rage against remotes

[dadiOH]

My 3 year old JVC TV remote became erratic; i.e., sometimes took several pushes before the TV would respond. I changed the batteries (twice), same thing so I figured the remote was shot and bought an RCA universal remote.

There are various ways to program the remote, I have tried all and all have been (according to the remote) successfully completed and yet the TV will not respond. I know the remote works, tried it on another TV.

It seems to me that the receiver on the TV must be at fault. Yes? No? What else could it be? If yes, do you know how big a deal it is to have it replaced? (BTW, I have no idea if it is IR or RF).

Thanks...

[micky]

Could be, but when I had a problem with my remote not working, it was because the PowerMID in my bathroom was transmitting, even though no one was aiming a remote at it. Even though the lights were off in the bathroom. And even after I shut the bathroom door, making it even darker in there.

Maybe something else is transmitting IR to your TV.

[thekmanrocks]

Additionally:

- Debouncing circuitry in remote control keypad is failing, allowing more than one command per key press.

- IR Beam emitter(small round clear fixture at head of remote) is failing or has become damaged or mis-aimed.

- Batteries!! Often the most overlooked item in diagnosing remote control behavior.

- IR receiver in TV is failing or damaged. This could lead either to periodic failure to pick up command from remote, or, for command to become "stuck" in repeated execution. I.E.: My volume on my old tube set raced all the way to max(!!) after I pressed one or two volume adjustments.

[trader_4]

If the new universal behaved erratically with the TV like the original one, then I would agree it's the TV. But since it doesn't work at all, I would think there is a good chance that the new remote isn't compatible or set up correctly for that TV. I'd try another remote.

[dadiOH]

I should have added that the OEM remote stopped working entirely which helped lead me to my thought that it was the receiver on the TV that was at fault. If so, the OEM remote may well be OK.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Yes, IR recceiver lens can be covered with thin film of grimes. When cleaned with Q-tip soaked in Alcohol revives it. I had trouble with a Motorola cable STB whose IR sensor is behind a smoky plastic front face plate. I cut out a hole exposing sensor, no more annoying intermittent problem.

[Jerry.Tan]

It could be as simple as the sensor inside the TV being dirty. Clean it on the outside of the tv, if that dont fix it, open the tv and clean the face of the actual sensor. Also, make sire the sensor is properly aimed toward the sensor "window". A loose screw or jarring the tv could have caused the aim to be wrong!

[dadiOH]

My real problem with the above was that I didn't know for sure whether the problem was at the transmitting or receiving end. Some WWWW (wonderful world wide web :) browsing told me that digital cameras could "see" the infra-red transmission from remotes so I pointed the remote at the camera on my laptop, pushed the remote buttons and sure enough, the image of the remote on my laptop screen showed the transmitter emitting a lovely, light purple light. Both the OEM and new universal remotes were functioning. Which means the problem was at the TV itself.

Before rushing the TV off to a repair shop, I decided to try a simple fix. I used to have to regularly clean the heads on my 5 1/4 floppy disk drives (and cassette players, etc.) so I took some alcohol and cleaned off the IR receiver area - the external area - on the TV. No dirt/crud wound up on the cloth but both remotes now control the TV. The devil really is in the details, isn't it?

Thanks to all who replied.

BTW, while browsing I found a blog post from someone that had the same problem. A respondent said to squirt some WD-40 in the headphone jack and squish it around with a toothpick. The OP replied that he did so and it fixed the problem. Sounds wierd to me, anyone know about this?