My television is currently displaying only a single 3mm high line across the screen on every channel and when I attempt to play DVDs. Do you know what may be the problem? More detail below.

My television (conventional cathode ray, Alba. 14 inch) has sort of died. Perfect sound but displaying only a single 3mm high horizontal line across the middle of the screen by way of visuals on every channel and when I attempt to play DVDs. Also gives a limited response to the remote control unit. It is also giving off a rather unnerving burning-electrical-things smell. What do you think may be wrong with it?

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4 Responses to “My television is currently displaying only a single 3mm high line across the screen on every channel and when I attempt to play DVDs. Do you know what may be the problem? More detail below.”

  1. The_Walrus - March 27th, 2009

    It it smells like it's burning TURN IT OFF NOW!

  2. Poindexter - March 27th, 2009

    White line or black line?
    If it's black there might be something wrong with the unit shifting the electronic ray vertically.
    If you're curious about what's burning, unplug it, wait for a while, and have a shufti. Might be an elco that has given up the ghost. Theoretically it might be possible to replace it, but practically …
    Images of elcos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor

  3. Aiming4777 - March 28th, 2009

    I read your comments. Here is what is wrong with your TV set (no matter what the actual cause may be)

    In simple terms (and ignoring the colour, just a black and white picture) the TV set has a square glass tube, the front face of which is the screen. A single beam of electrons is fired down the tube at the screen. Where they hit the screen, a coating on the inside lights up. So, the Cathode Ray tube can generate a single white dot in the middle of the screen. By turning the electron beam on or off, you can make the spot white (on) or black (off).

    Around the bottom end of the tube are two copper windings called steering coils. (See picture) These are able to create magnetic fields inside the tube and the electron beam moves in response to these fields. One set of coils creates a magnetic field that moves the electron beam vertically, while another set moves the beam horizontally. By controlling the voltages in the coils, you can position the electron beam at any point on the screen.

    For each picture, the beam starts in the top corner of the screen and moves across to the other side with the electron beam being turned on and off as it goes to make either black or white dots. When one line is competed, the beam moves down to the next line and repeats the process. (This is just like the way an ink jet printer builds the picture up by printing each line and then moving the paper up ready for another line). The whole picture is made up of 625 of these lines. The entire screen is painted 25 times every second. In reality it is more complicated than that but that’s the basic idea.

    On your set the horizontal steering coil is still working as the beam is sweeping across the screen but the beam is not moving up and down as it scans. Since there is a burning smell, most likely the vertical steering coils have burned out or the unit that controls them.

    See here for a more detail description of how a TV works http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv3.htm

  4. mathpath - March 28th, 2009

    If you TV is over ten years old, there is a good chance that a capacitor has been burned, or out of order. A TV technician will proabably take 10 minutes to confirm this, cost pennies to replace the part, and about 15 minutes to repair it. My neighbour TV technician has done this for me at different occasions, that's why I still have TV tubes that are cuved.
    The suggestions to replace your TV are generally valid and reasonable.

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