You may remember this idea...

This video is a shockingly accurate depiction of almost all of my electronics “repair” attempts.

Ha! Excellent video as always! Great way to end a working week (writing on a Friday morning)

I actually really love this kind of video, even without the payoff, but the ending was super funny

Very entertaining!! And Leo Sayer has never sounded so good...#

That was good fun! We got to take a peek inside and learned that sometimes “just for parts” means just that.

This is great, you should do more of these. I should know - I’m Steve Jobs

Just a heads up, apparently 3M suggest not shaking compressed air. You're more likely to eject the liquid if you do!

Great video! Though maybe the monologue in the beginning isn't necessary - perhaps better if you just said - "yeah, it doesn't work" and then jump cut to the rest of the video.

Wow we watched you goof around with a broken record player for 20 minutes. Not a fan of the new format.

Perhaps the most (in)famous example of a repair video with an unknown ending was the effort to restore a WW2 vintage B29 bomber (the "Kee Bird") sitting on ice in the Arctic where it had crash-landed decades earlier. (Spoiler alert) A team of techs and mechanics went so far as to airlift new radial engines and props and install them. The new powerplants fired up nicely, and the crew taxied across the ice ... until the unsecured APU in the tail section broke loose, spilled its fuel, and burned the entire aircraft to the ground. Talk about an "oh, shite" moment!

I really enjoyed this video. The suspense of not knowing how it would turn out was a plus, not a minus. But you should have used a liberal application of WD-40. It fixes everything. And if not, it can be used as a source of ignition...

Yes, I remember this. Great idea! I hope this video does well, because I enjoyed it and like to see others attempt to repair things... even if at the end it's not always successful! Who knows, even your teardown would be helpful enough to someone trying to replace the belts or repair their own. I may need to resurrect some of my own failed repair videos. Even if some things just don't ever want to be fixed properly, the adventure of trying (at least to me) is always interesting.

I liked it, some gear is just not made to be repaired

If you need to glue polystyrene use Humbrol Liquid Poly (butyl acetate). You put it on with a little brush and it welds the bits together, it actually melts the plastic so that the bits fuse together when the stuff evaporates.

10/10 Would watch more videos like this

That was very enjoyable, Mat. We still got to see the workings and what's inside such an animal. There's a channel you may have seen on YT call My Mate Vince [ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/mymatevince" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/user/mymatevince</a> ] He tries to fix things, sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he doesn't but the process is still fun to watch. The occasional video like this, successful or not, would be entertaining.

Remembers me of the Sanyo SVHS VCR that I bought for repairing, seemed like only a belt replacement, ended up horribly, as the enormous amount of PCBs, hanging together with huge amounts of cable spaghetti were always in the way... Most probably, something broke off, then the PSU started smoking... But was nice to watch this movie, and smiling at the ironic end! For me, you can continue doing this :-)

Hilarious ending, well worth the time.

Fantastic and thoroughly entertaining!

I can't believe how much I enjoyed this. Your voice over made it, in my opinion. I used to have a go at repairing consumer electronics, even toasters, and I got it right most of the time. Other times, however, not so much. It was after trying to repair a friend's ghetto blaster, which ended up getting fried (I had the polarity of the power connecter back to front) that I threw in the towel. But please, if you ever end up with a disaster such as this, consider wrapping it up and uploading. A couple of times a year would certainly add to the appeal of the channel. At least for a lot of tech heads, like me.

Good on you for trying (it looked DOA from the opening shot) and getting a humorous vid out of it. On a tangential note, I also like those restoration programmes but the one aspect that repeatedly irks me is how they value of the time they put in. Which leads me to ask - have you seen Bad Obsession Motorsport - project Binky?

Great video, thanks for not putting it in the bin with that record player.

I honestly enjoyed it. As someone who is trying to learn how to repair more things seeing other people's attempts is informative, even if it's not a success.

I think it worked well as a video..not everything gets successfully repaired!

My ADD noticed your watch. Who makes that? Thanks.

I remember repairing an old Mac Powerbook that I actually just got for parts only. I surprisingly managed to repair it, but when I reassembled it, the plastic hinge mounts broke, the display snapped off and cut the flatflex connecting board and display in half. The thing went from repaired to totalled in a heartbeat. It was such a freak accident, it probably would have made a good video. So don't throw material like that away. Just release it, maybe make a medley of your best fails ;-)

Sometimes you have to walk away, like my old Hitachi linear tracking turntable which I dragged out and got working after replacing belts and lubricating it. It worked for 2 weeks then the highly specific cartridge failed, so it was recycle time. But I had the fun of getting it working (albeit briefly) and the added fun of getting to choose and buy a new turntable, so all was not lost. I did enjoy watching someone else dealing with 1980’s Japanese electronics, designed for ease of assembly, to work for 2 years, then be thrown away. Great video.

Thanks Mat. I really enjoyed the video. If it wasn't for the broken stylus, I would have offered to have a go fixing it for free. Best wishes.

You had me for a moment at the second ending, but keen eyesight had me suspecting I was the target of a belated April 1st deception :)

Thank you, I thought that was brilliant.

Really enjoyed this. It is quite refreshing that even you, who so often succeed in these repairs (or you only show us the successes!) can’t always make these things work out. This is more typical of my own experience , ie that such devices are far more complicated to dissasemble that you might think, and that unless there is something obviously broken, like a belt , there is not much I can do go get them working. My greatest success was exracting Lego from deep inside a VHS player about 20 years ago! I enjoyed watching this, Mat, and the fact it didn’t finally work in the end didn’t make it any less interesting to watch. Thanks as always and have a great weekend.

My biggest shock was how Panasonic really made this and it wasn't a clone. It was an eye opener - the vid worked for me as I watch you open it up and the reveal gave me that feeling at the pit of my stomach that there wasn't going to be a happy end. I liked your recreation of my local Hermes delivery guy.

Was it a Baby-poo coloured Marina coupe? I always wondered where that LP went. I also had an Amstrad player and separate amp. Bad sounds man but funky VU meters

I liked the idea that you showed unrepairable equipment. Would also inspire more discussion in the forums and perhaps a follow-up video one day.

That map makes it seem an awful lot like it was shipped from The 8-Bit Guy's house...

I hate the idea that you would toss footage like this, so I think this format is a good solution. I think you alluded to it, but I wonder how this type of video's viewership/response would differ depending on how you framed it: TechFail vs TechSurprise. It's an interesting question, for sure. It's a given that you will have people clamoring to help you fix it or to take it off your hands, but if you can ignore the noise, I still think there is plenty of value in releasing it. I hope you continue this type of video, you could even make it just a rougher cut Pat. Ex. with voiceover. Cheers!

I liked the chance of failure being an option in the video – all part of the story. Much like the early series of Scrapheap Challenge where there was a very good chance everything would blow up and grind to a halt. Also, I think by law, every car boot sale has to have at least one vendor selling Leo Sayer's Endless Flight.

why don't you just 'fess up and admit that you learned all of this electronics repair wizardry from watching Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible

It is actually a really good idea. I learn alot just watching your videos, and even though you don't get it to work at the end, its still fun to watch the process. So yes from me, make more of these. 😊

I'm down for more of these

After watching your laserdisc video...I bought a laserdisc player off ebay complete with a stack of discs...the packing was worse than your turntable. But I was able to rebend the chassis, get everything lined up and working again...and used it for a few months...till the power supply literally blew up...that is when it went into the trash.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Also, loved the photoshopped stylus at the end. I just wish every youtube channel was this thought out, polished, entertaining, and reliable. Keep it up!

I liked the original ending. You win some, you lose some. It's a fact of life. I found this video very interesting.

That ending somehow triggered a memory of one of your early classics, the dancing fountain speaker. "I'm gonna store it somewhere, out of the way, where it's nice and safe, and where it belongs" *throws thing into trashcan (or is it garbage bin?)*

As someone who repairs electronics for a living, your repair efforts and technique were first rate, however, your fatal flaw was not recognizing that this particular Pioneer unit was from a dark time for them, their plastic front period, which you want to avoid like the plague!

Of course, if you REALLY want to do those "thing gets fixed through a process that's improbably quick and linear" videos justice, you need to add a montage of steps presented without explanation or context and set to a generic rock instrumental where the guitars go squeegily-migilly. You also should have a section in the middle where you handed off the trickiest engineering problems off to a subcontractor, and pull a perfectly balanced and assembled subassembly out of a shipping box. Otherwise: great video!

An enjoyable video. Very good repair attempt and a fun ending. Poor Leo suffered a bit though.

I think it was a good video. At times it is best to just throw in the towel. I did noticed a few unusual things in this video. You had some graphics that you don't normally have, such as the reflection lines. But I am really curious how you made the animation of it traveling from Texas to the UK? By the way, don't forget I live here in Texas so in future I could ship something like that if needed.

That was a good fun "...a design prone to failure" or "CR@P!" :-)

Mat, me thinks you’ve gone and slipped a cog. Tell me you really gave it to the recycling folks. I noticed at the end it had disappeared from your set up.

More bodge! I thought you could have used more glue, bent that tone arm cartridge needle back straight, etc. Of course most everyone's secret desire is to see things repaired, restored, redeemed. Your ending was better that not doing the video though! But even a crippled ugly but sonically functional repair would be a thrill. Sarcastic humor only works so many times. It worked here though.

That was a good laugh.

Actually, with the preface he gives in which we're not really expecting to have that payoff at the end, the reactions could be quite positive overall.

"There's a big storm a'brewin' and it's gonna hit the second Mat sets this video loose. But this ain't no regular kinda storm, no-sir! What's headin' Mat's way is a You Tube comment storm and it sure looks like it's gonna be a gully-washer! Yeeeee--hawwww!"

This is equally hilarious and brilliant. Please more, please.

Brilliant! Well done, you.

My first impression, when you ask the question in the beginning, was "no, there's no happy ending." I was wrong. Totally enjoyed it, even before the Hallmark ending tacked on.

I love it! :D

You're right, it was a bit anticlimactic. But still fun to watch! Perhaps not for your regular "show", but I certainly wouldn't mind watching these "fauxpairs" (how's that for a word?) as pat-ex material!

Good video, not every day is christmas! Also I quite enjoy the couch shot.

Somehow, someone will mention that you didn't replace the caps and that would have fixed most of the problems!

One of the things I liked about Time Team was not knowing if they'd find anything

What a perfect ending. I love the brief second where the image of the player disappears from your hi-fi right before the cut.

I love the honesty. That classic Techmoan feel.

Nice with a fix that for once did not work:-) AND... an insight of how a Japaneese brain works, when dreaming up such a crude construction, relying on that tiny motor!

That ending had me in stitches! Well done!

I enjoyed this video "more than I could say."

Another victim of the eBay global shipping program? I've heard from sellers who packed their stuff meticulously and eBay re-"packed" it.

You know if you just recalibrate the transmographier and jimmied up a floating widget in the accelerometer the thing would be as good as new. Don't give up so soon. I saw a YouTuber that had been working on repairing an old ecigarette for at least 50 years but he finally got it working. And that YouTubers name? Bono!

The new ending sounds like one of those "Sarah McLaughlan" ads? Where do I send money for those poor lonely battered record players?

Mat, I actually enjoy repairs that fail... because it seems like some of my projects. The electronics I can do, Hell, given the motivation I've build whole new boards with modern components, but the mechanicals.... No, just beyond me (or beyond my patience. Your vids, even those detailing failure remain the best thing on Youtube.

Holy Crap! That's funny! I love the crappy Photoshop and the bad edit at the very end where it disappears. This is comedy GOLD!

At some moment around 12:00 I started laughing and couldn't help it :) In my opinion this one's the best TechMoan's video on my memory.

That was... the most entertaining repair video without a repair... ever! :-) By the way I think this would be unreparable for not just you; it looks like the gear that's supposed to drive the mechanism in and out of the case has a couple of teeth that are bent out of shape. Did you get the money back from the seller? I once bought a DCC recorder from eBay that supposedly "worked", but it was packaged in a couple of pieces of foam. By the time it got to me, it lost half of its knobs and one of its feet, and that was months after I ordered it; it got lost at the post office. I got my money back from the seller and donated it to the DCC museum for parts.

I like it. In a world where everyone seems to promote an idealized fantasy version of their life via social media, its refreshing to see that I'm not the only one that has projects fail to live up to expectations despite best efforts.

Haha thank you i needed a laugh that was well put together video though sorry you didn't manage to get it working again. Sorry about postage service though it reminds me of a time when a delivery man decided to throw a box labeled Virgin Wines in big letters over a garden fence and classed that as delivered lol.

That was funny :D