I accidentally let my nephew hold a magnet near my old CRT TV, and now the colors are really messed up. Everything looks bluish-red, and I'm wondering if there's a way to fix it at home. Is there a simple method for restoring the display without needing to call a professional?
4 Answers
It could be that you need to degauss it. Many old TVs have an automatic degaussing feature when turned on. If that doesn't work, you might consider finding a local repair shop with a stronger degausser. I used to keep one handy for all sorts of issues!
If there’s no button for the internal degausser and you don't hear it activate, it might be broken. You could try making your own degausser, which is basically just a coil of wire around a soft iron rod—just needs the right pulse of electricity to work. It can help erase that distortion!
You might want to try unplugging the TV and letting it sit for a few hours. When you plug it back in, see if it resets the colors. Most CRTs have a built-in degausser that can help fix display issues like that.
As a kid, I used to mess up TVs by playing with magnets too! One trick I found was to move the magnet around the screen to shift the distorted area to the edge. I could usually hide the problem in a corner that way!
Just a quick note, it’s CRT, not CTR! But yeah, let it sit unplugged should do the trick!