rca tv no sound?????

the model is rca f36645 36 inch tube tv 4 years old. it is connected directly into cable jack . no other items..dvd or others. Tv was programed and working fine I turned the channel and the sound all of a sudden went to a snowy sound on all channels. the other tv's in the house work fine so it is not the signal. I went back to the menu and re programmed with no success.

Well, I have no ideas except that the circuit board for coax input or the coax cable connection in the TV may be faulty. You might try the "do this when all else fails" fix: Wack the TV on the side to see what happens. And, speaking of this "fix", why do people wack a non-working flashlight on their hand to see if they can get it to work? Pretty silly.

Only result was a red hand....Oh Well last result I called a repair outfit and they will look at it next week...thanks anyway.....

I had a similar problem with my RCA and was able to fix it by unplugging the set for a minute then plugging it back in. The sound was restored.

You may have to reprogram the set, but you save the cost of a repairman.

This same thing happened to my TV, about 5 years old.
Same model. I unplugged it for the night, and it worked for approximately two weeks. Same thing happened again last night, so I am unplugging it again.
Anyway, luckily I can fix TV's and am thinking it is a capacitor that is not discharging properly.
Will let you know once I get a chance to look at it.

Thank you for all your help.I,too was looking around at new TV's yesterday for the same reason.It's bad enough that a lot of TV's will have to be retrofitted with digital cable boxes in the next couple of years,but am I the only one here that thinks there are an awful lot of people out looking at new TV's because of this problem?I don't expect a congressional investigation,but it just seems funny(not ha-ha)that
these RCA 36'' 's sound ''just went out''.Oddly enough,when I bought the set 5 years ago this Feb.,the Guide Plus was an attractive selling point.Who knew?
I hope the RCA boys read this,because when it does become time for a new TV,it sure won't be a GE/RCA in this house.Again,thanks for your help.

I have been following this discussion thread, and came across another discussion in a different forum.
It seems that if you add a 1uf cap 50volt to IC U13101 pin 15 and ground this will solve the problem.
However, it does disable Closed captioning from what I am told.
However, if you need sound, closed captioning isn't a big deal.
Will let you know what I find once I order and install this cap.
Later all.

Unplugging AC power and waiting a couple of minutes does fix this problem

I had a repairman come to look at the TV he said that rca had problems witht the Guide plus feature when used with the standard cable supplied by our local provider. He says that it is in the signal from the cable company and would not happen with satalite. The solution he had was to unplug the TV for 5 minutes then reprogram with the remote....He did it and that same night the sound went again except I had sound on 4 channels.......I will try unplugging again and see what happens.

ANY set with standard cable connections should be able to handle ANY cable signal without issues. Satellite would remedy this??? What's that guy been smoking? If you use a cable box, then your TV should be on Ch 3 or 4 and the cable box is used to change channels. If you don't use a cable box and your cable feeds directly into the coax "Ant-In" connection on your TV, then you should use your TV for changing channels. What's the difference with how a satellite box connects vs. the cable company connection? Personally, I don't trust RCA products. My dad bought a 25" RCA TV 2 years ago. For his birthday, I bought him a new DVD player, knowing that his TV was fairly new and it should have reasonable inputs. Much to my suprise, that piece of junk only had ONE input...a coax antenna-input. There was no way to connect a DVD player! RCA is in the same boat as GM cars. They're years behind everyone else, even themselves. I will be very interersted to hear what solution is found. Cant' wait.

I just tried this solution, and it provided me sound when I first powered the tv back on, but once I was completed with the guide plus set up, sound went back to snowy immediately, somehow it must be tied to the feed from the cable company to the tv to translate the signal for the guide + programming, let me know if you find a way to fix it, I am leaving mine off all night and trying again tomorrow

I was reading these threads about having snowy sound on every channel, yet having perfect video. My 19" RCA just did the same thing, it is 3-4 years old, was watching it just fine, went to snowy noise sound then back to normal for about 5 minutes, now permanent "snowy noise" but perfect video. I am just connected via the cable wire connection directly to tv, weird thing is if I select on my remote for the satellite button or dvd channel, which I have set for channel 4, perfect sound and video. I have performed all the resets on the menu that I can find. Any one have any ideas what is happening with these tv's? Let me know if anyone finds a solution

My GE 36" TV is 6 yrs. old. No VCR or DVD hooked up. Same thing happened to me I was watching TV when I turned the channel the sound went all snowy/staticicky. I tried to reprogram, read all through the manuel. My husband finally was able to get sound on two channels -- two!!!! PBS and the Spanish channel - big deal!!! I turned the TV off and on to no avail. I will try unplugging it tonight. Also my remote has been working strangely - sometimes the buttons works and sometimes like the volume button will go mute or the channel skip will do something else that what it should. I will NOT buy GE or RCA again - six years the TV should still be working fine!!!

Then you folks can clap your selves silly Just a joke. Really for the same amout of money your going to pay that expensive t.v. repair shop you can get one of those wal=mart hi-def specials for the same amount of money Once you step into the hi-def world you will never want to watch that old r.c.a. dog again stew

If this was a problem with the cable provider, wouldn't people with other brands of TVs be having the same problem? I wonder what the logic behind this explanation is from the cable company? One would think that ANY TV using the direct coax cable feed would be having this problem and it wouldn't be unique to RCA sets. Very weird.

I confirmed on my set last night the fix. What they are saying here about the feed from cable companies has to do with the Guide+ feature on the TV. The Guide+ I know for sure is a feature of RCA, not sure if its on others or not. But it has to be with the way the RCA's with Guide+ on them interpret this signal from the cable company which provides the on-screen tv guide. When I turned my tv on after powering off, I bypass the Guide+ setup and the TV works fine, if I go through the set up process for Guide+, immediately when I click finish, my sound goes to snowy sound. So for some reason it can't read and translate the signal correctly. So, I have just bypassed setting up the Guide+ feature since I don't use it anyway, and all is resolved.

From reading around the net, here is another forum: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/16787.html
it sounds like is is a conflict with the pid that programmers send in the vbi portion of the signal and the guide plus. One solution would be to use another input other then RF. If you have a vcr you can use the composite connections to the tv. This would not pass on the pid information. Hopefully the problem gets resolved soon.

I am so glad that the Internet gives us this oppertunity to discuss everyday problems with others and actually find workable solutions...Now if anyone has a solution for working pay check to pay check I would love to hear it.....Glad everyone's RCA's are making noise again,,,just in time for football.

Unpluged it, waited, skipped the Guide + setup an I had sound!

For what it is worth, the Guide + was NEVER SETUP prior!?!?

Well, I have sound and happy kids and it did not cost me a dime.

Glad I found this (on the first try!)

I tried the reset too and it worked, until I passed back over Spike TV again, then lost all sound back to "snowy sound". Pulled the power again and navigated through all channels for hours just fine avoiding Spike TV, no problem, then within 1 minute of watching Spike TV, the sound went again. note the following forum where they believe as well that since January 1, Spike TV has changed something in their broadcasting that is causing this problem, but now it looks like this link is not available unless you are able to search Google's cached pages, then you will find it.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:bJvGZKGfu8sJ:news.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/16787.html++site:news.ecoustics.com+rca+guide+plus+spike+tv&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

This happened to me last night. Was watching spike tv when my sound went completely out on my rca tv. Was just going to look for new tv's after work today, but now will try the unplug and reset tip. I have noticed for quiet awhile though that while watching spike the sound fades in and out, guess I will have to avoid the channel now as well.

Please explain to the technically challenged how to "skip the guide plus set up" after having pulled the plug for an hour and then repowering the TV.

Just use your remote control when you restart your tv. Once on press menu on your remote and follow the steps on the menu guide. when you get to the emnu that asks to set up the guide plus just arrow down with the remote buttons to say skip guide plus istallation....hope this helps

Thanks everyone! You just saved me a load of money! I didn't even unplug the TV. I just deleted Spike TV and VIOLA! Thanks again.

I'm just using the old rabitt ears with my rca and having the same problem. I'll try the unplug ''fixit''
tonight. Thanks for he info.