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#repair

26 posts23 participants1 post today

We’re expanding our partnership with HP by launching full support for the HP EliteBook 840 and 845 series G7, G8, and G9, and the 840 Aero G8.

That means free #repair guides, genuine parts, and quality tools for common repairs, such as battery and SSD replacements.

ifixit.com/HP

Just fixed another dumpster find, a Nespresso Pixi. Needed a new valve, so I had to take it apart completely...

... and boy howdy, I have never before seen a device held together by such an insane amount of latches, tabs, notches, and clips. Must have broken at least half of them, my fingers still hurt like hell 😖

It's actually pretty repairable overall, there's a super-detailed shop manual, and you can easily get replacement parts for a few € - once you finally get it open 😕

Über das lange Wochenende gibt es jede Menge Reparatur Cafés. Gerne mal mit einem defekten Gegenstand vorbeischauen!

Ein Reparaturcafé ist eine gute Anlaufstelle um unabhängig Expertise zu euren defekten Geräten zu bekommen.

#München #Ulm #Kiel #Erlangen #Düsseldorf #Neckarsulm #Bonn #Freiburg #Saarbrücken #Oldenburg #Berlin #Augsburg #Köln #Cottbus #Aachen #Chemnitz #Böblingen #Oberhausen #Diepholz #Neuenkirchen ... und viele mehr

reparatur-initiativen.de/termi

My new* Tjep / Kyocera** pneumatic nail-gun arrived. Part of the manual is a full breakdown of parts and functional description. Where reasonable parts are generic. Specialized parts are reasonably priced.

And it's not special: just about every manufacturer of (semi-)professional tools does this. And it's due to customer expectation, not a legislative requirement.

It really brings home how much we lost when it comes to consumer white goods like dishwashers***

1/2

Current patient: Harman-Kardon PM655 Vxi.

At the moment the right channel is only about 5% of the volume of the left one. Since this amp can be split (pre- vs. main amp) it was easy to find the problem is with the main amp section. Next step is to figure out what's wrong. There are several options, like a broken rail voltage supply or one of that ~15 transistors that precede the main output ones (those I've already checked).

so after repairing that ps2 fat yesterday, i noticed that it wasn't playing back Ico properly. the disc would attempt to spin up for a half second, retry several times, then give up for good.

the disc was in perfect shape.

i noticed that it was a blue/purple bottomed disc, which made me curious. as it turns out, the blue discs are CD-ROMs. there are very few of them for the PS2, and then almost always cause read problems.

in the 00's teenagers figured out that if you put two pieces of masking tape on opposite sides of the spindle hole of a CD, the PS2 would read the game properly. i was perplexed by this, because i couldn't find any explanation of why the "tape trick" worked. was it shimming a gap between the disc and the tray?

as it turns out, a very young kid named Denzel explained it perfectly in his 16 year old 3gp cell phone video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaaRs_

the problem is caused by a weak magnet used in the tray that hovers over the spindle. seen below, this white piece of plastic clamps down on top of the CD's "clamping area" (the perimeter of the donut hole). it is meant to both hold the disc level, *and* prevent the disc from slipping on the spindle.

since putting downforce weight/pressure on the spindle is a Bad Idea (motors don't love this), engineers embedded a magnet in the white plastic: when the plastic came close to the metal spindle, the magnetic forces sandwich CD between the spindle and white plastic. with enough magnetic grip, the CD wouldn't slip at all.

it works great for DVDs that spin at 4x.

unfortunately the PS2 engineers did not consider at least three things:
- playstation CD-ROMs are much heavier and more difficult to spin than DVDs, requiring more friction from the spindle.
- the CD-ROM in the ps2 spins at 24x. the motor goes into jet engine mode when it detects a CD. it needs *much* more sticky friction to keep that CD from slipping when the motor is sending your disc off into orbit.
- the cheapass fridge magnet inside of the plastic disc would lose their magnetism over time - due to various factors (EM fields, shock, heat). even a tiny percent change was enough to let a CD disc slip.

the solution? i stole a tiny strong button magnet from one of my fridge magnet toys. it very easily centered on the existing magnet, without needing glue.

this is information now buried in hundreds of shitty youtube videos and reddidiots *still* telling people to stick tape on their CDs.

Continued thread

some folks get really excited the more difficult the electronics repair is.

i am not one of them. if a game has an easy mode, i’m there 😅

this ps2 turned out to be ridiculously straightforward to fix. the drive wasn’t ejecting at all - not even showing a sign of wanting to eject.

the eject belt was good - a tad loose but certainly serviceable. i let it sit in hot water for 5 minutes.

the real cause of the non ejection was dried lubrication on the worm gear and sliders. a cleaning with IPA and polish with white lithium grease is all it took!

so for $30 CAD this little beast lives again 25 years after its inception.

One of our knives had an accident with a meat grinder. We're not throwing out a good piece of old stainless steel, the handle is great – just thinking how to shape the remaining part of the blade once the mangled tip is cut off.