"jakdedert" ha scritto nel messaggio
...
It's that time of year again. Yeah, I know, I know...I need whole house
surge protection....

Argh !

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).

For the TVs, open them, and first control the fuse : if it's blow, change
it. You maybe lucky ! Or, if it didn't work, or the fuse re-blows, change
the bridge rectificator, and even the 110v filter cap and the line filter...
if this didn't fix, you may try to change *all* the components in the power
supply, all resistances, all caps, all inductors, the ic, all transistors,
everything. Value if this is worth the price of the TV. This may cost from
10 to 15 dollars. If the damage isn't only in the power supply, but has
affected uP, EEPROM and other ICs value if they have a low cost and then try
to change them... if they have an high cost, junk the set !

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

They didn't charge but can take the line ? In this case, they're
recuperable, but if they didn't take the line, they're junk !

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?

Read above.

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.

Hum, for the second VCR with the non-functioning display : verify that there
are +33V to make the FPD work ! If they aren't present, try the diodes and
electrolytic caps on the secondary of the power supply. Also try to change
the fuseable resistors...

One TV is just flat out dead, while the other--a VCR combo--has no
picture/sound, although transport functions 'appear' to work. Everything

Test power supply, for more info reply...
affected has already been unplugged and left to unscramble itself; but
only

one piece, a Technics receiver, actually improved after that treatment.

You was lucky ;-).

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.

Does it turn on ? Test the PSU ! If the damage is extended on the
mother-board you can discard it or ebay for mechanical spares that are 100%
good.

I.