Sony KD-55AF9 suddenly defective / bootloop / no more picture

[giantroxx]

Hello,

I have had a 55-inch Sony KD-55AF9 since the beginning of 2019 for the price of €2500 at the time.

The device is now exactly 5 years old.

Yesterday evening I was wondering why the "Channels" on the start page had changed automatically. I have always deactivated them as I only want to see one bar with my apps.

Now, however, several "channels" were displayed just like that and I couldn't deactivate them, no changes were saved.

I then tried restarting the device, but the TV didn't survive.

Shortly after the restart, a faulty screen was displayed. There were lots of brown circles before the picture finally disappeared. The panel was absolutely fine up to this point.

Since then, the TV has been in a kind of "boot loop", the white LED lights up for a while before it goes out and the whole game starts all over again. I can no longer see anything on the screen.

I have also tried a hard reset (hold power + vol. minus, plug in cable) - it doesn't help, the device is dead.

As the problems started with Android, I suspect the problem is there too: the mainboard is probably faulty (as you often read).

Does anyone here have experience with this problem?
Are there any spare parts available, or does anyone have experience with the cost of repairs?

Thanks and best regards