I keep seeing people on here toss perfectly good vintage computers because they think they need fresh thermal paste, but my 2003 Dell ran fine for 5 years after I reused paste from a dead laptop. A buddy swears that reusing it causes overheating and kills chips, but I've never seen proof. Who's got actual experience with this gamble?
He told me to dab a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab and run it along the edges of the sticky key, and my 2007 laptop spacebar works like new now. Has anyone else fixed old peripherals with stuff you already have at home?
My old iPod's click wheel stopped working but I didn't want to spend $30 on a replacement part online. I wrapped a rubber band around the wheel to add friction and used a paperclip to gently poke the connection back in place. Somehow it clicked back to life after a few minutes of fiddling. Has anyone else used random household stuff to fix old electronics?
Somebody on Reddit said they used dental floss and super glue to reattach a broken plastic hinge bracket on their 2012 ThinkPad. I tried it last weekend on my old Dell that had the same issue, the floss acts like thread to hold the plastic together while the glue sets. Been a week now and the screen hasn't fallen over yet, still holding. Anyone else tried random household stuff on laptop shells?
Last week my old HP printer started jamming every time I tried to print a shipping label. The rubber pickup roller had worn down smooth so it couldn't grab the paper anymore. I wrapped a thick rubber band around the roller and used a paperclip to hook the slack underneath keep it tight. Printed 15 labels since then without a single jam lol. Has anyone else bodged a printer part back to life with random stuff around the house?
Everyone swears by thermal paste but I got sick of repasting my 2012 ThinkPad every 6 months when it started thermal throttling. A $3 copper shim and some thermal pad from an old GPU cooler later, temps dropped 8 degrees and stayed there for over a year now. No mess, no pump-out effect, just solid contact. Has anyone else tried shimming instead of pasting on older hardware?
I went to this community repair event last Saturday at the old library on Belmont. Some guy brought in a 90s Mr. Coffee that wouldn't heat up at all. One of the volunteers just bent a paperclip into a U shape and wedged it against the heating element contact. Fired right back up after sitting dead in a garage for 3 years. Cost zero dollars and took maybe 45 seconds. Never would have thought of that myself but now I'm saving every paperclip I see. Anyone else ever fixed something with random office supplies?
So last weekend my toaster died, just stopped popping. I looked online and people wanted $35 for a new spring mechanism. That's more than the toaster's worth. I had an old acoustic guitar string sitting around, the low E one. I cut a piece, bent it into a coil shape with some pliers, and wedged it in where the original spring was. It's been 4 days and the toast comes up perfect. Anyone else used random music stuff to fix appliances?
I was at my kitchen table in Phoenix last month when the right hinge on my 2014 Dell completely gave out, splitting the plastic bezel in two directions. Instead of spending $60 on a replacement frame online, I melted hot glue into the cracked corners and clamped it overnight, and six weeks later it still holds tight. Am I the only one who thinks this is a real fix and not just a temporary joke?
I was about to toss my old tube TV because the picture kept shrinking, but a guy online said to replace the electrolytic capacitors for under $50. After an hour of soldering and $45 in parts, the thing works perfectly again. Did you get burned buying expensive replacement parts that didn't work, or did a cheap fix like this actually save you money?