Electronics and home entertainment have come such a long way, it’s truly amazing what is possible these days. With that said, there are still plenty of common annoyances and issues that we encounter with home electronics, and an Element TV is no exception.
Having some issues with your Element TV? Here’s what to do when your Element TV won’t turn on.
Element makes decent TV’s at affordable prices. Just because you got a good deal on your TV, that doesn’t mean you should have to put up with your Element TV not turning on.
And you don’t have to put up with it any longer. Here are some helpful tips to follow when your Element TV won’t turn on.
There can be a number of different causes that might prevent your Element TV from powering on. We’ll start with the most common ones that have the easiest fixes, and we’ll work our way down from there. For most people, one of the first couple of tips will usually do the trick.
How To Fix Element TV Won’t Turn On
Try this FIRST: Unplug your TV from the wall for 10-15 minutes. After it’s unplugged, press and hold the power button on your Element TV for about a minute to discharge the capacitors on the circuit board. This is called a hard reset, and sometimes, this is all it takes.
No matter what’s preventing your Element TV from turning on, we’re going to go over all of the possibilities. You can skip steps if you know they aren’t the problem, but it never hurts to double check, just in case.
1. Check the Power Sources
First things first, when a TV isn’t turning on, it can often be an issue with electricity. This can mean that your wall outlet isn’t supplying power to the TV, or that the TV isn’t able to receive the power. Let’s check both possibilities.
The wall outlet: Check that the wall outlet is supplying power. You can do this by unplugging your TV and plugging something else into the same outlet that your TV was using. A lamp, a phone charger, or any other electronic device that plugs into the wall will help you diagnose this.
If your other electronic device is getting power, then we know that the problem isn’t with your power outlet (unless the TV requires a lot more power than the outlet is able to output, for example there could be enough juice for a phone charger but not enough for a TV, but this would be a very rare issue. Circle back here if nothing else works, and call an electrician to investigate.)
If the wall outlet isn’t supplying power to your lamp/phone charger/etc, you can try running an extension cord from the TV for a brief moment, so that you can plug the TV into a different outlet to check if it works or not. If it works, then you have identified the issue: your power outlet isn’t supplying power.
Your TV’s power supply: If the wall outlet is working fine, let’s quickly double-check the TV’s power supply by plugging it in to another outlet. Even if the first outlet works, this step can help us confirm with certainty that something is wrong with the TV’s ability to receive electricity from the wall.
In any case, turning the TV off and plugging it for a period of time is also how to do a hard reset, so while you’re doing this troubleshooting process, you’re also doing something that could fix the issue at the same time. This is why we start by checking out power issues.
2. Check Your Remote
If you’re using a remote control to turn the TV on and it’s not working, it could be that your remote’s batteries are dead or are very close to being depleted.
The fix here is simple to swap out the old batteries in your remote for a new set of batteries.
However, if you suspect the remote is the issue, a simple way to check this is to try to turn the TV on by pressing the power button on the TV itself. If it turns on when you press the button on your TV, then you know there’s an issue with the remote. The batteries in the remote are done, or the remote itself is broken.
It doesn’t really make sense to attempt to repair a TV remote, so you’ll probably want to buy a universal remote (They can be purchased for as low as $10-$25, typically).
Alternatively, if you have a cable box for your TV or a satellite box, they probably came with a remote that can be programmed to turn your TV on and off.
If you replaced the batteries in your remote with a known-working set of batteries, or you tried the power button on the TV itself and neither of these are working, it’s safe to assume the remote control isn’t the problem and you can proceed to the next steps.
3. Check Your Connections
Just to be sure, double check that all of the cables are properly connected to your TV. Make sure that the power cable is properly secured to the back of the TV (if it’s the style of power cable that isn’t permanently connected to the TV).
Ensure the power cable is also properly connected to the power outlet in your wall.
Ensure that any HDMI or other media cables are properly connected, and the cable that connects your TV to a cable/satellite box if you have one.
If you’re using something like an Amazon Firestick or a Roku, make sure that all of the cables are properly connected.
You can unplug all of the cable going into the back of your TV and plug them in again to ensure that they’re properly seated.
4. Listen To Your TV
What I mean by “listen to your TV” is that sometimes, there will be an LED light on the front of the television. It’s usually a steady color when the TV is working fine, for example picture the small red, blue, or green light that indicates your TV is on. If that light is on, it’s safe to say that your TV is receiving power, which helps us troubleshoot.
If the LED light is flashing or beeping in any sort of pattern, this could be your TV trying to tell you exactly what’s wrong.
Normally, you might see an error message on the TV screen, but if the TV isn’t turning on or displaying an image, then you’re left with the LED light to guide you. Not all makes and models of TV have this feature, but if you do, then you’re lucky.
Just check your instruction manual to know what the light is trying to indicate, and if you don’t have the manual handy, you should be able to do a search for the brand of your tv + “flashing LED error code” or something along those lines.
Should You Repair Your Element TV Or Buy a New One?
Whether or not it’s worth repairing an Element TV or buying a new one really depends on a few factors.
Unfortunately, it’s not economic to fix a lot of cheaper TV’s these days since a new TV is a lot less expensive than it used to be, and sometimes the parts and labor to fix an old TV will cost more than a new one, or it will at least cost very close.
For example, if you paid $300 for your Element TV and there’s a problem with the backlight, and the new part is going to cost $120 and the labor is going to cost $160, you’re looking at $280 to fix it, when you could get a new one for just $20. With a new one, you’ll have a new warranty and lower chances of something else failing in the future, compared to your older TV.
On the other hand, if you paid $2000 for a high-end TV and the same part malfunctions, and it costs the same $280 to fix, it makes a lot more sense to repair the TV in this example.
So, whether or not it’s worth fixing a broken TV really depends on what’s wrong with it, how much it will cost to fix, how old the TV is, and how much the TV is actually worth.
Additional Troubleshooting for an Element TV That Won’t Turn On
Here are some related issues that you can explore, these could be useful if you’re having similar issues with your Element TV so I wanted to include these additional troubleshooting tips for your convenience.
- How to turn element TV on without remote: If your Element TV remote isn’t working or if you can’t find it, you can turn on your TV pressing the power button on the television set itself. The power button will typically be located on the bottom of the TV (the front bottom, or just underneath the front panel, somewhere along the bottom of the TV). Press the power button, hold it for a second or two if it doesn’t turn on right away, and that should do the trick.
- Where are the buttons on an Element TV?: The locations of the buttons, including the volume buttons and power button, are typically on the front of the TV, just below the bezel. Otherwise, they might be along the back of the TV, or sometimes on the side. Just run your hand along those areas and you should be able to find the buttons. If not, check the back of the TV, too.
An Element TV not turning on is just as common of a problem with this brand as most other brands, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid this brand at all costs because it can happen with any TV.
