i’m no electronic genius..far from it; but it seems to me if every tv u tried blew up that the problem is other than old tvs’

Na…my suspicion is the 28″ television died because it was old, and used a lot. (I have mild tinnitus and so need some sound to mask the “noise” - sometimes it’s Old Radio, others it’s television playing all night.) The second, the one from the basement, died I believe because I didn’t properly store it. In retrospect, I should have either had it covered from the time it hit the shelf, or when I brought it up removed the back and used air to remove the dust. I did wipe the outside down when I brought it from the basement, but I suspect there was enough of a “dust blanket” inside to cause some component or another to overheat. (That was the one that smelled like overheating, arcing components. The larger one just kept flipping on-and-off. And the 55″ rear-projector in the living room was never plugged into this outlet…heck, I don’t think it would fit anywhere in the bedroom, not while leaving room for the bed, anyway!)

I thought about the outlet, but 1) the larger television had been plugged in there for years before it pitched a fit, and 2) the laptop computer, monitor, and external amplified speakers are plugged into it now with no ill effects.

I’m thinking this experience was just my usual fortune at work. Thank heavens Newegg is constantly running sales on televisions…already ordered a reasonably-priced Toshiba television. I did screw up and forgot to go through a cash-back website I use - could have gotten a 2% rebate on it had I only remembered…

(Yeah, I’m really that cheap.)