Sony KD-55X9005 Unable to control

[drdr01]

My daughter has the above TV. Some weeks ago the remote stopped working. She was not there at the time so has no idea if anything happened. There were children using the tv at the time but maintain they did not fiddle or drop the remote or touch the set.

We spent a considerable amount of time trying to operate the set with an alternative remote without success. In the end, in desperation we reset the tv to factory settings using the buttons on the back. The TV came on ok and went through the startup cycle as normal but then we get the first screen asking to 'select language' (to which we cannot reply without a paired remote).

My daughter called Sony support and was told to buy a new remote. She questioned whether it could be the remote or the TV at fault but told the new remote would prove it was not the remote (cost £44)!!

Yesterday I tried to match the set with the new remote (tx310e) again with no success.

No instructions were provided with the new remote and I was unable to pair it with the TV. With the set turned on still showing the 'select language' screen I tried pressing Mike and volume-, lights flashed on the remote but nothing happened on the screen. I have watched countless youtube videos telling me to press home then settings, but there is no setting button on the remote.

Can anyone offer any ideas?

[Elodin]

Hey, Sony remote controls works on both IR and Bluetooth, IR is used to control the TV set while Bluetooth is mainly used for the voice command feature while bearing in mind that an Internet connection is required to use voice search, for more info about this you can check this link

Check if your old remote control is sending IR signal to the TV by performing a camera test on the remote control, you can check that from here

If your remote control is sending an IR signal, this means that the IR receiver on the TV set itself is not working and at that point the TV will need to be inspected by an engineer. If you are still in warranty you can contact Sony support and they will book the service for you, if you're not in  warranty you'll need to check with the nearest service center from here. I hope this helps.

[drdr01]

Elodin, thanks so much for your timely and very precise answer.

We checked the old remote and the IR was working, so it seems that the problem is with the set.

There is one other thing that I should have asked. The TV is connected to a sound bar, my daughter remembers that she had similar trouble with the TV in the past and then the problem proved to be caused by the sound bar. She does not recall how it was resolved but could have been how it was all plugged up. She has a 'techy' nine year old that is into everything (mostly successfully) who could have changed the connections. Is there a chance that this could be the cause?

[royabrown2]

The usual problem with soundbars and Sony TVs is that the TV has the magic eye set extremely low down on the frame, so even though a soundbar in front of the TV may not be blocking the picture, it could be blocking the signals from the remote to the magic eye.

Some soundbars have IR Passthrough, or Relay, or some similar name, where the soundbar accepts the incoming signals from the remote, and outputs them via another sender on the back of the soundbar, so even a low down magic eye can see them.

So it may simply be the soundbar blocking the signal; though if it used to work and the soundbar hasn’t moved, perhaps the IR Passthrough has been turned off.

[drdr01]

OK, will remove the sounder and try again. Thanks for the info.

[HannahEd01]

Hey drdr01, any update? Did you manage to resolve the issue?