We had a bad lightning storm here this afternoon while I was away. I got home and my TV won’t turn on. I monkeyed with the remote a bit, then tried the power button on the TV, nothing. I unplugged it now, thinking if I plug it back in later it will work. :rolleyes:
Do you think my TV got fried by the lightning? Anything I do to diagnose the problem?
Unplugging it for an hour or two before trying it again isn’t a bad idea. Modern electronics are packed with little computers inside, and power surges caused by lightning and other sources can scramble their little brains. If it still doesn’t work after leaving it unplugged for a while, then it could be a fuse–or something more serious. If it’s anything other than a fuse, you’re probably not equipped to fix it yourself, I’m afraid. Even replacing the fuse can be risky if you are unfamiliar with the high-voltage circuitry inside a television set.
Yeah, if I remember right there’s some fairly large capacitors in there that can knock you on your butt, even after it’s been unplugged. Thanks for the info, I think I will let it cool down and discharge for a couple hours, then say a couple prayers before I plug it back in. If it doesn’t work, it will become a donation to the Salvation Army I suppose.
Once while I was out of town our house was hit by lightning. No serious damage, fortunately, but it fried the modem on my computer and one of my VCRs. I bought another VCR (courtesy of my insurance company) but instead of throwing the old one out I put it aside in case it was repairable - this was before VCRs were so cheap they weren’t worth taking to the shop. A few weeks later I plugged it in and to my surprise it worked fine.
Back in the late 70’s our TV got nailed 3 times by lightning in the space of 1 year. Each time we had to take it to the repair shop to get it fixed. (Being impatient, we didn’t leave it aside for a week to see if it would recover on its own.)
We eventually learned to unplug it when there was a thunderstorm.
So you unplug the power AND the cable? The problem is, here in Tampa we get lightning almost every day from June through September, no joke.