About two years ago I purchased a DVD/VHS player from the nice people at Sears. It wasn’t cheap, but it did work very well. It’s been in storage for about a year, now, since I’ve been moving around doing research for for my novels. I finally took it out of storage and hooked it up the other day. It didn’t work. No power, and the DVD eject button had fallen into the case.
So out cane the small Phillips head screwdriver, and I crawled under my desk to unplug the power cord from the power strip. I opened the case – carefully, it’s all plastic clips backed up by a few screws, and the clips can break off with only a little effort on the part of your fat fingers.
There was no spring behind the eject button, and never had been. Two very tiny posts held the eject button in place on the lower rail on the inside of the plastic front of the case, and they were flexible enough to bend, allowing a contact to be made or perhaps a light beam to be broken; I’m not sure which, but I tend to believe the broken beam theory on this one. They were flexible enough to bend until they weren’t.
I couldn’t see any reason why the player wasn’t getting power; no bare wires touching, no loose cable, no nothing. There isn’t much in the way of repairable stuff in these things, at all, actually. I’ve been around electronic stuff long enough to know a real mystery when I see one, and this qualified for that label in spades. Well, there’s no reason to fix something if You can’t find anything broken, so I moved on.
I used one side of a piece of double-stick tape to secure the eject button in place against the inside rail on the plastic front of the player, and put the player back together. It seemed to work okay, so I crawled back under my work table and plugged the power cord back in.
When I did, I accidentally leaned on the on/off switch for the power strip, and the little red light came on. I was shocked – shocked, I say.
After easing myself out from under the table, I moved around to the front of the player and turned it on. It worked. I gently pressed on the DVD eject button, and the DVD tray slid out. I pressed again, and it slid back in. Just like it used to.
It is a good rule of thumb to avoid using these buttons, ever. One should always use a remote control. I’m not sure how that button became dislodged, but since it’s been moved around so much over the past year, I am surprised it works at all. but it does. Now.
Despite my best efforts, perhaps, but it does.
Double-stick tape goes right up there with duct tape and super glue, as far as I’m concerned. Windex is good, too.
Gary's space 