“Mom!” hysterical laughter know to occur in conjunction with innovative mischief “come look at the colors on the TV!”
I run downstairs to find 4 year old son moving a large magnet around the TV screen. The TV is tuned to a blank station so the screen is just that blank blue. Except for the colors sprouting around wherever he moves the magnet.
I take the magnet away from him. The colors remain. The “blank” screen now has a very large blotch of green and two smaller brownish red blotches. When a show is actually on the screen the blotches are various colors but still quite present.
What happened? Can it be fixed?
You just don’t think to tell your kid “Don’t run magnets over the TV screen”
I believe it can - I had the same thing happen tom mine (largish subwoofer caused it, not a 4 year old). My housemate’s uncle used to repair TVs and had this wand that could be pulled across TV screen to fix the lines left by EM field. I think it was some type of degausser, IRRC. Dunno how much it will cost, I also don’t see many TV repair joints around these days. People seem to just throw TVs away when the don’t work.
oh, and what caused it was that the electromagnetic field around the magnet pulled some of the phosphor (IIRC, that is what coats the inside of the cathode ray tube of a tube TV) into a pattern, kind of like when you play with a magnet and steel filings. The pattern makes the phosphor uneven, which results in the funky colors.
I know someone will come around to give a better explanation or completely blow mine out of the water, but I think that’s what causes that type of a problem.
Do you have a cannister type vacuum? If so, you can use it to fix this, if I recall correctly.
You point the hose of the vacuum towards the t.v. screen, holding it as close as you can without touching the screen. Turn on the vacuum and slowly back away from the screen.
I think the suction demagnatizes it or something.
But please, don’t hold me responsible if I’m wrong or my memory is not as good as I think it is.
It’s been probably 30 years or so since I’ve seen this done, but it worked then…
Do you have a cannister type vacuum? If so, you can use it to fix this, if I recall correctly.
You point the hose of the vacuum towards the t.v. screen, holding it as close as you can without touching the screen. Turn on the vacuum and slowly back away from the screen.
I think the suction demagnatizes it or something.
But please, don’t hold me responsible if I’m wrong or my memory is not as good as I think it is.
It’s been probably 30 years or so since I’ve seen this done, but it worked then…
What bump said. If that doesn’t work a bulk tape demagnetizer / degausser from Radio Shack can also be used by slowly bringing it in towards the screen in an orbiting circular pattern, and then slowly withdrawing it the same way.
Nono, ignore Desmostylus for the moment, and try the vacuum.
I gotta know, but I’m chicken to do it to my own tv.
Go ahead, do it. No balls!
Peace,
mangeorge
I visited a tv repair site recently, and they recommend the following degaussing procedure: turn tv on for 1 min, off for 20 min, and repeat several times.
When I was younger, I messed with all the TV’s in the house this way. I always rectified it, too…and our TVs had no degaussing feature of which I was aware.
Take the same magnet that caused the problem in the first place. Run it back and forth across the front of the tube with the magnet very close to the glass. You may want to use semi-random oribtal motions instead. Whatever works.
Then do the same thing, only this time keep the magnet an inch or so away. Then repeat, still farther away. Continue moving and backing away until the magnet no longer has a discernible influence on the colors. By this time, the magnetic field should be evenly distributed, and all will be well.
Funny, that is the first thing my dad said to me when I first encountered a magnet. He also let me know that there are strong magnets in speakers and to keep them away from the TV too. Told me I should keep my audio tapes away from both as well. I am still entranced by the destructive power of magnets!
The ones in the TV are magnetically shielded by enclosing the magnet inside a steel case. Typical stereo speaker magnets are NOT shielded. So, the advice to keep speakers away from your TV is good, despite your comment.
I agree with this, however, you may have to repeat it a number of times before your purity (this is the technical term for the proper color registration) comes back. Or you may have to get a degaussing coil
My daughter did the same thing to our set and I ended up having to degauss it with a coil.
