Anybody here into TV repair?

[gn85]

I have a Toshiba 57" rear-projection TV. I've had this TV for a year or so and it's been great until this week.

Just this week I started having intermittent interference. When I get the interferrence, it looks like horizontal lines in the picture. The picture is also not as bright. When the interference goes away, the picture is bright and clear (love HD). The interference seems somewhat random. The interference is with all input (SAT, DVD, PC)

Anybody have an idea what's wrong? Can anybody here fix it or recommend someoone?

Thanks.

[rwrows]

i put a new screen in one before. i accidentally shot it with a pellet gun and it was my buddy's tv. i won't go into any more details, lol. it was fairly easy to work on. maybe you should take it apart and see if anything is inside.

[PhillyTurboSix]

I have a guy who can fix it. I won't see him till Sunday. I'll show him the thread.

[gn85]

Originally Posted by PhillyTurboSix

I have a guy who can fix it. I won't see him till Sunday. I'll show him the thread.

Thanks, I appreciate it. This TV is about 5 years old. I'll find the model number tomorrow.

[gn85]

Originally Posted by rwrows

i put a new screen in one before. i accidentally shot it with a pellet gun and it was my buddy's tv. i won't go into any more details, lol. it was fairly easy to work on. maybe you should take it apart and see if anything is inside.

This TV is actually design to come apart (for transportation), so I've seen in there before. I can't claim I know what I'm looking at.

Right now, if I had to make a guess, I would say possibly a bad power supply or something not always making a good connection.

[PhillyTurboSix]

This guy will know right away. Post up the model number and I'll give him the details..

[gnetic86]

Simple fix - keep your cell phone away from it Seriously I think a good 20-30 percent of the "oddball" stuff that happens at my work is from cell phone interference. Just yesterday my partner was whining that her keyboard was "going nuts" and doing things all by itself...until I took her cell phone off the top of it. Fixed!

Horizontal lines (aka hum bars), especially if they're rolling, can be bad ground faults or electrical anomalies coming from something thats running occasionally, like a HVAC blower motor, heater circulator, fridge compressor/fan, lighting, etc. I had this problem like crazy at home until I traced it down...to a dollar store light bulb in one ceiling light fixture. You could see the bulb filament flickering almost like a fluorescent light, and basically it was making radio interference just being on like that.

Another way it can happen, is that the pole where the (evil) cable company brings in its line is supposed to be grounded, but with our $hitty infrastructure, the grounds are usually crap compared to the ground your house has. They were fine for 4 phone lines but now they're carrying 50 phone lines, who knows how many cable trunks, cell phone equipment, wifi network gear and who knows what else. Because of this, noise and errant voltage thats supposed to be grounded at the pole, maybe even from some junk at another house, is now going through your tv, vcr, etc, whatever is grounded and connected to cable, and thus bringing in the noise you see. (especially computer tv cards!) Thats why most TVs/Vcrs/DVD players, etc DO NOT have grounded plugs. How do you fix or test for it? Easy - if you do have grounded gear connected to an outlet strip, just put a 3 prong adapter on the outlet strip and leave the ground wire hanging. I'd suggest not touching that ground wire either - betcha it has 60 or 70 volts on it :-)

[gn85]

Originally Posted by gnetic86

Simple fix - keep your cell phone away from it Seriously I think a good 20-30 percent of the "oddball" stuff that happens at my work is from cell phone interference. Just yesterday my partner was whining that her keyboard was "going nuts" and doing things all by itself...until I took her cell phone off the top of it. Fixed!

Horizontal lines (aka hum bars), especially if they're rolling, can be bad ground faults or electrical anomalies coming from something thats running occasionally, like a HVAC blower motor, heater circulator, fridge compressor/fan, lighting, etc. I had this problem like crazy at home until I traced it down...to a dollar store light bulb in one ceiling light fixture. You could see the bulb filament flickering almost like a fluorescent light, and basically it was making radio interference just being on like that.

Another way it can happen, is that the pole where the (evil) cable company brings in its line is supposed to be grounded, but with our $hitty infrastructure, the grounds are usually crap compared to the ground your house has. They were fine for 4 phone lines but now they're carrying 50 phone lines, who knows how many cable trunks, cell phone equipment, wifi network gear and who knows what else. Because of this, noise and errant voltage thats supposed to be grounded at the pole, maybe even from some junk at another house, is now going through your tv, vcr, etc, whatever is grounded and connected to cable, and thus bringing in the noise you see. (especially computer tv cards!) Thats why most TVs/Vcrs/DVD players, etc DO NOT have grounded plugs. How do you fix or test for it? Easy - if you do have grounded gear connected to an outlet strip, just put a 3 prong adapter on the outlet strip and leave the ground wire hanging. I'd suggest not touching that ground wire either - betcha it has 60 or 70 volts on it :-)

Wow... I was actually thinking of some of those ideas. I'm impressed. I didn't think about the ground for all the accessories. I have them all hooked up to a power strip. I have to look and see if they have a ground prong. So, you're saying that my power strip should have a ground prong or NOT have a ground prong.

Here's a dumb question. If I plug my laptop into the TV (S-video) while it's running on battery, shouldn't it not be affected and give a clear signal?

As for the cell phone, I usually have my cell phone (iPhone) in the room, but not on the TV. It's usually 10-15 feet away. I could try to leave it out of the room.

Thanks for the responses. I knew someone here would have answers.

[gn85]

Just an update. I plugged my laptop into the s-video port while the laptop was running on batteries. No change in the interference.

I am trying to eliminate any outside influence to see if it really is the TV. I also turned off my PC, DVD and amplifier. Still no change.

Also, the on-screen display is NOT affected by this. The words on the screen are clear with no lines.

Thanks again for the help.

[ULYCYC]

Get up at 2am and see if it still happens. Could be a local overloaded cell tower or neighbor with a new Ham radio or emergency ban.

[gn85]

New symptom...

Sorry, I'm trying to give all the info I can.

I just turned the TV on and the interference seemed pretty strong. I notice the letters on the screen seemed to be 'streaking' to the right.

Here, I tried to take a pic. The camera exagerated it slightly, but you can still see what I'm talking about.

[gnetic86]

Originally Posted by gn85

Just an update. I plugged my laptop into the s-video port while the laptop was running on batteries. No change in the interference.

I am trying to eliminate any outside influence to see if it really is the TV. I also turned off my PC, DVD and amplifier. Still no change.

Also, the on-screen display is NOT affected by this. The words on the screen are clear with no lines.

Thanks again for the help.

So the laptop picture looked bad with the lines, but the on screen display did not? Thas not good!

[gn85]

Originally Posted by gnetic86

So the laptop picture looked bad with the lines, but the on screen display did not? Thas not good!

Correct. Right now I'm watching TV and it's not making the lines. This problem comes and goes. There's no specific reason or rhyme about when the interference comes or goes.

It's clear now. When it goes fuzzy, you see a 'flash. It also looks like the picture gets slightly darker.

Sorry for the parade of details. I assume it's like a car. The more ya know the easier to figure it out.

[gnetic86]

OOh thats something to go by - do you hear a buzz when it happens? Sounds like the high voltage is arcing maybe. Projection tvs are notorious for bad focus blocks (basically a distributor inside your tv).

[1of1547]

Chris, I've got a Philips 50" that I bought that has similar issues. I read some where that sometimes the fuzziness is from the old/bad coolant. If you change the blue and green color's coolant, it will go away.