Strange TV behavior.

[colly0410]

Mother-in-law phoned last night to say her telly had conked out, no red light or anything, not a sausage. She's had both her hips replaced so couldn't get down to check the plug, her cat likes to play with the cables & I thought that he'd pulled the plug out, said I'd sort it tomorrow. 10 mins later she phoned to say it had started working again, then a bit later to say it had conked again, then later back on..

Got there today & the TV had conked out again, not a sausage from it. Noticed TV & hard disc recorder were plugged in to one of those remote controlled plug bars, felt the bar & it was very hot, some of it had gone brown. Plugged TV direct into socket & it worked perfect. Found another normal plug bar & both TV & hard disc are now working OK... I'm wondering if the remote controlled plug bar had overheated & a thermal cutout had shut it down, then later when it cooled reconnected & so on? Needless to say it's for the bin..

[jskinner97]

Possible of course, I'm wondering if something was interfering with the frequency of the remotes if it wasn't due to failure? Just a thought..
I'd be inclined to test it with, Say a lamp and see?

[colly0410]

Ah, could be interference, thicko here didn't think of that. The remotes been lost for years so it was left on all the time, that sort of negated the whole point of it, it says 'energy saver' on it, which is true if you don't lose the flipping remote..

[jskinner97]

As we all know here using the example of mw radio.. Modern devices are dreadful when it comes to releasing interference on various parts of the spectrum..

[sideband]

plugged in to one of those remote controlled plug bars, felt the bar & it was very hot, some of it had gone brown.

We test all sorts of things at work including 'energy saver' items. Never heard of a 'remote controlled plug bar'. Do you have a picture of it or one like it? Reason I ask is that most of these are no good and don't do what is claimed. We've been there so many times at work. So far all have been poorly made and are downright dangerous.

[Refugee]

It sounds like it was wasting a lot of energy getting hot.
Can you cut it open and let us see a photo of what is inside it.

[colly0410]

It's an Eco Tek UK Ltd standby saver, model no ECO-SS-RTS. Looked it up on google & a black wire for the IR receiver should be with it, it hasn't got one, the cat could have nabbed it. It's a six way one with two switched sockets & four un-switched ones. It's from British Gas & the logo has gone brown & that was the hot part. I'll try & post a pic..

[sideband]

OK a little clearer now as to what the 'standby saver' actually is. Not sure that these are approved (being supplied by British Gas doesn't mean they are OK)! So the idea is that items that don't have to be left in standby, can be turned off fully and items that have to be left in standby can remain connected. So the idea is to reduce the number of items that actually remain in standby. If the original had gone brown and overheated, then it was either overloaded (which by nature, it shouldn't allow) or it developed a fault. My guess is that the actual 13 amp sockets were to blame and probably didn't fit the plugs (very common on non-approved appliances) so there was potential for arcing which will eventually cause overheating.

[colly0410]

Thanks for info Sideband.

Mother-in-laws just been on phone to my wife & it's all working OK last night & this morning, so problem seems to be solved. When MIL told me about TV acting daft the other night I didn't know about the standby saver plug, I thought it'd be some obscure intermittent power supply fault in the TV & with it being eight years old not economically repairable & for the tip. She didn't say anything about the hard disc recorder going off at same time as the TV. Just proves that you shouldn't jump to conclusions..

[colly0410]

Mother-in-law phoned to say her telly had conked out again, I thought "oh no not a faulty plug bar again?" But no, the flipping pesky cat (Mr Pickles) had pulled the plug out this time. I'd only just plugged it back in & the nuisance was playing with the cables again. We gave him a toy mouse thing for Xmas but he totally ignores that..