How to fix anything

RIVER BENDER - December, 2012

Two ceiling fluorescent light fixtures in my garage worked sometimes and sometimes not. It was a pain having to take a flashlight to find something in the garage at night. I replaced the fluorescent bulbs, without success, which was no easy task because the fixtures were mounted on a high ceiling in our garage. Lucky I had a tall stepladder. About a year passed with no lights in the garage until I happened to be googling and typed in "how fluorescent lamps work" thinking it might give me a clue as to what was wrong with mine. Yep, there it was - a website exactly like I needed called HowStuffWorks.com which explained how the lamps work. Seems there’s a unit inside called a ballast, sort of like a transformer with lots of wires coming out of it which provides high voltage necessary to ignite gas in the fluorescent tube. Ballasts cost about $15 upward and with all the color coded wires involved I wasn't sure I was ready to tackle the job especially working on top of a tall stepladder.

Back to Google I typed in "how to replace a fluorescent ballast" and discovered several excellent YouTube videos. After watching them I decided to go for it. To make a long story short, I ended up repairing both fixtures which I never would have attempted without seeing the videos. I was very proud of myself, especially after a guy in line at Lowes checkout said I must be smart because nobody ever replaces a ballast. Like I said, lots of color coded wires had to be reconnected. I could have screwed it up or fallen off the ladder.

The point I'm trying to make is that Internet videos are like having an expert show you how to fix most anything. I wasn't sure I could fix my lamp fixtures but found it easy after watching the video. Here are some more tasks that I've accomplished with Internet assistance: I overhauled the carburetor on my mower and it worked. I replaced our geothermal heat pump relay after seeing how it worked and how to set it up for proper pressures. After reading how our water softener worked and how a salt bridge causes problems I removed all the salt and cleaned out the tank removing the bridge, a time consuming task that would have cost dearly to hire someone.

Fixing your broken PC is another thing the Internet can help you with provided you have a second working PC to access the Internet with. Google or Bing knows everything so start typing the error message you see or what the trouble is and then have patience because it may take some time searching. Say you want to add more memory to your PC. Just type that in under the video tab in your PC and someone will take you step by step through the process. The power input jack on my Toshiba laptop got pushed in and I was afraid my adapter plug might not make contact. If that happened my laptop would become worthless. So I googled and watched a video on how to replace my Toshiba jack but the entire laptop had to be taken apart. With so many screws and parts involved, I decided not to tackle the job for fear I'd never get it back together again. I taped the plug into the jack and if it ever loses contact I'll either let a local fix-it shop repair it for $110 or buy a new laptop.