Okay, I have a Samsung HT-BD 1250 that came with five speakers and a sub-woofer. It has been working fine for the past 14 months. However, tonight whenever I try to do anything on it it works for about three minutes then displays something called "PROT" and then proceeds to shut itself down.
I got it at Best Buy and they have conveniently managed to lose my receipt, though I still have a copy of the check on with which I purchased it. I had professional theater installation and don't want to have to pull the whole scenario of disconnecting everything and having to pay money for them to come out and do it again.

Please advise!

Google your make/model and the word PROT.

It stands for "Puerto Ricans On Toilets".

Mr. Samsung was one racist motherfucker in the final stages of dementia when he greenlit that particular model.

It said it's protecting itself from a short. Don't really know how to handle that if such is the case.

Check your speaker wires. There is probably a stray wire touching the wrong side.

This is where to start and be sure to check both ends, the receiver end and the speaker end

That's what it said when I googled the model# and word "prot". What exactly does it mean for a stray wire to touch the wrong side?

It is causing an electrical short.

The receiver goes into a shutdown or protection mode to avoid damage.

There are 2 wires in a speaker wire, usually the ports on the receiver and speaker are red and black, although they could be other colors or just show + and -. Make sure that no part of the wire from one side (red or black) is touching the other side, or any other wire. Speaker wires are usually stranded, and therefore a little delicate. They can break over time even if you never move or bump your equipment, and end up shorting out even with one tiny strand.

I'm assuming that model has push-button connectors for speaker wire. You just push and hold the button and you can slide the wire in/out. I would just remove each wire one at a time, check the strands, probably twist them back together a bit to make sure they aren't fraying, and reinsert. If any are actually broken, trim them off with a scissors. I know the mess of wires can seem daunting if you aren't in the habit of installing HT gear, but this should be something almost anyone can do. Try a couple, you'll get the hang of it.

The wire should also be color coded in some way, like a white streak on one side. Make sure you put the right wires back in the right connection, or you'll screw up your sound in some way. This is why you do one at a time, just like when swapping spark plugs.

If the wires are visible anywhere (meaning not in-wall), and you have cats or other animals that like to chew, also check for bites anywhere they might be able to get at a wire. Or any other way you could have damaged an exposed wire, moving furniture or something.

Okay, that's good. I did have animals here over the past week. I've never heard of this kind of thing causing problems before. I'll check the wires.

Well, looks like it's the system itself, not the speakers. Going to have to send off the thing.