"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
"Arfa Daily" writes:

"James Sweet" wrote in message
news:LjBHj.132$ta2.99@trndny05...


"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
"Jerry G." writes:

Most likely the power supply is blown and possibly other sections of
the VCR. I would be shopping for a new VCR rather than spending.

Why do you think other sections of the VCR are blown? It's usually
hard for a surge to get past a switchmode power supply. I had one
where
someone plugged it into 230 VAC by mistake somehow and the only
problem
was a blown fuse.

Nothing against him personally, but I don't recall Jerry *ever* saying
anything besides "take it to a tech", or "throw it away and buy a new
one"
in the years that I've been on here.

My own experience coincides with yours, power surges very rarely get
past
the first or second stage of the power supply in any piece of
equipment.
Unless it took a lightning strike, it's usually pretty simple to fix.

I repair many switchers in the course of my working life, and I would
also
concur. The 'failure to restart after a power outage' syndrome is in my
experience, most often caused by either the small cap which decouples the
supply to the switch mode controller IC, or the high value startup
resistor(s). The one place where I have had a faulty switcher cause
additional damage, is in el cheapo supermarket DVD players, where failure
of
under-rated secondary side filter electrolytics, can lead to the supply
being unable to regulate itself. This can result in the 5v or 12v rails
doubling, with the inevitable consequences to the LSIs dotted around on
the
main board. This is a 'just out of interest' comment, and not to do with
power surges finding their way through switchers, of course ...

Another out of interest comment is that I had one of these cheap DVD
players with exactly those symptoms and replacing caps restored it to
perfect working condition despite 19 V on the 12 V line, or was it the
5 V line? Chips are tough.

Except when it's important for them to be !! I reckon that you fell into the
"lucky 50%" with that one, Sam. The next one you have like it, might well
put you into the unlucky 50% ... Boy, can those fried chips take the skin
off your fingertips :-(

Arfa