Help, my TV turns on and shuts itself off by itself

[lord_galathon]

Hello all, I'm inquiring here because I've exhausted all other venues to figure this one out and it's a weird issue, not lethal but really annoying.

 

First to introduce myself, "old gen" IT professional. I started in IT in 1998 as a field network engineer (fancy title for the guy that figures out how to put in the telecom equipment at a customer's site) but gradually moved on to becoming somewhat of a generalist so I can figure things out most of the time but my specialty is still TCP/IP network planning and architecture. I'm currently IT manager for a medium sized company out of Montreal.

 

Sadly I can't figure this issue out...

 

I have a Hisense Q9 series TV from 2019. Works fine otherwise in terms of picture clarity etc. At least as well as a Hisense TV can be expected to perform, it's not a speed demon when using the built in Android TV OS (actually it's too slow to be usable but I digress...)

 

It's connected via HDMI to an entry level Sony STR-DH590 AVR. Using the HDMI ARC and the TV to control its volume and also the power. i.e. the AVR turns on when the TV is turned on, and off when the TV turns off. Other devices connected to the TV are:

 

• nVidia Shield gamer's edition from around 2018 but that always remains on and only gets rebooted once in a while when it starts behaving badly or for updates
• Xbox series X I barely use for lack of time and energy - I played around with the CEC ARC controls on the Xbox but that made no difference and was becoming a pain when I wanted to stop using the Xbox and move to another activity on this TV and the Xbox would turn off the TV so I disabled that function.
• Nintendo Switch

 

Last spring during the NHL Playoffs I started watching OTA signals from CBC to follow Hockey Night in Canada and that's when I noticed that the TV shuts off exactly 44 minutes into watching OTA programming on the cable input or "channels"  - regardless of what channel, time, or day it is.

 

i.e. I would start watching a playoff game at 7PM, the TV would just shut off at 7:44PM.

 

I looked everywhere in all the settings but there is no timer, sleep or other integrated function built into the TV that would trigger this. Furthermore, why would it trigger the shut off timer ONLY when using the "cable input" on the TV? I also checked both nVidia Shield's remotes (the gaming edition came with a little Apple TV type controller and a gaming controller, both of which can be used to turn on the whole setup by pressing the "home" button. I unpaired the gaming controller just in case but that made no difference. (The gaming controller is currently being used on my PC via Bluetooth and it works pretty well even though the USB Bluetooth adapter makes my PC bluescreen when nothing is connected to it but that was easy enough to figure out...) 

 

So back then I eventually started either keeping my TV's remote at hand until it shut off, to then power it on again - which BTW after this ONE single shut-off, it would remain on until I shut it off manually sometimes hours later - Also, if I  turned on the TV for example at 6:15PM and later changed the input to the "cable input," the TV would shut off 44 minutes later based on whatever exact time I turned to the cable input.

 

Now if that's not weird enough, about a month ago the TV started spontaneously turning itself on at precisely 7AM but only on Mondays. Again I checked for timers built into the TV: Nothing.

 

A few Google searches brought out the usual clickbait articles that are basically telling you to solve all your problems by subscribing to their VPN service or to change the remote control's batteries but nothing really useful beyond the "reset your TV to factory settings" classic lazy fix that didn't work when I tried it and was also a PITA to set the TV back the way it was with ARC and all the inputs tagged.

 

So what in the name of everything good and holy do you guys think is going on here?

 

[EDIT] forgot to mention. Last week the TV shut off while I was playing Mario Kart 8 on the Switch but I didn't time it so I don't know it was 44 minutes. It could've been, I generally don't play for that much longer so 44 minutes would be plausible but I didn't time it. Also last summer during the playoffs I tried swapping out all the HDMI cables but that made no difference.

 

Finally, all the setup is on a small household UPS. Nothing crazy, just an 800W plain dumb "Amazon Basics" type generic UPS that has no smart connection to anything, just electricity.

 

 

[Beerzerker]

20 minutes ago, lord_galathon said:

Hello all, I'm inquiring here because I've exhausted all other venues to figure this one out and it's a weird issue, not lethal but really annoying.

 

First to introduce myself, "old gen" IT professional. I started in IT in 1998 as a field network engineer (fancy title for the guy that figures out how to put in the telecom equipment at a customer's site) but gradually moved on to becoming somewhat of a generalist so I can figure things out most of the time but my specialty is still TCP/IP network planning and architecture. I'm currently IT manager for a medium sized company out of Montreal.

 

Sadly I can't figure this issue out...

 

I have a Hisense Q9 series TV from 2019. Works fine otherwise in terms of picture clarity etc. At least as well as a Hisense TV can be expected to perform, it's not a speed demon when using the built in Android TV OS (actually it's too slow to be usable but I digress...)

 

It's connected via HDMI to an entry level Sony STR-DH590 AVR. Using the HDMI ARC and the TV to control its volume and also the power. i.e. the AVR turns on when the TV is turned on, and off when the TV turns off. Other devices connected to the TV are:

 

• nVidia Shield gamer's edition from around 2018 but that always remains on and only gets rebooted once in a while when it starts behaving badly or for updates
• Xbox series X I barely use for lack of time and energy - I played around with the CEC ARC controls on the Xbox but that made no difference and was becoming a pain when I wanted to stop using the Xbox and move to another activity on this TV and the Xbox would turn off the TV so I disabled that function.
• Nintendo Switch

 

Last spring during the NHL Playoffs I started watching OTA signals from CBC to follow Hockey Night in Canada and that's when I noticed that the TV shuts off exactly 44 minutes into watching OTA programming on the cable input or "channels"  - regardless of what channel, time, or day it is.

 

i.e. I would start watching a playoff game at 7PM, the TV would just shut off at 7:44PM.

 

I looked everywhere in all the settings but there is no timer, sleep or other integrated function built into the TV that would trigger this. Furthermore, why would it trigger the shut off timer ONLY when using the "cable input" on the TV? I also checked both nVidia Shield's remotes (the gaming edition came with a little Apple TV type controller and a gaming controller, both of which can be used to turn on the whole setup by pressing the "home" button. I unpaired the gaming controller just in case but that made no difference. (The gaming controller is currently being used on my PC via Bluetooth and it works pretty well even though the USB Bluetooth adapter makes my PC bluescreen when nothing is connected to it but that was easy enough to figure out...) 

 

So back then I eventually started either keeping my TV's remote at hand until it shut off, to then power it on again - which BTW after this ONE single shut-off, it would remain on until I shut it off manually sometimes hours later - Also, if I  turned on the TV for example at 6:15PM and later changed the input to the "cable input," the TV would shut off 44 minutes later based on whatever exact time I turned to the cable input.

 

Now if that's not weird enough, about a month ago the TV started spontaneously turning itself on at precisely 7AM but only on Mondays. Again I checked for timers built into the TV: Nothing.

 

A few Google searches brought out the usual clickbait articles that are basically telling you to solve all your problems by subscribing to their VPN service or to change the remote control's batteries but nothing really useful beyond the "reset your TV to factory settings" classic lazy fix that didn't work when I tried it and was also a PITA to set the TV back the way it was with ARC and all the inputs tagged.

 

So what in the name of everything good and holy do you guys think is going on here?

 

 

Call a priest or Zak Bagins if you want......
Call in Zak, I can hear it now - "Duuuuuude".....

[mr fobs]

Is the coax going into your Sony A/V or into your TV? Or into some type of Cable Receiver/DVR?

 

EDIT: I guess what I am getting at is, have you tried the TV on the cable input with the Signal In cable disconnected from the TV? Whether its HDMI or Coax? If its coax; Ingress, interference, bad cable, can cause weird stuff like this. Even it being improperly grounded too.

 

I used to work for a cable company and had a customer with an issue like this and when i looked at the coax in the back of the tv, I touched my screw driver to it and it arced. I traced it back to a poor installation job where the cable guy didn't remove a power over coax box.

[lord_galathon]

8 minutes ago, mr fobs said:

Is the coax going into your Sony A/V or into your TV? Or into some type of Cable Receiver/DVR?

 

EDIT: I guess what I am getting at is, have you tried the TV on the cable input with the Signal In cable disconnected from the TV? Whether its HDMI or Coax? If its coax; Ingress, interference, bad cable, can cause weird stuff like this. Even it being improperly grounded too.

 

I used to work for a cable company and had a customer with an issue like this and when i looked at the coax in the back of the tv, I touched my screw driver to it and it arced. I traced it back to a poor installation job where the cable guy didn't remove a power over coax box.

The coax goes straight into the TV. It's an ATSC source, I have a small antenna mounted on the roof of my house and it's grounded to the electric ground at ingress in the house.

 

If it were a poor TV antenna installation, which is possible since I set it up, then wouldn't it be random and not always exactly 44 minutes after switching to the coax input?

 

I was just coming back to add something to the initial post which I'll try editing in a minute: It did this ONCE last week when using the Nintendo Switch but I didn't time it, all I know is the TV shut off after a few Mario Kart 8 races but I don't know if it was actually 44 minutes, or not.

 

Something I also didn't mention in the initial post is that I swapped out all the HDMI cables in case, I didn't think it would matter since it misbehaves only on the cable input but I had to try. Naturally it made no difference.

 

Thanks.

[mr fobs]

I would run the tv for 44 minutes with nothing plugged into it. have something on the display so it doesn't power save shut off. If it happens on the cable input mostly, start on the cable input.

[lord_galathon]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:16 AM, mr fobs said:

I would run the tv for 44 minutes with nothing plugged into it. have something on the display so it doesn't power save shut off. If it happens on the cable input mostly, start on the cable input.

First of all thanks for the suggestion. I should've thought of that - seriously it's troubleshooting 101...

 

Here's what I discovered: "All of this was due to a poor implementation of CEC/ARC."

 

Explanation: When I first got the TV I still had an older model Sony AVR, higher grade but also didn't support CEC, only ARC. Which means it could receive sound from the TV by the HDMI ARC interface but the TV couldn't control the volume, nor the power on the AVR.

 

So when the old Sony AVR broke - as Sony stuff tends to do because it's overall delicate and in this case the HDMI out stopped working - I simply replaced it with an entry level Sony AVR that supported ARC/CEC. My mistake was not checking the configuration on the Sony AVR.

 

So, the AVR has a "standby" mode. If it's muted or on minimum volume for 45 minutes it will turn off automatically. The function can't be turned off, and the longest delay is 45 minutes, but default is 15. When I got the AVR I "boosted" the delay to 45 minutes and forgot about it.

This is where things get interesting. When watching hockey or any sports really, I tend to turn the volume way down because I seldom watch it alone. I'm with friends or family so we will be chatting, commenting on the game, etc.

 

After 45 minutes (44 really...) the AVR would go into standby and trigger a CEC power off of the TV.

 

Now, that's settled I want to share an interesting fact about this nVidia Shield/HiSense TV/Sony AVR combo: If left unchecked, the respective standby setting swill trigger a loop IF the standby is triggered by the TV.

 

In my example I have the Shield setup to go into standby after 20 minutes. This sends a shut down signal to the TV which relays this to the AVR. This is fine and everyone's happy.

 

However if I leave the TV's standby option on default - which is 15 minutes - and the AVR is off because for example I've been using the Shield with a bluetooth headset connected - then the TV goes to standby, and sends a CEC "trigger" command to the AVR which then turns ON.

 

Now the TV stays off but in 45 minutes, when the AVR goes to standby, it sends a CEC trigger to the TV which now turns on. But if there's nobody's watching - like for example in the middle of the night, the TV will shut off after 15 minutes which, you've guessed it, turns the AVR back on.

 

This can go on all night... 

 

My solution was to disable the CEC from the AVR completely. So that now when I turn the TV on/off the AVR turns on/off but the other way around is disabled.

 

Whew....