Remote Failure

A little over a year ago, in early December 2021, we bought a new television which I wrote about here which we had been needing for some time. It was a new Samsung smart TV from Best Buy and it came with a fancy remote control that was solar powered. It could also be charged with a USB charger like a phone. Most of the time we would just leave the remote laying on the table with the solar panel up because it would charge from sunlight coming in the window or from the house lights. But sometimes we would forget and the battery would drain down and we would need to plug in the remote. The one thing we never had to do was change the batteries.

Then suddenly the remote stopped working and would not recharge. It just died and I couldn't get it to charge with the USB charger or with the solar panel. I knew something was really wrong when I plugged in the charger and the red light did not go on. When the battery needed charging the red light would go on and then would turn off when the battery was fully charged. The red light would not turn on.

I spent a couple of hours messing with the remote and went online to see what I needed to do to get it running again. Nothing worked.  There were several problems with the remote not working and one was how to turn off the TV. It took some time but I eventually found the on/off button on the TV. It was very small and oddly located. When pressed the button brought up a little menu that was an on/off option, a channel changer and a volume control but I had to get down on my hands and knees in front of the TV to operate those functions. A real pain in the ass.

I also dug out the old remote for the Fire Stick TV app which enabled me to choose apps and channels but would not change the volume or act as an on/off switch. I still needed to push that crappy little button on the TV.

I went online with Amazon and found a replacement remote control for Samsung Smart TVs and ordered it for about $15. It would arrive in two days. So for the next couple of days we used the old FireTV remote and that damn little button. Then I also discovered there was a Samsung remote app available. I downloaded it to my phone and although it was somewhat awkward I was able to use it to turn the TV on and off and to raise or lower the volume without resorting to that tiny little hidden button.

The new remote arrived today and I quickly put in a couple of batteries. At first I thought it used AAA batteries like the other remote but it turns out it needed AA batteries which we had. Suddenly everything was working again and back to normal except now we just need to keep batteries on hand but no longer have to make sure a solar panel is getting charged. I really do wonder what went wrong with that remote and how did it fail after only a year.

We were just having a video chat with Katie and I was telling her about the remote issue. Her and Todd have both had to put a TV remote control app on their phones because the kids will occasionally lose their remote somewhere amongst the piles of toys and clutter. Sometimes the remote is missing all week and the phone app becomes essential. They have an extra non-working remote that is a decoy for little Violet who loves to have that remote in her little hand and point it at the TV. So cute.

Update: our new remote is working great. I had the old solar remote sitting by the window for several days hoping to get a charge but it's dead.