I just remembered when I was a kid(Im on my 30’s now) we had this old “box style” television. As it got older, there were times that a white thing will appear on the screen. You can still watch the show but its annoying. Imagine watching your TV while having a white curtain in front of it. One day, I got extremely furious because I was watching Smackdown and slap the side of the TV. Then, it returned to normal. I kept doing the same solution I discovered every time the white thing appears on screen until one day it stopped functioning. 😂
In: Technology
Could be any number of problems, mainly loose connections that are not quite making solid contact until moved. Old equipment had mechanical switches and controls that would get oxidation, which doesn’t conduct electricity. That’s what caused static when turning volume controls, or switching channels, etc. Often, you could turn the control a bunch of times, or switch back and forth repeatedly, and it would break through the oxidation and work for a while. A technician has a spray bottle of contact cleaner/lubricant handy, and will spray it into the back of the controls and move them around, breaking off the oxidation and protecting it for a period of time.
I repaired stereo equipment for several years long ago for a large chain, so I’ve had a bit of experience.
As others said it could’ve been solder joints, but there’s another common thing: tube and IC sockets. The sockets that ICs and tubes plug into can heat up, and the pins can get covered in crud (especially in a smoking household) and lose connection. The heat/cool cycle can shift the component causing loss (partial or full) to that connection.
So smacking it can reset it. It’s affectionately called “Percussive Maintenance”, or a “3 inch drop test” which was often used on older PCs including the Apple 2.
How can you slap? Sorry couldn’t resist.
Not sure if it was mentioned already but the box style tv’s you’re on about if I’m not mistaken, at least in my day an part of the world, were known as tube tv’s, pretty sure it’s cause their full name was cathode ray tube, aka CRT, CRT itself was another common name I’ve heard used in other parts of the world back when they were the thing to use.
It was common to ask what’s on the tube, meaning tv shows that are on atm. It’s more than likely also why YouTube is named as such but again that’s just my common sense guess
Alright, I’m 37 now and pardon my ignorance, but I’m pretty sure I read every comment, and I didn’t see it posted, so I’m just going to say it. I’ve never heard of “Percussive Maintenance.” Maybe it’s because of the current political climate, but, growing up, it was always called “Russian Ingenuity.” You smack it. It started working right again.
I’ve had similar experiences with my old gadgets. There’s something oddly satisfying about giving a good smack to fix things, even though it probably shouldn’t work that way.
That is called “percussive maintenance”
Before chips and integrated circuits, a TV had bulky components, which were soldered. Over time those solders can get loose, components just not connect properly. But if you hit the TV the lose compents could move around and settle in a way that they start working again.
The problem with this is that the more you hit it, the more they move around and wear out the connector to a point where they won’t connect anymore and proper repair is required.
Many times old tech TVs has (depending on the age of the TV) different hardware that plugged into sockets .
These also generated lots of heat. These changes in temp could cause expansion and contraction that might make some electrical connections inconsistent.
If you gave the individual components a gentle wiggle (as a tech person) they would often make a better connection.
As a non tech person, a shake or impact to the outside of the device could occasionally make things better. Sometimes it made things much worse.
Remember that these were often analog devices rather than digital, and the tolerances for “working” were much more broad.
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