In our rec room we have an RCA 36 inch stereo tube TV. It’s about 13 years old. When we bought it that was still one of the largest regular sets you could get. The picture and sound have always been excellent and, quite frankly, there was never any reason to replace it with an updated model. We have a 60 inch in our living room that we watch much more than the set in the rec room. Why replace something that works just fine for what it does, right?
Yesterday I was watching it and the left speaker went POP!! I could have swore I saw a spark come out of the sets speaker grill. Then, it had no sound what so ever.
This morning I turned it on, and it had sound. I thought maybe the digital cable system had freaked out or something and I imagined the spark.
But later on while I was at work, my wife called me and said it popped again and she swears she saw a spark. Also there again was no sound. But, when I got home at midnight, the sound was working again. It’s still working now.
This set is never, ever, EVER moved. So a loose wiring being jiggled by movement shouldn’t be the answer.
So? What’s the deal? Did we actually see sparks? What’s going on here? Is this set going to cause a fire? The set is hooked up to an old home theater system, so it’s not like we can’t get sound and still watch the set. But if a faulty wire is dangerous I need to know.
Probably a bad solder at a connection. Heat expansion could be causing a gap to form thus causing the ‘pop’ as a spark jumps across it. When it cools back down the connection is remade. I’d probably take a look at it myself and solder it if it’s an easy fix. Otherwise I’d just replace the set. If you do open up the TV be very careful as those tube types can store a lot of juice and shock the heck out of you. I’d unplug it for a day before messing with it.
BTW: I have a 32" flat screen, tube-type, HDTV. I believe that it was one of the last sets made of that type.
Seeing sparks is not good. The set should not be used until it is diagnosed and fixed (or scrapped).
There can be a loose-ish connection. As it heats up the gap gets worse, which causes the joint to heat up, which makes the gap worse, etc., until the remaining material can’t handle the current and it goes pop. The connection cools down, the residual heat even helps make the connection come back together again a little bit. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Dust can play a role in this. Especially once it gets good and carbonized.
Motion is not necessary for a loose connection to fail and restore, just heat cycling alone is enough.
Note that the wires to the speakers shouldn’t have enough current to cause a real spark. The bad connection is going to be on the main circuit board. Much harder to track down, etc. Not a DIYer project for the non-expert. (And not just because of the dangerous voltages.)
So heres 2 other questions: the TV is a surround sound stereo set.
Does that mean there is actual electricity going to the speakers, thus what is causing the spark
Like mentioned in the OP, the set is hooked up to a home theater receiver. The HT was previously only used to watch movies as the surround stereo on the set itself was pretty good for normal programs. If I don’t use the volume on the TV, turning the volume on the set all the way down and muting, does that mean there will be no power being sent to the speaker? Thus no spark?
There’s always electricity going to the speakers, that’s what makes the sound.
It sounds like something is arcing or shorting in the speaker assembly somewhere, you definitely shouldn’t use the TV until you get it taken care of. If it was me I’d take the TV apart and re-flow the solder joins on the speaker assembly, possibly a wire is frayed to the speaker and grounding to something it shouldn’t also.
What I ment was, it’s a 36 inch TV from 2000. It is not a flat screen, high definition, LCD, LED, LMNOP, nor 3D. In otherwords, you can’t buy them new like it anymore.
But the picture is outstanding and there previously wasn’t any reason to replace it.
I’m not sure there is a reason to replace it now. I’ve had the set on for 12+ hours with the sound up. No sparks or pops. Sound is working fine. The surround sound stereo on it is pretty impressive. The only reason I have a home theater set up on it is because I had an old receiver with speakers that was just collecting dust in the attic.
So if the speaker on the TV sparks/pops again and goes out, and I turn the sound all the way down and mute it, and then use the home theater for sound, does that mean there is 0 electricity going to the TV speaker and thus it’s safe?
If your speaker sparks and pops are coming from a short, that means that the power somewhere on the board is SHORTING to ground, which means it is connecting to ground when it shouldn’t, and the volume of the speakers is unimportant. But yes there is no voltage going to the speakers when the volume is off.
I really, REALLY, recommend you get the TV looked at before using it again. If you like the picture enough it’s worth 50 bucks to have a repair guy look at it and probably fix what is causing it to spark. You’d feel really dumb if your house burned down because you were using electronics you knew were faulty right?
Normally I wouldn’t bother with a repair of a 13 year old set, but about 6 months ago I became friends with a guy that does the electronics repair work at a television station. He just told me he’d take a look at it when he gets back from his vacation in 2 weeks.
In the meanwhile, any idea if the set is okay while it’s turned off, or should I unplug it?
If I was you, I’d probably only plug the TV in when I was using it and use you home theatre, that is probably okay. When your guy looks at your TV ask him if he can throw in a cap kit for you which shouldn’t be a huge amount of extra work, BAM you have just bought yourself 10-15 more years of your favorite TV.
edit: Google/ebay search for “(your TV model number)+ Cap kit”, if you can find one have it ready for the repairman ahead of time to put in for you. It should be less than $10 shipped.
