[Panasonic] Another Television For the Holidays? I Think Not!

On October 5th 2011 we purchased our very first flat screen television. After weeks of researching and speaking with colleagues I decided to go with Panasonic. We purchased from the Electronics Expo a Viera 50″ G25 Plasma (TC-P50G25). The whole family was impressed. It was jammed packed with features like an SD Card slot, DLNA for streaming multimedia from our NAS w/ built-in Ethernet to handle all that “Jazz” w/ stunning picture quality. We could not have it any better, but as luck would have it – four months later we had a hairline fracture due to our kids toy hitting the set. Our four year additional warranty – void! To save your eyes on further reading, customer service was the worst!

Called Panasonic and the store we purchased from (Electronics Expo) – no one would help!

A few months later, I figured – eh, why not? It was accidental damage, let’s just stick with Panasonic. But this time I decided to purchase from Amazon. We went with what was essentially a newer version of our previous set, a Viera TC-P50GT30. It was a bit thinner and I figured, eh why not get a screen proctor? So I did and purchased a TV Armor TV Screen Protector plexiglass. A good year went by and I felt really good about the purchase. A little less than two years and the darn thing would not turn on! However, we were greeted with the friendly “seven blinks of death”. Go figure! And this time I did not purchase the extended warranty – _all_types_of_expletives_here_ !! They don’t make televisions like they used to, eh? The older CRTs lasted decades.

This time around I am not in the mood to purchase another television and if it ends up happening it definitely will not be Panasonic.But, I think I may be able to save the day. Why? I picked up the Panasonic Plasma Technical Guide and Troubleshooting Flowchart and I am feeling lucky. On slide 48 of the pdf is the start of troubleshooting the 7 blinks failure. In short, the problem is either from a faulty SC, SU – SD (these are a pair) or SS board from what I have read and saw on you tube. I could be wrong.

 

I did open up the set and located the boards that I think may be the problem as can be seen below:

 

 
The next step is to locate and purchase the necessary spare parts. Fingers crossed and I will post my findings good or bad. Say tuned!