SONY BRAVIA KD55S8505CBU telly crashing

[peter_java]

Hi All

Last night was the final straw for me and my partner. I wanted to throw a glass wine at the telly. It caused me to have a furious row and now I am mad as hell, I wish I never bought the damn thing, curved or not. I guess if make a TV smart and add a CPU, general purpose computing, firmware then it is I should know that there are going to be bug. I am an IT engineer, but this is ridiculous.

SONY BRAVIA KD55S8505CBU

This telly keeps crashing ever since there was an Android TV upgrade. It is out of the warranty, because I bought it from PC World / Curry in April 2016.

I did a factory reset last month just before the World Cup. I re-entered my WIFI, Netflix, Amazon TV credentials. I even switch off the auto update. The telly crashes at least one evening every week. It happens 5 minutes when I switch it on.  The sound suddenly goes when it happens, then the screen goes black, and then 30 seconds, the spinning Android circles appear on the screen. The TV has self-boot booted. It reminds of Windows' blue screen of death or Linux kernel oops.

How do I get a working update that fixes this crashing issue?

What is the version number of the firmware that fixes this bug?

[dutchice · Accepted solution]

Hi peter_java,

Welcome to the Sony Community! The first thing to do is not to get mad at the telly. Telly's are just like young kids, as much as you'd like them to behave they keep misbehaving. But despite their bad beaviour, we still love them! The second thing is to make sure you don't break the telly with your glass of wine. Then you will be left with nothing at all to start with. Soon you will see yourself in a TV shop spending again £1,000 on a different brand and model, just to discover that that didn't make any difference as our world runs on software.

Now first check to see if your TV is running the latest firmware revision. It's easy to check which version of software you have - follow these instructions:

1. Press the [HELP] button on the remote.
2. On the TV screen, the firmware version number should appear.

[1] Model
[2] Software version

If the version number is "PKG5.381.xxxx" or higher, you already have the most recent software version and updating is not required.

Chances are that you already have the latest firmware available. Otherwise make sure you update that first. Next thing is to make absolutely sure that you have set to ON the Automatically Update Apps settings in the Google Play Store app. You see, most crashes are due to applications that are pushed and maintained not directly by Sony but by external partners. As such, these partners have the benefit of being able to update their apps as often as they require to ensure good working order. So allow all apps to update immediately as that increases chances that their bugs get fixed as soon as possible. I also recommend that you keep the TV firmware always up-to-date. The idea of skipping updates, because updates introduce more problems than solutions is simply not true. In fact by skipping updates for a prolonged time you will be putting your TV hardware at risk of developing faults in a worst case scenario. Plus obviously you will also be increasing chances for even more issues rising from a conflict between a recent app update (e.g. Netflix) and old dated TV firmware which can't offer the right resources for the apps (read more crashes).

Now if you are on the most recent firmware revision lets try the following:

1. Go to Home > Settings > Samba Interactive
2. Click DISABLE
3. Then go to Home > Settings > Apps > Samba Service Manager
4. Click first to CLEAR DATA
5. Then select DISABLE

Restart the TV by holding the power button until the TV shuts down. Let’s wait and see if things will keep working as expected.

Keep us posted!

Dutchice

[peter_java]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly Dutchie.

I will have look at implementing this advice later tonight at home.

[peter_java]

Hi Dutchice

My TV had an old version of the system firmware, namely `PKG3.925.0140EUB'. So I upgraded the system firmware following your instructions to latest version. Afterwards, I double-checked that the Google App Play store was enabled for auto-update of applications. I allows the TV apps to update.

Finally, I disabled both Samba Interactive TV jsettings ust before I went to bed.

Now, I will wait and see if this solution cures the matter for the next week.

Regards,

Peter

[dutchice]

Well done Peter!

You keep us posted.

[peter_java · Accepted solution]

Hi

It's been a week, we haven't suffered another crash issue in middle of our evening entertainment. So I going to resolve this ticket now. The answer is one of these or any combinationof these or all:

1. Auto system automatic updates should be enabled
2. Android TV application automatic updates should be enabled
3. Disable the second screen / recommendation / tracking app (Samba Interactive) completely

Thanks Dutchice