Magnavox MX TV and another annoyances

If anything else goes bad today, I'm going to flip out.

Friday the 13th, actually this whole week/ past month or so has been annoying and trying.

1. Finally got the muffler on the Ford Exploder replaced, only to have my power steering lose fluid 3 hours later and on my way home from doing things on Wednesday. It's at the dealership and will be a $500 hit to fix. At least it's really quiet as far as the exhaust goes. Mechanic said all the lines were rusted out and were blowing fluid. Odd that I would have this for 9 months and this happens.

2. Sick dog for the past month, finally got an Xray on Tuesday, signs still indicate liver function problem. Administering meds, food, and Milk Thistle.

3. For the past few days or week, the hot water heater has been leaking water. Flooded basement to about 2 inches deep, as the drain on the floor is clogged with silt and my sister still hasn't snaked it out (or perhaps the septic tank needs drained).

And then to this:
4. Power outage overnight caused the Magnavox MX TV to not want to turn on.

In the past after an electric outage, and over the past few years, it has developed the annoyance of not wanting to stay turned on after being asked to turn on after one of these outages. I've had to keep turning it on only to have it click right off and requiring me to try again. Today it wasn't having any of that. So I found a 6.5mm socket to take the screws out of the back and get my can of air duster and blow it clean.

It may have been the dusting or the replugging of the cord to make a snap as it touched the current, but it finally started doing the clicking back off after being asked to turn on. Eventually, it decided to stay on.

I suspect that after 17 years (it was made in 1996), the capacitors need replaced. Not something to do on a TV, as one is rated to 200 volts, by someone such as me with my skills. Supposedly it was made with some amount of surge suppression protection.

Another thing it does is during completely white or mostly bright screens, it doesn't seem to like them. I have to wait a while to get it to "warm up" before a bright screen doesn't cause it to bend in and out until it adjusts for it. Which leads me back to the capacitors. Which ones, Not sure. I've had to adjust the brightness and picture (contrast) settings down to give it a break.

But after taking the back off and putting it back on, I have oddly colored areas on the tube. A hint of green mostly in the lower left, some odd fades of red or blue at the top. Most of the center, where lots of letterboxed video lives, mostly OK. Really apparent during full screens and certain colors. Maybe the back has bumped something. I was trying to be extremely careful putting the back on, but it was doing this even on the black screen I put it on before I got the back put in place. Maybe it needs degaussed.

I still have my grandfather's Toshiba big screen similar to the MX, but it doesn't respond to the remote anymore, and it needs dust blown out as well. It will shut off the screen and audio unless I rap on the outside, and then when it's decently warm, it will work without too much fuss, but definitely needs dust out of it. If I can't get the remote sensor to respond, watching TV without being able to mute stuff will be annoying.

So I either live with this MX, see if it just needs some adjustment, or (can't really afford it) replace it cheaply or find a suitably sized wide screen with composite video input, which I really need.

I bet my dad would know what to do in order to replace the caps, and maybe to see what's affecting the discolored patches. I would think the image processor is working just fine, getting it to the screen has a problem.