Expert: cleggsan - 5/20/2005

Question
I'm having problems with a 10year old,35" RCA TV; M#F35755MB, S#516266468 and chassis#CTC179DX.I'm getting horizontal distortion (interference) lines along with audio clicking,popping static noise.Sometimes the entire screen becomes snowy with a faint picture that is off channel along with distorted audio.When the latter happens,the set will usually turn itself off and back on although the last few times this occurred it did not turn back on.This problem is getting progressively worse.

Answer
Andrew,

The symptoms you describe are the kind that can come from many, many sources.  All the way from bad ICs to cold solder joints.  It would be impossible to give you a diagnosis without some hands-on testing to find out which sections of the tv are malfunctioning.

If it were a cold solder joint or two and some loose connections you can test for that with the whacking test. Just smack the set with your hand or fist on the top, back, sides, etc.  Doing so will reactivate the loose connections and you will get some restoration of the functions.  If this is so, let me know and I can give you some instructions on how to handle. Otherwise, proceed as below.


The fact that the symptoms are changing and progressing compounds the difficult in making the diagnosis.  So, the only advice I can give you is this:

ONE:  The repair and correction cannot be done until a qualified tech does some testing to determine where the several problems are.

TWO:  There are probably two or three malfunctions going on.  At least one with the horizontal deflection and at least one with either power supply or board grounds that are causing picture signal drop out and noise in the audio.

THREE:  This set is old enough that it would not be a wise economical decision to put much money into its repair.  There is a very high statistical probability that once repaired it will fail again with another or similar malfunction.

FOUR:  After all, you have pretty well gotten out of it what could be expected.  This vintage RCA has an expected life of 8 to 12 years, so you haven't done so bad with it.  Maybe now is the time to think about retiring it.

If you do decide to get it fixed, expect to spend at least $200 and maybe more on its repair, depending on the exact problem.

All the best,
Cleggsan