Saturday, November 13, 2010

Do not fear electronics, Google and YouTube make us all a jack of all trades

 Hey, you will never believe what I did recently. Our fridge went on the fritz (new 2007 model), digital control panel blinking and ice door opening closing. Maytag wanted $100 to look and possible $200 to replace the electronic motherboard inside. So i did some research on the web, found that this model had problems with the electronic motherboard and one guy posted that he repaired his by replacing 2 bad capacitors on the motherboard with a solder pen........... I decided to try it. Even as comfortable I am with electronics, motherboards and solder irons have always scared me. Well, i bought the capacitors at radio shak for $4, had the solder iron already, and removed the old capacitors and soldered the new ones on and it fired right up..... I was stoked!.... In another electronics success story I have a friend at work that spilled a beer on his Macbook laptop last year and it turned off, never worked again for him... I asked him the other day if he still had it and he had bought another $1000 macbook and just left this one to garbage.... I offered him $50, knowing that I could open it up and clean up all the circuit boards with rubbing alcohol and taking a chance it would work. Even if it didnt I knew I could sell it for parts on EBAY for $150.. so it was a win/win. Well, i took it home, opened it up, spent 10 minutes on cleaning the motherboards and corrossion from the brew, and it fired up within 20 minutes..... So I have a nice christmas present now for xmas.. So if you have any IPOD, macbook, iphone, etc that has been dunked in a beer or swimming pool, I will gladly take it off your hands!   Brett