# Anyone Know About Plasma TV Repair? (Red Sparkles)



## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

I swear, for someone who is as much of a technophile as I am, I have the -worst- luck when it comes to anything electronic. My Kindles are really the first time I've ever really bought anything without any problems. I have a 50" Samsung PN50A550 Plasma HDTV that I bought in September of 2008. Now, I don't know a heck of a lot about how long these things should last, but I'm thinking they should last more than 20 months.

About a week ago I started getting little dancing red pixels on some channels, especially when there was blue on the screen. Two days ago the entire screen started to display them and they show especially badly on bright areas. Now, I could almost live with this but after about 30 minutes the red sparkles start to turn into black pixels in the areas where the screen is dark and when lighter. Then if lighter images display over the black spots long enough they will "activate" those pixels so that the image is "burned in" to them. This ends up making half the screen look like splotched, dead pixels.

The thing is... these aren't dead or dying pixels. The television after being turned off for an hour looks perfect when I turn it back on. Colors are bright and crisp and everything looks fine, then 20 minutes later the sparkling red pixels start creeping in. So I can't really watch more than 30 minutes of television without it being unbearable. I called Samsung and they didn't really tell me anything except that they'd contact a "nearby" repair shop and have them contact me at some unspecified period of time even though they never asked me for my phone number. "Nearby" to them is 75 miles away apparently.

So my question is... does anyone have any experience with a television doing this? I have read that it is probably a failed board that's going to cost about $500 to fix. I have also seen it mentioned several places that once you have a television like this repaired that the problems just keep cropping up and you just keep throwing money at it until it's just not worth it anymore. So I guess I just need some advice here... do I lug this gargantuan thing around and hope a $500 repair is enough to get it going again or do I just bite the bullet, donate it to Goodwill and buy another one? It seems like such a waste since it works some of the time, but I just don't want to keep throwing money at it and end up spending what might end up being enough to have just bought a new one.

Here's a picture of the set after being on about 45 minutes:
https://ancientmuse.sslpowered.com/DSC_2837.JPG

And a closer shot so you can see the red pixels better:
https://ancientmuse.sslpowered.com/DSC_2841.JPG


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

I would check with the Cable company first. We had a problem similar to that but just a regular tv. And it was a problem on their end. It took them a few tries to fix it too.  Worth a shot befor spending that kind of money.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

rho said:


> I would check with the Cable company first. We had a problem similar to that but just a regular tv. And it was a problem on their end. It took them a few tries to fix it too. Worth a shot befor spending that kind of money.


If that's the case, you could try it with another source, such as a DVD player, and see if the same thing happens.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Yeah, I tried my blu-ray player and had the same deal.  Though it was strange because it really seemed like my Tivo caused it.  Like I said it was gradual at first then I was watching a recorded show and the Tivo stopped playing it and went to live TV all on its own which it doesn't normally do.  When it did that the full red sparkles across the screen started.  I'll have to look at my blu-ray player when the black spots are really prevalent because I remember having to look carefully to see them as if they were harder to detect... it could be my Tivo.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Hm nope, it's definitely showing up on my other inputs as well -_-


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Well, I'm starting to look at TV prices and unless I can get a logic board (which seems to be the issue) myself for under $200 and try and let one of my techie friends install it I don't think it's worth fixing.  I didn't realize plasma TVs had gotten so cheap.  LED is nice for the energy savings and such, but they seem to fall below Plasmas in most categories and cost $2000 more...  Now I just need to find a good plasma maker.  I keep seeing Samsung at the top which is who I'm trying to avoid, of course I did my research the first time too and that's why I got a Samsung.  Pioneers seem to be really nice as well but I can't find anyplace that actually sells them.  Anyone know a good plasma maker for the 50" and above crowd?


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Not me. I'm perfectly happy with my puny little 32" LCD from LG.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

Heheh, I'm actually leaning toward an LG at the moment.  If I don't want a Samsung it looks like Panasonic or LG.  I could get the Pioneer, but those are apparently for people who live in penthouses (they run $5000-$10000 and I just can't see how a TV could get $9000 better).  The big question here is... the Panasonic is a clear winner but $300 more than the LG.  The kicker is that the Panasonic black levels in last year's models apparently tended to dim after 100-200 hours of use.  They claim the new models have "extended" this period of time, but nobody can say by how much since they're so new.  My parents have a Panasonic that's lasted over 5 years... so I'm in a bit of a quandry.


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## Scheherazade (Apr 11, 2009)

So now I have someone saying I may be able to fight Samsung with the Uniform Commercial Code... but I'm an historian, not a lawyer and it makes zero sense to me.  Anyone know anything about this and if it's a viable route for me to take?


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