Montreal, Quebec – A musician and audio designer in Montreal, Priscilla Snow, shared a mysterious experience involving her Hisense smart TV and her Windows PC. Snow’s computer had been experiencing various issues over the past couple of years, such as display settings not opening, MIDI keyboard interface malfunctioning, and task manager hanging. However, the most perplexing problem arose when her task bars disappeared while trying to troubleshoot a remote desktop session.
After updating drivers and restarting her PC, the taskbars returned briefly before vanishing again. Snow searched for a solution and stumbled upon a Reddit thread and a Microsoft support question discussing similar spectral issues with no clear cause. Another user in the forum pointed out that the problem stemmed from Snow’s Hisense TV generating random UUIDs for UPNP network discovery every few minutes, causing disruptions in Windows systems like Task Manager, Bluetooth, and File Explorer.
To resolve the issue, Snow had to delete hundreds of registry keys affected by the Hisense TV’s network discovery activity. By following this solution, Snow was able to restore functionality to her computer, including the Task Manager, MIDI keyboard, remote desktop, and even a CRT monitor she thought was broken. In addition to deleting the keys, Snow disabled the automatic setup of network connected devices on her private networks settings in Windows.
Snow shared her experience to warn others not to buy the Hisense 50Q8G or keep it on the same network. While the mystery surrounding the computer disruptions was solved, the underlying cause of the Hisense TV’s network behavior remains unclear. Snow’s experience serves as a cautionary tale about the potential impacts of smart devices on traditional computer systems and the importance of understanding the interactions between different technologies within a network.