At first I thought it was all a myth. It would be on a television show, a character’s TV doesn’t work. Just give it a smack. Ha. A funny joke!
But then my sister got a crappy TV and it actually does require the hitting. I didn’t understand it. Perhaps I was the only one who thought it was purely an ironic joke on TV and in movies, but now, I’m surprised to discover my friend’s cable box requires the hitting as well.
My first assumption was that the hit caused a static discharge which cleared up the screen, but … the hitting must be more violent than merely touching any certain part of the television or cable box. It requires a squarely placed smack. Even a shoe, if aimed properly from a comfortable position has been known to temporarily fix the problem.
Loose soldering and fuses. The hit sometimes jolts the part temporarily back into place but it’s an indication the unit needs to be looked at. At worst, it could be a fire hazard.
I have a nice 31" tv that’s been in my garage for 3 years, because of its obsessive whacking fetish.
Damn thing turns purple on the top, and green on the bottom. Whack it good and watch tv for perhaps 30 minutes. I’ve been told I need to “get the electron guns aligned”.
Sounds like you need a new De-Gaussing rod Elusis. Try some relatively powerfull magnets around the sides. If you ruin your TV, YOU ruined your TV not I. This is BTW a WAG.
At one job I worked at we had a notoriously flaky computer system. One day whilst talking to Support on the phone we tried everything to get the system back online, the guy told me to lift the unit about six inches off the table and drop it.
Me: “WHAT?!?!”
He: “Just try it.”
Computer: (thud!) “Boop Beep!”
Me: “Hey it worked!? What gives?”
Apparently over the lifespan of a piece of electronics sometimes the chips will “settle” and work themselves away from their connections. Giving them a good smack every so often will jostle them back into place. I think we’ve had quite a few threads on this, but I’m not sure what you’d search on to find it.
My first day of college, electronics engineering major, we were in the lab, and the instructor was showing us the various equipment we’d be using. One of the units was a standard VOM, and it wouldn’t operate properly. SMACK goes the instructor, while I’m thinking to myself, this is what I’m paying money for?
Back in the day of the old tube type televisions, a smack was SOP for a repair.
My favorite example of this procedure occured on Apollo 12’s moonwalk, when their TV camera gave them all sorts of trouble, and then stopped working entirely, but astronaut Al Bean gave it a whack and it was okay for another half-hour:
Chack out these clips of conversation between Astronauts Pete Conrad and Al Bean, and CapCom Ed Gibson, found here.
116:14:32 Conrad: Now you can go whistle (that is, work) on the TV.
116:14:35 Bean: Okay, I’ll go work on it a little bit.
116:14:36 Conrad: Okay.
…
116:15:03 Bean: Okay, Houston, I’m going to move the focus (on the TV) a bit and see what happens.
116:15:10 Gibson: Roger, Al. Don’t spend too much time on it. You’re running a tad behind.
…
116:15:48 Gibson: There’s no change down here, Al. (Pause) That’s coming in there, now, Al. Okay, what change did you make?
116:16:02 Bean: I hit it on the top with my hammer. I figured we didn’t have a thing to lose.
116:16:08 Gibson: Skillful fix, Al.
116:16:09 Bean: I hit it on the top with this hammer I’ve got. (Responding to Gibson) Yeah, that’s skilled craftsmanship.
…
116:17:12 Gibson: Al, we’re still not getting a good picture. Why don’t you press on, and we’ll try to get back to it later, if we have time.
116:17:21 Bean: Okay; I’ll pound it a little bit. (Pause) There you go. I’ll just leave it like it is. Point it slightly toward the LM here, so that, if you do get a picture, you’ll see something. There you go. That ought to give you some sort of a picture that you can think about. I’d be glad to come back and work on it. Got to go to work again.
In The Army we had some old Viet Nam era radios (they were being phased out but we MI guys still had to use 'em). They had vacuum tubes and would occasionally go on one kind of fritz or other. The operating manual had a trouble-shooting section that called for an “impact adjustment” wherein you remove the radio from its receptacle, hold it out at arms length and drop it to the ground. Once reinstalled the radio was good to go for days.
I wonder if vacuum tubes get a little flakey as they age? I’ve noticed much less need for abusive treatment of technology as those little suckers became obsolete.
I have a Zenith TV I bought over 20 years ago. Great TV. No problem, except for one thing. Everytime I turn it on, after it warms up (or is warming up - about 5-10 minutes), it goes blank and the channel disappears. (This is one of those old TVs that when you first turn them on, Channel 2 always comes on, so I have to turn it to Channel 3 to get my cable box working right.) If I leave it alone, Channel 2 will come back on (the cable box has the right channel on it). If I hit the top of the TV after it goes out, the picture will come back on (but on Ch.2, then I have to press Ch.3 again). This may recur several times before the TV finally settles down with no further problem (that may take about 15 minutes after I turn it on).
This has been going on about 15 years now. I called the local repair shop at the time, and the guy said it was probably the tuner and can I bring it in? Well, this is kinda heavy, even though it is a table model, so I never have brought it in. Hey, it’s an inconvenience, but I can live with it.
Anyway, I found by hitting the top of the set or pressing the on and off button several times, I can get it working. I don’t know why hitting it works, but it does. And I don’t know how the tuner is defective that hitting the TV works, but it does.
This requires more than a delicate touch, but just pound it hard or hitting the Off button hard (and then hitting it On) works.
Oh. To answer the OP, I don’t know, but I just live with it.
