TV without sound

One of my TVs has developed an annoying habit of suddenly losing the sound, for no apparent reason. If you turn it off and then back on again, everything is fine, which makes it seem like a software problem, but I have no idea how TVs work. Does anybody have any thoughts? I mean, OK, I know buying a new one is only a few hundred bucks, but there's basically nothing else wrong with it, so it seems a shame to just throw it away. And some days it works fine (but some days I seem to be turning it off and on four times before breakfast).

Is it an old tube model, that gets hot?

The solder holding the wire to the speaker (at either one of the ends) may have gotten hot enough to make the connection flaky. Just reheat the connection with a solder gun & you're good to go.

If that's it.

Richard,
How is the TV hooked up? Are you running the audio through an external amp? Is it hooked up to a cable box or DVR? Are you using HDMI cables for the input? If so, try switching to analog cables and see what happens. If you're using analog cables, try switching to HDMI.

It's sometime helpful to unplug the TV and wait twenty or thirty seconds before plugging it back in.

Don't take a soldering iron to the thing. (shame on you, NoCo)

It's actually a flat-screen, HD, and the newest TV I have (although that still means probably 4 or 5 years old or thereabouts).

It is plugged into a cable box. I have no idea what sort of cables they are, but there seems to be 5 of them with all different-colored plugs, if that helps. No external anything, just the TV and the cable box.

I don't have a soldering iron, and wouldn't know what to do with one anyway. Software person.

One thing I noticed when I went to look at the cables: they had somehow become tightly wrapped around the base of the TV. Could it be as simple as one of the plugs being pulled a little bit loose?

Not likely. External cables would not go to an internal speaker.

Since this is a flat-screen, I'll drop the heat suggestion. Two questions: is there an external speaker jack? Is there a headphone jack?

There are numerous sockets of all shapes and sizes on the back. I assume that probably one or two of them would fit speakers or headphones. Without the paperwork, I would be guessing what's which.

Find plugs to fit all of them and "exercise" the jacks -- plug in a couple times, and unplug.

You might have corrosion/condensation making a circuit when it's not supposed to.