So my TV has been playing up, and I’ve finally mended it, and so I’m putting up this post in case anyone googles their way here to find a solution.
I turned on my TV the other week and was confronted with the colour distorted into a strange circular/bullseye effect (see below). The picture was fine apart from the colour, and so I was hoping it would be something that I could sort out myself as I was unwilling to immediately take it to a TV repairman and part will with hard-earned cash, or think about buying a new TV.
I didn’t really know what I was searching for and so resorted to , where I got a response from a TV technician who tipped me off and had this to say:
The Degausser in your TV mis-fired causing the bulls-eye pattern….give it a day or two to disappear.
If it doesn’t disappear, you either haven’t turned off your TV for 30 minutes, or your degausser actually has a problem with it….Call a TV engineer to degauss it and check the operation of your TV’s degausser…..
I followed his instructions but they didn’t work will but it gave me an idea of what I should be trying to do, and so I continued my search around the web and around forums for how to degauss a TV and in particular what degaussing actually means.
“Degaussing is the process of decreasing or eliminating an unwanted magnetic field” – Wikipedia
From what I understand there are magnetic fields everywhere which can interfere with your TV/monitor, and every time you switch on your TV the inbuilt degausser kicks in and re-calibrates the screen by causing a magnetic field inside the tube to oscillate rapidly with decreasing amplitude until everything is hunky dory. As I said this works for everyday magnetic interference but when your TV gets effected by a powerful magnet, etc, which I’ve decided is what happened to mine (due to a stereo speaker), then the inbuilt degausser simply doesn’t have enough power to re-calibrate the screen.
Several forums recommended getting a more powerful degausser, a degaussing coil, but searching around I couldn’t find any UK stores that sold them, and the only place I could see where to get one was from Uxcell.com, which is based in Hong Kong. I had doubts in my mind about buying from a Hong Kong shop but as it only cost £10 in total I ordered it and figured that it was worth a try and I had very little to lose. I ordered the deguasser on Thursday and it arrived on Tuesday, so only 5 days to come from Hong Kong, which was pretty great.
The degausser came with no instructions and just in a jiffy bag, but it did come complete with an adapter plug, and luckily I had read about how to use it effectively with the TV.
Instructions for degaussing this way is too hold the degausser next to the TV screen (already on) and hold down the power button on the deguasser and then slowly move away from the screen whilst circling it to cover the whole of the screen. Once three or four feet away the screen should be back to normal and then rotate the deguasser so it’s smallest profile is facing the screen and turn it off.
An important thing to remember is that degaussers are also used for wiping magnetic recording media such as tapes, floppy discs, and hard-drives, so when using it keep all that stuff away! I shifted anything like that out of the room.
I did exactly as above and could see the colour returning to the screen, and then it was perfect! Great news and it only cost me £10 instead of calling out a professional to do it. I really do enjoy learning new things like this, especially when it saves me money!
Ha, and I only just commented on the previous post. But great news indeed. Man, the internet… Put Yahoo and Wikipedia together and people start fixing their own sets. You gotta love that.
I am pleased to see that you have got this sorted and all for £10 too!!
I am sure that this will be very useful to other people. I will be sure to direct people straight here should anyone need their TV degaussing!
Love it!
This is such a handy thing to know, thanks! :0)
adem my tv just started the very same yesterday morning – thought i was hollucinating! will you loan me your degausser? do u just have to use it once?
Micky roo… do I know you?
Once should do it…… I hope hope, although always good to have it around.
I’d recommend ordering one from Uxcell. It was only £10 and arrived in 5 days. Do it……. (I’m not on commission by the way!)
Hi,
I’ve got a very similar problem with my tv. I’ve just ordered a coil from uxcell. I too was worried about ordering from Hong Kong, but it worked for you so I’ve given it a go. Will report back!
Great advise just going to order one up myself. Hopefully it will work and save me a small fortune. I will keep you posted.
Cheers
Jaynie
I ordered from uxcell on the 3rd of June and it didn’t come. So I sent them an email and got a reply the next day (27th June). They said please give it a few more days. I sent them another one today (22nd July) asking for them to resend or refund me. I’ll post when I get a reply.
Many Thanks for the information.
I had exactly the same problem as you, my TV’s colour has been all over the place since last christmas. Having been three times quoted £90 to £100 to fix the problem by TV repair shops, i was content to keep the Tv and save up for a better one, as the Tv only cost me £150 in the first place. Followed your instructions, didn’t have much to lose, now the TV is good as new. For well under a tenner. I can finally watch the football and be able to tell the teams apart!! Thanks for the help.
Jimmy
Many Thanks for the information
مع تØيات أكاديمية الكترونيات العرب
http://www.electroarab.com/vb
Hi
I had the same problem (Rinex TV) and just fixed it (26 Nov 2008 22h27) using the Magnet to clean my Fish tanks glass. I did put my TV on AV1 and move one magnet of the tank cleaner over the TV till everything was blue and it worked. My screen is as good as new. Just busy moving my speakers as far as possible from my TV.
Thanx Therence
I bought this from eBay/Uxcell and when removing it from the snug bubble wrap the bottom part separated, exposing broken live wires.
I re-soldered it and got it to work, but my TV was already so magnetized (internal subwoofer fell on tube) that it can’t fix it. It also gets hot quite fast so I have to use it in bursts. It looks like some plastic bits inside are melting too.
I’ve had to re-solder it about 5 times so far with each wire breaking off inside. It looks so dodgy I use an RCD and rubber gloves with it!
Or get a strong magnet, and tape it to the fron of a drill. Et voila, a reversing magnetic field.
I have used the the degausser shown above [from Hongkong £7.30] and find that the tool really gets hot when used. Is this normal? Or is the tool defective?
No immdediate success… though the tv usually adjusts itself when turned off at night and on in the morning.
Kahawn – The degausser does get hot, but you are only really using it for 10-15 seconds each time so not much of a problem.
It should work immedietely but as always there’s a time when your TV has to say goodbye….
Thanks for the reply Adem.
I bought the set [Sony 24"] some seven or more years ago second-hand £190 and have been prepared to let it go a few times before when it showed the patches until I heard about degaussing and discovered that the set adjusted itself overnight.
TV is playing up again and I’ve broken the degausser I had. I think I had it on too long and shorted it. I tried fixing it but to no avail and so I’ve ordered another one. Still cheaper than getting it fixed or buying a new TV.
I, too, found the X/Cell SBLX-D2 degausser through Yahoo, having spent five weeks a few years back having my Panasonic’s degausser circuitry repaired. The unit arrived at my U.S. home in 10 days, with Chinese character instructions, but I had 90% success using the unit as I had used my tape head mini-degausser. Thanks for helping me clear the blue corners of my beloved TV. Long live the CRT!
Hi Adem
Just been reading your very helpful instructions on how to degauss a TV, thanks for this! The same thing has happened to me and I’ve ordered one of those degaussers from Hong Kong myself. I was just wondering if you could explain what you mean by ‘then rotate the deguasser so it’s smallest profile is facing the screen and turn it off’ please? Which bit do you point at the TV, and do you then have to point a different bit at it? Sorry to be thick, thanks in advance! Jo
Great Blog!
I have two (antique) computor monitors that were purchased in 2003. Yes I know they are dinasauers but they work great with my photographic art. Anyhow, one of them has bothersome diagonal lines that seem to be getting worse and I was told by a very tech sabby friend to “degauss” it but Dell, the maufacturer, has still not been able to verify or confirm that this is the problem so I located the same website that you referred to regarding the degausser you ordered from Hong Kong. I am fearfull however, to use a degauser near my hard drive. How do I eliminate that problem? Have any suggestions? I don’t want to trash the monitor if it can be reaired. Also, I would like to ask you a few questions involving blogging. Can you contact me direct via my e-mail?
Thanks!
Hey! Thanks for really helpful posts. Fish tank magnet worked a treat, so worth trying this (if you have one) before you start ordering equipment from Hong Kong. We waved it around the front of the screen a few times, which helped a little, then my six year old had the brain wave of putting it on top of the TV which took a bit of time but has worked – picture still a tiny bit purplish at the edges but almost perfect. THANK YOU THERENCE!
what i di when my crt tv did the same thing was take my crt pc monitor and put it right in front of my tv and turn on the pc monitor it did the same thing as the degausser would do
worked
I have the same problem with my tv. I recently purchased a pair of AE-A5+ (Audio Engine) loud speakers which apperently have niodimium magnets from my tiny flat, and had no choice but to place one (the left one) of my speakers aproxomately 2ft away from my tv (way to close I know!) and these speakers are self-powered i.e. the amplifier’s (and all of the relative components) are located in this “left” speaker (the right speaker being the passive one!) and about 2 months after placing the speaker their and haven’t moved it since, I began to notice that red hue began to saturate all of the picture! This is a real drag and I can’t afford a new one or, to have this one fixed! I’ve tried to unplug my tv for a little while at the wall-socket (which has been suggested to me by a tv repair shop?) which worked ones before! I pray that it works again? I wish I had access to a welding lead and welder! That I know would do the job as a degausser! But I don’t! It’s good to know that if I have to resort to purchasing a degausser, that I’m able to get it from this website e.g. Hong Kong! Thanks for the info it will help me I’m sure… jaginoz…