Ridiculous repairs

[Fallingwater]

As tech-savvy people, I bet most of us get asked by friends, relatives and other people to perform repairs on their electronic equipment.

I don't mind this, because I always find some way to have the favour returned (sometimes money is the best way ), but it has occasionally caused me to want to headbutt the people who ask for ridiculous repairs.

So let's share our stories

- Just yesterday a friend asked me if I could have a look at her cd player. She dug it out of a drawer, gave it to me and said, I repeat, said "there's something wrong with it. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't work".
So I take it home, and of course first thing I want to do is pop open the battery cover, give it some energy and see if it runs.
I pop the battery cover and I see two tired, old alkalines practically immersed in battery fluid. After a good "ewww!" I get the cells out, scrub everything clean, connect my power supply to the contacts and sure enough the thing powers up and plays the CD just fine.

- Another girl I know pestered me for two weeks to look at her scanner because "it didn't work". I specifically asked, inbetween other things, "have you made sure its DC adapter is plugged in". She said yes. *sigh*

- A guy asks me to look at his blown desk lamp. I have a look and sure enough all four 12v halogen bulbs are a mess: darkened to the point of being unable to see the filament, and one of the lamps has actually broken inside.
Suspecting something is seriously amiss I pull out the multimeter and measure the voltage across the lamp terminals.
220VAC?!?
I ask him and he gets a guilty look on his face. He says the power supply was making weird noises, so he opened it up, disconnected the input AC wires and bridged them to the output DC ones.
When asked how could he possibly come up with something so stupid he says he thought the little box was only there so he could change the output of the light. *sigh*

- And of course, an old favourite. Cordless phone doesn't work. Upon further inspection, it turns out the owner has replaced the old, dead 6v DC adapter with a 24v one he had around. "But the plug is the same!"

 

[Fallingwater]

As tech-savvy people, I bet most of us get asked by friends, relatives and other people to perform repairs on their electronic equipment.

Or not.

 

[creampuff]

I am often called the "computer guy" at work. I remember when my boss was frustrated trying to exit MS Word.

He finally called me over, and said I can't close down this program!!!!!!

The screen had "Do you want to save...Yes, No, Cancel". He kept hitting "Cancel" all afternoon but could not exit Word thinking Cancel means exit...hmmm....


Later he asked for help with MS Excel. He couldn't get his spreadsheet to print properly. Sure enough...he entered all the data 30 across by 25 down...all into ONE cell. He was using the space bar to visually line up his data, all in that one cell. Sigh...

 

[MarNav1]

Two teenage girls brought in their Geo Metro to the service station. The motor was knocking badly and the oil light was on. Pulled the dipstick, nothing. Started putting in oil and was going on the ground as fast as I poured it in. Put the car on the lift, the sump for the oil pan was
GONE! We asked them how long have you been driving it this way? Oh a few hours they said. Whadaya gonna do? They didn't know where the oil pan went.

 

[KingGlamis]

Right after high-school (1988) I got a job at a Cadillac dealer as a lot porter. I know this might sound like an urban legend but I swear it is true. A woman's Caddy came in on a tow truck because it had broke down. The car had a lot of miles on it, I think 60,000+ if I remember correctly. The service writer asked her when was the last time she had the oil changed? With a blank stare she said something to the effect of "What is oil?" She NEVER checked or changed the oil in 60,000+ miles. The engine was toast.

 

[Marduke]

Right after high-school (1988) I got a job at a Cadillac dealer as a lot porter. I know this might sound like an urban legend but I swear it is true. A woman's Caddy came in on a tow truck because it had broke down. The car had a lot of miles on it, I think 60,000+ if I remember correctly. The service writer asked her when was the last time she had the oil changed? With a blank stare she said something to the effect of "What is oil?" She NEVER checked or changed the oil in 60,000+ miles. The engine was toast.

And you wonder why they are now making 15000 mile oil when you should still NEVER wait that long. I've known several mechanics that complained of customers who would only come in every 10000 or 15000 wondering why their car was acting up. Guess when the only time they get their oil changed is? Every 10000 or 15000 miles when they brought it in because their car was acting up...

 

[turbodog]

I saw this at the local body/etc shop. There were multiple eyewitness accounts and even a photo of the car.

Woman brings car in for flapping/thumping noise in the front end area. Service writer takes a look and asks here if she has bothered to look up there. She says no, of course.

The noise was coming from a DEAD RABBIT that was hanging (by his head) out of the lower part of the front of her car's bumper (sort of an air intake slot).

Dang.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

And you wonder why they are now making 15000 mile oil when you should still NEVER wait that long. I've known several mechanics that complained of customers who would only come in every 10000 or 15000 wondering why their car was acting up. Guess when the only time they get their oil changed is? Every 10000 or 15000 miles when they brought it in because their car was acting up...

I had a girlfriend like that once! I changed her oil and when I went to empty the drain pan, I couldn't. It was like pouring hardened grease. I had to heat up the drain pan before I could empty it. She had no clue when the oil had been changed last, yet somehow the car still ran......

:buddies:

 

[Mash]

As the saying goes:
The more we design things to be idiot proof, the more we contribute to the evolution of a higher breed of idiots!
(or thereabouts!)

 

[knot]

ATT (now comcast) came over to lay cable and get my computer online. The tech spent many hours trying to get me online with ATT software. Eventually he gave up and stated that I needed to reinstall windows. After he left, I uninstalled my network adapter and reinstalled it and got online - and without their software. They waived the $90 installation fee.


I have a friend who's computer wouldn't post - dust in memory slot.

 

[Martin]

An old lady talked to my mother if I could have a look at her radio. For many years, every year, she had unlocked the back cover, removed all valves and cleaned each of them. She also cleaned the other components like capacitors, filters, transformers, speakers, rectifier. This time, when she had put everything back according to the plan on the back cover, the radio wouldn't work any more. Too bad I never had the time to look at it.

My most ridiculous repair was a CD-player with the CD put in upside down.

 

[MarNav1]

Are Valves European for tubes?

 

[yuandrew]

Yep

Valve is to Vacuum Tube as in Torch is to Flashlight


My favorite has always been my dad thinking that the windshield wipers on our Camry were supposed to be automatic. Well, one rainy day, he told me to check the windshield wipers as they were not working. I pulled the lever and they came on like they were supposed to. When he saw that, he said "You have to turn them on ? I though all cars today were supposed to have rain-sensing windshield wipers."

Same thing with trying to use the key fob for the car alarm to unlock the front door.

 

[Lite_me]

I put together a computer out of spare parts I had laying around for my elderly mother a few years ago, and after having it for awhile and teaching her a few things about how to use it, she says ... "I know what you need this for..." (points to the keyboard), "and I know what you need this for..." (points to the monitor), "but what do you need this for?" ....points to the tower.

 

[scott.cr]

LOL. Great stories all around.

One of my college roomies had a desk lamp, one of those pivoting-head types with an "elbow." One evening he grabbed his lamp and moved the head, bingo, no lights in our room. Or any other dorm room in our wing for that matter.

The circuit breaker will NOT stay in the "ON" position.

After fooling around with it for a while we sorta say together, it couldn't have been the lamp could it? I mean, something as innocuous as moving a lamp head couldn't be responsible for popping the breaker could it?

So we unplug the lamp. The breaker goes on and stays on.

HMMMMMMM...

Turns out that the lamp was sending 120 VAC up the two little arms that join the head to the base. At the "elbow" there's a through-bolt to keep everything parallel. The only thing insulating hot wire from neutral? A layer of paint. A LAYER OF PAINT!!!

We rebuilt the lamp using a plastic screw, but I warned my roomie he's taking his life into his own hands with that firebomb on his desk. One guess as to where this lamp was made. (Hint: You do not want to be in a frontal offset crash test in one of their cars.)

 

[Fallingwater]

Resurrecting this thread cos I have a nice one. Long post, but it's worth it, trust me.

Me and my friends decide to take a short mountain trip in a town not very far from here. A girl who's only recently started going out with us says her family has a small apartment there that they use only during vacations, and we can sleep there. Everybody agrees, but she asks someone goes up with her a day before to help her prepare it. Always ready to socialize, and not having anything better to do, I volunteer.

So we go there, she parks the car in the garage and says she has to make a phone call to her parents. Since phone reception is awful in the apartment she stays outside, and when the call evidently becomes a long affair she gives me the keys and tells me to go up and open the windows.

I get in and flick the nearest light switch. Darkness remains undisturbed. I pull out my EDC flashlight and go looking for the circuit breaker, which sure enough is off. I turn it on, flick the switch again, and again the light doesn't come on. I do notice a screwdriver is inside the breaker cabinet, so I figure the thing is just prone to blowing fuses and needs frequent maintenance. I shrug and open the windows.

A good half hour later the girl comes up, goes to the breaker cabinet, grabs the screwdriver and jams it with all her might in a hole in the breaker casing! Big spark, and the lights come on. She takes a few seconds to notice my disbelieving stare, then goes "what?" like it's the most normal thing in the world.

After my somewhat upset inquiry on her actions and mental sanity, she explains.

Turns out the breaker had that hole for a status lamp. Said lamp was never mounted at the factory, and the hole was never filled in (this I figured out myself). The breaker worked fine for a while, then failed without explanation. She thought she'd open it up and see where the problem was, so she got a screwdriver and stuck it in what she assumed was a hole with a screw inside. There was a big spark, and the breaker worked again. Ever since then (several years) that's how they got the system working every time they went there. "Hey, what's the problem? It works."

After several minutes of angrily ranting at her about electrical safety I go and inspect the mess (after switching off the main breaker downstairs, of course). Turns out the hole is right above a fuse fitting inside the breaker. The wire for said fuse takes a loop above the fitting before going to the other components.

The fuse blew long ago, which caused the first outage. When the screwdriver was stuck inside for the first time it broke the insulation of the wire looping above the fitting and jammed the now-uninsulated wire against the metal terminal on the fitting. Result: contact, sparks, and power. The girl randomly tells me she often has to "rummage around a lot" with the screwdriver for the contact not to be intermittent.

So now I'm staring at the innards of the thing, darkened by many years of sparking, and I'm wondering if I should repair it, exorcise it or just leave it the hell alone and tell the girl to call a certified electrician. I tell the girl to make the call, but she (somewhat sensefully) points out it's vacation time, and finding an electrician in a small town such as that would be all but impossible.

So I very carefully undo the fuse assembly, scrub the fuse fitting clean, replace the broken, messed up wire with some out of a power cord, screw the whole thing back together and then go ask the neighbours for a replacement fuse. Once that's put in place and the breakers are turned on, the lights come to life.

I rant some more to the girl about electrical safety and not jamming screwdrivers into mains equipment if she wants to avoid an electrifying experience, but she looks at me with the bored attitude of an eight-year-old whose mom is telling her not to eat too much candy.

The rest of the vacation went without incident, but I always spared a worried glance at the breaker every time I went near it.

I'd say all's well that ends well, but I'm worried the girl will end up killing herself out of sheer idiocy. Much more than that, I'm worried that she'll end up killing someone else. What if I hadn't seen all of that, and the poor thing had caught fire while we were all sleeping at her place? What if it catches fire when nobody's home and the whole building gets torched?

*sigh*

 

[Illum]

Fallingwater, this reminds me of the time when I was in China visiting distant relatives in a relatvely primitive side of town. no indoor plumbing and no private shower stalls. being the curiosity part of the family I looked around the residence when no ones looking...

I opened up their "breaker panel" and was shocked, no really, shocked by the method they kept the power flowing. the fuse was popped, blackened and laid on the bottom of the box. what I can see are what appears to be paperclips, bent in an A shaped and stuck in the fuse traces:candle:

as far as my efforts in ridiculous repairs...most of the time fits batteries. whether its "the garage door opener is broken," "the camera wouldn't flash," my laser flickers" or "the smoke alarm wouldn't shut up" its usually batteries and not anything else.

 

[sawlight]

To go along with the car theme, I WAS THE BRAIN DEAD ONE in this story!!!!

My g/f at the time, wife now, probably seventeen years ago, took her EXP/Escort in for service. I was a mecahnical genuis, just ask me i'd tell ya, and she showed me the ticket. They had put ATF in a manual transmission!!! I called up an ripped the manager a new one, I couldn't belive they had done something so STUPID!!! Any moron knew better than that!!!
After my screaming, he stated "That sir is what the factory calls for, please call the dealer and find out." I WILL!!!! And I did, yup, had to call back and apoliigize:mecry:

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

+1 on batteries. I've exorcised innumerable electronic demons just by replacing the batteries. Tell the person that's what I did, and I get the "But I did that!" Really now? Did you replace the battery with a new one fresh out of a package? Or did you rummage around in the drawer and find a loose one, and put that in? Mmm hmmm, and where were you going to put the battery you just took out of the ailing device? Yep, that's what I thought................... are we seeing a pattern here?

When I bought my Mr2, the previous owner/idiot had installed a big subwoofer and amp by himself. No fuse or circuit breaker on the 4awg power cable running directly from the battery to the amp, and splices in the cable made by twisting and taping. No solder, no crimping, and running the cable through holes in sheet metal with no grommet at all. The loose end that'd been disconnected from the amp still had an inch of bare conductor on the end and was sitting on the carpet under the passenger seat. It wasn't capped or anything, just waiting for a sharp turn to throw it against a metal seat bracket. Fortune sure favors the foolish; I'm amazed it didn't burn the car to the ground.

There's a reason I charge more to repair a device if someone else has messed with it first. :buddies:

 

[Illum]

instead of soldering, some people go for hand splicing: strip the rubber off the wire and duct tape the ends together.

Duct tape can conduct electricity, it can burn too. this could be very very exciting, but not for the right reasons:shakehead

I've friends who tests 9Vs by licking...and capacitors also by licking. I mean gee, does it bother you THAT much to buy a multimeter and stop borrowing mine to test your batteries using my multimeter set on the amp function and then complain that my multimeter was faulty?!:scowl: