I broke a display. More specifically, a shoddy Chinese NVR box broke the display's main scaler chip by sending a voltage spike down the HDMI cable as it was being plugged in. It wasn't an expensive display nor even mine (it was at the local hackerspace), but I was bummed out because it was one of the few good displays we had over there so I figured I'd see if I can fix it.

My knowledge of electronics isn't great, though I've seen enough Louis Rossmann videos to know the basic principles, so I spent some time troubleshooting it with, and I expect this'll get some flak given that this is Lemmy, the help of AI. I described the problem and what caused it to the AI, took some measurements off the board with its guidance and even figured out how to measure it with an oscilloscope to confirm the diagnosis. This way I could narrow the problem down to the main scaler chip -- by all accounts a pretty common problem with this brand of monitor, though this one hadn't failed so spectacularly.

I ordered a brand new chip from Aliexpress for a total of 15€. I did also find a full logic board on eBay, but it came to over 30€ with shipping and the photo showed it having red marker on top of the very chip I was looking to replace which made me suspect it could have failed QC or was torn out of a broken monitor, so I didn't want to risk it.

After a couple of weeks the chip arrived and it was time to try my hand at BGA soldering for the first time ever. I couldn't find a hot plate so I had to do the whole thing with just the hot air station making it harder than it should have been. I managed to tear off three pads taking the old chip off somehow and had to very carefully fix those with some fine copper wire carefully manipulated with tweezers and a crafts knife under the microscope. Against all odds after I got the new chip soldered in, the display worked perfectly on the first try. The success felt pretty ecstatic.

My cat. She grew up with me every day of her life and just last week a work trip pulled me away from her for the first time. She hasn't left my side since I got back. I'm not sure if she will ever be as carefree as she was and I'm mortified I broke her spirit.

My spine! It shouldn't have happened, especially because I'm not 40 yet and I was just moving some furniture

Waiting on an MRI so the doctor can decide the best path forward, but I'm sure it's fixable

my ankle, in like three difference places

and damn i hope so lmao

I dropped and shattered one of my 'free' Mason jars that came with Classico pasta sauce. It's not fixable because, despite my complaints, Classico switched to lug-style jars and doesn't sell their sauce in the nice reusable ones anymore. I'd have to actually pay for real (empty) Mason jars if I wanted to replace it. : (

Luckily, I still have plenty of extras, but still...

My collapsible canoe paddle snapped while in use. Doubt that it's fixable, since most of it floated away in the wind while I hand-paddled to shore.

My band saw. I didn't do anything wrong (I swear!). I hadn't used in it many years, and when I turned it on it made a horrible broken/about-to-explode noise. I checked inside, after turning it off, of course, and the rubber "tires" that go around the pulleys were dry, hard, brittle and cracked. The blade had come off the pulleys, that was the scary noise. You don't want power tools making noises like that, trust me.

Oxo good grips dish scrubbing wand. Ive had it for years and countless head replacements, it had electrical tape around the handle where the soap button broke 2 years ago. It had a good run.

My car transmission. 😔

I broke a drumstick in twain, a large chunk of the middle up to the tip separated from the rest. There's no fixing it, that's why we have spares.

The cheap plastic hinge of my kids lunchbox lid. I fashioned a makeshift hinge with a drilled hole/bent nail. Lasted long enough to get a new Bluey bento box as a replacement.

Told a guy they aren't owed arguments. Whether they start them or someone responds to something. We have discretion to just not, especially online. Now he's sea lioning me to try and provoke a response.

Broke the stove top igniter switch... Not the control switch or the igniter.. the igniter switch. If you're confused now I needed a diagram to understand the part I needed so I could order the right part number. It showed up yesterday and I swapped it out and my burner lit up just fine. I was happy with that.

Looking at the part replaced, I broke it pressing too hard down and crushed something.

Keurig coffee maker. Tried to descale it per the instructions and it just quit. It was fixable though - turned out there was a blockage in one of the intake lines, so no water was getting to the heating element and the thermal breaker was tripping, cutting power to the whole thing. YouTube and other posts were helpful, and it sounds like this is not uncommon, esp if your area has hard water.

A fridge magnet when punched the fridge out of anger

Luckily, it was a quick fix with hot glue

My bicycle front tire tube popped yesterday, replaced it today

My electric kettle because I thought I put water in it, then turned it on, but I had not put water in it.

My favorite coffee mug. It was a wide mug good for cappuccinos. I got it from a previous job almost 10 years ago.

It might have been fixable, but I now have an excuse to actually buy a mug next time I see a fun one.

The heart of a young boy when I had to tell him that aunt bel was out of spicy water (what he calls flavored, carbonated water).

My laptop's screen died, and in taking it apart to see if it was reparable/replaceable, I tore off the antenna socket from the WiFi card. The WiFi card can be easily replaced, but there is still a bit of it stuck in the end of the antenna cable that hasn't come out yet... I'm not sure what the solution is yet (I might try soldering the cable to the card directly, if I decide the cable is a lost cause anyway).

Also my phone had it's last breath last week, so now I'm using a 20 yr old laptop, and a 10 yr old phone.

My favorite pitcher. It was a clear glass pitcher shaped a lot like the Kool-Aid Man. My wife gave it to me when we got married. It was this heavy glass pitcher and I used to use it for tea and sometimes kool-aid.

I think thermal stress did it in, I poured some cold iced tea in it and it cracked. :-(

Two hearts. I'm gonna stay off hinge now.

My WiFi AP broke when my friend she plugged the wrong power cable in and cooked it.

My edge router seems to have a corrupted filesystem. I think its fixable if I flash the os. If its not then I might need to replace the storage again which would be annoying.