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?

jak