Can only get cable stations up to 36

I am currently living in a dorm that provides cable to all of the rooms whether we want it or not. Since I am paying for it I figured I may as well use it, but could not afford a new TV.
Instead of paying for a new one, I took my mom's old Sharp 13NV10 which works pretty well except for one thing: Unfortunately, after taking it halfway across the country, I remembered I can only use channels 2-36 (none of which are the ones I watch often) unless the cable is used through a VCR hooked to the TV instead. The channels simply skip from 36 to 95-99 and then back to 2. I can't even enter 37-94...unless I flip a little switch on the back of the TV to the 4th position (Can't remember what thats called...read about it somewhere on this site...I tried all the options though), in which case I can enter those station numbers, but get nothing but static and can only view the basic cable stations. There is no menu button on the TV (only color, volume, and channels), and pressing it on the remote (the original one is long gone) does nothing.
Is the TV simply too old to access these stations?
I really don't want to have to buy a VCR or DVD player since a) I don't have the money and b) all the movies I have with me are DVD's that I can just as easily watch from my computer.
I would really appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!