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NotTaR of Television Sets : Some commentary on monitor and TV whacki..  
 Copyright © 1994-2007, Samuel M. Goldwasser. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied: 1. This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning. 2. There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying. I may be contacted via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ (www.repairfaq.org) Email Links Page.

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Some commentary on monitor and TV whacking

Anytime that intermittent symptoms are experienced, I recommend gently whacking the patient to determine if mechanical shock or vibration affects the behavior. Here are a couple of responses to this suggestion.

(The following is from Marc Gelfond (71363.1700@CompuServe.COM).)

I just love the bit about "whacking it". It brings to mind an episode from the old Andy Griffith show, where a new fangled piece of electronics gear, was broght into Emmets repair shop. After many long hours of fruitless troubleshooting, out of frustration Emmet gave the thing a whack, and sure enough it fixed the problem.

As we say in the Telephony business, it "CCWT" or Came Clear While Testing. Another saying is that it "CCBFM" Came Clear By F------ Magic!!

(To which Gavin Adams (gaa@hopi.com) comments):

In the video industry we had a saying concerning malfunctioning gear:

"If it's broke, hit it with a hammer"
"If that doesn't fix it, paint it and sell it"

My DEC 16" monitor is case in point. Evey once in a while it would lose sync, and smacking it would bring it back (sometimes a few smacks). Recently it gave up the ghost completely, and after the local DEC office gave me a quote of $900 to fix it (Bermuda), I ordered a new Viewsonic 17" for the same price.

I ripped the guts out of the DEC beast, painted it with a marble finish, put plants in it, and sold it! :>