My acquaintance encountered the problem of overheating the TV screen; he has a Samsung 65KU6400. As it turned out, this problem is present in many Samsung TVs and needs more information on why it happens and what to do in this situation, but the Internet mostly trivial advice, and it is not suitable in this case.

Samsung TV screen overheating real case

My friend approached me with a problem that part of his TV screen had darkened; understandably, it was a failure of the LED backlight, but I noticed that the bottom of the TV, where there was no backlight, was abnormally hot. I did a little research into the problem and decided to tell readers what happened to the TV and what to do about it.

This problem can also occur with any brand of TV, not just a Samsung TV.

Part of your TV screen is darkened, and the screen is very hot.

The first thing you should do is to stop using your TV; I’ll tell you why below. Watching such a TV will cause further damage to your TV screen, but stopping using it will keep your TV from more damage; you can continue to use it after the repair. Especially if you have a large and expensive TV, it can be repaired much cheaper than buying a new one.

Why does the screen get hot?

LED TVs are arranged so that you can see an image; behind the screen matrix (which is a big black sheet with electrical wiring loops) is a reflective layer of acrylic (a big white plastic sheet), the backlighting is made of LEDs, and each LED has a plastic lens, in EDGE TVs the lenses are small on the LEDs, in Direct TVs, they are large lenses.

There are two types of LED TV displays:

EDGE is edge-to-edge backlighting; if you think the backlighting is on the side, you’re wrong; in these TVs, the backlighting is on the bottom, the acrylic reflective layer has a non-uniform reflective structure; it reflects light less at the bottom, and more at the top. Hence, the backlight is even; you see the same image with the same brightness all over the screen. Backlighting is carried out by LEDs assembled on a single bar, LED strips for TV screens.

Direct – The backlight on the back of the TV screen; each LED has large plastic lenses to diffuse the light.

Why does a TV screen backlight burn out

LEDs are designed so that when they fail, the light-emitting layer burns out, but the current continues to flow through such a diode; the electric current is not converted into light; the LED is defective; the current is converted into heat. That’s why the TV screen begins to warm up when the backlight malfunctions, namely when the LEDs burn out.
And here’s why the backlight breaks; we can assume the following.

• Poor-quality components, for example, the same Samsung uses in its TVs, especially in the budget segment screens from other manufacturers.
• Need to calculate the backlight life cycle correctly. There are TVs with screens (8bit + FRC) with backlights that flash quickly to create more colors. And electronic components are most sensitive to such conditions; they wear out faster.

How to repair a TV with a blown backlight and a hot screen

If your TV is under warranty or you have purchased an optional protection plan, it’s okay, the TV will be repaired, but it will most likely be replaced. If your TV is not under warranty, you will most likely have to look for a small service center that handles TV backlighting repairs. Going to an official service center after the warranty is usually useless, they do not do this kind of repair, you will be offered to replace the entire TV screen, which is 80% of the cost of the TV, and you will have to wait at least 3 months. Replacing the backlight is much cheaper, but you need to find a specialist who knows how to do this repair.

My TV screen has white spots on the image.

If you have a TV with an EDGE screen, you will notice white spots at the bottom of the screen, as shown. If you have a Direct backlight, you may also see spots in the middle of the screen.

Here’s why you shouldn’t watch a TV with a faulty backlight. A faulty LED begins to get very hot, the white reflective layer begins to melt, and from overheating, it loses elasticity and begins to crack. Through the cracks and in places where the plastic has melted the reflective layer, the light begins to penetrate more than necessary inside the display.

Prolonged viewing of a TV with faulty backlighting, especially with overheating, can cause damage to the screen itself, in which case you will have to buy a new TV.

What series of Samsung TVs have an overheating problem

I understand from reading reviews in the Samsung community that this problem is more familiar with budget TVs. In my case, I went into the service mode of the TV to see the model of the TV screen, but to my surprise, I saw in the Panel section not the model number of the display, but just an entry about the original. Anyway, the TV is no longer under warranty – it’s 2016 and will have to be repaired by replacing the backlight strips. Here’s another tip, if you’re repairing the TV, you need to replace all the backlight strips; there are 2 in an EDGE-type TV. By replacing just one, the problem will come back in a month or two.