60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

[PowerDubs]

My 60ZT60 is dying. Which totally blows. I have only had it a few months, it has extremely low hours, and I had it calibrated by Chad B and it looks fantastic.

Symptoms- the first time I noticed something, I turned it on to watch the news before work. After 5-10 minutes, the TV simply rebooted itself, same clicks and master panel logo displayed as if I turned it on myself. Picture came back and everything was fine after that.. but I did not leave it on much longer and went to work.

That evening- turned it on, somewhere in the first show, it rebooted again. Same thing, fine after that.

Next eve I came home, wife was watching tv- asked her if it rebooted itself and she said yes- once. We watched a show or 2, and she went to bed. I was looking at my phone and then looked up to notice spread across the center of the screen was a bunch of green dots/haze. I stared at it for a few minutes in disbelief. WTF. Then I turned it off and back on- green stuff still there.

Day after that- Less than 5 minutes on- shut off and instead of immediately rebooting the TV stayed off for about 10 seconds this time. I actually started to stand up to get the remote when it clicked back on. Picture looked fine so far- I left it on for a while to see what happens.

At that time, it seems to only shut down when the TV was first turned on after a couple minutes and then stabilized and stayed on.

I made the choice to live with it until it showed more symptoms to narrow down the issue.

Green dots are consistent at this point. They are aligned in a vertical pattern, and sort of move around a bit. They used to only appear after the unit was on for a couple hours.

Then one night my wife said to me that the tv wouldn't turn on. I walked over to it and it was blinking 3 times. I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it fired up. Behaved the same after that. I haven't looked up what 3 blinks means yet- but I am sort of happy it did it so I can have more of a clue than just randomly throwing parts at it. (note- it never did the 3 blink error again in this story)

Couple days later, wife said it shut off again a few minutes ago and never turned back on. I walked over- 8 blinks this time. I unplugged, it came back on and stayed on after that. I basically lived with the TV since then letting it get worse.

SOOO... as of today, here is what is going on. The TV often shuts itself off, sometimes with an immediate reboot by itself. Sometimes if I wait a minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes it will eventually turn itself back on. Some times I need to unplug it and it will turn back on. But most times it will shortly turn back off again. Some nights it is a many time combination of it tuning itself off and back on, and me having to unplug replug (as much as 5-6 times a night and then it seems to settle down and stay on)..but sometimes it will still shut off after being on for several hours. Also on several occasions the TV goes nuts and just clicks madly as it shuts down- fastly click click click click click click click click... the 8 blink code is common. Having to unplug instead of it rebooting itself is becoming more common. The green dots are there all the time where at first they were just after it had been on for a while when it first happened.

Is this enough for you guys to narrow down the issue so I don't blindly throw parts at it? I'm hoping it is a bad cap issue, and I can both replace and upgrade the caps so it won't happen again.


Thanks- Josh

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Sounds like cold solder joints on the Psu or failed Bga solder on the mainboard Cpu to me. Have you images of the boards please ?

[martino]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

strongly sounds like a bad solder joint on powerboard,I would stop using it as you run a high risk of blowing up the powersupply

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Hi guys.

Thanks for the response.

In looking at the service manual- it appears there are 2 power supply boards- a main board and a sub. I guess I will visually inspect both once I have it off it's mount and open. A bad solder would be ideal, as that is an easy fix as long as it isn't tiny.

The 8 blink code points to the sustain board though. No idea what the green dots on the screen mean.

[Moreno83]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Hi , you got a GREAT TV! Im absolutely jealous haha.

The green dots are sparkles , they can be caused by low vsus voltage , bad buffers or a bad mainboard. ( BGA solder ). Im thinking Vsus or mainboard.
Please dont turn on the tv anymore , remove the cover and take some clear pictures. you can add them with the paperclip function ( Go advanced ).

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Buffers and sus boards are good, if they fail the Tv would shut off and not come on at all.

[Moreno83]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

No , not really true! I recently repaired a very damaged SC board , it turned on but also gave a bad picture with a green haze. Replaced it with a good SC board and it was all good , so SC board wont always blow when its bad.

But as Reecey says , its unlikely for the buffers to be bad. Rebooting tv and green dots is probably bad bga soldering on the mainboard. Dont think its bad solder on the powersupply though......

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Bad BGA on the main (A?) board would suck (I googled what bga was).. since I couldn't fix that myself and would need a new board, probably hard to find- and which would mean I loose my custom calibration.

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Here is the service manual if it helps any of you.

[Moreno83]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Did you check the backside of the powersupply and other boards for bad solder?

You could reflow the videochip and see if it works........

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Not yet. Getting the tv down off it's stand and opened up is going to take some help. Maybe this weekend.

[tom66]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Almost certainly a main board issue. BGA soldering failure would be my guess.

It is possible to back up your calibration data via SD card (check service manual, may also use USB) or by writing down values that are available in the settings menu and the advanced calibration menu (I'm assuming that Chad didn't touch the service menu)

If the TV isn't powering up at all, try aiming a hair dryer on a low heat at the main board processor then powering it up.

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Well- right around my last post, last September, the tv just stopped acting up and worked perfectly until about a week ago.

It is now doing the same thing, out of the blue all of a sudden after all these months- and more often now, I keep rebooting it but where last year it would stay on for a while, now it shuts back off every few minutes.

HELP!!

[tom66]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Well- right around my last post, last September, the tv just stopped acting up and worked perfectly until about a week ago.

It is now doing the same thing, out of the blue all of a sudden after all these months- and more often now, I keep rebooting it but where last year it would stay on for a while, now it shuts back off every few minutes.

HELP!!

As before, it would help if you removed the TV's cover to get us some pictures so we can guide you on the problem.

It may also be useful to take a video of the TV's malfunction.

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

I have to find someone to help me get it off the mounting it is on so I can take the cover off.

I can try to film what it does- but it is totally random on timing so I would have to do a lot of editing- that I don't know how to do.

The current behavior- no fault codes ever- hasn't blinked an error light since last summer when it was acting up.

Turn the TV on- normal 3 fast clicks- normal boot up, picture looks great.

After a few minutes, but completely random- could be 5 minutes, could be 17 minutes- it will act up in some sort~

Sometimes it will just shut itself off with a click, reboot instantly and go back to watching TV.

Sometimes it will shut off and stay off. If I unplug it, it will always come back on. If I just sit and wait, most times it will turn itself back on after about 1-3 minutes.

Once the TV is back on- either by itself or me unplugging- again there is no way to know how long before it turns off again- could do it in 2 minutes, 20 minutes, or stay on for an hour.

It is happening a LOT more than it used to last year.

A recent new thing that it is now doing- it will shut off and freak out at the same time with rapid fire machine gun relay clicking- over and over again say 15-20 times and then it will reboot.

And NEW- just now this morning- which is why I am here typing- I was at my computer and I heard the TV make the 3 click as if someone turned it on- but I am the only one home and I know I turned it off last night. I walked over to it- the screen was black, no power light was on, but I know I heard the relays. I picked up the remote and hit the power button and it clicked as normal, red light came on, screen came on. I turned it back off and came over here to write this post.

And lastly- as always during the periods it misbehaves it still has a green haze of some pixel fuzz that move around a bit.

[tom66]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

It definitely sounds like a main board issue, but it's difficult to diagnose these kinds of faults. Once you get it off the wall let us know.

And NEW- just now this morning- which is why I am here typing- I was at my computer and I heard the TV make the 3 click as if someone turned it on- but I am the only one home and I know I turned it off last night. I walked over to it- the screen was black, no power light was on, but I know I heard the relays. I picked up the remote and hit the power button and it clicked as normal, red light came on, screen came on. I turned it back off and came over here to write this post.

This is normal for Panasonic TVs. Both my Panasonic plasma TVs (ST50 2012 series, U30 2011 series) periodically turn themselves on to update the TV guide and check for a firmware update. They only turn the main board on - no picture - but they need relays for this (even though it doesn't draw much power, you'd figure they could get away without the full power supply but apparently not.) Got used to the bedroom one doing it at precisely 1.00 am for some time when I was studying late. Could hear a few clicks, check the clock, bingo, 1 am. Guess Panasonic figures people are asleep by then, but if not, TV becomes possessed.

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Well- unfortunately to put a hole in your theory, at least for me- I am right now again sitting at my desk, tv is off- and it just clicked the relays again.

This time it wasn't just a couple clicks- it machine gunned them, very fast and for probably a good 10-12 times of on/off cycles.

Also, I am noticing a new trend- it doesn't do it every time, but some times now when watching the tv it will flash/flicker once and I know it is about to die- once it flashes/flickers once then after another 3-5 seconds it will flash/flicker several times quickly and then shut off.

As mentioned in my first post- "I made the choice to live with it until it showed more symptoms to narrow down the issue."

Are we getting any closer? :P

The reason I say that is because I am capable of replacing a board as far as the work goes- but don't know anything about electronics so if I can't SEE what is wrong, then I will just have my TV torn apart for nothing, along with risk to breaking the screen while moving/working on it.

[dskall]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Well unfortunately the tv is not going to fix itself. You are going to have to make some effort. With pictures and voltages or live with broken tv.

[Moreno83]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

Indeed but im pretty sure the mainboard is the issue.

[PowerDubs]

Re: 60ZT60- green dots, shutting down, 3 blinked once, 8 blinks a lot of the time..

OK so the TV is down and the back is off of it. Just looking around everything looks fine nothing visibly discolored swollen or burned.

One thing I did notice is the top of the main video board that has the HDMI ports – there are two screws that not only secure the board but apparently are supposed to go through the back cover and then into the board.

Those two screws are secure in the board but under the cover, not from the outside.

Any thoughts? The one area of the board that One of those screws goes into is a round copper color area that looks as if it may be some sort of a ground? Although I am not sure why that would affect it because doesn't the board ground to the metal base that all the boards are screwed down into?