I just acquired an old Realistic STA-45B stereo receiver. It works fine except that it produces a low hum to the speakers as soon as it is turned on. It does not get louder as the volume is turned up. It is also in the headphones.
The hum occurs even if no inputs are connected, just the speakers or headphones. I took the cover off and sprayed everything with electrical contact cleaner. All screws from boards to chassis were tight.
It is annoying but if I can't fix it I will use it like this if I must. I only want to use it to go from my computer's soundcard to the Aux inputs, to use stereo speakers instead of PC speakers. I do home recording and need better sound to mix/master.
I do not have any experience to diagnose/repair audio equipment, but a little long-ago experience testing components on computer boards. I have a multimeter.
Can someone describe what to do to track down the problem?