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whacking the side of a TV also was a common "solution" for TV's back in the CRT days.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/2b3cpi/why_...

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7167193

Percussive Maintenance

(uncountable) (humorous) The use of physical concussion, such as a knock or a tap, in an attempt to make a malfunctioning device or person work.

Device or person? I've been tempted on the "or person" part, but never actually tried it...

"Beatings will continue until morale improves"

Pete Conrad famously had to smack around some surface experiments during Apollo 12.

Growing up, we had a CRT that my father had built from a kit. Occasionally, the image would tint green-ish. When this happened, my father would slide the cabinet 45 degrees out (so he could get behind it, and then turn a blow dryer on the back of it. Given a little bit of time (5 minutes? it was a long time ago) the picture would go back to normal.

Also, he helped me fix a problem with my car using a piece from the fish tank. I hope one day to be as amazing as my father was.

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