RCA TV(s) Turns Itself On and Off

Hold on - first question :

Does it turn itself on with no intervention or do you turn it on and then it turns off and then back on ?

This is an important question.

TVs like that have been buried in their millions here. You can't give them away.

NT

Yep, I recently took a nice 32" CRT Sony to The Salvation Army, they said they didn't want it. They did allow me to put it in an area for a guy that picks them up for recycling. Because it was so heavy, two of us did a slow drop onto a cushion of the back of my truck.

Mikek

Hi,

This TV, located in the basement, is connected to a power strip with a switch that "disconnects" everything that is plugged into the power strip.

I normally keep the power strip switch in OFF position. Recently, when I turned it on (power strip), not long afterwards, the TV started to turn itself on, then off. Then it repeated that "activity".

John

when

rn

OK, there are a million things that can turn it off but few that can turn i t on. You might have bad little suppression caps or diodes at the keypad on the unit. They get intermittently leaky and can cause this. One way to fin d out is to power the unit up with the keypad disconnected. If it still com es on by itself it is either noise in the IR receiver or a bad uProcessor.

In many newer sets the keypad and IR receiver are on the same board and dis connecting one also disconnects the other rendering the test only conclusiv e to prove the uProcessor is good - if the behavior stops, though the caps and diodes may be on the main board in which case it is more logical to eli minate the noisy IR receiver first. To do this you'll have to unsolder it a nd remove it, and see what happens of course.

An IR receiver causing this is not unheard of but is a bit rare. It depends on how they structured the pulse trains in the system.

Assuming it does not stop without the IR input, you can remove those caps a nd diodes, lift one end unless they are SMD. When they are removed observe static handling methods, touch the unit before operating anything on it as it will be vulnerable. But if the behavior stops all you need is diodes and caps. Actually though it could be the glue underneath, but to prove it you pretty much ruin the components anyway so, you need them.

Unless the uProcessor is bad. That is pretty much a death knell for those t hings. It is unlikely you can get one and who knows, it might be BGA which quite frankly is not worth the trouble to change. They give away working TV s on Craigslist. I am only here because I firmly believe that anything that does not go to the dumpster is good for us and good for our country. It is worth a try unless one is too busy.

is it damp in the basement? leave the TV on for 10 hours to let it dry out. mark

Guys, unless I'm reading the OP's post incorrectly, he fixed the TV with new contacts. I think he was just passing along the info and story.

new contacts. I think he was just passing along the info and story. "

You're right. But the info applies to new TVs should a similar case come up .

That is unless it uses those capacitive buttons. Whoever decided to use tho se for this application needs to be boiled in bacon grease. On a pitch blac k background, and the labels only light up if you touch them, bullshit. I w ant a button protruding and I want tactile feedback. If they can't do that I will keep my 30+ year old TVs and when they no longer get a signal I will break out the VCRs. Actually they are out because there has been practical ly nothing worth watching produced in the past 25 years. Even the news. Ins tead of telling us what mischief city council is up to they want to tell us about this new gizmo we can buy. That is not news. Garbage.

Whenever possible I will hep to keep this old stuff running. Any exceptions , yes but they are really complete junk from back when. They were out there .

So it stands. Nobody can delete it anyway. But you are still right.

Insects roaming in and out of devices aren't any help, either.