If you sit down to watch TV one day and the picture is not as bright as it usually is, you ask yourself, ‘Why Is My Samsung TV So Dark?’ If this situation sounds familiar to you, then you have come to the right place.
While Samsung TVs are considered to be some of the most reliable, sometimes there could be issues that result in a darkened picture. Before you call a technician to fix your TV, you should try to take a look at it yourself. It could save you a lot of money.
There are several possible reasons your Samsung TV could be showing a dark picture. It could be something as simple as your TV’s brightness or power settings. It could also be something more serious such as a faulty backlight power supply.
In this article, we will investigate all of the possible issues that can result in a dark image on your Samsung TV. We will also provide steps on how to overcome some of the most common causes for this issue.
There are several reasons why your TV may be showing a dark picture. You might just get lucky and be able to resolve a dark or dim picture by simply adjusting some energy saving or picture quality settings.
You could, however, be less fortunate and come to the realization that your TV’s backlight power supply board isn’t working properly.
Method 1:Disable Energy Saving Mode
Modern TVs are built with power saving features that make their screens really dark. Thankfully, it is easy to change the settings that control Eco mode. We have a guide below for you to follow.
How to disable energy saving mode:
Step 1: Go into the Menu
Step 2: Then select System
Step 3: After that, go to Eco Solution, and then Eco Sensor
Step 4: Turn Eco Mode Off
Hopefully this is why your picture is showing up dark on your Samsung TV. Sometimes it really is that simple. There could have been someone that changed the settings on your TV when you were not around to notice.
You could have even done it yourself on accident by sitting on the remote while you were paying attention to your phone. We hoped this solved your problem, but if it didn’t, then you might want to try to change the picture mode.
Method 2:Changing The Picture Mode
It could also be the picture mode that is currently set. Most Samsung TVs have different settings for games, movies, etc. You may be used to one setting and someone could have changed the picture settings to a different mode without your knowledge or even by mistake.
Getting to this setting is a little different from TV to TV. A lot of Samsung TVs have a dedicated picture button on the remote. If you cant find a dedicated button on your remote to change the picture mode, then try looking in the menu.
You can usually find this setting in the picture menu category that is in the main level of the Samsung TV’s menu system.
Method 3:Disable Ambient Light Detection Function
There is also the possibility that automatic brightness is turned on. Samsung TV’s often have brightness sensors that are used to detect that ambient light in a room and adjust the screen brightness accordingly.
On older models you can find this setting
Step 1: Open Settings
Step 2: Go to System
Step 3: Choose Eco Solution
Step 4: Choose Eco Sensor
That will work for an older model, but the process for newer Samsung TVs is a bit different:
Step 1: Open Settings
Step 2: Go to General
Step 3: Ambient Light Detection
Method 4:Power-Cycle Your Samsung TV
Power-Cycling something might sound complicated, but it’s really just a fancy way of saying ‘remove the power for a little while and make sure all the power is drained from the device.’ Most power-related issues are simple, one-off glitches that can easily be resolved by power cycling your Samsung TV.
Step 1: Unplug the Samsung TV’s power cord from the wall and leave it disconnected for 30 seconds
Step 2: While the power cord is disconnected, press and hold the power button on the TV for 10 seconds
Step 3: Then, try turning on your TV
Method 5:Contact Samsung Support
You could always contact Samsung Support for assistance. Even if your TV is not under warranty, there may be a known issue with your model and Samsung support may have a service bulletin that they may have released.
A service bulletin provides crucial, updated information from manufacturers trouble-areas with their products. Some service bulletins have a recall status where Samsung may be obligated to repair your TV out of warranty.
Backlight Problems
There is a chance that a physical hardware problem is causing the dark screen on your Samsung TV. If it does turn out to be hardware that is the problem, that usually means its a problem with the TVs LED backlights or the constant-current power supply that keeps them running.
Unfortunately, the only way to fix this issue is to replace parts in the TV. Usually, this involves a technician coming out to fix it for you. The parts that are needed to fix a backlight problem are generally relatively cheap.
But of course, if you have no experience with repairing electronics, then you are also going to have to pay someone the labor costs to install the parts in your TV.
Power Issues
It could be a power supply problem that is making your Samsung TV show a dark image.
If this is the case, it’s not the end of the world. Most people don’t realize how low cost the circuit boards for a TV can be. This is because most TVs fail due to damage to the LCD panel. When an LCD panel gets damaged, the TV is not worth repair.
But all the boards inside a TV with a damaged screen still work fine. These boards end up on second hand markets like eBay. All you have to do is search on eBay for your TV’s model number and add ‘backlight power supply board’ (without quotes).
The price of these boards range from $25 to $100 dollars or so. Often times, they are easy to replace and can the procedure can be done on your living room floor with nothing more than a standard Philips-head screwdriver.
If you don’t feel comfortable pulling off such a feat, though, you could always buy the part and take your TV and the replacement board to your local TV or general electronics repair shop. Providing the part yourself will definitely save you money by avoiding the shops standard part markup.
Conclusion
Whether your TV dimming is just a setting that needed to be changed or it’s actually a problem with your TV, we hope that this article helped you either resolve your problem or find out what it was.
Like any other device, sometimes Samsung TVs have issues that can result in a darkened picture. We hope this article was helpful in getting your TV working correctly again.
Hopefully for you, the reason your Samsung TV was showing a dark picture was something simple likes the brightness being turned down too much or your TV being set to power saving mode. If it’s nothing simple and it turned out to be a bad power supply board, eBay is a good place to get a placement part.
It’s a lot easier than you may think to replace a bad board in your Samsung TV. Also, the repair will end up being a lot cheaper if you do it yourself, rather than calling a technician to come take a look at your TV.
