAF officers were training in it - not that it wouldn't get Netflix. When all else had failed the pilot was told to turn off and restart the system and lo and behold off she went.
How much so we really know about computers?

[Ein Heldenleben]

A friend who works in IT support for a major company has suggested putting the words “ have you tried switching it off and on again?” as his epitaph . He says that phrase many , many times a day..
My grandfather who was an electrical engineer thought the solution to most electrical problems was a thump .
And that is the difference between valves and chips...

[eighthobstruction]

....on Fiurestick I find the restart very useful....particular prob' with All4....so I just go direct to setting each day and restartr....if only there was a restart for lifes other little problems....yes factory settings and its need to enter all emails and passwords - a frustration....

[oddoneout]

The latest US stealth fighter had similar problems when RAF officers were training in it - not that it wouldn't get Netflix. When all else had failed the pilot was told to turn off and restart the system and lo and behold off she went.
How much so we really know about computers?

These days less than they know about us?

[Bryn]

A friend who works in IT support for a major company has suggested putting the words “ have you tried switching it off and on again?” as his epitaph . He says that phrase many , many times a day..
My grandfather who was an electrical engineer thought the solution to most electrical problems was a thump .
And that is the difference between valves and chips...

Those who have ever watched The IT Crowd will be all too familiar with the catchphrase “Have you tried switching it off and on again?”. As to thumps, that. or the drop test did not at all go out with thermionic valves. A good friend, himself a bit of a programming wiz, found he was getting serious memory loss problems (with his computer, not his own memory). By good chance, I had recently read an article on the corrosion problem associated with gold/tin connections. It was aimed at hifi enthusiasts but it struck me as equally relevant. A hefty thump on the computer's case temporarily restored full memory. We then opened up the case and gave each memory card a good wiggle in its slot. That was enough to break up the insulating layer of corrosion built up between the tin plating of the motherboard slots and the gold plating of the memory cards. See https://www.microcontrollertips.com/...mate-together/ for example.

[Dave2002]

The errors did return again this afternoon, but turning the power off and on again did seem to clear things. It's not good though, but at least there is a temporary solution. The Fire stick still seems to be working.

[richardfinegold]

An IT pro once told me the only Universal Protocol in their world was turning the gizmos off, thus the tendency to reset after shutting stuff down...

[Dave2002]

An IT pro once told me the only Universal Protocol in their world was turning the gizmos off, thus the tendency to reset after shutting stuff down...

It's odd that some kit not only has to be turned off, and powered off at the wall, but the plug actually taken out of the socket. This seems to be a feature of quite a lot of kit these days. It can be a nuisance if the socke t is hidden away behijnd obstacles, or even (in my case) the TV. One suggestion, to use a remote controlled power switching device may not help, as adding an extra level of complication. It might work, but in the most difficult "fixable" cases, probably won't.

With devices which are "updated" online or via satellite or wireless links, there may be times when the only alternative to taking the offending device to the dump, is to do a factory reset, which is not always easy. If the base level software contains the root of the problem (which may have emerged over time) then some updates may be required/allowed to correct that and other problems, but knowing when to stop - which updates to allow and which not, can be a source of problems.

Yesterday we heard of people with brand new cars who have experienced problems due to software updates. One person had a VW Golf perhaps 15 years old which never had any major problems. She replaced it with a new one a few months ago, and very recently she was driving and all the warning lights came on, with instructions to "stop immediately to avoid damage". She didn't quite do that, as she was close to a dealer, but subsequent investigation showed that it was the software update which had been done automatically which had caused the error. There was, I assume, nothing fundementally wrong with the car.

There are several other known cases of new cars having this kind of issue, though perhaps the motor industry doesn't want it to be too widely known.

This kind of issue very likely to cause more havoc in years to come, and in the case of cars possible litigation regarding responsibility, particularly if accidents occur as a result of software changes.

[Frances_iom]

It's odd that some kit not only has to be turned off, and powered off at the wall, but the plug actually taken out of the socket. .

quite standard - the microprocessors in these devices have an ultra low power, near dormant, state which preserves any settings needed for a near instant restart, user entered settings are normally held in a slow access flash memory that requires no power, the dormant state is exited by pressing the start or on/off button - thus if power had remained on the previous state is activated if removed then the settings drop back to a default state effectively giving a restart from a known state. The flash memory needs explicit clearance - ie return to factory state

[Anastasius]

It's odd that some kit not only has to be turned off, and powered off at the wall, but the plug actually taken out of the socket. .....

It doesn't surprise me because so many of these items have 'soft' on/off switches.. Not a good old fashioned toggle switch as in days of old.

This kind of issue very likely to cause more havoc in years to come, and in the case of cars possible litigation regarding responsibility, particularly if accidents occur as a result of software changes.

There is no 'very likely' about it. The phrase I think you are looking for is "There will be more accidents and deaths as a result of poorly implemented and tested s/w in recent cars and the abject failure of the system designers to never think about "What if...."

And which several car mechanics I know won't entertain any vehicle newer than around 2004 because that is when the rot set in ...in their opinion.

[Roslynmuse]

"There will be more accidents and deaths as a result of poorly implemented and tested s/w in recent cars and the abject failure of the system designers to never think about "What if...."

Not to mention smart motorways.