maggie roundie

[holmesuser01]

While working at Sears, long long ago, I was servicing a Wells Gardner monster 25" console hybrid with stereo and turntable. Problem was, TV could be playing, with great color, and if you turned up the volume, the color would unlock for a moment, then lock again. I was the 5th tech to have a look at it, and the customer was getting huffy, and threatening to call Chicago, etc, etc. I asked her to sit down and watch me troubleshoot. I had her tell me everytime it lost color, which she did, with gusto. I was poking around with a wood dowel, and almost everywhere I bumped the color PCB would make it lose lock. A previous "tech" had already hard-soldered the board connector pins, so it wasn't a bad connection there. Another tech had replaced the crystal, but I noticed the crystal was touching the chassis. If I flexed the chassis, the color would bounce out and back.

I resoldered the crystal and drastically shortened its connecting wires. I couldn't get the color to unlock after this. I have often wondered if the vibration of the crystal wires, or the fact that it was vibrating against the chassis caused it to lose sync.

I sat there while the customer cranked her system up to earsplitting volume over and over, until she was satisfied that I had fixed the problem.

I got fussed at by our Tech Services Dept. because I spent almost 2 hours on this set instead of the 45 minutes I was alloted. Didnt matter that I managed to complete the call on the first attempt!!

I was requested by the customer to return when we did the annual maintenance check per her maintenance agreements. I never had to do anything to the set again other than maybe touching up the screen controls, and replacing a weak video output tube, twice.

I know the store repair department sure didnt want to get this set back. It weighed over 200 pounds, and was, like I said, HUGE!!

Aahhh, memories...