Harry Bloomfield wrote on 30/10/2009 :
Rather a confused tale, sorry...

She says that it sometimes just flashes all of the lights quickly. I saw it
briefly - turned its power off at the mains, back on and it seemed to be back
to normal.

Several sites suggest the all lights flashing indicates a fairly common
fault, which is a faulty main board. EMW Electronics suggests the same
and supply refurbed PCB's for £44.90.

I tried to track down a local place from which I have got hold of used
parts before for this machine, but could not find them in the phone
book. Tried a more upmarket repairers just around the corner from them,
to see if they would provide their name or phone number, but they were
not very helpful. All they wanted to do was supply and fit a new PCB
and a new mystery part for the grand sum of 2/3rds of the original cost
of the new machine. They were not even willing to offer the PCB to me,
far too difficult for DIY replacement said they.

So I pulled out the main PCB and took a good close look at it. Round
the back of the machine, you remove a small oval plastic cover, remove
the self tapper below it which retains the PCB's casing, then take off
the much larger belt/motor access panel too wiggle out the PCB in its
white case. C17, a 680uF 10v electrolitic cap had some mild signs of
swelling on top, so I replaced it with new 1000uf 10v from stock.

It is on its third test run at the moment, with no sign of the fault
recurring. Far too difficult indeed.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk