LG software update destroys my TV

losangeles7

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I bought OLED55G1PUA in March directly via LG's official website. It has worked fine thus far. A few days ago, the TV prompted us to a software update. We complied. And the TV notified that the update was successful and restarted. Immediately after that, the TV went black even though the power was on (the red light is visible) but the TV simply doesn't turn on anymore. There is no doubt that the the dysfunction is caused by LG-generated software update. We tried all the troubleshooting steps to no avail. The nearly $2000 TV I bought only 3 months ago is now dead and useless.

I wonder if other people experienced similar software-update-related problem on LG TVs?

On a separate note, LG's customer service was extremely difficult to access and unhelpful. First, LG website somehow blocks me from logging into my account, or generating service request as a guest. Even after I wrote a email to the company, there was no meaningful response. Finally a third-party technician (Paul's) subcontracted by LG contacted us. First thing he told us is that we must uninstall the TV from wall mount ourselves before he will do anything. If he sees the TV is on the wall he will leave. And second, even without seeing my TV, the technician says he has order "parts" and wait for their arrival before he will schedule an appointment. That means it will take 3-4 days before we can even know when he plans to show up. Third, the technician says he thinks the problem is 99% about main board or power cord, and all he will do is to change the main board and power. I asked can you see the TV first before diagnosing? The answer is no.

This is about the worst customer service I have experienced from an appliance company.
 
I have never been fond of doing the firmware updates for this very reason, If my Telly is working I'd rather not risk bricking it for the sake of a new app or some other minor insignificant improvement, Now unfortunately we are FORCED to update it whether we want to or not. I think there SHOULD be the option to do it at a later date or not at all.
Let us know how you get on.
 
Sounds like the tv had a electrical component failure at the same time as the firmware update, it can happen to components when rebooting as they are placed under a greater strain.
Whilst the reboot took place under firmware updating conditions the failure might have taken place at any other time anyway...
 
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Its sadly an common problem with mainboards in just about every electrical item going, not so much on TVs though.

The firmware effectively screws up during the update or flash process and it bricks the entire electrical part. Its very common on Pc and laptop mainboards, they solved this with various hardware and software methods namely the dual bios or recovery flash usb method.

As a very long shot this probably won't work but you could download the latest TV firmware to a flash stick via Lg support firmware site, stick it in the TV USB port and power up the TV and see if it re-updates correctly, its a very long shot, doubt it works. Alternatively if its booked in and under warranty let the guys sort it out, I wouldn't mention you tried to reflash it via usb just in case you got a funny tech support guy.

LGs customer service just like everyone else it has its ups and downs, not had the best luck with them myself (2 months for a repair guy to turn up), still different engineers do things differently, but imo the 3rd engineer is right, this is a common TV issue so swapping out the mainboard usually would fix the issue, if there is another issue its perhaps the power supply. But they can only usually replace 1 part at a time well maybe the good ones carry a spare power board or parts. Either way they will fix the issue.
 
Its sadly an common problem with mainboards in just about every electrical item going, not so much on TVs though.

The firmware effectively screws up during the update or flash process and it bricks the entire electrical part. Its very common on Pc and laptop mainboards, they solved this with various hardware and software methods namely the dual bios or recovery flash usb method.

As a very long shot this probably won't work but you could download the latest TV firmware to a flash stick via Lg support firmware site, stick it in the TV USB port and power up the TV and see if it re-updates correctly, its a very long shot, doubt it works. Alternatively if its booked in and under warranty let the guys sort it out, I wouldn't mention you tried to reflash it via usb just in case you got a funny tech support guy.

LGs customer service just like everyone else it has its ups and downs, not had the best luck with them myself (2 months for a repair guy to turn up), still different engineers do things differently, but imo the 3rd engineer is right, this is a common TV issue so swapping out the mainboard usually would fix the issue, if there is another issue its perhaps the power supply. But they can only usually replace 1 part at a time well maybe the good ones carry a spare power board or parts. Either way they will fix the issue.
Thank you for the good suggestions. I don't think I am able to handle the flashdrive/USB reboot myself. It's not tolerable to have a 3-month old product having this major issue and a major part replaced. Could this be a lemon? Perhaps I should return it rather than repair it?
 
If you are based in the USA then I believe consumer rights might give you that privilege.
The decision is yours but obviously there has been a major component failure rendering the tv not fit for purpose.
Any decision you make would be based upon whether you've any confidence in a repair or not..
 
Thank you for the good suggestions. I don't think I am able to handle the flashdrive/USB reboot myself. It's not tolerable to have a 3-month old product having this major issue and a major part replaced. Could this be a lemon? Perhaps I should return it rather than repair it?

See Cukes reply I only know about UK Consumer laws, regarding the lemon bit well its something that just happens imo, my CX TV mainboard died after 3 months imo LGs QC is not the best.

You could of course get a new mainboard installed and not see any issue for 5 years, its impossible to tell. Sometimes the newer boards that are replaced are also better since they are more updated and fixed or using better components also.
 
I have never been fond of doing the firmware updates for this very reason, If my Telly is working I'd rather not risk bricking it for the sake of a new app or some other minor insignificant improvement, Now unfortunately we are FORCED to update it whether we want to or not. I think there SHOULD be the option to do it at a later date or not at all.
Let us know how you get on.
I raised this very issue with LG, who said that they would raise a 'Voice of Customer' request. Needless to say, I've heard nothing further.

I don't understand TV manufacturers. I'm not forced to update the firmware on my BR players or PVRs. There are reasonably well thought-out options to control this, although Humax and Arris boxes seem to update on a whim, and there are no controls to stop them updating.

In the case of LG, you can disable automatic updates, but every time that you power-on your TV if a software update is waiting, you're nagged into doing so, the default option being 'Yes' not 'No'.

On my Panasonic TV, it will alert you to the fact that new firmware is available, but if you decline, access to the streaming apps. is effectively disabled, as none of them will work once a firmware update has been flagged. Outrageous!

In my opinion, this is inexcusable. I own the hardware. I should be able to decide what I do with it. Nobody else, and certainly not large corporations. It comes down to laziness, I think. Do the minimum just to get something 'out there'. To hell with what customers might want to do with kit that they've paid for.

Sadly, the only real effective way to stop automatic firmware updates is to not connect kit to the Internet, hardly an ideal solution.

All your TVs are belong to us.
 
A bit update about this saga. The third-party technician "Paul" finally showed up after days of waiting for "parts" he insisted to order before coming to inspect the TV. We had to hire a handyman to unistall the TV from the wall first. Long story short. The technician couldn't fix the TV. The technician opened up the TV and declared that our "main board" is fine and it must be a different problem. He says it should be the "screen" problem and he will recommend taking away our TV to replace a new screen. After he closed the TV back up, he pointed to the screen and say there is a scratch on the screen. He took photo of this scratch and claimed it could be the problem. But of course it's complete bullshit because scratch or no scratch the TV had been working all the three months until the very moment of the software update. And who knows many the technician caused the scratch himself when he opened up the TV.

At this point we have no faith in this technician or LG. Our hope is to return this lemon and get full refund. Hope LG has at least the decency to do that.
 
I feel your pain, I'll never purchase a TV from the manufacturers directly and always go through a reputable retailer and pay by credit card. Manufacturer's seem to have a different conception of what constitutes a sale of goods act and purchasing with a credit card gives additional warranty cover as well...
 
Sounds like the engineer is not sure what exactly is wrong, probably needs to take it back to the work shop and replace the parts and do a proper test.

The scratch incident its hard to know, but a stark reminder to us all to always take pictures of the goods before someone attends or before the unit if collected always.

What you can do if you wanted to take it further speak to LG Customer services and let them know how you have been treated and to request an RMA of your TV, basically for LG to process a full refund. You may need to request this to someone higher up in returns department of LG like management, I had to do this when they took over 2 months to repair my LG OLED, an RMA refund was luckily issued for me.
 
Thank you for listening and the advice. We did take picture of the TV prior to the technician's arrival. There is no visible crack or scratch of the TV. What upsets us is the technician seemed to try to find something to blame the problem on us so he can report it to LG. He even told us LG will deduct his "credit" if the case showed that he could not repair the TV. After seeing that he could not fix the TV, he came up with the scratch theory. But there is no evidence the scratch caused malfunction because the TV had been working all this time until the software update. There is also no evidence that we caused any scratch. It could be the technician who caused the scratch himself. It's total madness and unprofessionalism.
Sounds like the engineer is not sure what exactly is wrong, probably needs to take it back to the work shop and replace the parts and do a proper test.

The scratch incident its hard to know, but a stark reminder to us all to always take pictures of the goods before someone attends or before the unit if collected always.

What you can do if you wanted to take it further speak to LG Customer services and let them know how you have been treated and to request an RMA of your TV, basically for LG to process a full refund. You may need to request this to someone higher up in returns department of LG like management, I had to do this when they took over 2 months to repair my LG OLED, an RMA refund was luckily issued for me.
 
Thank you for listening and the advice. We did take picture of the TV prior to the technician's arrival. There is no visible crack or scratch of the TV. What upsets us is the technician seemed to try to find something to blame the problem on us so he can report it to LG. He even told us LG will deduct his "credit" if the case showed that he could not repair the TV. After seeing that he could not fix the TV, he came up with the scratch theory. But there is no evidence the scratch caused malfunction because the TV had been working all this time until the software update. There is also no evidence that we caused any scratch. It could be the technician who caused the scratch himself. It's total madness and unprofessionalism.

Ahh yeah I see where you are coming from glad you did the picture of the unit before he came.

Sounds like that engineer is unprofessional, since you have reported it to LG hopefully they make the right call on this situation.

This is a software/firmware fault, any engineer or technical advisor knows this to be true so its 100% not your fault and certainly a scratch won't cause that. Hopefully LG RMA it and give a full refund.
 
I bought OLED55G1PUA in March directly via LG's official website. It has worked fine thus far. A few days ago, the TV prompted us to a software update. We complied. And the TV notified that the update was successful and restarted. Immediately after that, the TV went black even though the power was on (the red light is visible) but the TV simply doesn't turn on anymore. There is no doubt that the the dysfunction is caused by LG-generated software update. We tried all the troubleshooting steps to no avail. The nearly $2000 TV I bought only 3 months ago is now dead and useless.

I wonder if other people experienced similar software-update-related problem on LG TVs?

On a separate note, LG's customer service was extremely difficult to access and unhelpful. First, LG website somehow blocks me from logging into my account, or generating service request as a guest. Even after I wrote a email to the company, there was no meaningful response. Finally a third-party technician (Paul's) subcontracted by LG contacted us. First thing he told us is that we must uninstall the TV from wall mount ourselves before he will do anything. If he sees the TV is on the wall he will leave. And second, even without seeing my TV, the technician says he has order "parts" and wait for their arrival before he will schedule an appointment. That means it will take 3-4 days before we can even know when he plans to show up. Third, the technician says he thinks the problem is 99% about main board or power cord, and all he will do is to change the main board and power. I asked can you see the TV first before diagnosing? The answer is no.

This is about the worst customer service I have experienced from an appliance company.
Hello. I had the same issue, did you get a solution from LG?
 
Hello. I had the same issue, did you get a solution from LG?
No I did not. LG pretty much refused to honor the warranty on technicality - first delayed the process, dispatching unqualified TV repair people (some even out of stastes). The only TV repairman they sent claimed to have found a scratch on TV after opening up my TV but couldn't repair it. LG then wants to talk about nothing about that scratch and said I am out of warranty period. This of course is entirely unreasonable because we never saw a scratch prior to the TV repairman showed up and the TV functioned fine for three months util the LG-generated software update, with or without a scratch. I felt very much as if LG has made up its mind to not doing exchange or refund no matter what. And they are just using any excuse it can find to do that. I am filing lawsuits against LG and formal complaints to attorney general offices in California and New Jersey. Can you tell me what was your experience? I would recommend filing complaint at the minimum to NJ attorney general so they can gather more evidence for full investigation against LG.
 
No I did not. LG pretty much refused to honor the warranty on technicality - first delayed the process, dispatching unqualified TV repair people (some even out of stastes). The only TV repairman they sent claimed to have found a scratch on TV after opening up my TV but couldn't repair it. LG then wants to talk about nothing about that scratch and said I am out of warranty period. This of course is entirely unreasonable because we never saw a scratch prior to the TV repairman showed up and the TV functioned fine for three months util the LG-generated software update, with or without a scratch. I felt very much as if LG has made up its mind to not doing exchange or refund no matter what. And they are just using any excuse it can find to do that. I am filing lawsuits against LG and formal complaints to attorney general offices in California and New Jersey. Can you tell me what was your experience? I would recommend filing complaint at the minimum to NJ attorney general so they can gather more evidence for full investigation against LG.
Same happened to mine after the update in june..it comes back on if I unplug it,but picture will freeze again and then shut up,happens a dozen or more times a day.i am able to use my Xbox and watch things through it without it freezing and shutting off as often,which seems very strange to me.warranty expired right when the problems started happening.But from what you said happened to you,even if I still had warranty I'd be screwed.a tv repair company said they can check and replace motherboard,but can't guarantee it will work,given the issues I explained to them..wish I would have listened to my wife when she told me I don't need to be spending 2k$ on a tv
 
I purchased an LG65 Mini LED TV a few days ago. I attempted to sign in for an LG account but was informed one already existed. I did have an LG TV but that was several years ago and I could not remember the sign in details. I requested a new password this morning and received an email asking me to enter a new password. This I did and received another message that a new password had been created. Great, or so I thought. Went to log in on my Tv to add a couple of apps but lo and behold my sign in credentials were not recognised. Fortunately I have an Amazon Fire stick and so can access YouTube and Paramount+ but why oh why can't I create an LG account. It's so utterly frustrating that I wish I had never purchased the damn TV.
 
This sort of thing happens a lot and it is very frustrating, A similar thing happened to me a few days ago with one of my gmail accounts, went to log in -said password was wrong so I reset and requested a new password, confirmed my email address and logged in with new password, SORRY incorrect password, absolutely stupid!
In these cases I just create a completely fresh account and password with a different email address.
 
To close the loop on this saga. I filed small claim lawsuit against LG Electronics USA in Los Angeles about LG's misbehavior. It was a tedious process but well worth it. LG reps appeared in court via video and telephone conference. They were clearly clueless about me or the case. The judge questioned LG's scratch theory and why my TV worked until the date of the software update. (I have proof that the TV was working just the day before). The judge ordered LG to pay me $1800, and LG finally did send the check. I hope LG learned a lesson and would treat consumers better in the future. But somehow I doubt it. I will not buy from LG ever.
 
Well done! perhaps more LG owners should do the same until they get the message, unfortunately until more do the same they probably won't, good result for you in the end tho.
These updates SHOULD be made 1. So that we are not forced to update in the first place with zero option. 2. The ability to roll back safely to the previous version.
 
I purchased a TCL 55C825K for my Bedroom at the beginning of the year and there has not been one single software update since purchase. Every time I check for updates I get the same message every time that my software is up to date. I had been hoping that TCL would upgrade the software to sort out the extremely long time it takes to load up when switching on. Extremely frustrating as the TV is otherwise quite good.
 
I purchased a TCL 55C825K for my Bedroom at the beginning of the year and there has not been one single software update since purchase. Every time I check for updates I get the same message every time that my software is up to date. I had been hoping that TCL would upgrade the software to sort out the extremely long time it takes to load up when switching on. Extremely frustrating as the TV is otherwise quite good.
Maybe post in the relevant forum section as this is for LG TV's and you might get some help
 
To close the loop on this saga. I filed small claim lawsuit against LG Electronics USA in Los Angeles about LG's misbehavior. It was a tedious process but well worth it. LG reps appeared in court via video and telephone conference. They were clearly clueless about me or the case. The judge questioned LG's scratch theory and why my TV worked until the date of the software update. (I have proof that the TV was working just the day before). The judge ordered LG to pay me $1800, and LG finally did send the check. I hope LG learned a lesson and would treat consumers better in the future. But somehow I doubt it. I will not buy from LG ever.
I too said that I wouldn't buy another LG product again also after a LG phone that I had problems with, however I did. It appears that I'm a slow learner though. I too started having problems after an update. Youtube TV network channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) These channels start up but after a few seconds an error comes up telling me that location services need to be corrected so I tell it where I am (I'm still same place, I haven't moved). I reinitialized back to factory fresh out of the box. This didn't change anything. I've tried installing 2 different android STBs, also i tried amazon fire stick, i get the same error. I have 4 other TVs with YouTube TV, these all work fine. Not sure what to do now.
 
I too said that I wouldn't buy another LG product again also after a LG phone that I had problems with, however I did. It appears that I'm a slow learner though. I too started having problems after an update. Youtube TV network channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) These channels start up but after a few seconds an error comes up telling me that location services need to be corrected so I tell it where I am (I'm still same place, I haven't moved). I reinitialized back to factory fresh out of the box. This didn't change anything. I've tried installing 2 different android STBs, also i tried amazon fire stick, i get the same error. I have 4 other TVs with YouTube TV, these all work fine. Not sure what to do now.
Bit confused if your using different set top boxes and a firestick how its an LG issue?
 

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