Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

[Dheano]

Hi guys. Apologies if I come across as idiotic/rude/anything else negative.

I bought a Toshiba 40L1333B TV 3 weeks ago, second-hand from a friend. At my mother-in-law's house, the TV worked fine for about 4 days. I took it home and set it up, connecting my Chromecast (powered by the USB port on the side of the TV) and my Xbox One (via HDMI) as well as a standard aerial to utilise the Freeview box.

For the first week the TV had no problems. Then one day the TV refused to switch on, with the standby/on indicator flicking between red and green at a constant speed of roughly 0.5s. The only way to power it on would be to switch it off by the socket and back on again. Then one day, this method also failed and I have not got it back working since.

I have taken the back off and looked for anything out of the ordinary but I don't know a lot about TVs, but I do work with PCs, laptops and monitors a lot so I would like to think that I would spot something like a bad capacitor.

I do not have a multimeter with me but I have read that I might need to check out some parts of the Power Supply board?

I've tried many websites searched multiple forums, video searches etc and to no avail.

I can replace the board for roughly £40 but I would like some advice on this first.

I would appreciate some help from you guys, I've seen from previous threads that you are very knowledgeable and have helped many people.

If you need any pictures or any additional information I'll try my best to provide it.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Dean

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Two major faults with these "Toshiba" sets (actually junky Alba/Technika stuff dressed up as a Toshiba - made by Vestel with love):
- Bad main board firmware
- Bad/intermittent LEDs in panel, causing power up failure (difficult fix - see here: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...light=40l1333b)

Neither will be fixed by exchanging the power board, unfortunately...

For the firmware possibilty... the most likely cause of a Vestel set not powering up with a blinking LED.

• Go HERE: http://www.toshiba-om.net/firmware.php... Locate your model and download the firmware file
  
• There should be AT LEAST two files, "usb_auto_update.txt" and an "mbXX_en.bin" file (XX=65, 85, 90 etc.) There may ALSO be an mboot.bin. (If file is *.exe, run it, and get the files then... do not copy the *.exe to the memory stick, this will not work)
  
• Put these files onto a BLANK, FAT32 formatted USB memory stick
  
• Unplug the TV power. Connect the stick to the TV.
  
• Plug in the TV while you hold "OK" on the remote control.
  
• In fault mode, LED blinks slowly. If firmware is updating, LED should blink more rapidly for about 1 minute. Release "OK" after you notice the flash code has sped up from normal fault code. (Fault code may or may not be displayed initially.)

If all works, TV will power up with initial setup screen (all settings reset)

At this point, consider it a warning about these pieces of Vestel trash & preferably get rid of it before the LEDs go pop...!

[Dheano]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Thanks for such a rapid and informative response, Tom.

I'll grab a spare USB memory stick from work tomorrow and try it when I get home. I don't even get the TV on at all - no sound, no backlight, nothing.

Would you say that if the firmware upgrade doesn't work I'd be better off selling for spare/repair?

And again - thank you!

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

If I were closer, I would relieve it off you , as I've wanted a bad-firmware Vestel to do some experiments with (it's possible to get a serial console out the SCART port to see where it's failing to boot) these TVs run a lightly modified version of Linux with a UBOOT bootloader (all open-source stuff) so it looks like they might be fixable with the right tricks.

[Dheano]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Hi Tom,

The update file only contains upgrade_mb90.bin so there is not the 2+ files that you mentioned. Also, they mention in their upgrade procedure to not use FAT32 but instead FAT or FAT16. Would you be able to help me clarify what would be the correct way to do this?

Thanks again.

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

FAT is FAT32... but anyway, without that "usb_auto_update.txt" file, there is no way to update it with the TV stuck in standby. The file is similar between models using the 17MB90 main board, but there are sometimes subtle differences. The file tells the bootloader exactly where to flash the files in the NAND and sets up the boot parameters for the kernel.

You might have luck contacting Toshiba directly. Also, Finlux, a Vestel company (not even slightly Finnish -- Vestel is from Turkey...) has been known to supply firmware images to fix this problem - so if you can find the equivalent Finlux to your Toshiba (there will be one) that might be workable. (Only problem is any branding in the set's menus etc. would reflect the Finlux name, but that's not that much of a problem...)

[thoma]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Is it possible to tell what the function of a bootloader is?
regards thoma!

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Normally when the leds in these sets fail the stby light goes green but there wont be any picture, when the firmware corrupts the stby led will flash red and green. Meaning that your firmware is corrupt.

[newtothis]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

If you are asking what a bootloader is it is self explanatory TBH.

It loads on boot... So when the TV is booted it loads the files.

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Is it possible to tell what the function of a bootloader is?
regards thoma!

The bootloader is the small bit of code that usually resides in a separate area of flash or in some cases on a separate flash device entirely. It is represented by the mboot file.

It contains the code which extracts the kernel from the main flash memory/flash area and decompresses it into RAM (if necessary.) It then sets up the kernel boot parameters and starts it booting. At this point, the kernel takes over and the bootloader has no further function.

If the kernel or the main flash image is corrupted, usually the bootloader will toggle the LED red/green as @Reecey says. (I'm guessing Vestel do a checksum of the kernel image, or have some way to check for a kernel loading failure.)

Usually the bootloader survives... if it gets corrupted it's a pain in the arse because you need to remove the bootloader flash (usually a SOIC chip) to reflash it. If corrupted, the bootloader cannot replace itself.

This duality, having a bootloader and main application, is quite common these days as the Linux kernel alone cannot bootstrap itself. Think of the bootloader as the rough equivalent of a PC's bios. If the hard drive (=main application) is missing, the computer will turn on but will give an error message. If the bios (=bootloader) is corrupted, nothing (much) will happen.

[thoma]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Thank you very much of the fantastic explaining of bootloader!
I have problem with these lots of memories used in a lcd tv!
In some shops like ohmsupply there are a lot of preprogrammed EEPROMS
What is stored in this?Is it also possible when you have a vestel with flashing
led to change the EEPROM with a preprogrammed if you cant update the firmware because of corrupted software?
regards thoma!
Perhaps it is possible to see a kind of troubleshooting
what to do if led flashes!

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

If there's a single flash, it's likely that's just a main app flash and there is no linux kernel, no bootloader.

It will contain a copy of the firmware. If you receive one of those flashes, you can copy the data off it and share it with us.

I am sure Andy of OhmSupplies has either copied the data off himself or has contacts in the industry that are providing him with the data. For £20 his service is reasonable considering the cost of programmer, chip, labour, postage. But, it would be nice if others could have access to the files, as we have programmers, and our time is pretty cheap

The power LED flashing will depend entirely on the manufacturer, they might not do anything... in a way Vestel are nice that they give us an error LED at all (it would be even nicer if they flashed, e.g. 2 times for power fault, 3 for firmware, helping narrow it down even further, but I'm not holding my breath.)

BTW, it is a misnomer to call these EEPROMs! They are flash devices, like USB memory sticks, SD cards, solid state drives... EEPROMs operate on a similar, but different principle, notably they store MUCH less data and in most repairs, you can erase the EEPROM with little consequence (the TV software will re-program it) but you cannot do the same with a flash device!

[thoma]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

If I understand you right if I put in a preprogrammed eeprom from
ohmsupply when I can get no flash software the LCD TV plays again?!
regards thoma!

[thoma]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

To all specialists
http://www.eletronicageral.com.br/
Found a lot of flash on this site
Is it good please tell me!
regards thoma!

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

If I understand you right if I put in a preprogrammed eeprom from
ohmsupply when I can get no flash software the LCD TV plays again?!
regards thoma!

Flash! Not EEPROM!
It depends on the fault, not always!
A -lot- of these problems are caused by corrupted software, but not all of them.
Will have a look at the link... not seen it before.

[Dheano]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Tom, I'm looking at editing the usb_auto_update.txt but can't find one ANYWHERE!

You don't have any idea where to get one, do you?

Cheers,
Dean

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

I have loads of those files, but I'm not sure which one you'd need...

What main board does your TV use? 17MBxx should be printed on the main board somewhere (the main board is the one with the HDMI ports on it)

The problem is, it tells the TV which addresses to write in the flash memory, so you need to get exactly the right ones or it won't work...

[Dheano]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Cheers, Tom.

I've got the power board number but not the other one (typical!)

I guess I'll have to take the back off.. again.. *sigh*

I'll be back shortly... again, cheers for the help.

[Dheano]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Alright. Opened it up. Had nothing imprinted/printed on the board but on the stickers it had MB 95 appear twice, so I assume that's it.

There's plenty other numbers and other stuff but I doubt it's needed.

[tom66]

Re: Toshiba 40L1333B blinking red/green power indicator

Yeah, so you will need the 17MB95 auto update file... I'll have a look, but that's a new one to me, I've only done the 62's and 80's.