Easiest Repair Job Ever.

nocashvalue

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I sold someone a multicade a few months ago. He manages several properties and put this on location in an upscale downtown Atlanta. He contacted me saying someone played the game too hard and broke the joystick. I wasn't sure exactly what happened, but I expected to replace the joystick. However, when I got there the joystick had simply come off of the CP bolts. I simply put four new bolts, and tightened it down with four new nuts. That was perhaps the easiest money I've ever earned.

It's amazing how hands-off some people are. I mean, if you simply opened up the control panel, you would see how to fix this. Absolutely crazy to me that someone would be willing to pay repair fees for this type of fix.

What your easiest repair you got paid for?
 
Customer calls about His PC, He was having a problem with it use to just turns off randomly.
He replaced the power supply, mother board, video card , Monitor and printer. He complained he just about replaced everything.

I wiggle the power cord and His PC turns off. I by pass the Power strip and Plug it directly into the wall. I handed him the power strip. Sorry you just have to replace one more thing.
 
Easiest fix?

How about turning the game on.

That is right... I bought a number of games in a lot... 15... 9 were supposed to be non-working and 6 working. Well, it turns out the guy only plugged them in... he didn't check the damn power switches...I ended up with 9 working and 6 non working. 3 of the "non-working" cabs simply needed to be "switched on".

:D
 
I turned the brightness up on a "dead" monitor. Didn't get paid for it, but that was the easiest fix I ever did on a supposedly non-working game.
 

That's how my Berzerk was. I got it as "dead" - exact same problem. I was even more surprised that Berzerk worked, knowing how flaky they usually are.

I used to do a lot of on-site laser printer repair in office buildings. I can't even count the number of times I went out there, only to find it was a defective toner cartridge. This was especially funny because the first thing I would ask people, over the phone, when they called about an image defect - "Did you try swapping the toner cartridge with the printer across the hall?". Invariably, they'd say that yes, that was the first thing they tried. Well, I get out there, and it's the first thing I try too. What do you know, a bad toner cartridge.

I once went to a guy's office to troubleshoot a new monitor that wasn't turning on. Yup - he forgot to plug it in - the power cord wasn't even connected to the monitor. When he went to swap his old CRT monitor with the new LCD, he didn't stop and think that the old monitor was plugged into the wall, but this new one only had one cable on it for the video.

Went to work on an Asteroids Deluxe that kept randomly shutting off. The back door was loose and the interlock kept cutting out.

-Ian
 
back in 2007 i got my golden tee machine from a superauction, actually socalarcade bid on it for me because i had to leave early. it was in the dead isle. he got it for $50. i get it home and start checking it out. flip the toggle switch on the power supply and it worked. its still working and gets played alot.
 
Easiest fix?

How about turning the game on.

That is right... I bought a number of games in a lot... 15... 9 were supposed to be non-working and 6 working. Well, it turns out the guy only plugged them in... he didn't check the damn power switches...I ended up with 9 working and 6 non working. 3 of the "non-working" cabs simply needed to be "switched on".

:D

Yep, I've been called to many service calls for a game that is "dead". I walk up, flip the switch, and the game comes on. They say, "What did you do?" Me: "I turned it on." Turns out they usually have it on a surge protector they flip on and off, or on a light switch that turns it on or off. Somebody else turned the power switch on the cab off and they had no idea what happened. Easy money.

And then there was the emergency warranty call on New Years Eve (right before the party started) for a pinball we had delivered a month before. She said the game would come on but wouldn't start. It was an EM pinball on free play. So I walk in, hit the start button, and it plays. "What did you do?" "i hit the start button." "Oh, THAT'S the start button!" Turns out she'd been hitting the coin return button... :rolleyes:
 
Easiest fix?

How about turning the game on.

That is right... I bought a number of games in a lot... 15... 9 were supposed to be non-working and 6 working. Well, it turns out the guy only plugged them in... he didn't check the damn power switches...I ended up with 9 working and 6 non working. 3 of the "non-working" cabs simply needed to be "switched on".

:D

yep had the dead game due to not flipping the power switch too. Also had a real just a fuse scenario and if we are going outside of games I have been sent to fix someones network connection only to arrive on site to find the ethernet cable was not connected to the computer. Yep Think they paid approx $400 to have me plug a cable in.
 
I bought a Chexx for a song where the seller said it just went 'poof' and stopped. He figured it needed a new motherboard. Got it home, plugged it in, turned it on and nothing. Not even gen. illumination. Checked the power supply and saw the little MR752 sitting on the bottom of the box; it had de-soldered itself. Soldered it back and Game On! Awesome.
 

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Man, that bubble hockey story is cool. That game looks SWEET in your gameroom. Congrats!

I think Mod's story about the lady not pressing the start button is leading the pack though...
 
My buddy bought a california speed and the guy couldnt get gas , brake and steering to work. bought non working cheap. Before we loaded turned on, screen said calibrate so we did what screen said, game worked great. He said he just pushed skip button when that screen came on. Easy fix!!
 
I do a ton of house calls in the Seattle area and I once got a call from a regular customer (12 machines, I think I have done some work to each and every one), his Defender stopped working. When I get these kinds of calls I always give the owner a short checklist of things to do and this was no exception. Anyway, I scheduled the trip for a few days out and on the day I was headed over I called him when I got off of the ferry boat and he informs me that he just started going over my checklist and the back door was loose. Once he reseated the back door the game came up. I didn't even get to his house but he wired me my standard fee for this type of house call. I just wish I'd called him before I boarded the ferry...
 
I do home theater installations for Geek Squad. I was up in pigeon forge at a cabin one day and had just finished mounting three tvs for someone who owned several cabins. As we were finishing up, the customer said, "now, if we can just get that damn arcade working, we'd be all set".... My ears immediately perk up, and I ask, "what seems to be the problem?" He goes on to tell me he bought a multicade and cant get it to play. "You put a quarter in and nothing happens, and its supposed to be free, but we were never given a key to get in it" So, I pull the game out, unscrew the back door, reach into the coin door and dissasemble the lock, get into the service menu of the 60-1 board, and switch it to free play. I asked them where they bought it and sure enough, it happened to come from dale in chattanooga. I told dale I fixed his game for him, to which he was quite happy, told me to come down to chatt town and he hooked me up with a free working monitor!
 
I've had two that qualify as easy fixes.

First, a neighbor asked if I worked on games when I had 4 or 5 out for the garage sale. I said yes and he asked me to come by ad look at his Ms Pacman. We went up to his gameroom (yes basements are upstairs in Texas). He said let me plug it in and proceeded to plug a cord into the wall. I told him to grab a side and move it out from the wall. Once I could get behind it I pulled the real plug out and plugged it into the socket next to the lamp he just plugged in. How did I know? The cord he plugged in was one of those translucent gold colored 2 wire lamp cords.

Second story. I loaned a couple of games to a different neighbor for his birthday party. We were going to be gone for the week, so I showed him how to turn the games on and off and how to flick the coin mechs if they reset and lost the freeplay setting. When we got back, he said they were playing the Arch Rivals game and it stopped working. They were afraid they had broken something so they unplugged it. I plugged it in. Dead. Nudged the back door too to reseat the interlock. Bing. Fired right up. They were rocking the game so much they popped the back door.

ken
 
I bought a dead Afterburners for $75. Got it home. It really was just a fuse, seriously. Replaced the fuse, it fired right up. It didn't pop in the 2 years I owned it.
 
An easy fix, but it took me a couple of hours to solve. Bought an ICE Full Court Fever on ebay for $275. Machine looked brand new & the owner said he bought it at an auction, but could never get it to work properly. Problem was the test mode push button was Normally Closed instead of Normally Open. Strange because the switch showed no evidence of repair/re-solder. Great for me; $.50 switch got me a good earning game that paid for itself in two months on location.
 
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