TV was working fine one night, but the next day around noon I noticed it was on and displaying a Google/android logo. I thought that was odd, considering I hadn’t turned on the TV and it’s not a logo I normally see anyway. I thought maybe my dog sat on the remote, but they were all out of reach so I believe it was a software update that was run, perhaps when I turned off my TV the night before or it happened while I was on standby. In any case, the TV was obviously stuck in a reboot loop. Sometimes I would get a signal just briefly (1-2 seconds) before it shits itself and starts the reboot all over again.
I couldn’t get the TV out of the reboot loop, so I looked up info on how to factory reset my TV (XBR-65X810C is the model number). I didn’t know if I was relieved to see my issue as the very first item on their FAQ or nervous. You’re supposed to unplug, hold down VOL- and POWER at the same time (buttons on the set, not the remote), and keep them held down while you plug the set back in. While that required some gymnastics to do it on my own (thanks for putting the short power cord and the power buttons on opposite ends of a 65" TV, asshole), I was able perform the steps.
After 10-30 seconds of holding it down, I’m supposed to see the LED on the TV go from flashing white to flashing green. This never happens, though. The LED stays white and the TV proceeds to walk through it’s reboot loop. I’ve tried unplugging the TV and repeating those steps five times now to no avail. For some reason the factory reset just doesn’t seem to be working.
I contacted Sony support and their response was basically “ur out of the one year warranty. Get fucked bro.” (It’s two years old at this point). They offered no help or instructions other than to point me to the same instructions which I had just been following. Then the “tech” just said “Well it’s obviously a problem with the set, so I can’t help you.”. Interesting response from tech support! If only the problem were with, uh, something else other than my TV, then maybe he could have helped me?
Anyway, does anyone have any advice? I have a BIOS for the TV on a USB drive, but I don’t know how to flash it without getting into the TV menu which I can’t do due to the reboot loop. Anyone here have any ideas on what I might be able to do?
I have a Sony Android TV (X800D), this happened to me once maybe a month after I got it, eventually they put out new firmware and I’ve never had the issue again.
Here was the video I watched, pretty much exactly what you did, except comments mention waiting up to 45 seconds for the green LED to flash.
The top commenter mentioned his steps also:
My TV stops to turn on all of sudden in the morning and this video is the Ultimate solution that worked… Thanks a lot
Adding my steps if someone can get benefit
before this step: I used to see a white led comes and stays ON for 3 seconds and goes off blinking white screen (very slight visible white screen which can be observed in dark)
After the above steps TV stopped even giving this white led and screen blink and not sure why and did not solve the problem of TV
then I followed slight change in steps
without removing the power cables
Press and hold 'Volume Down" button firmly and then “Power Button”
hold both buttons firmly for more than 30secs until a whitish green led comes ON
(firstly for me a whitish green LED started to glow at 45th second and i removed my fingers holding the buttons and ended in ‘back to square one’ i.e. white led ON for 3 seconds and going OFF)
second time after few minutes i repeated 2nd and 3rd step, this time i did not remove my fingers from the buttons even after the whitish green led started to glow
Hold both the buttons firmly even after the whitish green led glows till you see the colorful circles starts to display on screen
My TV turned ON and working since 2hrs
I still went ahead and did the ‘factory reset’ after the above ‘forced factory reset’
i did a settings to ‘auto timer power on’ everyday at 8am as a mitigate alternative way to power on, remember that this setting will make tv to power on even if you are away from home on vacation ! so remember to remove the power, this is just my alternate for couple days
FYI: fond various steps online at sony e-support
unplug power from wall outlet for 30sec and plug in - did not work for me
Hold ‘power on’ and ‘up arrow’ buttons - did not work for me
No luck. :( I think my problem is that you’re supposed to hold down VOL/Power for 30+ seconds. My TV won’t stay on for that long, it dies just the reboot process and shuts down, then starts again.
Trying to figure out if there’s any way to boot from USB or network or anything, but so far I haven’t come up with anything.
Thanks for the help. I’ll keep trying a few different variations and see if I can get anything working. This is extremely frustrating.
Haven’t any any luck in troubleshooting it, unfortunately. I’m in between moves at the moment, so it’s just been in storage for the past little while.
I found a place that’ll do a diagnostic for $100, but I hear any sort of repair can be a little pricey. Debating whether to follow up with that or just start putting money towards a new TV. It’s frustrating, and the extremely poor customer service from Sony (not to mention a TV crapping out so quickly) means I won’t be buying from them ever again.
hey man. I experienced the same issue. just so pissed off literally my tv has less than 50 hours. I only used it to cast sports. My advice is don’t do those android updates. This is what bricked my tv. I also called Sony and they gave me the same response. You’re TV is out of warrranty. try do do the factory reset.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’m with you there, I’m not buying a Sony TV again. It’s not even so much their TV failing (shit happens), but their total disinterest in doing anything about it.
Extended warranties aren’t that expensive, especially for complex tv’s. When I got my Sony in 2016 I went with a 5 year warranty for like an extra $100 just incase. So far I haven’t needed to use it.
In truth TV’s should drop all the smart features. And just be dumb displays.
I have a cable box and fire stick for my smart needs.
Totally agree KevinC. I’ve responded to them and show them various sources that other consumers were having the same issue. I can narrow it down to being a bad OTA software update they pushed, because I noticed the TV turning on and off on it’s own days prior to it completely failing. However, Sony not taking ownership of the issue. I have lost completely trust with this brand.
That’s my answer to everything. The streamers update their stuff and care that they work. The TV mnfs… not so much. I don’t even sign into most my TV with one tiny exception, the TCL because I was curious since it was Roku. I don’t the OS software on the TV anymore though because it’s slow, but it’s still way better than the others.
Same just happened to me KD65-8500E just short of 2 years old. It was working OK apart from the known bugs (slow responding remote and internet dropouts - smart TVs all seem to have their bugs). Two days ago it got a forced update and it was all downhill from there. Started with WIFI could not be enabled error, all known fixes for this failed so I tried a soft reset. That failed to fix the issues so factory reset was next step. I got the green light straight away, factory re-boot started and froze hallway, now its stuck in boot loop. About to try flashing it to latest from USB I’ve nothing to lose. I purchased on interest free finance that includes a free 5 year warranty. Unless they start providing some support my finance company can have it out with them. I would rather just fix it if anyone has any other suggestions.
My Sony TV has been great, about 3 years old now, save one annoying issue. When I turn it, most times it does a full reboot. It doesn’t turn on fast from standby mode but takes a full 30-40 seconds. Sometimes it even pops up on the dashboard, like it was in standby mode, then reboots. Any suggestions?
