television status

Sounds like bad solder joints on the main board.

I guess I would have to open the case, discharge the capacitors, and find out other than getting a new TV?

Depending on your skills and location, there are several options.

1. Open the case, pull the circuit board (discharging the caps is a good idea), and examine the solder joints carefully with a magnifier while flexing the circuit board. Starting points would include the horizontal output transformer, the power supply, and the vertical output IC (it's mounted on a large heat sink).
2. If you are in the US, a large number of used analog TVs are available on places like Craigslist at bargain prices
3. Buy a new TV. Significant improvements have been made in the past

PlainBill

"Turning off" as in turning the POWER off? If that's the case, check your power cord, wall jack, on-off switch, power strip, surge protector, and anything else you have in the power line. Also, check if Junior is playing with a duplicate remote control.

What trouble? Goes to black, goes to white, displays something odd, horizontal, horizontal tear, vertical roll, herringbone, etc? Try really hard to be specific.

You might want to bang on specific parts of the TV, to see if you can isolate the intermittent connection.

1. Bad solder connection, cold solder joint.
2. Fried or filthy connector. Plenty of connectors to choose from. Also, flakey wire crimps on some types of cable connectors.
3. Broken wire bond inside an IC.
4. Warranty timer circuit has been activated. That's the timer that starts when you buy the TV, and causes the TV to drive you insane after a pre-determined interval. 13 years sounds about right. Ask your local TV service shop to reset the warranty timer for you.

The most amusement you can get out of an old TV is a well placed M80, although there are numerous safety problems with that solution.

This could be anything from cold solder connections to failing components. In considering the age of the set, it would not be worth the investment to fix it. Over the last number of years there has been vast improvements in TV design.

Jerry G.