Television Repair experts...HELP

[StukaJU87]

I have a Toshiba 24" flat tube in my bedroom. Last night I flicked it on to surf the channels befor bed time. I noticed the screen was dusty. I picked up a cloth to wipe it off and got a pretty big static electric spark off the screen to the cloth. Then the picture get a tiny bit jumpy.

Not unwatchable, just annoying. The picture used to be beautiful.

This ever happen to one of you guys? Does it go away or is the TV shot?

[OnlineStageGear]

That charge you got was 29,000 volts. That is the high voltage your TV uses on the actual tube. The charge you get off the front of the tub is not enough to really do any damge to you, although it stings pretty good, you should never wipe off the screen while it is on cause it can do damage to the TV. Is it still jumping ?

Matt

[StukaJU87]

Is it still jumping ?

Yup. Maybe jumping was the wrong word, but yeah. There is horizontal "pulses" in the picture.

[OnlineStageGear]

Sounds like it is on it's way out. If you can, turn it off for a day or two. Wipe the tube off real good while it is unplugged since you might have left a buildup of dust or goo or something on the tube.

[StukaJU87]

I guess I killed it with my stupidity. Ahhh fuggit.

[npacheco]

What kind of TV is it? LCD, plasma, CRT? Do you have a vertical or horizontal hold adjustment you can fool around with? It sounds like your SYNC signal is kinda hosed. The zap probably affected the OP-AMP in the SYNC circuitry. If it railed, you probably just need to adjust the new limits.

[OnlineStageGear]

I have a Toshiba 24" flat tube in my bedroom.

.

[npacheco]

Crap, I caught the flat part, but not the tube part. Sounds like the grounding on your tube is hosed. I'd still try any hor. or vert. adjustments if you have them. If your bold enough you could pop that bad boy open and find the pot on the inside. I suggest only doing this if you are absolutely certain you can open her up and fiddle around without causing way more damage. It might still be a cheap(ish) repair.

[m2pmd70]

If you get inside it I recommend doing something along >these< lines. There are bad things in there that want to do you harm.

[DonP]

I have a 27" RCA doing the same thing. Sometimes it flatlines (just a single BRIGHT horizontal line across the screen). I'm thinking it might be dust shorting out shit on the inside - maybe it needs a cleaning (had it since 1997).

Has anyone taken the back cover off of their TV, cleaned out the dust, and had sucess with it getting better if it was acting up?

Of course I'd let the high voltage caps discharge first.

[ABSOLUT CHARVEL]

Hit Costco up and get a new one. It is a sign from God. He wants you to have wide screen. Who are you to argue?

[Flametop]

Dust does nothing to solid state devices except promote a bit of heat build up if excessive. Don, your TV has a problem common to many RCA TVs from that era. It's due to loose ground connections in the tuner and system control circuits. You don't get 29K of voltage from wiping off a picture tube, it's more of a bad ass static discharge. Wiping off a picture tube should never cause a problem with the set. I would check all of your connections to everything hooked up to it for proper connection(not loose). After over 25 years in the business of TV repair, the only thing that taking a back off a TV by a customer has done is make me more money at repair time. That or make it ready to throw away...they are really good at doing that. I hope Len sees this thread and chimes in.

[Flametop]

Crap, I caught the flat part, but not the tube part. Sounds like the grounding on your tube is hosed. I'd still try any hor. or vert. adjustments if you have them. If your bold enough you could pop that bad boy open and find the pot on the inside. I suggest only doing this if you are absolutely certain you can open her up and fiddle around without causing way more damage. It might still be a cheap(ish) repair.

You can search all over the inside of newer TVs. You won't find anything to fu..., I mean adjust. It's all done through service menus that write to EEPROMS and such.

[DonP]

I was thinking the dust might be conducting across traces or components.

How hard to fix the grounding? I build tube amps and can solder well.

[Flametop]

PM me with your model and chassis numbers. Once I know which chassis it is for sure, I can advise you further.