Trying to fix my stereo

[theinevitable]

So, a month or so ago my stereo receiver died. I tried to fix it by replacing a burnt-out fuse, but the fuse immediately blew again. JL and another friend on Facebook both suggested there's a short somewhere in there. How do I find this? Wires touching? Something unscrewed that shouldn't be?

My dad was/is incredulous that I would try to fix it instead of buying a new one. Apparently he does not remember what it is like to not have income.

[jay-ell]

Do you have one of those little doohickeys that looks like a screwdriver that tests for hot wires? Go to the electrical tools section of your local big-box hardware store and get one. They're a couple of bucks, and they can help you figure out which direction the current is supposed to be traveling.

Here's an online guide that might help you, assuming you know as much or more about circuitry as I do. If you don't, you probably shouldn't be messing around with it. I'd be afraid to try to fix something like that, and I consider myself fairly handy.

Good luck, though, and let us know what you learn and how it comes out.

[theinevitable]

yeah, I think if it's anything more than crossed wires or an unscrewed screw, I should not electrocute myself by trying to fix it.

[jay-ell]

If it just up and stopped working, I'd suspect loose wires or perhaps some cracked insulation that's allowing two hot wires to touch  and causing a short. That kind of thing can easily happen in a move.

[linear]

I recommend against the tool JL is recommending here.  Those specific tools will probably be configured to allow you to test an outlet, or a 12 volt system.  If used on the internal workings of a stereo, such a tool might pull too much current from whatever it's connected to, thereby effectively shorting/burning it out. 

You can use a multimeter on it's volt meter setting without fear of hurting anything.

It could be a screw or some bit of debris is floating around inside and has come in contact with two conductors, thereby shorting them out. 

It could also be that the step down transformer has shorted it's self out.  If it has, well, it would take a certain amount of experience and expertise to figure out a suitable replacement for it.  Many appliances these days won't have a step down transformer, and will instead use a switching transformer, which means there is no wire wound transformer, rather, the step down of the voltage is accomplished with high speed switching electronic doo hickeys... For appliances that have an external transformer, the way you can tell the difference is that the old-fashioned transformer is heavy, the switching transformer is very lightweight.  old-style transformers burn a lot of electricity, even when the appliance is not drawing much current such as when it is off, whereas, switching transformers generally don't draw more current than is needed by the appliance at any given point in time.  Switching transformers also may offer better protection against surges that can be induced in a transformer when the electricity supply is rapidly cycled off and on.

If you would like to better pin point the location of the problem in your stereo, I would recommend installing a good sized bolt in place of the fuse.  If something is shorted out, and your fuse is bypassed in this manner, then the item that is shorted out may act as a fuse, and burn up and/or explode.  The downside to this is that the item that acts as the fuse is the weakest link in the chain... It could be the item that is shorted out can tolerate more current than another item in series with it, in which case the other item may smoke before the shorted item smokes.  For this method to be effective, it may be necessary to reset your house's circuit breaker several times, or even to entirely bypass the circuit breaker.  This entails opening the fuse box or breaker box of your house, something that you should not do for obvious reasons.  Find a convenient time when a friend is not home and do it at the friend's house instead.

good luck!

[KeithHernandez]

I stopped reading after Linear's first few lines, cause this ain't my problem and I don't really care, but the dude is right again.  My roommate builds tube amps and is hella good with electronics, he is fixing his record player and was all bitching about getting a mutimeter, so that is probably what you need.

[lprkn]

knowledge

Nice

[AugustWest]

Also, you can get a multimeter for about 10 bucks at Lowe's or the like.

[jay-ell]

This is why I don't try to repair electronics. Rewiring a light switch? Yes. Repairing a DVD player? Nah, lemme drive to Best Buy and see what's on sale.

Thanks for helping out, Linear. It's nice to see you contributing to other people's threads sometimes.

[linear]

you're very kind to use the plural "threads" because it might be the only time this has happened in months.

So I found a book I have titled "how to test everything electronic" or some such, I think I got it from Jameco.com.  I'm giving it to some people I know who are into that sort of stuff.  For me, life's too short.

Hmmm.  Metaphorically speaking, aren't we all trying to fix our broken stereos? 

On the one end of the spectrum, we have the cat ladies, and the people who collect trash in their house until it's literally full.  Those people seem to fascinate us.  Maybe these people are so interesting because their dysfunction is right out there in the open.  Would that our own dysfunction should be so easy to identify.  Of course, for these people, their dysfunction is not easy for them to identify, just as for us, whatever dysfunction we may have, is not easy for us to identify.  The dysfunction I'm talking about is a subtle interweaving of personal psychology and the culture of our society resulting in us all building these metaphorical pyramids, or in some respects, literal pyramids of landfill detritus.

I'm thinking of going to college, but that means continuing to play the game for a few more years... After that... then what?  Get a job doing something?  Don't get me wrong.  It wouldn't be a 9-5 job.  It'd be a job in cybernetics.  Because I'd get a degree in cybernetics.  And cybernetics jobs can be interesting, that's for sure.  But then again, maybe I'd just end up anyway, walking away from it all, and they'd find my clothing scattered somewhere down the tracks.  Maybe.  And if that's the case, maybe I should walk away now, before I throw 10 more years at this beast.  Play in the system?  Or find the system outside the system?  Can you do both?

How does one make such a decision?  Steer your life one way or another, start a course one way or another, each way being different, and lasting for years

it seems to me that if one is making such a choice, then one probably isn't making the right choice.  life should not be binary, either or... that's too simple.. life is more complex than that. 

this has been thinking out loud, with Stuart Smalley.

IT'S A MANS WORLD
LETS FUCK IT UP

one of the banners carried in the May Day protest in which I got arrested.

[greenkoolayd]

blablabla

[AugustWest]

After that... then what? 

Chop wood.  Carry water.

[linear]

blablabla

I get the impression that there is some sort of fundamental view of the world in which we differ.  You don't perchance believe that being poor/unemployed/homeless is generally the fault of the person who is poor/unemployed/homeless?  A sort of character flaw?  Laziness?  I was recently on a road trip with a girl from Hungary who believed this.  Maybe ju and her are amigos?

[linear]

Chop wood.  Carry water.

Right, that's what I'm saying... While the white immigrants were engaged in such activities, the Indians saw these activities, and concluded that these white people were insane.

[greenkoolayd]

I get the impression that there is some sort of fundamental view of the world in which we differ.  You don't perchance believe that being poor/unemployed/homeless is generally the fault of the person who is poor/unemployed/homeless?  A sort of character flaw?  Laziness?  I was recently on a road trip with a girl from Hungary who believed this.  Maybe ju and her are amigos?

actually, it was just how i felt about that reply.  i avoid your opinions if i can help it.