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Guide to Repairing Everything Electronic
prostoalex writes "Silicon Sam's Technology Resource is a collection of detailed guides on repairing pretty much anything that has an electronic component in it: household appliances, audio equipment, AC adapters, CD players, CD-ROM drives, other optical drives, microwave ovens, PC monitors, TV sets, VCRs, remote controls, strobe lights, small engines, lawn mowers, printers and photocopiers. Each guide is not just a collection of FAQ, but a detailed document the size of your average book."
Apparently this is just a new name for Sam Goldwasser's (bow down and mention your unworthiness) site or another way of getting to it but that's quite alright, it's a great resource no matter what they call it.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
But I already know how to fix everything. Duct tape.
Nowdays there are microprocessors in many places, and optimization, integration and componentsize make fixing harder, namely in household appliances, audio equipment, AC adapters, CD players, CD-ROM drives, other optical drives, microwave ovens, PC monitors, TV sets, VCRs.. etc. Of course if it's a mechanical problem, wiring problem or some analog component, then it's doable, but chances of that are getting smaller in every generation of those machines.
That's true, but the chances that it is mechanical, wiring, or a simple stand alone component are *still* pretty damn good.
Sure, when you fry some custom IC (no doubt unlabeled, potted in epoxy, and impossible to order from the manufacturer, just to make repair more difficult than it needs to be), you're hosed.
But as often as not the parts that die first are the easiest to replace: mechanical bits that wear down, discrete capacitors and voltage regulators that fry, solder joints on connectors that get wiggled around, etc. Unless you do something spectacular to a piece of equipment or it was designed really badly, it's usually kind of hard to fry the microprocessors.
I've rescued a fair number of high tech gizmos that were left for dead and uninvestigated by their owners - several CD players of various sizes and price tags, two palm pilots (which have a total of about four discrete components in them, but in each case it turned out one of those was the culprit), a large hard drive, several almost new microwaves, a scanner and a nice big pc monitor, etc.
For those of us in wealthy countries, it may be uneconomical to hire someone to fix stuff rather than to replace it with new stuff. But it's often well worth the time to at least diagnose a broken piece of gear before tossing it. (Not to mention the brief anti-consumer rush you get from it, given the appropriate world view.)
Sure, when you fry some custom IC ... you're hosed.
As those of us who collect Tek scopes know too well... (you have an equal chance of getting a working all-tube (e.g., 545/547/647) model than a later 5000- or 7000-series, despite the fact that the former are some twenty years older than the latter).
That said, I just this past weekend saved the in-law's 15-year-old microwave. It was totally dead (no display, no interior light) and had no external breaker, but pop the case and there's a 125V 15W fuse on the PS board. Took about half a heartbeat to stick a meter on it and see it was failed. Ran down to Radio Shack and picked up a 4-pack for US$3.50, ran back and put everything back together and it works just fine. Total time: 40 minutes. Money saved: ~US$650 (current price of feature-equivalent convection microwave).
Just junk food for thought...