Well, shit. So much taking a pile of electronics to the dump and getting them out of my way.

[Madrone]

I have (had) a pile of dusty electronics hiding under my futon, in varying degrees of BROKE. I decided over the weekend to haul them out so I can get rid of them. I HATE to throw things away - especially things that weren't cheap. I figure I'll either get around to making a shot at fixing them, or maybe they'll just magically fix themselves. That and some of the devices ate some dvds and/or cds before they puked - and the discs needed rescuing before I could trash the devices they were trapped within. It's finally time to shit or get off the pot - I don't have enough space in my tiny house and I need to unload things that don't work.

So I've been dragging items out, plugging them in, taking them apart, etc. I'll be damned if not EVERY SINGLE DEVICE has indeed either magically fixed itself somehow while collecting dust under the futon OR I took it apart and fixed it myself.

That's got to be some kind of record...or something. lol

The list:

Sony DVD recorder. TOP of the line in it's day - my mother and her husband spent $700 on it new and never figured out how to use it. They gave up on it and mailed it to me. I had it for a year or two before I bothered to plug it in and it didn't work. Stashed it under the futon for "later". Connected it to a tv and it fired up and worked great. Tested it with a DVD movie, no problems. Status: Magically fixed itself. Will attempt to record something from tv w/ a dvd at a later date.

Panasonic 5-Disc DVD changer. I swore I'd never buy another Panasonic DVD player when my FIRST DVD player (Panasonic 5-Disc changer as well) took a major crap at around the 6 month mark. I paid $300 for the thing and it started going TU before 6 months was out. I went without a dvd player for a loooooong time after that too - I was gun shy. Happened to be at the local Radio Shack and they had a nice new Panasonic changer for $99. Against my better judgement ... I bought it. Imagine my surprise when it went TU in much the same way the first one did. And ate a couple of movies when doing so. I took it apart and rescued my dvds (so THAT'S where the missing South Park disc went!) On a whim, while still disassembled I plugged it in, connected it to a tv and put in a movie. It plays BEAUTIFULLY. Status: After being taken apart, magically fixed itself. Device now put back together.

RCA 5-Disc CD changer. Stopped powering on one day. Period. Dead as a doornail. Holding as hostage: 5 CDs. Took it apart and rescued the discs. Plugged it in, and it came right on. Hmmm. Unplugged it and moved it over to the receiver where I plugged it in again, and connected the audio out to my AVR. It played. I put in another cd - it puked. Had do perform disc rescue again. (The one being "played" gets "grabbed" and you can't just pull it out.) Took it apart further. Undid a bunch of wires, rewired them. Plugged it back in and pushed every combination of buttons imaginable as well as adding and removing cds over and over again. Status: My rewiring must have done the trick. Fixed. Device now put back together.

Buffalo LinkTheater. This is a networked device with a DVD player in it. When plugged into a tv and wired to a home network you can stream video from PCs on the network to your television. It was AWESOME. Until it died. It was a long time ago so I'm not entirely sure but I think it refused input from the remote - which happens to be the only way you can really use the damned thing. Decided to give it one more shot and connected it to a tv. Works PERFECTLY. Status: Magically fixed itself. Plays DVDs and streams movies/video over the network.

:wtf:

[gmoney]

1. Donate it all now and take the tax write off for full value

Just sayin' -- you were ready to trash it all, so get rid of it.

[Madrone]

5. No way man!

CD player is going right back into the entertainment portal I call my living room. I have a LOT of ripped music, but 100s of discs yet unripped. Now I can put 5 in at a time and play em! Way better than the one at a time via my home theater pc. :P

The Sony DVD recorder is going in the mix too - (provided it records, which I still have to test). That will be way useful.

The LinkTheater? It's too full of AWESOME. I'm so excited that it works again that I can hardly stand it.

The Panasonic... well, you might have a point there. ;)

[GOPisEvil]

2. So you're saying I don't need to buy you a birthday present this year?

:D

Seriously though, that's pretty funny in a :wtf: kind of way.

[Madrone]

6. Isn't that weird?

I don't think you've ever seen the LinkTheater ... I think it was busticated long before you ever came here. I think. Or, actually, maybe not. Jenn lived here then so you must have seen it.

It was THAT that made me want the Popcorn Hour for the bedroom - once I got a taste of streaming movies to the tv I was sold. Not knowing, of course that the f'ing thing would resurrect itself in the future. Ah well. Still very useful.

[GOPisEvil]

7. I remember seeing it, but I've never seen it working.

You have the coolest stuff; now you just have more of it. :D

[JTG of the PRB]

3. Can we move the economy under your couch for a few months?

Please?

[flvegan]

4. Moral of the story: Send all your broken electronics to Madrone.

Cool!

:thumbsup:

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. Question about the Panasonic DVD changer

When yours died, did it just stop working, for no good reason, and was there some mysterious 2 digit hex code in the LED Display?

I've got one of those sitting around collecting dust myself. Never wanted to throw it out, believing I could fix it, but I never really got around to it. Maybe I should dig it out one of these days?

[Madrone]

10. I don't remember any code.

It started failing, and got progressively worse. In the beginning it would freeze up during a movie - then start playing again. Then it started that doing progressively more and more. Then it would freeze up and NOT start playing again. I'd have to turn it (or rather, them - since I've had this happen w/ 2) off, then back on - then I could get back to the movie. Then it started doing THAT progressively more. It finally got to the point where I could power off and turn it back on only to have it re-freeze within 20 seconds. It made me positively homicidal. :)

Edited to add: You might try looking up your code online. I'm not sure how long it's been but there sure is a lot more information online in regards to fixing things than there was even a couple of years ago.

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. Actually, I looked the code up a long time ago

and found literally hundreds of people who had the same problem. The general perception of most of these people was that Panasonic built a "planned obsolescence" feature into these units, since the problem was so common, and there was no evidence of anything being mechanically wrong with the units.

This also isn't the first time I've heard of one of the Panasonics being brought back from the dead, so maybe I'll give it a shot this weekend?

[Madrone]

12. I learned a long time ago to open things up before throwing them away.

A LONG time ago, actually. I can even remember the precise moment. I was a little kid and my Atari 2600 controller died. Well...it was already dead, right? So a screwdriver would certainly be no harm / no foul. I opened that sucker up and found a wire had somehow come loose. I put it back and viola! It worked again - and was a lesson I've never forgotten.

Also interesting - I've found a LOT that just opening something up, looking for something obviously wrong and closing it back up when there's nothing evidently out of sorts, well, it magically starts working again. Very weird.

I'm not teh SMRT in electronics - I guess I'm just lucky. And now have what appears to be a magic futon in my arsenal as well. lol

[NJCher]

9. that's an amazing story!

Lucky you. And absolutely, enjoy that technology. You would be crazy to dump it!



Cher