Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Your Career in
Television Repair
Once upon a time a television set offered three controls: (1)
an on – off switch, (2) a dial for
changing thirteen channels, (3) a dial for the volume, and maybe an add-on electrical
gadget for turning an outside antenna.
A television set worked for years. When it finally failed
you could take it to a radio and tv repair shop (yes!) where a man sitting at a
bench covered in tools and parts took the television apart, tested all the
vacuum tubes, and replaced those that no longer worked.
And Matt Dillon rode again.
Zenith, RCA, Emerson, Admiral, General Electric, Sylvania, Magnavox,
Philco, Sears, Westinghouse – all made in the USA and all their images were in
glorious black-and-white, sometimes an odd green-and-white.
In those quaint times manufacturers thought it their job to
manufacture and sell televisions and broadcasters thought it their job to send
signals paid for by advertisers. They didn’t expect the customer to do their
job for them.
In our progressive era televisions are made elsewhere, are
cheaper to purchase, and when they do work the images are so clear that you can
make out the pores on Gilligan’s nose. The signals are no longer free, though;
you must pay almost a car note every month in order to watch well-coiffed but
poorly clad, poorly-shaven, and ill-informed people babble inanities. And that’s
the network news.
The really strange part is that the manufacturers now expect
the purchaser to do most of the work in making the television function.
Manufacturers and service providers work hard only at avoiding
doing any work at all, sort of like those big-box stores in Beaumont. If you do
manage to connect with Tiffany or Bambi they first assure you of their good
wishes and then manage to ignore what you are telling them.
My less-than-a-year-old smart television set is little
interested in waking up with the news and weather. It now has its own dedicated
paper clip for (1) a soft reset, (2) a hard reset, or (3) a factory reset, only
I have to accomplish the resetting and reprogramming because the factory didn’t.
Look, I’m not the I.T. guy except by default. When I
suggested to Famous Name Brand via the InterGossip that they should repair or
replace the tv they didn’t build very well in the first place I received in
return this lengthy document:
i. When did you start noticing the issue?
ii. Does the issue happens on all inputs (ex. cable tv, live tv) and/or
streaming channels?
• If only on streaming apps what are the apps you checked that are
affected?
iii. How often does the issue occur?
iv. Are there other devices connected to the TV?
To help resolve the issue,
please follow the steps below and observe the unit.
1. Perform a system reset.
a. Select Settings.
b. Select System.
c. Select Power.
d. Select System reset.
e. Press OK on reset.
2. Disconnect all external devices (if there is) then perform a System
Update.
a. From the home screen, select Settings.
b. Select System.
c. Press OK on System Update.
d. Select Check Now.
3. Drain the power of the TV.
a. Turn the TV off and unplug from the outlet.
b. Press and hold the TV Power button located on the bottom
surface of the TV (underneath the [Name] logo) for 15 seconds while the TV is
unplugged.
c. Plug it back in and turn the TV on again.
d. Check if the problem still persists.
4. Perform a factory reset. Please take note that this resets the TV to
its factory default and clears the [Name] account in the TV.
a. From the Home screen, go to Settings.
b. Select System.
c. Select Advanced System Settings.
d. Select Factory Reset.
e. Select Factory Reset Everything.
f. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the reset.
g. Set up the TV again and check if the problem still persists.
Please let us know if the issue
still occurs even after performing all the steps.
We're looking forward to your response.
Thank you!
[Jazzika]
Customer Support Team
Customer Support Team - that’s right down there with “your
call is important to us.”
When I replied to Customer Support Team that all this stuff
was pretty much my morning routine already, the only reply from [Mountain Rose]
was a repeat of all the (stuff) above.
Someday some clever young American entrepreneur is going to
design, build, and sell a television set with three or maybe four controls.
When he or she does, I’m going to buy it.
Until then, Communist China wins.
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