What Do You Do When....

Your brand new tv stopps working?

Yesturday afternoon we had a tornado warning (or was it a watch)in our area so I went about the neighborhood letting the people know. Just a couple miles down the road the streets were flooded and tree damage and hail the size of golfballs.

So to say the least we never even got as much as a raindrop. We live in this little valley that has its own climate. 5 miles to the south it had downpoured and was 15 degrees cooler. None of us have had to do any amount of lawn mowing since July 4th.

So I come into the house and turn the tv on and....nothing. I turn on the cable box and get sound but no picture so....I open the owners manual for the first time. We men often try to get by without touching it for fear of bursting into flames. It goes through the cycle of trying to turn on the light 8 times before the red LED flashes to let you know its time to unplug the set, plug it back in and try it again.

Again brought more of the same at which point I called Toshiba. They talk me through this procedure where I remove the cover to the lamp housing, remove the lamp and then procede to tap on all sides of the lamp houseing (not the lens BIG NO NO)and then return the lamp to the housing and try it again.

Again it brought the same results. I thought I would try again while the lady was on the phone. Went through the whole routine and tapped a little harder to the point where the lady on the other end of the line told me I was doing a fine job on the tapping part.

Again, no luck.

So then we procede to get all my info into the system...my address, serial no. etc. and she tells me that the info probably won't get into the order center until Monday and I should get the new lamp by Thursday/Friday next week by FedEx 2 day ground.

Damn....oh well. The set does have 1 year parts and labor so at least I don't have to worry about a cost to myself for some time.

So I hang up the phone with Toshiba and before I call Shelly to tell her the news I try one more time. I am thinking I will tap everywhere and just a little harder....maybe somewhere this side of banging it against the wall. I return the lamp to the housing, put the cover back on and move to the front of the set.

Ta Da!!!!!

Back up and running like she should be.

So I get back on the phone with Toshiba to cancel that new lamp and the guy tells me it is something about the mercury in the lamp and that after a cople fo weeks that it should settle.

Just watching regular tv the dlp makes a world of difference and I put in a blu ray (HD) movie and it was like looking through a window and the picture absolutely spectacular.