Things fall apart. The center cannot hold.

[carbonel]

This would be an AKICOLJ post, except that I'm not sure there's anything to be done. It might just be grumbling. But I'd appreciate advice.

I rearranged some HDMI cords connected to my TV because I got an HDMI switcher to deal with the fact that I have three HDMI devices but only two HDMI inputs. When I went to turn the TV back on, it wouldn't. The orange Vizio light in front is still lit, but the light doesn't turn white to show that it's awake. I called Vizio tech support, who walked me through a TV's equivalent of a reboot (unplug, then push in the on switch for 30 seconds, then replug in), with no luck. (Anyone have any other suggestions? Is it worth taking to a repair shop?)

This happened once before, but that time, after a certain amount of pressing buttons, it woke up. This time, nada.

The TV is more than two years old, so it's out of warranty. (I can't remember when I bought it, but I'm sure I've had it more than two years.) And another aggravation -- the LJ archive software that I'd been using seems to have broken, or at least choked on some existing content, so I can't check exactly when.

So since I couldn't access MLB.tv on the television, I decided to listen to the Cubs opener on the Internet version of WGN, which I pay for. The screen opens properly, and acknowledges that I'm entitled to listen, but no voice is heard. It just sits there. Maybe if I reboot the computer it'll help. When I have time.

Grrr.

Comments

[guppiecat]

Does the TV work if you take the HDMI switch out of the loop?

[carbonel]

No, alas. I had a weird problem like that with my new DVD player, but this is different. It's not confused, it's acting dead.

It's not a "working, but no picture" problem. It's a "the TV doesn't turn on" problem.

I suppose the most likely explanation is that plugging in the HDMI cable somehow fried something. I'd be more willing to accept that if I didn't have a "won't turn on" problem that resolved itself a few weeks ago.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

guppiecat's question is the right one, I think. It sounds like your tv has a lot of output options, one of which is the main screen, and it's confused. Your previous attempt either accidentally got to the right output or you screwed around enough that it bounced to the default.

We had a similar problem with Carole hooked up her Playstation to my tv: We couldn't see the output to tell the PS to output to the tv.

[carbonel]

I don't think so. The TV is failing to turn on, which is a more fundamental problem than not displaying things properly.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I have no advice, but merely want to say that I Love Your Tag.

[carbonel]

Thank you! When I use it, I'm usually frustrated, so I'm glad for there to be something about the situation that can amuse me.

[laurel]

HDMI is weird. Issues caused by it tend to be strange and I end up fiddling with plugging and unplugging HDMI cables, switching inputs, turning things off and on . . . all possible combinations. Changing cables. Falling back to composite or something if HDMI still is funky.

Some DVD players and other such machines can be set so that when you turn them on, the HDMI will tell your TV to come on . . . if you can hook such gadgets up to another TV temporarily and turn that setting on (if they have it), might be worth seeing if they could talk your TV into starting up. (I'd take the switcher out of the loop for this.)

If your TV has a USB port, installing new firmware might be possible, but you'd likely want to talk to someone familiar with your TV model.

When I'm stuck, I tend to head over to the AVS Forums (a search should pull 'em up) and search on my TV/whatever model and see what folks have said about it and if others have had similar woes and found a solution.