Why My Sony TV keeps shutting down
Your Sony TV can keep on shutting down randomly because of a power failure, an overheating issue, or because of a faulty backlight.
Table of Contents
Causes
- Power failure
- Overheating
- Deteriorated/ faulty backlight
Power failure
No matter what the causing factor is, if your TV isn’t getting sufficient and stable power, it will not operate properly, and if the issue becomes severe enough, it will result in your TV shutting down mid-use. While there are several factors that can cause your TV to run short on power, the most commonly reported ones are a loose power plug, problems from the main electricity supplier, and a damaged/ faulty cable.
Overheating
Your TV is built to endure long hours of use. However, if you use it for heavy work without giving it any breaks, it will start heating up from the inside. This is especially true if you’ve kept your TV somewhere there is little to no air ventilation.
Overheating can cause serious problems for your TV if left unchecked. If the heat keeps piling up inside your TV, it will damage other sensitive internals, i.e., your TV’s mainboard or the backlight panel- resulting in high repair/ replacement costs.
For this reason, when your TV overheats to a certain point, your TV shuts off automatically to prevent further heating. Hence saving it from heat damage.
Deteriorated/ faulty backlight
Whether it’s overheating that causes your backlight to get damaged or excessive force- the effect remains the same- your screen will go black. This is because backlight panels produce the visuals you see on your TV screen, so if that gets damaged, you will see nothing on the screen- giving the appearance that the TV has powered down.
How can I stop a Sony TV that powers down randomly?
You can stop your TV from powering down randomly by power resetting it, keeping it cool, or calling Sony’s Tech Support for help.
Soft reset
- Unplug your TV from the main power socket
- Press down on the power button beneath the screen and hold it for at least 40 seconds
- Release the button and leave your TV alone for 40 minutes
- Re-plug the power cord
- Turn your TV on
Keep your TV cool
The best way to keep your TV cool – even through long hours of usage- is by keeping it in a place with good air circulation and giving it enough cool down time in between use. This will protect your TV’s internals and save your eyes from strain.
While your TV won’t need cool down breaks between each long usage, it will need regular breaks if you’re putting it through a heavy workload.
Call Sony’s tech support.
With a damaged backlight, your only option is to call tech support and get them to look at your Sony TV. Tech support will tell you whether your TV can be repaired or replaced (and whether you are eligible for a warranty).
So, ensure that you call Sony’s official team first. If you’re not eligible for a warranty, you may also call your trusted technician for the job.
Reasons why Sony TV’s backlight goes dark?
Sony TV’s backlight goes dim either due to sleep timers or because ambient-light detection failed.
Sleep timer
If you set a sleep timer in your TV’s settings by accident, or if someone else using your TV sets it without your knowledge, your TV will confuse you when it randomly turns off when the timer is out.
So, if your TV’s backlight goes dark randomly, turn it back on to check whether there is a sleep timer activated in the settings.
Ambient light detection
Ambient light detection is the feature that enables your TV to auto-adjust its screen’s brightness.
Your TV detects how much light is in its surroundings, matches the brightness of the screen in accordance with it (so that it is bright enough for you to see but not so bright it strains your eyes), and saves energy in the process.
However, if it errors while detecting ambient light, the backlight and display will go dim, and the screen will appear almost entirely blacked out.
How to turn on Sony TV’s backlight?
You can light your TV’s backlight on again by toggling off the sleep timer in the settings and by switching off auto-brightness settings.
Manually adjust brightness
- Go to menu
- Go to settings
- Go to display and sound
- Find and click on picture settings
- Find the light sensor option and turn it off.
Remove all screen timers.
- Press the home button on the remote
- Use the arrow keys to navigate to settings, and then click on system settings.
- Scroll down to find click timers, click on it, and then find screen timers
- Turn off your screen timer or extend its duration.
Why do Sony TVs Turn off on their own?
Your TV turns off on its own because of cable problems or because its firmware version is outdated.
Causes
- Old firmware
- Loose cable connections
Old firmware
Firmware updates improve on the bugs and faults of previous versions. If new updates are available, and you keep using older firmware versions, your TV is bound to be bothered by the bugs of that version.
Most TVs today will come with automatic update settings, but if you’ve switched them off, you will have to manually update your TV each time an update is released.
Loose cable connections
Loose cable connections send mixed signals to form external devices to your TV’s main board. If your issue gets severe enough, they can even confuse the TV about whether there are external devices connected at all.
The mixed signals sent by these cables result in your TV turning off randomly.
How to prevent a Sony TV from turning off by itself?
To prevent your TV from turning off by itself, either check its cables or install the latest software version.
Update firmware version
When new updates are available and your TV has a Wi-Fi connection, you will see a notification on your TV that reads “? (Help).”
When this happens, follow these steps to update your TV’s software.
- Click on the “? (Help)” notification
- Find “customer support” and click on it
- Go to the software updates section
- Select network (optional)
- Click on the new update and click Install now.
Re-attach cables
Here is the process you need to follow:
- Use the remote to turn off your TV
- Then, switch off the wall socket to cut your TV’s power.
- Pull out all cables connected to your TV
- Clean all cables and their respective ports, and check both for any signs of damage/ deterioration.
- If you find that any deterioration has occurred, have that part replaced.
- Turn on your TV the regular way and see if the problem remains.
My Sony TV’s screen flashes/ blinks when I turn it off- Why?
Your TV’s screen flashes right before you power it off due to cable connectivity issues. Reset all cable connections to resolve this problem.
Cables delegate signals from your TV’s peripheral devices to the main board. Your mainboard interprets these signals and tells the screen what to display.
However, if the cable connection is faulty, this bridging of information will be unstable. Meaning that your mainboard will have a hard time figuring out whether there is an external device connected to the TV and, if so, what it is trying to say.
Resetting all cable connections while facing such a problem is a great way to resolve your issue.
- Use the remote to turn off your TV.
- Then, switch off the wall socket to cut your TV’s power.
- Pull out all cables connected to your TV.
- Clean all cables and their respective ports, and check both for any signs of damage/ deterioration.
- If you find that any deterioration has occurred, have that part replaced.
- Turn on your TV the regular way and see if the problem remains.