greatwhite

At this joyous and financially challnging time of year, my TV has decided to slowly die on me. Now this will likely sound dumb, but I'll ask anyway. My folks have a 27" Zenith works fine, but cabinet looks like ... not great. They are not using it at all. It doesn't want to turn on with the remote. Turns on momentarily, then shuts off repeatedly until it catches. Can take 20 tries. They elected to purchase new instead of repairing. My 27" Zenith did this about 8 years ago, and I had it fixed, but now my picture is very dark and quite "pink". They are both of the same vintage, but my chassis likely has about 20x the usage (it played videos for 2 kids) .

Can any one here tell me if it would be a big deal to swap the guts out of theirs into mine. Reason being, we really like our cabinet and the configuration of it. Can't see anything new we really like right now that is in our price range. Then I would have to figure out which module to swap back so the on/off worked correctly.

They are both Zenith "Advanced System 3" units. Stereo sound.

Further, I will admit to having NO knowledge of the internal workings of electronic devices. But my VCR and TV both have clocks that display the correct time not 12:00 12:00 etc.

Thanks for any advice on this matter. Rick

And to everyone here, Have a safe and Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Prosperous 2005.

zulusafari

IF you decide to swap internals, be VERY CAREFUL!!! Televisions have internal capacitors that can sense when an inexperienced person is near and, given the opportunity, will try to kill or severely injur them with a high amp discharge!!!

Seriously, there are some very dangerous voltage/amperage inside a common Cathode Ray Tube television set. Be very cautious or have a repair shop or electrician swap the parts over.

One of the guys at work in the Instrumentation/Electronics Shop likes to zap people with small capacitors. He charges them up, then asks you to look at it, tosses at you, and when you catch it it discharges! My left arm was numb for about an hour, and this from a very small capacitor. TV ones would kill you!

jrs_dodge_diesel

Yes, there is a lead hooked to the tube. Usually the larger the screen the larger the voltage potential. At work, a radar uses a CRT as the display. It is maybe a 9 inch screen. It can hold a charge to 11,000 Volts. Amperage is very low but that extremely high voltage can very easily knock you down, really hurt bad at least (you would most likely be unconcious), and has the ability to either stop your heart completely, or shock it out of rythym. Very dangerous to work on this stuf if you do not know what you are doing.

greatwhite

Ok, discretion being the better part of valor, I think I will try to find someone to do this for me. As I always tell my kids "I may be crazy , but I'm not stupid ." Thanks for the replies. I was thinking there were some high voltages and sneaky stuff in there.

Problem is in these small towns, the big box stores in the cities dictate what happens. Our local repair guy had to give up, because in order to sell TV's, VCR's etc., he was forced to buy them by the trailer load. There were 6 of them splitting a trailer, but consumers being consumers, they always seemed to want the one he didn't have in stock. So, I'll just have to see who I can find.

MikeyB

You can do it, just be careful. The CRT is one big capacitor. Take a common screwdriver (big) and wrap a piece of wire (bare) around the shaft and ground it. Slip the tip of the screwdriver under the plastic cap protecting the high voltage line coming from the flyback transformer to the CRT. It's a heavy gauge wire. This will bleed any energy left in the CRT. You will know when contact is made because it's sounds like a .22 rifle going off!

MikeyB

hotdram

I would suggest wearing some sort of rubber gloves when/if you do this. I used to do this in the Navy on old computer monitors (used a special shorting probe), it's fun to do with the lights out, but as this is your first time, keep the lights on.

~Rob

greatwhite

OK, if I do decide to try this, I will be trying to change all the guts at once if possible. Seems to me the last time I looked inside one, everything was mounted to a "chassis". I was going to try to change this from one cabinet to the other. Donor TV hasn't been plugged in for 2 years now. Will it still have stored charge in the capacitor? And are there others that should be bled down as well? Still leaning to a shop, but every $ saved helps. But there's no sense spending those saved $ on a funeral, right? Rick

HOHN

I would suggest just going without a TV for an extended period of time.

You'd be surprised how nice a good book or catalog can be.

JLH

jrs_dodge_diesel

Yes they can hold a charge. In the Coast Guard (I work electronics) the proper way for us to store a capacitor is to short the leads together first to discharge any residual energy that was stored in the cap. Then we take some bare wire and fasten them to the leads before we store it to prevent it from building charge while it is stored. Some of the caps at my shop are bigger than a beer can, and those can hold a considerable charge.

greatwhite

Well Hohn, I actually do read lots. No TV in my big truck so I read lots to pass the time. And I am proud to say that both of our kids are voracious readers as well. I try not to read catalogues because there is just WAAAYYY to much good stuff to buy. Excellent suggestion, but the World Junior Hockey Championships are on over the Christmas - New Years period and I don't want to miss it!

Thanks for the heads up jrs_dodge_diesel, I think this is a job for a pro. If I had even watched it being done once, I would probably take a shot. And I know that volts don't kill, amps do, but volts can make your hair and muscles do funny things.

Thanks everyone for your replies and have a safe and joyous Christmas. Rick

zulusafari

Volts and amps:

Think like calibers or hoses. Medium voltage/low amps is like a high pressure washer or big super soaker, or like a .22 rifle.

High Voltage/low amps is more like .300 win mag etc.!

Low voltage/low amps is like an open end water hose or nerf gun. Increase amps and it is like increasing the diameter of the hose.

Just ways to think about it. Very high voltages can kill you with a very small amperage, just because it is enough amperage. Likewise, very high amps at low voltage can hurt you badly, to! (Ever short a 12 volt car battery with your arm while wrenching?? Burns, don't it!)

alaska_chris

a TV can hold a charge on it's tube for years, my electronics teacher told us that when ever you work on a TV, keep 1 hand in your back pocket. that is so if [read WHEN] you get ZZAPPPED it will not go across your chest and through your heart.
as a rule of thumb "for every inch of diagnal screen it is 1000 volts
eg. 9" = 9000v this varries depends apon what type of crt it is , but still it tells me not to mess with them. Chris

duner

that's good advice, in college i was taught to keep one arm behind your back. same reasoning. as far as using guts that have sat for years i personally would not recommend it due of the characteristics of electrolytic capacitors, they dry out and when used in this condition could cause a fire. just my .02 and good luck

greatwhite

Famous last words: "Ah nothin' to it. Just watch this!" zzzzzzaaaapppp.
Nope, I'll just spend the few bucks it will take.