Screen goes black after couple seconds on my Polaroid 42" LCD

I had a TLX-4240B 42" Polaroid LCD TV and the screen would go black after about 10 minutes. There was still sound. I removed the two covers exposing the circuit boards behind the TV. I powered up the TV and waited for the screen to go black (I was going to start trying to pinpoint where the issue was with my trusting meter) then noticed a red light would come on when the screen would go black. there were 4 mini switches right above the red light. I switched the one that said burn and the TV has been working great since. good luck and let me know!

I have read everything I can find on the net about this problem for Polaroid TLX 04240b TVs (most, like mine, bought from Wal-Mart on Black Friday after Thanksgiving). I thought I was on a hot lead when I changed the 220uF 450v capacitor, but I still had the same problem. I saw a short post from somewhere on the FixYa web site (sometimes I can find it again and sometimes I have trouble locating it) that said someone flipped a tiny switch on their circuit board and the problem was gone. I did the same thing and my set has been working fine. They had said their set was on for over 8 hours two days in a row when they posted. The other night my daughter left our set on over night for 20 hours and the picture still was working great. If you look through the top of the set when the picture is on you can see some white light at several locations, when the screen goes blank the white lights go out and a red LED light can be seen. If you take off the plastic cover on the back (3 screws) and then take off the metal cover (3 screws) this red LED light is on the upper circuit board in the lower left corner. Just a little to the right of the LED light is a small switch block that has 4 tiny white switches. I turned my set off and took the bottom switch (#4 and had the letters BURN by it) to the right "ON" position, turned the set back on and, so far so good. PLEASE NOTE!!! I know almost nothing about how transistor circuits work. I have no idea what the switches do or what long term effect this might have on the set. The set was only good as a paper weight before so even if this only fixes the set for a short time it was at least worth a try for me. Does anyone know what those switches are supposed to be for?

Hi, I Just try the Fix To The BLack Screen
It worked, I Recommend All To Try It and Save your $$
for Later you may want to upgrade your set, I also What to explain
What I did so you dont do it also
Ok I read the instructions our friends above gave us
but I didnt read closely, I started takin off all the screws <_>
Dont do that, I end up break some and couldnt put put back
Anyway All You need is take out 6 screws on the back
3 for the Black cover & 3 for the metal plate
look closely is all you need, once the metal case is off
look very close and read about instructions for the switch panel
I use small lamp and found it, cause I did it a night time
you will see the 4 , when I found all were to off position
but like our friends say here only switch the #4 to On the one
near the tiny letters"BURN"
and after that start closing back your tv , Oh by the way take all
cables and power cables from you tv before you do this and
dont on or like try before closing!
After all Is closed back in place
you can enjoy your polaroid tv back to life
How long this fix will last or what it does
dont really matter to me now, as long my tv is back working
but I really work , just take patient and be precise in the instructions

Have a nice night and day later on Everybody
And Thanks to all for givin us this fix

Happy End

Burn switch worked for mine as well

It sounds like you could have Tcon board issues

It worked for me as well....I just got confused a bit by exactly which part to take off, bc I did see the white lites when the picture was on and they would then go off when the pic went off, so I thought I had to go into that part of the tv....but had I realized it was JUST the middle portion, i would literally been able to fix it in minutes!!! So Flippin easy! After I took off the only part that would come off (i.e.the middle portion THEN I saw the THREE METAL SCREWS that everyone was talking about and the metal portion rite there in the back of the (middle) of the TV) Then after I took off the metal, for a quick second I was a bit over whelmed at everything underneath that plate but then I just focused on the little "RED LIGHT" and that is when I saw the Switches and the number #4 Switch marked "BURN" .....I ALSO had my # 1 Switch was flipped on and I thought the only one that was supposed to be on was #4....so we turned off #1 as well as turning ON #4!! IT works GREEEEAAT NOW!! What my son told me that it is ....is the # 4 switch is the actual "operating mode" Switch.....and b4 they put out to sell they are SUPPOSED to turn ON that #4 switch....bc when it is off the TV is only in "TEST" mode like for the manufacturer. And then when it is ready to be sold, they are supposed to put it into FULL OPERATIONAL MODE....just like sometimes when you buy your child a toy that Talks...typically when you purchase the toy you can try it out bc it is in "TEST" mode....to get it to say all of the things it is programmed to say and do, you have to flip a switch to put it into full operation mode! Same thing with our TV's....but what REALLY MAKES me SO MAD is that the TV repair people already probably KNOW this but STILL Charge $1200.00 to fix your tv!!! I hope this helps someone else! Thank you to all those people that post things when they learn to help others like me...so that I too can post and help someone, if we had more people that did this we would probably all do so Much better!!

Can't find the switch

Wow. did what they said above. changed it to burn and it works. i tried switching it back to see if it would work without the "burn" being on, but no dice. you have to leave it on. it's been several months since their posts, so hopefully no effects from doing it.

I just did what the guy above said to do with the switch marked "BURN"... TV is working fine now. I did take it to a TV repair who wanted to charge me $1200 for a new LCD, when I only paid $600 for teh TV at the time. Too bad I didnt see this post before I took it there, wasted a $65 fee for him to look at it.

Your only other solution is to have a technician look at it and hope he can trouble shoot it to component level. 80% of the time with polaroid sets, as a servicer, we encounter the same problem. I would not take the word of a call taker on a diagnosis of that symptom. It could also be the Inverter panel, but without looking at it, it's just a guessing game. Please have it looked at.