Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

[Spork Schivago]

Hi.

Got a TV back from a customer. I haven't opened it back up yet. I replaced bad caps on it to get it working originally. They didn't have a remote at the time but have one now and says the remote don't work. They tried a universal remote as well, from the cable company. Assuming the remotes are good and programmed for the television, what are the chances of that IR LED being bad?

Anyone have any experience in the IR circuitry? The push buttons still work. The IR sensor looks like it's really close to the push button circuitry. I thought maybe they were the same board. Maybe I just forgot to rehook up a cable or something.

The remote appears to have been bought off e-bay. It had two stickers that were put there buy someone that says REMOTE. We did remove the stickers and it is a Vizio remote control, here's a picture of the same one:

http://img.inkfrog.com/click_enlarge...&aid=085292596

I'm thinking maybe we should first just try reprogramming the Time Warner Cable box remote they sent with it. Maybe this Vizio remote isn't for this television.

We used our baby monitor to verify the remote control was working. You can see it light up when we press the various buttons on the remote.

[keeney123]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

So the TWC remote has look up codes for the Vizo TV. Time Warner would send a remote for the box and the look up code for that TV. Once programed the TWC remote will be able to turn off/on the TV and Turn Up/Down the volume. There may be 4 different codes for your TV keep trying all of them until you get both functions on the TV and not just one functions.

[dick_barton]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Maybe worth checking that the IR sensor lead has been reconnected after it was last serviced. Also that the IR receiver is lined up correctly with the lens on the set.

[dick_barton]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

There are 3 pins on the IR receiver. Ground, VCC and output which you can check using your multimeter.

[mu2]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Hi,

I had a remote sensor board fail on a Vizio VX37L HDTV10A. Board number was similar - mine was 0171-1671-0501.
I didn't trouble shoot the board to determine what was bad. Bought it from a vendor on Ebay.
Yes, they do fail.
Hope this helps.

Mike

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

So the TWC remote has look up codes for the Vizo TV. Time Warner would send a remote for the box and the look up code for that TV. Once programed the TWC remote will be able to turn off/on the TV and Turn Up/Down the volume. There may be 4 different codes for your TV keep trying all of them until you get both functions on the TV and not just one functions.

Yeah, we just verified it's not the remote. When I woke up this morning, before coming back here, I took the TWC remote and looked up the programming instructions. First, we tried all of the ones for Vizio (there where four, maybe five). Then we tried the auto-programming method. Essentially, you put it in programming mode, enter 991 for the code, and then just repeatedly hit the channel UP button until the TV turns off.

Now it's time to tear the TV apart and figure out what's going on inside.

[keeney123]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Yeah, we just verified it's not the remote. When I woke up this morning, before coming back here, I took the TWC remote and looked up the programming instructions. First, we tried all of the ones for Vizio (there where four, maybe five). Then we tried the auto-programming method. Essentially, you put it in programming mode, enter 991 for the code, and then just repeatedly hit the channel UP button until the TV turns off.

Now it's time to tear the TV apart and figure out what's going on inside.

Question? did the remote and cable box work together? If they did then it is not the remote. The channels on the TWC box should increase and decrease on the box. If the remote works with the TWC box then I would connect the box too A good working TV to verify the channels are actually making it through the box. If all that is good then you will have several different scenarios that can be going wrong in the TV. The TV may not be set to analog antenna as I believe that is what is coming out of the box. So that would be channel 3 or 4 analog. If the box has a HDMI port you can connected that to the TV and then see if you get a signal. Next flip through the channels. That should tell you if the TV IR is picking up the signal. And so on and so forth.
Of course if the channels are working anyway then you can forget the above. If may be a programming thing or the IR pick up on the TV is not working. I guess I would first reset to factory defaults. Of course if you need the remote to set to factory defaults you have a catch 22.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Maybe worth checking that the IR sensor lead has been reconnected after it was last serviced. Also that the IR receiver is lined up correctly with the lens on the set.

So, the IR sensor board has a cable coming out that was plugged into the IR board and into the button board. The button board has a cable coming out that goes to another board (probably the main logic board). Didn't realize there was another cable coming out the other side of the button board. I looked at the silkscreen and saw stuff like AV1<something> AV2<something> IR GND <etc>. I plugged that cable in and next thing you know, working like a charm! I'm not charging the guy because I'm the one who last serviced it!

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Question? did the remote and cable box work together? If they did then it is not the remote. The channels on the TWC box should increase and decrease on the box. If the remote works with the TWC box then I would connect the box too A good working TV to verify the channels are actually making it through the box. If all that is good then you will have several different scenarios that can be going wrong in the TV. The TV may not be set to analog antenna as I believe that is what is coming out of the box. So that would be channel 3 or 4 analog. If the box has a HDMI port you can connected that to the TV and then see if you get a signal. Next flip through the channels. That should tell you if the TV IR is picking up the signal. And so on and so forth.
Of course if the channels are working anyway then you can forget the above. If may be a programming thing or the IR pick up on the TV is not working. I guess I would first reset to factory defaults. Of course if you need the remote to set to factory defaults you have a catch 22.

We didn't have the customers TWC box, and if we did, it wouldn't work in our house. They're programmed for the house that belongs to the customer, but the TWC cable remote was changing the channels on our TWC box, despite it being a different style remote. We had two remotes that can with this TV. The Vizio remote that looks like it was bought off e-bay, but is supposed to be for this television and then the TWC remote. We verified the Vizio remote was working by using a camera to see the IR LED light up. We were pretty certain, after trying the various Vizio programming codes and the auto-programming of the TWC cable that it was something inside the TV, which it was. None of the remotes did anything, not even turn on the TV. That gave us a clue it was something inside the television.

When I saw the cable unplugged, I realized what happened. There's black fabricy tape that was on the metal frame of the TV. There's a hole cutout there for the cable that was unplugged. The cable was outside that whole. It wasn't taped in there like it was supposed to be. When I serviced it last, when I put the outside bezel back on, it caught on that cable and yanked it out. It also pinched the cable, but didn't appear to damage it. We went through and tried every button on the remote after putting it together and it works. We also physically inspected the wires to make sure none were severed or showing bare wire.

Glad we got it fixed. Thanks for all the help guys! Thankfully, this one wasn't too hard, albeit a bit embarrassing. Now I gotta try to fix this cell phone sometime tried to mod with a firmware and broke. That might be a bit trickier.

[keeney123]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

We didn't have the customers TWC box, and if we did, it wouldn't work in our house. They're programmed for the house that belongs to the customer, but the TWC cable remote was changing the channels on our TWC box, despite it being a different style remote. We had two remotes that can with this TV. The Vizio remote that looks like it was bought off e-bay, but is supposed to be for this television and then the TWC remote. We verified the Vizio remote was working by using a camera to see the IR LED light up. We were pretty certain, after trying the various Vizio programming codes and the auto-programming of the TWC cable that it was something inside the TV, which it was. None of the remotes did anything, not even turn on the TV. That gave us a clue it was something inside the television.

When I saw the cable unplugged, I realized what happened. There's black fabricy tape that was on the metal frame of the TV. There's a hole cutout there for the cable that was unplugged. The cable was outside that whole. It wasn't taped in there like it was supposed to be. When I serviced it last, when I put the outside bezel back on, it caught on that cable and yanked it out. It also pinched the cable, but didn't appear to damage it. We went through and tried every button on the remote after putting it together and it works. We also physically inspected the wires to make sure none were severed or showing bare wire.

Glad we got it fixed. Thanks for all the help guys! Thankfully, this one wasn't too hard, albeit a bit embarrassing. Now I gotta try to fix this cell phone sometime tried to mod with a firmware and broke. That might be a bit trickier.

Just shows you are human. Glad it was a simple fix.
Should not the remote for the TWC box change the channels on the box no matter where it is as long as the account is active?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Just shows you are human. Glad it was a simple fix.
Should not the remote for the TWC box change the channels on the box no matter where it is as long as the account is active?

If they brought their box with us, as soon as we would have hooked that box up to our cable system, it would of disabled itself. I know this, because my friend never returned his boxes and gave them to me once, despite the very hefty charge. It has something to do with anti-piracy I believe. This is what prevents me from buying a box from the internet and getting free cable. TWC can somehow tell which houses the boxes are hooked up too, and if you plug it into another house, they disable themselves and gives some message about how the box has been locked and to call TWC to fix it.

The TWC remote though, it did control our cable box, despite our TWC using a different remote all together. Having two remotes, one programmable and one the factory remote, having both of them be broke I think is too much for odds. That's why I took it apart. I figured the chances were greater I forgot to hook a wire up or something inside the TV was broke. Even though I feel the customer shouldn't pay me, he insists on paying me. He says he doesn't believe that the only possibility was that I forgot to hook the wire up. He said he moved the TV from a few houses now and figure it could have came unhooked in the move.

Unfortunately, I believe he's wrong. It wasn't that I didn't hook the cable up. I did. I didn't have it taped in the whole it was supposed to be taped into and when I put the bezel (that back cover) of the TV back it, it grabbed the wire and pulled it out. You can tell because you can see where the bezel had indented into the wires there. Not sure how to proceed. I don't think it's ever a good idea to tell a customer they're wrong, but at the same time, I can't be taking advantage of someone because I messed up, you know?

[dick_barton]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Take his money as gratefully given and in return offer him a discount on the next item he brings in for repair. Win win for both.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Chances of a bad IR led on a Vizio VW42L FHDTV10A

Take his money as gratefully given and in return offer him a discount on the next item he brings in for repair. Win win for both.

Okay, I like that Dick_barton. We will do that. He gave my wife 20$ today for the repair. But next time he brings us something to repair, we'll remember this and give him a discount. One hand washing the other kinda thing, right?