Discussions

[madarp]

I just want to weigh in a bit here.  I am an embedded software engineer, with 35 years experience, and 10 of those in consumer electronics (dvd players, TVs, cable and satellite settop boxes).  I have this black screen issue on my own TCL/roku TV, and I can tell you that it is NOT the backlight.  My TCL TV backlight is blazing away, bright as ever, because I am running my "screen black" TV with the back panel taken off.  I can see the backlight!  I have even replaced the backlight power supply with a $40 board I ordered off ebay.  It is not the backlight.

The screen is "programmatically" showing a black screen because somewhere in the software, Roku has set a bit on a TCL chip or an interface that is commanding it to "blank the screen". That means "keep the backlight on, but show a black screen". And this bit is sticky, so it may live in EEPROM or some other non-volatile storage area so it survives a power-off and factory reset operation. The issue is that so far, they have not figured out where or how that bit is being set, and how to unset it.

Roku if you are listening:  Please just provide a USB firmware "update.roku" that does not require any user interaction to roll back the firmware.  We can write it to a USB thumb drive, pop it in the back and power on the TV and it will roll back the firmware to a previous state without any user intervention (no key presses, no reading codes on screens).   It is consumer electronics firmware updates 101-- super basic stuff that was tried and true, learned through hard-won lessons over many years, to fix issues out in the field.

[Paul65]

Thank you.  That's exactly what I've been saying all along.  Of course Roku's response is "try unplugging it".  I downloaded a supposed good bersion to a thumb drive (wasn't easy to find the supposed good one on line) tried to boot from thumb drive.  Nothing.  Watched videos to figure out the patterns of the clicks to try to get it to load from the USB.  Couldn't get it.  So I went and bought a beautiful 85" Sony that runs Google instead of roku, and now have a 75" tcl doorstop.

[ggarcia]

Wow.  That’s is totally new from everything I’ve read and goes against a bad back light that is the common reason.  But it makes sense.  If this is the case and it’s as simple as a firmware roll back update on a usb why hasn’t Roku done that?   Just asking for your opinion.  That seems so simple and it would solve most of these customer sat issues they now have.  

[madarp]

Like @Paul65, I searched for a LONG time to try to find the magic 'update.roku' USB firmware for my TCL TV model, and finally found it on a handy spreadsheet that a fellow named Caleb Cook has put together.  Had to do it this way instead of the Roku Way because of course: black screen.  Sadly even though I got the firmware and copied it to USB and booted the TV with it, it did not work because: I was not able to interact with the TV to complete the firmware process.  Everything in these processes is designed around being able to interact with the TV.  If that interaction capability is removed, it all falls apart.

So to speculate @ggarcia, I would guess their system designers never considered this particular corner case of not being able to see the screen.  Since the upgrade/rollback system is complex and requires some customer button-pressing to say "OK" or "YES" or whatever, they are stuck.  The system itself is not designed to be updated in an 'unattended' way.

Roku if you are listening:  Please design your new integrated Roku TVs that you are now selling to have an UNATTENDED firmware update process as a worst-case fallback scenario.  It will save you a lot of engineering and customer friction when things don't go well out in the field.   I say Please here because I actually LIKE the Roku OS and would love to see it succeed.  Personally, I won't be buying an integrated Roku+TV until I can verify that the firmware upgrade process is rock solid.  Until then, I will still buy the external Express streamers that plug in through HDMI.  "Separation of concerns" is a paradigm that is not only for software design.

[Kibbymutt]

Hi so my tv was working fine yesterday and today it turns “on” but it’s a black screen. I have done all the troubleshooting mentioned since OCT 2022 and nothing is working.

[RokuNimfa-C]

Hi @Kibbymutt, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku Community. 

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the black screen issue you are encountering with your Roku TV. We would like to inform you that our engineering team is already aware of the problem and is actively investigating it to find a solution. In the meantime, Kindly provide the necessary information below: 

• When was the last time TV was used without issue
• When was the issue first noticed
• Is the issue popping up when you start the TV
• Is the issue happening during a content playback
  • If so, what streaming channel?
• brand and model TV (this can be seen on the back of the TV)
• Press the Home button 5 times, followed by the Back button 5 times to obtain a tracker ID (we are aware that this tracker ID will be unseen due to the black screen)
  • date stamp when you triggered the tracker ID
• can you see a picture on the screen with the use of a flashlight

Once we have this information, I'll be able to pass it along to our Support team who is investigating this further.


Regards, 
Nimfa

[Nozaeta]

I have a 55in TCL Roku TV that was working fine but all of a sudden one day we went to turn it on to no avail. Screen is black but you can hear the clicking noises when we are trying to push buttons. Tried to reset it to no avail. Left unplugged and came back and still nothing. 

Serial number YNOOE4440459

[RokuNimfa-C]

Greeting @Nozaeta, 

Thanks for reaching out to the Roku Community. 

We're sorry to hear about the issue you are experiencing with your Roku TV. As you can see that we are aware of the issue and our engineering team is actively investigating this closely. If you have time, kindly keep us posted with the details requested above, so we can also submit your details to the team for investigation.

We prioritize resolving this as soon as possible, and we ask that you bear with us as we manage this issue.


Regards, 
Nimfa

[AasherKhattak]

When I went to turn on my tv on an afternoon for some reason it was playing the sound of me opening the tv and clicking around but I couldn't see what I was clicking. It has been a day now since the last time I was able to see the tv screen and looked up how to fixed the issues. I've tried unplugging the tv from the wall and also holding the reset button for 30 seconds but still have the same issue. I have even left it out overnight with it unplugged and still nothing. My Roku tv is a model: 55S423 and the rating is: 120v - 60Hz - 125W. If I could please get a follow up to this issue I would greatly appreciate it! 

[RokuNimfa-C]

Hi @AasherKhattak, 

Thanks for letting us know about the issue you are experiencing with your Roku TV. 

We're sorry for the inconvenience this caused. Please be advised that we are aware of the problem occurring. We'd like to include your details in the report, could you provide the details requested above? 

Keep us posted. 


Regards, 
Nimfa