Do you ever tinker with things when maybe you shouldnt consoles computers etc

So I am thinking that maybe this is an Autisitc thing or maybe its a tech loving thing so I thought id turn to you good people and see if any of the rest of you are like this.

When I was really young I took apart a popeye game and watch down to component level to see if I could get it working again after it stopped working. Over the years I have built a lot of computers but I always seem to try to do a little more.

The other day I got a 2TB Hybrid Hard drive and decided I could install it in to my Dell Latitude Laptop and this kind of cascaded into messing with the partitions on another laptop and screwing windows up, to then installing linux on the same screwed up laptop to get it running again to then today getting an old laptop of my in laws that hasnt worked in years running again to finally clone my dells OS onto the 2TB hardrive and install that, to then stick that my laptops old hardrive in the one id screwed ....

Sometimes I think id be better off if I could just leave things alone instead of trying to improve them, is it a me thing or what

I've taken apart a PS2 controller and an N64 controller. The PS2 controller was already broken, but I didn't have the right screwdriver, so I sawed the back off with a mini saw on a penknife.

There was nothing wrong with the N64 controller and that I did unscrew properly, but I don't think I put it back together properly...

I wouldn't do that these days though

I'm not so bad for it now, but I was always taking stuff to bits and putting it back togethe again when I was younger. I definitely had my megadrive and 32X apart at one point, and my dad was fuming when he found out.

If stuff is broken, and not worth paying to be repaired, I'll take it apart. Even if I can't fix it, it's interesting to see how things are put together. I once repaired a Quickshot II joystick (notorious for breaking) by cutting out a replacement for the busted part from a baked bean tin lid. It didn't work, but it was fun trying.

I took apart my old Amiga 500+ after my younger brother decided it was a good receptacle for Cherry Coke. B52's Rock Lobster was written on the board.

I normally only take stuff apart when it is no longer needed or broken just to look in there

I thought I was suitably skilled enough with a soldering iron to do a memory upgrade on my beloved Atari ST back in the day and promptly bricked it. I was beyond consolation.

rinks wrote:I once repaired a Quickshot II joystick (notorious for breaking) by cutting out a replacement for the busted part from a baked bean tin lid. It didn't work, but it was fun trying.

Not sure you can say you repaired it in that case...

I was ready to be impressed by your bean tin engineering!

OrangeRKN wrote:

rinks wrote:I once repaired a Quickshot II joystick (notorious for breaking) by cutting out a replacement for the busted part from a baked bean tin lid. It didn't work, but it was fun trying.

Not sure you can say you repaired it in that case...

I was ready to be impressed by your bean tin engineering!

Haha, I'm too honest for my own good. I think I just needed a different brand of beans.

It was the circular part here, with four directional prongs that were prone to metal fatigue. When my repair failed, it was replaced with the infinitely superior, microswitched Kempston Pro.



I'd love to try it again. I was only about 12. I reckon I could get it working now.

And now I'm wondering if I still have it. Oh god.

Victor Mildew wrote:

Many years ago I did take apart my first PSone after my rather messy pizza slice slid off my plate and straight into the disc area. I'd had a few drinks and was trying to do two things at once - balance pizza and put in game disc.

Put said console back together when sober and it worked, well for a time at least.

I used to do a lot of putting 2 broke consoles togther to make a working one, Playstations that wouldnt turn on being pulled apart to put there disc drives into ones that wouldnt read discs that sort of stuff

It feels great when it works but when things are going bad it gets so tense and maddening

I had a translucent Dualshock that had a broken L1 button. Because it was translucent I could see exactly where the mechanical problem was and I actually fixed it using a matchstick! I've also tried to fix the weird disc latch problem on the PS2 slim but I can't really be arsed if I'm honest.

The central column of buttons on my ZX Spectrum are knackered if I recall. There is a very complicated fix involving peeling the membrane layers and recoating them with a pencil, but I might just remap to WSAD

This was actually my dad - the paddle controller for our Atari 2600 has a 3L Coke bottle lid screwed into it in lieu of the actual twisty bit. It was the eighties so I blame Thatcher. Still got it and it's still working though!

I removed a button membrane from an LCD TV which saved it from the tip.

My philosophy is that if it's dead you don't lose anything by tinkering so give it a go.

^^^ But not with CRT TVs. Lethal.

rinks wrote:^^^ But not with CRT TVs. Lethal.

Yeah, obviously always stay within the limits of your ability, knowledge and equipment, do proper research before taking a job on and make sure you've assessed the risks etc.

I didn't know how dangerous CRTs were . Although as a testament to how foul mouthed my texts are it initially autocorrected to "Is strawberry floating a CRT dangerous?" - that I can imagine is fairly fraught with hazards

When at uni I suggested I wanted to take apart 50 CRT TVs and build a metal frame to house them in a grid, as a makeshift videowall with Terry Gillingham's Brazil vibes. My tutor explained to me how this would be a death trap and wouldn't be allowed.

Centuries ago I did stuff like adding in a CD-ROM drive and sound card to my PC. I also took apart and fixed a faulty cassette drive on an Amstrad CPC 464 Plus. None of that required any skills such as soldering, though; just a screwdriver and a bit of time and patience.

Nowdays, nothing. At some point I want to get in touch with someone who will be able to replace/solder the capacitors ("caps") in my older systems; things like the C64 and Xbox in particular.

That's not a growth wrote:When at uni I suggested I wanted to take apart 50 CRT TVs and build a metal frame to house them in a grid, as a makeshift videowall with Terry Gillingham's Brazil vibes. My tutor explained to me how this would be a death trap and wouldn't be allowed.

That said I took apart some 230v appliances in the art studio, attached to a wall and plugged it in. I just didn't tell anyone. I also powered four 100w amplifiers off a decommissioned AC outlet that had been plumbed over (I had to take the faceplate off that while it was still live, to discover after some decades it indeed was still connected to the mains ) for several weeks and simply built the installation around it. Nobody once questioned how it was powered because if they looked at any surveys or blueprints etc there aren't any power outlets the length of that corridor.

But I got a 70 so it was worth it

kerr9000 wrote:So I am thinking that maybe this is an Autisitc thing or maybe its a tech loving thing so I thought id turn to you good people and see if any of the rest of you are like this.

When I was really young I took apart a popeye game and watch down to component level to see if I could get it working again after it stopped working. Over the years I have built a lot of computers but I always seem to try to do a little more.

The other day I got a 2TB Hybrid Hard drive and decided I could install it in to my Dell Latitude Laptop and this kind of cascaded into messing with the partitions on another laptop and screwing windows up, to then installing linux on the same screwed up laptop to get it running again to then today getting an old laptop of my in laws that hasnt worked in years running again to finally clone my dells OS onto the 2TB hardrive and install that, to then stick that my laptops old hardrive in the one id screwed ....

Sometimes I think id be better off if I could just leave things alone instead of trying to improve them, is it a me thing or what

Not a waste of time at all, I dismantle all sorts of things and collect nuts and bolts and rubber bands and all sorts I find on the street sorted into plastic organisers. Lo and behold 5 years later or whatever I need a screw bolt or washer that exact size of thread, imperial or metric, hex or Phillips or flat head driven etc.

You do this to satiate your curiosity and learn new skills, it's commendable and an important feature of who you are.

And sure sometimes it didn't work but you might understand why it didn't work or at least part of it did work. The only time wasted is that not spent, it's entirely down to one's perspective what does and doesn't constitute a waste of time. Most people who use that phrase in my experience are rather dull people who are perfectly happy spending their time doing all sorts of mundane activities... I dunno, leaf blowing, that's pretty pointless.

Green Gecko wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:So I am thinking that maybe this is an Autisitc thing or maybe its a tech loving thing so I thought id turn to you good people and see if any of the rest of you are like this.

When I was really young I took apart a popeye game and watch down to component level to see if I could get it working again after it stopped working. Over the years I have built a lot of computers but I always seem to try to do a little more.

The other day I got a 2TB Hybrid Hard drive and decided I could install it in to my Dell Latitude Laptop and this kind of cascaded into messing with the partitions on another laptop and screwing windows up, to then installing linux on the same screwed up laptop to get it running again to then today getting an old laptop of my in laws that hasnt worked in years running again to finally clone my dells OS onto the 2TB hardrive and install that, to then stick that my laptops old hardrive in the one id screwed ....

Sometimes I think id be better off if I could just leave things alone instead of trying to improve them, is it a me thing or what

Not a waste of time at all, I dismantle all sorts of things and collect nuts and bolts and rubber bands and all sorts I find on the street sorted into plastic organisers. Lo and behold 5 years later or whatever I need a screw bolt or washer that exact size of thread, imperial or metric, hex or Phillips or flat head driven etc.

You do this to satiate your curiosity and learn new skills, it's commendable and an important feature of who you are.

And sure sometimes it didn't work but you might understand why it didn't work or at least part of it did work. The only time wasted is that not spent, it's entirely down to one's perspective what does and doesn't constitute a waste of time. Most people who use that phrase in my experience are rather dull people who are perfectly happy spending their time doing all sorts of mundane activities... I dunno, leaf blowing, that's pretty pointless.

In the end things went well, I am typing on my Laptop with the 2TB Hybrid drive right now and I love how it runs and how much of my rubbish I can have on it in one go and I am so very very happy with it. To do this I cloned the drive contents using a programme from the original 500gb drive to the new one. Well I had the idea to shove the original into the Laptop whose windows I had ruined and bingo its working and working better than ever, the battery is flat in it but I have managed to find a replacement for £12 and ordered it.

The Hard drive with linux in it is in a box just in case I ever decide I need it, the Hard drive enclosures I purchased to do the cloning have now been turned into two nice portable hard drives using spare drives I had, and the in-laws computer is working for the first time in years, I have upgraded the memory from 3gb to 6gb and removed a lot of useless programs and such and got it running a treat and retreated a whole bunch of family photos they didn't have backups of.

I think I am quiet good with tech but I am very quick to get frustrated sometimes and I dont like the point where everything turns to rubbish and I have seemed to make everything worse, usually if I push through this I have learned things and things come out the other end better but its sometimes stressful lol