I had picked up this non-working unit for cheap at one of the flea markets this year, brought it to the lake to work on, and then promptly forgot all about it. I just rediscovered it and took a look inside, hoping to find a bad cap or something simple. The symptom was apparent OK firing up, but then all dashes in the display, which usually happens when almost anything is wrong. The PSs checked out OK, and no parts looked bad. I was just getting ready to search for the manual online and figured I'd be fooling around with diagnostics this evening.

I happened to notice the bottom out-guard board didn't quite look right, and started jiggling it around, with no effect. Then I lifted it a little to try rocking the inter-board connectors, and the whole thing came right out. The power was on - not good - and I thought I wrecked something because the display turned into garbled characters and locked up as I pressed the board back down.

I shut 'er down and pulled the board out completely and reinstalled it, and it worked!! The basic problem is that those two little plastic snap-button board retainers don't hold well (as in not-at-all) anymore, so it came loose at some point. The pull loops made from tie-wraps seem like they would supply a little springiness against the cover to help, but I might decide to add something like a piece of foam if things don't run too hot there.

I've got it burning in now to see how it runs, and have tested some of the functions. It seems OK so far. I like these kind of fixes - no manual, and not even a soldering iron needed. Nice.

Ed