My guess is that the TV requires a pure sine wave converter instead of a modified sine wave. There are lots of electronic components that will not work with a cheap converter like a battery charger for a cordless drill.

 

Ok im not sure about this... But I was told that a regular cig outlet will not power a 400 watt inverter properly. Because a cig lighter outlet does not put out enough power.

I had a black and decker 400 watt inverter to power my tv back in the day. And I would get the same thing truck had to run the whole time and would whine and beep and shutdown. So I went to radio shack and bought a 350 watt. My truck can actually be shut off for a few hours before it starts to whine to let me know that my batteries need to be charging. Not sure if it is just the quality of some of the inverters or what.

But might not be your problem because, mine did the same thing when I wanted to charge my laptop. BOL

 

Maybe thats my problem?? My tv shorted out the 12v male plug on the cord of the tv thought I was gonna have to trash the thing but I had a coleman 400w inverter and useing it it worked , but sometimes not all it cuts the inverter off with the alarm going off :evil: ,but if I use the inverter I use for my laptop, It'll run for days and its only 150w dont know about the sine wave but might be my 400w took a :dung: I guess im gonna buy another one of those little ones for $18. also another note I have it plugged into the cig behind the tv '07 international, but used same outlet for both.

 

I think you guys have nailed the problem on the head..... 8) I've always used a 300 Watt inverter to power my TV, laptop, printer and what not....and haven't had a problem.... other than the one with this truck.... If I plug in the 300 to the socket under the tv shelf....it doesn't like working...but if I plug it in the dashboard....it works fine. So thats just one plug out of many.

NEVER had a single problem with the 300 watt in any plug in any other truck.

Sounds like the 400 is just a tad too much for the sockets to carry under any load.

 

I think you will find most inverters are rated for no more than 150 watts when connected to a cigarette lighter adapter. Even when the inverter is rated for 400 watts.
an example of this is the MAXX 400 ( http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/vector_400.html ). You will notice this inverter has three different rating.

1. 400 watts continuous power
2. 800 watts surge capacity (peak power)
3. 150 watts when NOT connected directly to the battery.

When a non-resistance load (.i.e. tv, etc.) is connected the surge current can exceed the ratings of the inverter.

Hope this helps.

kc0iv