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.

[spicybeanstew]

I have registered with Sony, so perhaps there is hope.  Sadly Chichester Currys is closed ATM - in fact using Curry's site to search with a filter to only show open stores hangs.

So no Currys, no Sony.

[Vapeland]

I checked my emails as I bought my tv online and it doesn’t mention about the 5 years guarantee on there, but on the website it does. Like these guys have said I would assume yours has the guarantee as well. See what the tv engineer says and before you pay anything else get on at currys

[Tonycv51]

This thread implies the guarantee is through Sony and is registered automatically. 

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/other-tvs/i-was-told-my-tv-came-with-a-5-year-warranty/td-p/1819153/... 

[spicybeanstew]

I had a look at that thread, a lot of confusing/conflicting opinions.

@malcolm1962suggested this extended warranty link, but the first thing it says is that it is an extra purchase.

I am looking forward to what my local shop will say/can do. It would help if I could speak with Curry's or Sony in person.

[Vapeland]

There’s little information on the 5 year guarantee included with the tv but it does say that the guarantee is included with team knowhow and doesn’t mention anything about it being with the manufacturer. 

[Vapeland]

Forgot to mention that it’s not an extra purchase it’s a free 5 year included guarantee 👍

[Joe_Dohn]

Following the 5 year guarantee, as far as I know, there are both versions (one with Sony and one with Curry's/Team Knowhow) it just depends on which one you have, which you can find out by contacting Curry's directly or checking the details of the receipt.

As for the rebooting you're currently having with your TV, I've seen an article a while back for some older models that had a similar rebooting issue. It's recommended to try a forced factory reset. Here's the link for the reset: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00159906

[spicybeanstew]

Hello @Vapeland ,

My local TV shop blow Sony out of the water for service 😃. They have had a poke around and say that there are only two boards inside the TV, one is the PSU which seems to be fine & the other is the AV board, for which the part number for a KD-55AF9 is 1-983-356-11. They do come up on eBay for reasonable money - but there are none at the moment. What this does tell me is that these TV's do break and do get broken for parts.

Any help in sourcing a working example of one of these boards will be gratefully received.

Hello Sony? Anyone at home?

[spannerzone]

It's possibly a bit late but the original retailer has certain legal obligations even after the guarantee has expired, you should be dealing with the retailer direct and don't let them fob you off telling you to speak directly with Sony (that is how they wash their hands of their responsibilities because you chose to leave them out of any discussions etc). You and Currys have a contract in place. The other option is if you bought on credit card or on a credit agreement you have protection (section 75) and could make a claim against the credit provider if Currys fail to help.

It's not necessarily easy but under UK consumer law products are expected to last a certain amount of time, this depends on the product, a TV might be considered to last 5 to 7 years on average but a mousetrap maybe 1 month.... anyway, you have up to 6 years to make a claim and are entitled to get a report from a TV engineer/service centre and make a claim against Currys. You really should check out this, at the least it's an hour spent  online reading consumer proteciton and how to make a claim when out of warranty, you may have to send a few recorded delivery letters to Currys and threaten to take them to the small claims court. Of course Covid 19 has made all this a lot harder but at the very least I would read up on UK consumer law to see if you can get some resolution from the actual supplier. I'd certainly ask the local TV shop to write you a report on the fault in case you do go down the claims route.

[therealvinceunlimited]

Hi Stew, I noticed a lot of replies were about the warranty and only one was about sorting the problem. It seems you had some initial issues with the TV cycling through a start up process, which eventually bricked the TV.  Whilst I cannot suggest anything about getting it working again I might mention that my TV [KD-55AF8] also went into the same recycling mode after I tried to do an update.  I was frustrated that my TV wasn't receiving any auto updates over a number of months so decided to download the update from the Sony website to add via a USB stick, despite the warnings against this on the site, whilst they sorted out some bugs [I waited ages for them to get around to this but figured they were not doing this to encourage owners to update to the AF9]. This USB based update system worked but set into motion a process of updating then reloading again.  The message said do not interrupt the process but after about three cycles I realised the only thing I could do was pull the USB at the point it was about to reload.  It risked damage but my timing was spot on [after studying the process].  The lack of a new update availability at the USB stopped the process and my TV was left updated correctly and working.  So, once you get it going again try switching off the auto update as this may (?) be causing the cycling. This may be a useful tip to others considering forcing an update as well.  Sony should sort this software issue out but I am willing to bet they choose to blame the Android software.  Good luck in getting your TV back working.