Bricked KD-55AF9

[spicybeanstew]

We bought our KD-55AF9 29th December 2019 from Currys in the UK.

It threw a tantrum about a month ago - which we attributed to our Sky box, however things really went south last night.

The symptoms were power cycling, going through the 'Sony' banner, the Android start up then pausing and doing it all over again.

We unplugged everything else to make sure nothing else was contributing to the problem.

Occasionally if one pressed the 'Home' button during boot up, you'd get to the Home page and settings could be changed - although it might spontaneously reboot whilst I was doing things,.

I followed the Sony guide which seems to be a two stage process:

1) First check the TV has the latest updates - it has, auto-update is on

2) Do a factory reset.

1) didn't help as it weas already at the latest release, so I tried 2).

Now the TV power cycles but you only see the 'Sony' banner before it fades, and about a minute later it reboots. Twice the initial part of the Android banner came up - but then it froze and after a minute or so, rebooted.

After 2), the website revealed the UK help number +44 (0) 2073652810. Unfortunately we are five months out of our guarantee and Sony seem to have closed the UK helpline.

The next options was to download the latest patch set to USB according to the instructions and try and let the TV detect the USB stick & auto install the update. No luck - bricked TV.

So no Sony to help, no repair service and no further ideas.

As an angineer, I suspect whatever boot medium the TV has, but that is simply conjecture.

Any helpful suggestions will be gratefully received.

Thank you in advance.

[Vapeland]

Why would you be out of your guarantee? Minimum you would have is 2 years but Currys have been selling Sony TVs with 5 warranty. They will probably take the tv for repair but think that’s your best option. If you have the latest update and did a factory reset then correct me if I’m wrong but don’t think there’s much more you can do

[spicybeanstew]

Hello Vapeland,

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply, I do appreciate it.

I will be thrilled if my TV has a two year warranty; before I made the comment, I followed the link on my account to here:

Your Sony guarantee: what you need to know

Which AFAICT says most products only have a year's warranty.

I have called Currys, who say that only Sony will fix my TV and forwarded me to the Sony support number - which is currently not being answered.

So at the moment I am left with at best a room heater if I choose to turn it on.

I guess it is time to buy a new TV and stick this one in the loft for the time being; if I had an idea on how to fix/replace what I perceive to be faulty, then I'd try that.

[Vapeland]

I took a further look into this and see that unless Currys state they are giving a 5 year warranty then you only get a year. But under the U.K. sales of good act then if a fault occurs with your electrical good within 6 months then it’s up to the retailer to fix and not the manufacturer. If it was me I would keep on at Currys to get your tv fixed. You’ve had your tv or less then 6 months. Make a nuisance of yourself if you have to. I bought a tv back in April from Currys and it only lasted 2 weeks. I found the webchat with Currys to be more helpful then calling them. Good luck and hope you get it sorted

[spicybeanstew]

Hi Vapeland,

Thanks again for your response - unfortunately we bought the TV on December 29th 2019 - so we have had it for 1 year & 5 months.

I can't get an answer out of Curry's and Sony have completely shut up shop and abandoned their customers, so I have taken it to our local repair shop.

In the meantime we have bought an LG 49SM8600PLA to tide us over - it's not as good as the Sony but a) it works and; b) it cost 25% of price of the Sony.

I am particularly disappointed that Sony have ceased to manage even the customer service lines - I can see no excuse for that as it can be carried out remotely.

It would be very hard for me to say anything good about Sony in future. Impossible might be a more accurate description, but I am grateful for your attempts to help. Much better than Sony! Following Sony's self-help guidelines my TV went from a machine that would boot to a brick, with no back up.

[Vapeland]

TVs aren’t built like they used to be. My last Sony is still going strong after 12 years but my new one broke after 2 weeks. The replacement has problems also but has you’ve seen there’s no point contacting Currys or Sony.

LG isn’t a bad tv tbf and anything that works is better then the tv you have lol. I hope you get your tv fixed and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! Think there’s some confusion in your dates as you say you bought it on the 29th December 2019. That makes it less then 6months old. Think you mean 2018? Keep us updated on how it goes 

[spicybeanstew]

Ah. Yes, you are quite right, it was bought on the 29th December 2018, date of manufacture was 2018/09.

I have my fingers crossed for my local shop - I am going to give them a punt as they are going to have a look. They charge £35 for an investigation which I though was fair; the shop is Hamilton Cole, in Pulborough West Sussex and at least they are open and willing to investigate.

They have seen the problem before, but made the rather worrying statement that most moden TV's have just two boards; so it will be replacement of one of them.

I will keep you posted 🙂.

[Tonycv51]

Whilst it's great that you've got a helpful local shop, currys have a 5 year guarantee on all "premium" tvs. A 55AF9 should be one of those.  There would have been a logo on their website for the 5 year guarantee against the model which should be reflected on the receipt (email or store paper copy). 

From having a few tv problems I would  now never buy a modern TV without a 5 or 6 year guarantee.  I recently claimed with John Lewis. TV was 4 and  half years old, as long as you top up and pay extra for a better replacement model than they offer you (can be just by 1 pound) you get a new 5 year guarantee

[spicybeanstew]

Hello Tonycv51,

That's really useful. Nothing on the receipt, and the hopeful looking monthly 'PRODUCT SUPPORT' we cancelled.

I found this thread on the subject, but I couldn't see any mention on the current Curry's site.

I tried to have a look at the way back machine to look at Curry's site on the day I bought the TV, but I couldn't navigate to the page containing the KD-55AF9 and didn't see any guarantee stuff.

Redacted receipt

[Gary_L]

I’d definitely contact currys with the stance that it does come with a 5 year guarantee, I bought a tv back in 2016 and you had to register on the knowhow website but when I bought one for the bedroom in 2018 which came with a 5 year guarantee I didn’t have to and I bought a new Sony a couple of weeks ago and again no need to do anything other than register with Sony I’m assuming any tv above a certain price comes with a 5 year guarantee, you’ve got nothing to lose.