I've had a run of some pretty terrifyingly destroyed player units come in for repair recently. Some of them have really required a huge, and I mean Huge anount of work to fix, the majority of which I can't, realisitically, charge for - it would be cheaper for the owner to simply pick another one up off eBay. However, I don't like scrapping these devices, as they are otherwise pretty tough little beasts. There is a finite number of them in circulation, and every one destroyed is one less in the community. There's still a lot of spares left, and a lot or repairable units in my possession that I will be repairing in the future.

The one thing that these "Horror Stories" have had in common (and I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in particular - this is a general message to every owner) is that the owner, or the owner's mate, or someone down at the workshop, has had a go at "fixing" it. The results are sometimes good, but mostly - BAD.

I can repair a lot of the faults, including pretty major ones, but the majority of my time seems to be sorting out the wreckge resulting from less-than-expert attempts at repairing things after reading the FAQ. The most typical one is the IDE header, which is seen somehow as "The Golden Fix" - it's not, believe me. The tracking around this area is fragile enough without them being badly overheated and then being loosened from the board - instant death to the PCB. Without checking if there are other faults present first, and just dabbing away with a dirty iron and hoping it will fix things, you are taking a big, unqualified risk with your player that it may not survive. The second most frequent - and most difficult to repair - failure is the CS4231A, which is connected to the IDE header (indirectly). It's a notoriously sensitive flower that just needs to be sneezed on to die young Solder that header at your own risk, and tread gently.

Don't forget something - the more time I have to spend clearing up the wreckage, the more it costs YOU afterwards.

So please, do me a favour - and your own bank balances - think twice before opening the lid and diving in there with your blunderbuss of a soldering iron under a kitchen light.... you may regret it.