42WH36 On/Off Button jammed

[valmiki]

Hi fellers,

just thought i'd give you some news regarding my 42WH36 bought last November from TV & Vido Direct.

About 3 weeks ago, my wife came home and informed me that from now on she would be switching the TV off at the on/off button on the front. This is because she had heard that tv's still use a lot of energy whilst in the standby mode. Now, I don't really know whether this is true or not, but just to keep her happy, I agreed. I mean, what does it cost to press a button on the actual Tv at the end of the evening, hey? anything for a quiet life. Well, after about a week of this, one morning when I went to switch the TV on, the button jammed. In the on position. Red light glowing on standby. Now, this wouldn't normally affect me in the slightest, as that is probably the position the switch would have been in to start with, but the wife has started getting a little...how to say...annoyed, because something that she wants to happen, isn't happening.

Well I phoned Mike at TV&Video Direct (a helpful chap) who advised spraying furniture polish to loosen the switch (I was a bit wary at first, in case it destroyed the silver finish, But Mike reassured me that that wouldn't happen), but it hasn't helped, the button isn't for moving and is still in the I'm-jammed-tough-sh!t mode. I phoned Mike again this afternoon, who is going to arrange a service call, though whether that involves someone from his company to come out and repair or from Toshiba. Could be an issue as I live in Swansea!

Anyways, I'm doing this since I have noticed that a lot of people have been buying 42WH36's recently, and I have crowed the virtues of it in the past. Only fair that I share any faults of it as well!

has anyone experienced something similar to this?

 

[Kazman]

I have noticed that the on off switch is a bit crap. The only piece of build quality that I can fault.

the button is just too big for hole, and I sometimes get the the main bezel popping out a little when using the on/off switch, annoying, but no jamming thankfully. The rest of the TV is lovely though

 

[MrRalphMan]

I think that I have only pressed the button once since I got the TV, and it worked then.

If the wifey gets any ideas about power saving, then I'll point her at this thread, so thanks for the tip...

 

[serdar13]

i noticed a few times too that the on/off button gets stuck so I take extra care now when pushing it as it is obviously too big for the hole.

 

[soswin]

My on/off sticks as well. I've been leaving it on standby.

 

[quadmad]

Why not put the set in standby then turn the power off at the wall because if that switch breaks it's cheap and easy to replace.

That should keep the wide happy

 

[Tight Git]

In the "good ol' days", the advice was to turn the TV off overnight as the hot valves and high voltages inside constituted a potential fire risk.

When solid state became the norm, the advice was still to switch off, because someone in the environmental lobby calculated that it would save several power stations.

All the latest TV's are therefore designed to use a miniscule amount of power (typically half a Watt) so that they can be left on Standby overnight.

The result is that the on-off switch is now not designed so robustly and can fail if used excessively.

 

[jumbopants]

I'm on my second 42wh36 tosh, both have on/off buttons that have jammed in, is as you have said the switch is too big for the hole. Very poor design, and I don't think that it's asking too much to be able to switch the tv off and on !!!

 

[blossom]

I now have this problem. The on-off button is stuck in solid.

I can only turn off with remote to standby.

Comet are sending an engineer tomorrow. What will he do to fix it? Is it fixable? Will he have to take my TV to bits?

Let me know.

Cheers

Paul

 

[valmiki]

hi paul,

sorry to hear that all you folks have had this annoying problem as well.

well, TV & Video Direct never did get back to me to arrange a service call but as it turned out, the enterprising know-it-all (ie. the wife) informed me a few days later that she had managed to unstick the button. I've just asked her now, and she said that she did it by the following:

look at where the switch is. (ok starting off slowly)

on either side (left and right) of the switch are the cool-looking dark reflective pieces of plastic.

if the button is jammed in, press LIGHTLY on the left-hand side, directly over where the LED on light is glowing.

the button should then pop back out.

if that doesn't work, try the right-hand side of the switch.

if that doesn't work try the above a few more times, pressing LIGHTLY on the surrounding areas of the above, around the switch.

please note that this is a temporary answer. ie, I have not done this 5000 times as one would expect Toshiba to have done during testing, in which case we would not have this problem to start with!

at your own risk, etc.

as for returning the set, well, I'm more than happy with the rest of it. If this is the only problem I have with the TV the so be it! Also the newer model of this TV (42WH46?) is a definite downgrade, if I have understood what I have read on other posts. So, I would just leave it on as quadmad has suggested already, and go with the flow.

As for the Comet engineer, Paul, watch what he does VERY CAREFULLY! If you don't like the look of what he's doing, throw him out and demand an engineer from Tosh (as long as you still have the warranty)

Hopefully the above should work like a treat.

regards

pinipatel

 

[blossom]

Pinipatel,

Thanks for the reply. I have tried what you said and I did get the button to move enough for the set to turn off but not fully out. When I turned the set back on it stuck in again. I will keep fiddling with it to try to make it better.

I know exactly what you mean about the Comet engineers, I have had bad experience with them in the past and absolutely dreaded ringing them up.
I think I am now going to cancel the call out for the time being, having just redecorated and set up my speakers etc exactly how I want them, the last thing I need is somebody wrenching it all out and possibly messing it all up.

I agree about the downgrade with the 46 model. I love this TV.I would not want an inferior spec set, so a swap for that is not an option.

Will let you know if it gets to the engineer call out stage again.

Cheers

Paul

 

[jumbopants]

I had the engineer to sort the problem with the on/off button today, if anyone wants to know how to sort this let me know.

 

[blossom]

I do please mate. Mines still stuck in.

Let me know.

Cheers

Paul

 

[jumbopants]

HOW TO SOLVE THE ON/OFF BUTTON STICKING IN -

The reason the button jams in is because the strip of plastic that is to the left/right of the button has been missaligned at the Toshiba factory. The long strip of black/smoked plastic that starts on the far left of the screen was not as far as it could have gone over to the left, as a result of this the gap for the on/off button was not large enough and the button when pressed in would catch the back of the stuck on strips... To get the strips off push the button in with your finger/ get an object sharp knife etc to get behind the strip of long plastic to the left of the button . Be gentle but bit by bit you can start to pull the stuck on strip away from the TV, be very slow as it's stuck on quite well/ when the large strip is completely off align the strip that says active vision as far over to the left as possible/ do the same with the smaller strip to the right of the botton. This now leaves enough room for the botton to be pressed in and out all day long without catching on the black strips that Toshiba put on to make the set look good. The only tricky bit is starting to prize off the black strip ....When it's started slow and gentle does the trick...You do this at your own risk... No pm's or e-mails should anyone fudge this up...... Hope this helps as I've had 2 sets the same plus my friend has the same problem on his which he's gona do.....My only other problem is a yellowish tinge that I just can't get rid of on the right hand side of the screen which I need to take up with Toshiba as the engineer said is within Toshiba's standards for the set and did not even attempt a convergence correction....

 

[blossom]

Thanks for that Jumbopants. However my button is jammed in further back than the black strips by a couple of mm. Looking at it, if I take the black strips off it still might not come out.

How are the strips stuck on in the first place? You didn't say whether they went back on easily.

Did you do this or did the engineer do it under warranty? And was he a Toshiba engineer?

I am loathed to do this and ***k it up or scratch the strips as it would appear to need a very thin sharp knife to get them off.

It is starting to bug me though. I would love to get it sorted out.

One bit of good news though, when I bought this TV I was asked to register the product on line with Toshiba and automatically entered into their quarterly prize draw. Got a letter yesterday saying that I had won it and that a new Widescreen TV and DVD player would be on its way to me.

My lad is chuffed to bits as he is going to get it in his bedroom.

Anyone ever won this before who could tell me which set I might get?

Cheers

Paul