I found a 36" RCA television that appears to be in good working order. However, I believe its former owners placed their stereo speakers too close to it, as the color in certain areas of the screen is way off from what it should be. IE: fair skinned person looks blue skinned when he/she is on the side of the screen.


What's the best way to correct color impurities caused by magnets? I've heard that I can use a low powered magnet to work the color impurities out. is that true, and how would I go about doing that?

Get a speaker and pass it in front of the screem.

switch the set off at the mains for an hour then switch back on again. You may have to do this a few times, but given a chance the set will fix its self.

I'm going to get a TV repair guy to degauss the set for me. It's cheap, and for a TV like that, it's worth it.

Then why did you ask here. That you know better, good luck, find out the hard way.

I asked because I hoped there was another answer other then paying some guy to fix it for me.

I tried using a magnet to fix it, but it did no good. Maybe the magnet is too weak...

I still need to scrape up the $29.95 to get the thing degaussed.

As stated if you switch it off at the mains and leave it for an hour then re-try. Do this a couple of times if that does not fix it there is a fault with the degauss circuit inside the set and that will cost more than you have quoted. If you get someone to manually degauss the set yes it may look good for a few days then the fault will spark again and your money has been shot, Take advice or not, that is your business but having someone wave a degauss wand over your TV is a great way to get had.

I've partly fixed the problem by doing what I suspected happened to make the colors off in the first place. I took a small speaker magnet, suspended it near the upper right corner of the screen, which had the worst color problem. It fixed that. That corner now looks fine.

I am operating under the theroy that if I leave the magnet there for awhile, that part of the shadow mask will absorb the magnetic field making the color correction permanent, then I can re position the magnet to fix the other three corners of the screen. If this is true, how long should I leave the magnet there?

If you did what I said and its not fixed, your magnet will not fix it. You have a faulty PTC and that given a few switch ons, will arc and cause other impurities at best, or at worst blow the mains fuse to peices. I once had a set come in where someone glued magnets to the back of the tube with the theory just like yours. After removal I could not get that tube correct. This is a common simple fault, In my workshop I probably have a selection of 20 or so PTCs. I dont stock them without reason.

So, what would it cost to fix the PTC?

PTC costs $5 give or take, its a 3 legged device if you can solder it in its finished, if not, whatever labour costs.

Then I'm guessing I can fix this TV's problems for, maybe $45-50 bucks total, including labor costs. That's still worth it, especally for a TV that was free.