On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 08:06:06 +0100, "N Cook"
wrote:

"Sam Goldwasser" wrote in message
...
"jakdedert" writes:

It's that time of year again. Yeah, I know, I know...I need whole house
surge protection....

I don't have it, and I got bitten fairly big time yesterday. Two TV's,
Two
VCR's, Two cordless phones, a laser printer/fax/scanner combo, and a cel
phone charger...so far (things keep coming up dead).

The question is: is there even any point to opening any of this stuff
up? I
mean, it was all bought second-hand to begin with, and has given me good
service. I'll bet I don't have $250 in the entire lot...but of course
acquiring replacements at that price involves a lot of waiting/searching
for
deals.

I opened one of the cordless phones (the phone won't even charge..the
handset was off hook during the strike). It appears from in-circuit
testing
that all the transistors on the board (4 of them) are suspect. Given
that,
is there any hope that the several LSI chips on board have survived?

One VCR is acting like it has a tape inserted, although none is...shuts
off
after trying to load the nonexistant tape. The other is basically
working,
but on-board display is scrambled, and several channels seem locked into
SAP
mode (although there is no menu option for selecting/deselecting SAP),
while
the rest seem okay.

One TV is just flat out dead, while the other--a VCR combo--has no
picture/sound, although transport functions 'appear' to work.
Everything
affected has already been unplugged and left to unscramble itself; but
only
one piece, a Technics receiver, actually improved after that treatment.

The expensive all-in-one HP 2300m will probably bear at least a 'looking
into', but the rest may just be so much landfill. I don't think I can
even
trust them for spare parts.

Whaddaya all think?

Yeah, that sucks. Once it gets past the power supply, probably not worth
much time. And, as you say, even keeping the electronic parts is probably
worse than useless. The motors are probably good though.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ Mirror:
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You remember the business of the Russian's military using valve/tube stuff
well into solid state era belatedly realised to be because it is EMP
resistant.
Anyone know how ordinary domestic radios in the valve era fared with
lightning strikes ?

Very well, except for an occasional power transformer, or if a long
wire antenna was used, the rf coils would sometimes open. Chuck