Fixer Upper

Recently, I took on the challenge of fixing an issue I was having with my TV. Odd circles of light starting popping up throughout the screen, and with some quick research, it was due to some pieces of plastic that diffused the LED backlights falling out of place. A relatively simple fix, not unlike when I needed to fix my phone screen after it stopped working. Cracking open my devices and trying to uncover a simple fix has been a great experience for me, even when things don’t go according to plan.

The Joy of Repair

There is something extremely satisfying about taking apart something, learning how it works and fixing what was once wrong with it. I’ve taken a turn to digital devices recently, but I can’t think of how many simple items have been fixed with some glue or tape. If you think about it, that’s still the same practice. A place some friends and I rented years back had this annoying screw in the front door that kept causing issues. To fix it, I glued in a bunch of toothpicks to the hole the screw was loose. With the toothpicks for the screw’s threads had something to grip, and thus no more door frustrations.

Something I’ve learned about myself in this process is that I do enjoy tinkering and trying to fix things. Back when I owned a car, a 2007 Saturn Ion with over 170,000 miles, I enjoyed doing maintenance on it. From simple oil changes to changing tires and even replacing a hub and bearing – well actually two because I replaced the wrong one the first time.

It’s tough to say if I brought it in somewhere if they would have found the issue before the car totaled. I bought and drove that car with the intention that I would learn what I could on a relatively cheap car, and to that I say I learned a lot.

That is oddly one of the things I miss about having a car, is simple maintenance on it. A lot of people will tell me something to the effect of, “I would learn to do it, but it’s cheap and I don’t have the time to do it.” To me this always feels like a copout. It’s okay if you don’t want to learn, but once you do you learn that it takes like 3-5 minutes of actual work. I guess the time that a person drives to a shop, waits for the service, goes through checkout and then drives back isn’t a factor. I’ll say dropping the oil off and getting new oil and filters is an element to account for in the time, but I would say this can overlap with maybe one of the trips to the mechanic who will do your change for you. In my case, I literally only had to drop off my old oil once, and I frequented the neighborhood Advanced Auto Parts often enough that a specific oil drop off trip wasn’t needed.

Admittedly, the only time I really struggled with changing my oil was the very first time, and it was largely because the shop I once brought it to, tightened the filter housing way too tight. I had to buy a socket large enough to go around the housing’s bolt shaped screw and then hit the socket wrench with a mallet to loosen it enough to finally open. After that, a good hand tightened turn is all it needed.

A Lot to Learn

I wish all of my fixes went flawlessly. The TV fix mentioned in the introduction here didn’t go according to plan. Replacing the diffusors was easy. A dab of glue and repositioning is all it took, but in the process of taking apart the TV, I accidentally cracked the screen despite the fact I was following a video with the title “How to Fix White Spots Without Cracking your LCD Screen.” This is largely because I made several mistakes in the process, the video was actually extremely helpful and informative. If I had followed it more closely, I no doubt would have my 10 year old TV back in action.

Sometimes it takes a failure or mistake to learn how to do something right. The first time I replaced my phone screen, I made a couple mistakes. The biggest of which caused a nasty green line from the top to bottom of the screen – yes I broke the replacement for the first one I broke. This was caused by several pins inside the phone casing that were redirected when I opened the phone and poked the backing of the screen. After nearly a year of dealing with this broken screen, I finally replaced it. With my lessons learned, I did so successfully.

A few quick fire lessons from my experiences, that hopefully you can avoid after reading this!

• “Put it back together” is not one step. I’ve found myself here a few too many times throughout my efforts. Taking it apart is a several step process, and then I think “just do that backwards.” Of course this fails to be as simple as I make it out to be, thus requiring back tracking because I missed a part or didn’t account for the caution needed before putting a certain piece back together – see my multiple broken screens for this.
• Take pictures along the way not only to help with reassembly, but to document the process. This can save you a headache in the future when you begin the multiple step “put it back together” phase. You also have pictures to compare the progress, evaluate other possible fixes or just to share the experience.
• Don’t use a bed as a work surface. You might, like past me, think “it’s soft so good for preventing damage to sensitive items.” In practice, it’s too soft and the small movements in the surface might lead to say a cracked screen – you won’t hear the end of this any time soon. You’ll want to use a firm surface such as a table with a soft later on top like felt or foam. In a pinch a towel or blanket might work okay, but these will get bunched up and things can be lost in folds when moved around. A solid piece of soft material works better since it avoids this.
• When following a guide, watch or read it all the way through. That will ensure you have all the tools or materials needed, as well as prepare for any particular steps that might have some tricky needs. It can also explain why a given step that may have seemed unneeded earlier is accounted for. If you think “I don’t need to do that, I’m only doing X.” You may discover that step was needed because of a piece to get to X or to prevent Y from breaking – once again see my screen graveyard.
• Finally, even with all care taken, every step followed, a fix may not work as expected or an accident can leave an item more broken than before. Have a backup or contingency just in case. In the event of a luxury like a TV, it might be as simple as foregoing it until a new one is available. If it’s something more necessary like a car, can public transit or a carpool for something like work cover you until a replacement is secured. I’ve been lucky that in the several breaks I’ve had, nothing was urgent to replace. Even my car hasn’t been replaced in the nearly 2 years since. Granted I’m luckily in a suburb with good transit options and have a plethora of friends and family willing to offer rides.

Learning is one of the best parts of the process. Finding a fix, a way to do it better and knowing that I can do it the next time I run into that situation makes even initial mistakes satisfying in the long run. So next time, somethings a little broke, maybe give fixing it a try, just remember to watch the pins!