Strange Electrical Issue

[allen8106]

So we've been at the lake for a week and a half now and Tuesday I went to the house to mow. On the way back to the lake my daughter calls me and tells me the television won't come on. I get to the camper and start looking things over. This camper is a Jayco with a TV that pops up out of a cabinet at the back of the living quarters. Inside the cabinet space where the TV is stored during travel there is a duplex electrical outlet for the TV power. Early on I had installed a six outlet adapter on the duplex outlet in order to have an extra outlet for the satellite receiver and my wife's Sensey burner. I unplugged the TV and move the cord to a different outlet on the six plug adapter and viola! The TV is working again. Hmmmmm I thought.

A few hours of watching TV and the TV just randomly shuts off. So I remove the six outlet adapter and plug the TV directly into the duplex outlet. Removing the six plug adapter was no big deal because I don't have the satellite anymore. No harm, no foul I think.

The next day after watching TV for a few hours the TV randomly shuts off again. By now I'm starting to get a little frustrated. This time I plug the TV into a different duplex outlet on the outside front of the cabinet. Everything works fine for a few hours then the TV randomly shuts off for no known reason.

I unplug the TV from the front outlet and plug it back into the outlet inside the cabinet and once again viola the TV works.

So this back and forth unplugging and plugging has gone on for several days now with no explanation that i can think of except that the power draw the TV has is maybe overheating the outlets and causing them to shut down until they cool off. My problem is that I've seen or heard of anything like that before.

Any feedback anyone would care to give on this issue would be most appreciated.

[Gene_Ginny]

allen8106 wrote:
A little more info...

The TV is an RCA 32". It shut off again yesterday after about 4-5 hours of continuous operation with no channel changing and no volume change. As soon as it shut off I unplugged it from the inside cabinet outlet and plugged it right back in and the TV came right on and worked fine the rest of the evening. I'm leaning towards some kind of overheating issue with the TV.

I am inclined to think that it is an "auto sleep" thing several posters mentioned. Try doing something simple like changing the volume every 2 hours or so. My Sharpe is supposed to shut off in 4 hours if nothing is changed but it has never happened, my wife changes channels often. 🙂

Do you have the model number?

[Donnoh]

It's your TV. Up until 7 years ago my TV was 17 years old. I've had 2 since.

[allen8106]

Voltage at the outlet is 125v

[allen8106]

A little more info...

The TV is an RCA 32". It shut off again yesterday after about 4-5 hours of continuous operation with no channel changing and no volume change. As soon as it shut off I unplugged it from the inside cabinet outlet and plugged it right back in and the TV came right on and worked fine the rest of the evening. I'm leaning towards some kind of overheating issue with the TV.

[Gene_Ginny]

Can you unplug it then plug it into the same outlet and have it come back on?

How long before it shuts off and is it the same amount of time each time?

Both questions just restate the good troubleshooting tips posted earlier.

[mlts22]

I'd throw in the towel and see if I can find a TV that can fit in the mount, go with a 12 volt model.

Most TVs are junk from the lowest bidder in China anyway, so might as well go with 12 volts, which means fewer components that can get hot in the device itself, and 120VAC to 12 volt converters can be replaced fairly easily.

[rockhillmanor]

MrWizard wrote:
check your "sleep mode" in the menu

X2

And I found out that on one of my flat screen TV's if the signal is not strong and goes in and out the TV automatically shuts off.

IMHO these TV's today are now becoming like any cheap electronic they simply break WAAAY quicker than the old TV's that lasted for years and years. They are becoming throw away electronics also.

I've had one loose the sound, one lost the picture and one lost the coax connection. Threw the first two out which is what they want you to do! The third one I took to a TV repair shop.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Is there anything weird about the "Jack-In-the-Box" TV, Itself? Can you replace it with a standard television? I've diagnosed TVs in RVs that seemed to be line voltage sensitive. At around 128-volts they started to get the HeebieJeebies.

[jwmII]

Sounds like the TV is shutting down due to an over temp problem. Many TVs today have internal cooling fans. Check and see if yours does. If so it may have quit working.

[MrWizard]

check your "sleep mode" in the menu

[allen8106]

So once when this happened my daughters cell phone charger was plugged into the front cabinet outlet. I plugged it into the outlet inside the cabinet and it had power and the sleep timer is off on the TV.

[doxiemom11]

Our tv shuts off after about 4 hours of continuous play if we have not changed the channel. We do get a brief warning screen before it happens. If we quick change the channel and then change back to the one we are watching, it will stop it from shutting off. We have not been able to figure out how to stop it from happening. There is a timer, but that is shut off.

[Dakota98]

Also, go into the "menu" on the TV and check to see if there any timers that are set to shut the TV off after a certain period of time.

[Ed_Gee]

Run an extension cord into a source other than your RV and confirm if TV still goes off.

BTW, does it always go off after the same amount of time? Some TV Menus have a timer feature to enable auto turn off.....could this have inadvertently been turned on....if your TV has that feature?