Forget the warranty, if it is under 30 days old (90 for some stores) just
take it back to the place of purchase for an exchange or return.

If you do try to fix it, finding the spot is what you need to worry about
now, how to fix should be evident when you know what it is. Cold solder
joints, especially in a simple circuit like this, are usually found by just
poking at every connection you can find.

Temperature sensitivity in electronic components usually goes the other way,
they work better when cool, in general, but the same cannot be said about
interconnects. In a case like this, disassembly followed by reassembly has
a better than 50/50 chance of fixing it without knowing the root cause.

Try leaving it plugged in all day into the night. See if it turns off at a
particular time or flickers ever. Can I assume it does not have a light
detector or other automatic switch and the plug you have it plugged into is
not on a switch or timer itself.


"Jim Elbrecht" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 3 May 2006 06:30:44 -0500, (m Ransley)
wrote:

New =warranty, fix it=waste of time.

Sometimes warranty=waste of time & fixit=quicker.

A couple years ago I had a treadmill that would shutoff unexpecedly.
Company was great- they shipped a new electric panel out on a phone
call. I could have waited another week for a tech to install it, but
I was without the treadmill for a week already, so I installed it.
It didn't cure it. So I spent an hour with a voltmeter & trying
to read the schematic and found a ground wire with a loose screw.

If I had been lucky the tech that I talked to would have said- 'check
the screws at a,b,c, to be sure there is a good ground'.

I'm with the OP-- hey, it's Usenet-- bound to be someone who passed
this way before. Worth trying, anyway.

To the OP-- anyway you can isolate the connections enough to cool one
at a time-- or cool just the circuitboard? Or maybe it would be
easier to warm them up at night?

[It couldn't be a photocell installed screwy, so they only work when
the sun shines, could it?]

I'd probably still give the company a call. If you're lucky they can
give you a phone fix-- or send you a new circuitboard. Then if you
find it is something else you've got a spare board.

Jim