# Big black rectangle appearing in the middle of my TV screen: is the tube going? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905 "2006-07-25T00:47:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stationary\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@stationary\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stationary_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/1 "2006-07-25T00:47:19Z")
I’m currently borrowing a friend’s 16-inch Sharp Aquos LCD TV that recently started losing a large middle portion of its picture in the way I described in the thread title. It looks like the pixels in this rectangular area have just. . . died. Can anyone tell me if this might be something that’s relatively repairable, or a sign of bigger problems? I figured I’d check with the good folks here before beginning the search for a good repair shop. What surprises me is that the set’s not even a year old; my friend received it as a sales incentive reward from work. Since she’s been gracious enough to let me use it in my workout room for the past few months, I figured I’d take care of any problems that arise while it’s in my care. Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/2 "2006-07-25T01:08:25Z")
Any chance you accidentally put it into picture-in-picture mode somehow? ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/3 "2006-07-25T01:27:57Z")
Could it be your cable? Once, our cable was on the fritz and we got the same thing you’re describing: a black square in the middle of the screen. Turns out it was some kind of menu that got stuck because my box was fried. IANAT, but I dobut that it would be a perfect square if it was actually screen pixels dying. ---
**Author:** ![stationary\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@stationary\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stationary_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/4 "2006-07-25T01:29:21Z")
Double-checking. . . Doesn’t look like it. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t actually have the picture-within-a-picture function. ---
**Author:** ![stationary\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@stationary\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stationary_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/5 "2006-07-25T01:33:13Z")
**Lissa** - it does seem to be an area that displays certain screen options. But can I ask you, was your cable just \*out \* when this happened? Because mine appears to be fine- I mean none of the channels are out or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/6 "2006-07-25T01:41:46Z")
> [@stationary bandit](#): > > **Lissa** - it does seem to be an area that displays certain screen options. But can I ask you, was your cable just \*out \* when this happened? Because mine appears to be fine- I mean none of the channels are out or anything. No, you could still tell what was happening-- meaning that you could see the image around the edges of your screen. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/7 "2006-07-25T01:53:47Z")
Make sure the Closed-Captioning system is off. You wouldn’t believe how many trouble calls we have at work for that. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/8 "2006-07-25T02:09:33Z")
Unplug the unit and let it sit overnight before plugging it back in. Here are all the Sharp Aquos manuals in pdf format ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/9 "2006-07-25T02:10:50Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Unplug the unit and let it sit overnight before plugging it back in. > Here are all the Sharp Aquos manuals in pdf format Let’s try that again [Here are all the Sharp Aquos manuals in pdf format](http://www.sharpusa.com/products/TypeManuals/0,1083,127,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/10 "2006-07-25T02:13:38Z")
You could also disconnect the cable box and just play a DVD player audio video input line directly into it to test the “fried cable box” hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![stationary\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@stationary\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stationary_bandit)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/11 "2006-07-25T02:17:39Z")
**wmulax** , I found it about ten seconds before you replied! It was indeed the closed captioning. I must have hit the CC button by accident and it was generating the box as a blank caption field (?) Oh man. I’m so happy; you have no idea. **finagle, Lissa** - your questions got me rooting around with the controls, so many thanks. **wmulax** - you woulda saved me regardless. **astro** - I appreciate the .pdf and the sound suggestions! Thanks so much, guys. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/12 "2006-07-25T02:17:55Z")
Didn’t there used to be a setting which pasted a black square in the middle of the screen if the tv show being shown exceed a preset rating (parental guidance thingy)? Bob ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-black-rectangle-appearing-in-the-middle-of-my-tv-screen-is-the-tube-going/365905/13 "2006-07-25T03:33:27Z")
Just a note…there is no “tube” in an LCD screen.