Shaking TV Picture

[Sharlee]

My TV picture shakes a bit, has mild interference and occasionally the sound cuts out for a second.  I have 2 TV's in the house and the second has no problems, so I'm guessing it's the TV itself.  It's older (about 6 years) but I don't want to replace it.

I don't want to pay a service fee for someone to come out, particularly if it's something that can't be inexpensively fixed and it weighs 270 pounds so I'm not about to throw it in the car to take it into a service place.  Anyone out there had this problem?

[SMP]

Yesterday there was a tv in the back alley behind a house across the lane. It had a sign on it that said "free, working!!" It was not far, so I carried it home and tried it in basement. It works pretty good. It is about 32 inches and isn't a flatscreen, but it isn't too bulky and is mint. I needed one for my grandfather's cabin in Salmon Arm. It couldn't have come at a better time. I wouldn't have checked otherwise.

[Green Hornet]

Unplug your TV set.  I bet there is a lot of dust inside your TV set.  Unscrew the back of your TV set.  Vacuum all the dust  from your TV set.  Be care of the fly back transformer it has enough stored charge to give you a big shock.  If you see any cables inside unplug them and replug them back.  It could be some oxides that form on your cable.  Replugging will probably help.  Rescrew the back of your TV set back.

[Sharlee]

Thanks G.H. ... I'll try when I get home and let you know how it goes.  I've no idea what a fly back transformer looks like so I'll just avoid touching anything aside from the back that I remove.  I'm ashamed to say that it's never occurred to me to vacuum dust from the inside of electronics.  My teenage son does something with the computers in the house to keep them dust free, but the rest of it ... probably wallowing in inches of dust right now!

And SMP ... the TV sounds like a great find!

[Sharlee]

OK you can tell I never watch TV.  I cleaned up the back per your instructions, G.H. and found 6 years of dust (ewww) but it didn't make any difference after I cleaned it.  My kids tell me it's just one channel that's giving me grief, and just on the one TV.  Of course it's the channel I watch. 

It's not a big deal.  On the few occasions I watch TV I can just use the other one.  It's just odd.