VCR tape leader
I've run into several cases where the lead tape was jammed around 
the center of lead spool and suspect the culprit is a too short 
transparentleader when used with a tape rewinder.The short 
leader doesn't signal the rewinder to  brake soon enough and the 
tape keeps wrapping.I correct this by adding an extra 8 inches of 
transparent tape from a junk unit.
 
Springs
When I open a defective tool battery pack,I find a lot of "C" 
size Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries but these are shorter than the 
regular "C" batteries.So I keep my eyes open for extra springs 
from old flashlights or portable radio battery-packs and use them 
as extra springs in flashlights.
 
impregnated tissues
When cleaning the heads on a VCR or a CD/DVD ,I take a tissue,cut 
it in half with scissors,fold the half into a pad,soak it with 
isopropyl alcohol (or 91% ,NOT 71% rubbing alcohol with glycerine),
and clean the equipment.Recently,I noticed streaks whrn cleaning 
CDs even with pure alcohol.What's this? I looked at the bottom of 
the new box of tissues and read ,"Facial tissue with Lotion-white 
mineral oil,paraffin wax,stearyl alcohol and aloe vera extract".
So I had to hunt up another box with NO added lotion.
 
 
xp lockup
For the past 2 years ,I've been troubled by my 2nd-hand HP with XP,
freezing on me erratically while moving the mouse.All I can do is 
push the ON button for 5 seconds until it turns off,wait a minute 
and turn it back on again.
It happens when the PC is still cold or after running for an hour.
I thought that it may be a cold-solder joint and reheating the 
joint may help.When I open the case,I see that the mouse and 
keyboard plugs go into a shiny steel box that's soldered to the 
motherboard.I've replaced the mouse 3 times and checked the 
software drivers to see any errors.No help.
I got the crazy idea that if I wiggle the mouse plug on the case,
before applying power,I might improve my odds.There was a little 
dust inside so I blew out the dust with a tire pump and a camel's 
hair brush but no help.I looked at taking off the heatsink on 
the Intel P-III 500 mhz CPU but couldn't figure how to do it.
Any suggestions?
 
 
 

--- Maximus 2.02