Wednesday, December 5, 2007

TV: Possessed!

Anyone ever had a TV set that turns on all by itself without provocation? It's happened five times that I know about, four of them when I was on the computer (just a few feet away) and once in the middle of the night. This is a 7 or 8 year old JVC TV, connected to a Cox Digital cable box. We recently obtained a new remote for the cable box because the old one died. This never happened before the new remote. I have a few theories. Which do you think it is?

1) Someone cleaning the house squirted windex up on the TV and it drippled down into the control panel. That messed up the TV, it shorted out, and it is turning itself on.

2) Something is f'd up with the new remote and it's turning the TV on without anyone even touching it.

3) Some other device is sending a signal to the TV, such as the router, a cell phone, the microwave, or a neighbor's security system.

4) Gremlins.

5) My whole family is hallucinating.

I'd prefer answer #5, because that is the only one that would be any fun to troubleshoot.

4 comments:

ronbailey said...

Hey buddy!

If you have Cox Cable - I think I know what's happening. At least I know what causes the same issue at my house...

If you use the Cox supplied remote, it often just shuts down the cable box when you hit the power button, leaving the television powered on, but showing a blank screen. When your cable box phones home to talk with the servers back at Cox, it powers up - causing your previously dormant TV to suddenly spring to life... and scaring the ever-loving crap out of anyone in the room.

dsbowers said...

Well then. That didn't happen with my old (Cox Cable supplied) remote. So I guess now I have to shut off the TV and the cable box both.

I'm too goddam lazy to bother doing that night after night.

I think it would be great fun to stick this (possessed) TV and cable box in the bedroom and see if my wife can figure it out. I'm not too lazy for a practical joke.

Infinite Vision said...

The new remotes can be programmed to have a "master power" button. Once you have all the devices programmed (say, TV, Stereo on Aux, DVD, etc) just hold down the power button for like 10-15 seconds. It will power up or down all programmed devices.

Should say Master above the power button if the new remote has this ability. All the remotes I have have this, so I would imagine yours does as well.

dsbowers said...

Wow! Even if the TV and the cable box are both powered off, they still come on at random. It happened last night at 2AM. I guess I'll give Cox a call.