Every 2 seconds it blinks twice. How do I make it stop?
You’ve lost your WiFi connection to the tv. Settings / Network / set up connection / Select your WiFi Network / Enter WiFi password / select Connect. Mine connected and the blinking light went off.
After a great deal of research and some trial and error, it seems like there are three workable solutions to this irritating problem:
1) Replace/upgrade the cheap Roku remote that came with the TCL TV. Others in this thread have talked about trying to put a piece of black electrical tape over the blinking light - only to discover that the remote will no longer work at all because the sensor/receiver for the remote is right next to the light. One of many shortcomings of the included remote is that it uses infrared signals and must therefore be pointed directly at the sensor/receiver with nothing in the way. Many of Roku's other, better, remotes use radio frequency (RF) signals instead - which can transmit through most walls, furniture, and electrical tape! I can confirm that this works as I was able to pair and use a "Roku Voice Remote Pro" with a piece of electrical tape completely covering the annoying blinking light on the TV.
2) You can dim (but not completely turn off) the LED light using the following process on the included remote to bring up a "special menu" on the TCL: home button (5 times), then FF, Play, Rewind, Play, FF. From the new menu that appears, select "adjust LED brightness". This will significantly decrease the brightness of the LED light, but I personally still found it too distracting when watching TV in a fairly darkened room.
3) A company named Anytime Sign sells a special tape they claim is intended for exactly this purpose (blocking visible light but allowing infrared light from a remote to pass through). I have not tried this product myself since option #1 above worked for me, but if you want to give it a look the web site is https://www.anytimesign.com/LED_BLOCKER/ Presently, a small sheet of this Mylar product costs about $5.
I nearly returned my newly purchased TV because of this blinking light. The irritation only increases when you think about the sheer number of bad design decisions that contributed to the problem and how easy it would have been to avoid (first and foremost: does anybody even want or need a blinking white LED light on the front of their TV to show that the remote is being used or that wi-fi is being accessed to stream data?) I hope at least one of the three work-arounds/solutions listed here will be helpful to others who are similarly afflicted 🙂
Finally figured out it was trying to find a network connection. Only solution I could find was to do a factory reset. There is no permanent internet connection available for the TV. Is there some other way to disable searching for a connection?
Do you ever connect it to Internet? If not, is there an option to disable Internet usage or disable WiFi?
I can only connect temporarily, just one ethernet cable, and no wifi. I connected, made an account, and downloaded updates, hoping it would help solve an issue I'm having with brightness controls. I couldn't find any way to disable the internet connection. It just seems to expect it forever once it finds it.
If you router/gateway only has one Ethernet port, you can get an Ethernet switch to let you hook up multiple devices. They are relatively cheap:
I'm not interested in that, I have no need for internet on the TV except when checking for updates. I don't use it for much beyond a computer monitor. I just want to turn off it searching for an internet connection when one isn't present
@scotchtape wrote:I'm not interested in that, I have no need for internet on the TV except when checking for updates. I don't use it for much beyond a computer monitor. I just want to turn off it searching for an internet connection when one isn't present
There is an option to set the TV up without Roku features as a non-smart TV / Monitor. See link below.
Turning Off the Roku Features of Your TCL Smart TV
What I don't know is if setting it up this way will disable network functionality and prevent the blinking light that is trying to establish a network connection. I would think it would since you are setting it up as a non-smart TV.
Thanks. Ah well, that is ultimately what I did. A factory reset and not setting up a connection to begin with does work. I guess I'm just not understanding why there isn't a way to manually shut off the connection in the event you do set it up temporarily. It seems weird to have to do a factory reset just to turn off the connection.
I agree there should be a setting you can change. With all this junk going on my kids schools just went to online classes. Couple that with a recent move and my internet provider not wanting to come and set up internet at my new house, all I have to connect to the streaming services is my cell phone's mobile hotspot, which I don't have on all the time to preserve data. So if I am watching over the air tv, my Roku Sharp TV is constantly blinking. Seriously Roku, make a setting to turn that insipid light off...
Thank you all for your help. Factory resetting and not setting up a connection worked!
Background info: I noticed my internet got worse when I connected it to the TV. Tried removing the connection and started seeing the same very annoying light flickering behavior. The flickering only happened when I was on HDMI for some reason, not when I am at the TV's home page.
Agree that there needs to be an option for this. I don't see why it would constantly try to connect when I've deliberately not connted to wifi.
Come to think of it, even with a wifi connection on why would it constantly work to maintain that connection when I am using HDMI?