What electronics have you broken while cleaning / troublesho

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I have broken a few electronics while trying to clean them or simply trying to find out what was inside. Anyone else break anything interesting while trying to fix them?


PS2 controller - what idiot designed the infernal plastic ribbon circuits!? Once you get one of these open you will have a hard time fighting the contacts on the plastic film.

Gigaware Micro Projector - I wanted to find out what kind of bulb they take and quickly learned that they were never emant to be opened. Another example of the IDIOTIC throw away/unfixable once broken electronics trend.

Probably a few other things too, these are just my recent oopsies. Gone are the days of giant ass spacious circuit boards and minimal components.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I opened up an original Atari VCS console (6 swtich version with fake front wood grain styling panel setup) to see what it looked like inside since the screen graphics was messed up. This was back in 1983 before the time of cleaning your cart slots from time to time to insure that the graphics are distortion-free. Lots of heavy RF shielding placed around the internal PCB indeed. It was discarded and thrown away in the trash after being opened up though. I didn't know better but looking back at that incident, a simple cart cleaning was just necessary and it would've performed like new. Got another all black colored Atari 2600 console (with four switch setup) instead for Christmas of 1983 as a replacement. Oh well...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[undamned]

Sony ZN-1 Mobo. Resoldering the pins on one of the processors lifted a trace that was like the size of a human hair. Maybe I could have fixed it if I spent more time on it, but I was so mad at myself at the time I just gave it to the circular file (had another on hand, anyways, heh).
-ud

[Damocles]

Pfffftt...who need to open things up to break them? I've killed a set of computer speakers, a PS2 Slim, a Dell laptop, and an MP3 player simply by touching them and discharging a huge amount of static electricity. Hell, in the winter I have to be careful picking up my cell phone charging cable and wired 360 controllers else I shock the crap out of myself.

[emphatic]

1 PS2 controller (plastic ribbon hell)
1 Acer Laptop (the power cord/connector didn't charge the battery, now it's totally trashed from "fixing")

[drunkninja24]

My biggest blunder was killing a DVD drive on an Xbox 360 I was modding for a friend. Spent about 2 hours figuring everything out and getting it done, and then when I reassembled the system...I had put the power cable on the DVD drive in backwards. Turned the system on, smelled burned electronics, and went "oh fuck" because I knew exactly what I had done. Thankfully I had saved all the firmware info on my PC and had a spare drive from an old RROD'd 360 I had and was able to use that to get the system going again.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

1 PS2 controller (plastic ribbon hell)

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one, those plastic film circuits are nasty to get back into position.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I've yet to find a reason to open the controller that came with my PS2, and it's like 8yo right now. Very durable controller. I've played and replayed tons of action games with it too, and they usually require mad button mashing and analog twisting. Once it breaks, I'll happily throw it away. There's no need to repair it when a new replacement costs less than $20.

[BryanM]

My NES Zapper.

Nothing more tragic has ever happened to anyone, anywhere.

[handsome_rakshas]

Years ago me and my bud tried to region mod a US Gamecube to play JP games. We got it to work but couldn't get the points to stay soldered. I think we were drunk, so we filled the Gamecube with hot glue and returned it to the store. The whole incident is still a bit fuzzy.

[Vexorg]

I've fried a PC motherboard or two here and there, and I think I broke my Dell Axim X50v when I was trying to replace a broken digitizer some time ago. In theory it's still working, but the replacement digitizer was also hosed in the process, and would presumably need to be replaced again.

[ZOM]

Lots and lots of PS2 mobos: the first few modchips that appeared for it were a pain in the behind to solder.
Also, static electricity is a nasty thing...

[undamned]

Lots and lots of PS2 mobos: the first few modchips that appeared for it were a pain in the behind to solder.

I did a Magic 5 mod. Holy cow. Talk about a right of passage.
-ud

[Schrodinger's cat]

I broke the fan fuse for my ps2 while modding it years ago. That thing was so incredibly tiny. If I didn't have a multimeter, the ps2 would have been a brick in a landfill by now.

[BrianC]

I burnt out my US SMS's voltage regulator by accidentally plugging in the NES power adapter. Thankfully, it was an easy fix.

[ED-057]

I had a socket 1 486 board without the ZIF socket, and one time I was prying out a CPU which had a voltage adaptor on it for running the 3.3V CPU at 5V and one of the corner pins busted off. Once I dropped a screw on a 386 motherboard that was powered on and it died. And there were a couple of times that I was messing around inside laptops which I had unplugged but forgotten to remove the battery from resulting in their dying silently.

I have yet to kill anything via static discharge. Lately I've zapped my laptop several times but luckily the charge was safely dissipated by a chassis ground and not through important circuitry. I've developed the habit of touching a grounded metal PC case when I get out of bed to preemptively undo the static buildup.

[jonny5]

esp rade PCB.....trouble shooting a ground issue....plugged something in where it shouldnt be....

POP!!!..one of the chips on it blew up and caught on fire.....

sad day indeed

[emphatic]

esp rade PCB.....trouble shooting a ground issue....plugged something in where it shouldnt be....

POP!!!..one of the chips on it blew up and caught on fire.....

sad day indeed

Was it yours? I'm responsible for breaking a Ketsui PCB and it wasn't even mine.

[Leandro]

What a coincidence this thread showing up... Last week I just fucked up my Dreamcast while trying to install a modchip. After five years since I bought the modchip I decided to man up and try to install it. Guess what... I think I've melted a component in the DC's motherboard with the solder iron. Stupidity award for me.

[jonny5]

what exactly did you need a modchip in a dc for?

please dont say playing imports

and yes it was my esprade....my only PCB(and first) at the time....very sad day

[drunkninja24]

*sigh* Add another one to my list. I just bought a new Emotia on eBay to replace one I have that won't go into non-interlaced mode (it just changes the brightness of the screen). I get it in, transfer my cables to it, and it works perfectly. I then decide to fit my power connector (I'm using an ATX power supply wired to the 5-pin power of the Emotia) with the sleeve and such to get a more "permanent" end on it. I do this, connect it to the new Emotia, nothing. Plug it back into my old one, nothing. I figure something in the connector is screwed up, so I checked all my wiring and left the outer shell of the connector off as I had it before. My old unit worked just fine, but now my new unit won't display a picture...ugh, kinda bums me out, it worked SO well and I was SO happy to finally have a non-interlaced picture for my 360 on my cab

Guess I'll just have to keep my eye on eBay again for a while...