XPost: alt.home.repair   
   From: NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com   
      
   In sci.electronics.repair, on Wed, 23 Jul 2025 03:41:17 -0000 (UTC),   
   David LaRue  wrote:   
      
   >micky  wrote in   
   >news:davv7ktveur5bjavpfjtasv4po0hlhhu0j@4ax.com:   
   >   
   >> I don't think I posted abou this problem to SER before because it was   
   >> just a good story the lsst time but the new chapter starts at the   
   >> asterisks***  Giving the old chapter for the newly added ng.   
   >>   
   >> Old chapter.  Bought a Kenwood DVDR, 3875 iirc with Hardrive about 2010.   
   >> Used it heavily, recording and watching abougt 3 hours each a day, plus   
   >> a lot of live watching, until 2024 until it broke completely, wouldn't   
   >> light up.   
   >>   
   >> Bought another one just like it on Ebay, then opened the broken one.   
   >> Thought it was the power supply of course.  Didn't have a meter yet, but   
   >> looking and found a button, a little block button pointing up from a   
   >> 1/4" square  (with rivets on each corner).  Just like Alice in   
   >> Wonderland or Dorothy on her trip to Oz, I was compelled to push the   
   >> button, and the DVDR lit up and seemed to work completely. nothing   
   >> mentioned about it in the owners manual or the wiring diagram or the   
   >> Repair manual for a similar device by Kenwood.  The button was labeled   
   >> Reset Sw.  and it did.  I guess they keep these things secret for a   
   >> reason.   
   >>   
   >> ***So I'd installed the "new" one and I've been recording and watching   
   >> it for maybe 9 months when the picture and sound disappeared on what I   
   >> was watching, and on every other channel at the same time.  Came back a   
   >> few seconds later.  Repeated that a few times over the next day.  Then   
   >> went blank and didn't come back except for a striped red and black   
   >> screeen for a few seconds.  Then all black while the timer kept   
   >> recording three times a day.  They were all black too.  (I could still   
   >> play my prior recordigns and I have about 50 hours of them before I have   
   >> to put back the original DVDR.)   
   >>   
   >> What does this indicate to you?  A failed part?  What kind of part?   A   
   >> cold solder connection?   Do you think I can find it by looking?  Where   
   >> a part is soldered in?   Or a broken trace?   Something else?   Do y ou   
   >> think there is a second push-button for this situation?   
   >>   
   >> I don't remember if there is a separate tuner board, but I presume that   
   >> is the place to look the most.  It has both analog and digital but I   
   >> don't think I have analog to test it with.   
   >>   
   >> New chapter.  Then today, I forgot that it doesn't work and turned it on   
   >> for the 5PM televison and it's been working fine for 30 minutes.  All   
   >> stations of course.  Does that change what you said two paragraphs up?   
   >   
   >May need cleaning.  Ants, bugs, love electronics and can short out things.   
   >I regularly need to blow out my laptop to keep it running.  I bought it   
   >second hand after a company used it for 6 years.  I'm going on year 16   
   >which is a long time for a laptop that is used more like a desktop and   
   >always on.  Very stable.   
   >   
   >BTW, after cleaning let it sit for a while before turning it on if any   
   >moisture was used to clean it.  Even a damp rag clens up well but will   
   >short it all out if you power it on before it fully dries.   
   >   
   >For smaller electronics and closed cases with ventilation holes sometimes a   
   >can of air will do wonders.   
      
   I'll try all that you said.  I have't had screens in my windows for over   
   10 years and bugs have been known to come in.   There were stinkbugs one   
   summer 8 years ago and I keep finding them in piles of papers, that seem   
   not to have moved in 8 years but are still alive.)   But it will take a   
   while, because a) if I dont' watch the 50 hours already recorded before   
   I disconnect the machine, I'll never watch them. (OTOH, I can't watch   
   anything new.  It worked for 40 minutes this morning and then stopped   
   just as Beaver was going to have confess to being arrested for stealing   
   a rowboat (which he didn't actually steal). But I still wanted to know   
   what happened to him and I won't know for another 120 or so episodes and   
   they repeat it again.   and                b) it has a bunch of wires   
   connected and I have to take photos or make notes so I connect the new   
   (old) one right.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)