My Video Game Repair Horror Stories

[@spartan456]

My top horror stories all involve customers that attempted repairs on their own. I've had my fair share of bugs, cat urine, human urine, and blood in a variety of all the devices I've repaired over the years. But the ones that always gave me the most headaches were prior repairs. Bugs and literal biohazards are terrible surprises but thankfully, if you've got the power of discretion, you can turn them away. Prior repairs don't work like this sadly, mostly because of accusations and a little thing I like to call "the Last Touch Doctrine". This is basically "I have X problem and you touched it last, therefore it is your fault." Gather 'round the campfire and listen to my tale, because I hate the Last Touch Doctrine and this recent experience just makes me hate it even more. When I do board work on consoles I prefer to have the entire console, controller, cables, the whole thing. This way I can test every possible thing with it and make sure it works before I say it's fixed. One guy came in and all he had with him was the motherboard from his PS4. It had a broken HDMI port, classic problem. This is an incredibly easy fix if you've got the tools. Even if you have to replace the encoder and filters and rebuild half of the HDMI circuit, it's easy enough to handle if you know what you're doing and know how to test the circuit before closing it up. The guy had tried to replace the port himself. All he had was a hair dryer. Fortunately he had the sense to realize a hair dryer wasn't going to cut it, and decided to bring it to a person who has the right tools. I told him I would need the entire PS4 before I could work on it but he insisted on making me take it as-is. He said if there were any problems he'd just bring it all back in. I should have rejected the repair but I didn't. So I replace the port, and in testing discovered all of the data pairs were shorted. I flipped it over, pulled the EMF shield, and checked the filters. They were all shorted too. In that moment I was trying to figure out how a hair dryer could short all of these filters together. I replaced them all, and the data pairs were no longer shorted. However, they were showing irregular diode readings to one another. There was an issue with the encoder, so I replaced that too. Eventually I found myself replacing half of the HDMI circuit, but by the end of it, all of the data pairs tested A-okay and I knew the circuit would absolutely be functional. I let him know it was ready and told him to come pick it up. Guy pays for it and leaves. Comes back a day later upset that the fan isn't spinning. "It was spinning before, now it isn't." This is a sticky situation. I'm sure it was spinning before, but was that before HE started screwing with it, or was it before I started screwing with it? I didn't want to argue so I told him I'd take a look at it "under warranty." Fortunately he brought me the entire console this time, so I could actually work on it for real. I plugged it in and powered it up to verify the fan issue. Yep, the fan definitely wasn't spinning. But the fan isn't what worried me. You know what did worry me? The cursed blinking blue light. For those unfamiliar, the PS4's lightbar (and power LED on newer models) functions as a kind of diagnostic light. On boot the light will blink blue, then eventually transition to solid white when the system is fully booted and ready to be used. A persistent blinking blue light is almost always some kind of boot failure and is (currently) attributed to an APU failure. And guess what this thing was doing? Just sitting there, blinking away. My heart sank. I sat there for 3-4 minutes just waiting, HOPING, to see this damn light turn white. It never did. And I don't have the tools, equipment, or inclination to do APU reballs. In other words, had this guy brought the whole PS4 to me from the very beginning, I could have verified right in front of him that a new HDMI port would not have fixed this thing. But he gave me a board only, and I touched it. I rebuilt half the HDMI circuit. I did all that work, spent all that time, on a board that was more-or-less a vegetable. Cool. Very cool. I figured maybe the issue was because of the fan. I verified the fan itself was functional by testing it in a donor unit. The fan wasn't spinning because of some kind of board failure. I wasn't going to let this PS4 destroy me though. I determined the fan wasn't receiving the PWM signal that actually tells it to spin. I managed to trace it all the way to what appeared to be a missing component on the other side of the board. It looked like a resistor had just been plinked right off the motherboard. I went NOWHERE near this region when rebuilding half the HDMI circuit, so I knew it couldn't have been my fault that this was missing. I pulled a donor and replaced the missing component, and voila! Fanspin! Unfortunately, however, the blinking blue light persisted. At this point I was banging my head against the desk. "I'm gonna have to buy this guy a new PS4, cool." In my desperation I started peering over the board, specifically in the area where I noticed the one missing resistor. After a few minutes of painful searching under a microscope, I discovered something. A small group of what looked to be missing components. I compared to a donor board and yes, indeed, these were all missing components. I pulled the donor components off and plopped them on his board. I figured this was going to be a hail mary, but I wanted to try it. And lo-and-behold, the thing fired up afterwards. After doing some research, I discovered those components were most likely pull-up resistors for a nearby clock chip. Clocks are very important for all sorts of functions in electronics, so I'm sure the clock was providing some kind of necessary component to the boot process for the APU or memory. Since those resistors were missing, the chip wasn't able to send some important signal or receive some important signal vital to booting. Popping the missing components back in completed the circuit and made the chip work again. I was thrilled that I got the system working again. The guy was happy too. But I was also angry. I couldn't charge even a single dime for all the extra work I did, solely because of the Last Touch Doctrine and his absolute insistence that I worked on it initially without the entire console. I know I wasn't the one who knocked those components off. I know it was him. At the very beginning of this whole saga, the guy came to me with a board in a bag full of loose screws. If he was that careless with it, it's no surprise to me that he would have knocked things clean off the motherboard. And I very much doubt the guy had used a hair dryer, he probably tried to blast the thing off with a paint stripper from Harbor Freight and realized he didn't have tweezers or something to lift the port out when it was molten. Those filters were burnt to a crisp. After this ordeal, I absolutely refuse to work on ANYTHING without the entire device. I'm okay with taking prior repairs, but for the love of god just let me have the whole console so I can test it before I waste my time. Whew, that was a long one. But if anyone bothered to read this, I hope this gives you some insight into the kinds of things we have to put up with.

[@meh5812]

damn

[@zacri9434]

Not epic moment

[@tylern6420]

[ERROR]

[@burko002]

Thanks for the essay, I’d give it a good B to a light A

[@aidenl8917]

Can u do my essay

[@eileenjimenez7114]

I'm not a technician but I knew someone who was and he told me a weird story of repairing a 3DS' broken R button. If I remember correctly, the customer brought his OG 3DS in because his R button was broken. The technician I knew asked what happened to it because it had a small but visible crack on the plate that covered the battery and the customer just said "Oh I used it to hit a guy who wanted to snatch it and his sun glasses were in the way" The technician laughed it off until he examined it and he saw a very small fragment of glass on the system.

[@crakhaed]

Ngl, badass if stupid at the same time lol

[@HAV0X_]

There we go. In order to stop shootings, we should arm people with assault 3DS's.

[@fartmangaming9272]

there is also the fact of how easy it is to replace the r button

[@HoudiniFontmeister]

Ha. The R button is a common failure. But man that is a funny one. lol

[@crusty_]

Pretty badass tho

[@snoopii11]

Yo you gotta do more content like this. Love it

[@Blackkey034]

How many more videos he got? 2? That it

[@snoopii11]

Uhhh what he does a weekly podcast and a weekday news show

[@charbound]

i know! i love hearing about jonathans personal life stuff as well as his regular content.

[@PlazDreamweaver]

@@charbound Same.

[@_BELMONT_]

@@Blackkey034 he uploads daily. More than you can say for the weird shit you decide to upload once a year.

[@plebkoolaid9919]

He's got me paranoid that there's bugs in my PS4.

[@mexican_geese7134]

I'm scared for my original Xbox.We can't turn it on because my dog chewed the AV output, power cord, and controllers(Thank God it wasn't plugged in) and so for 6 years it's just been collecting dust in our garage.I want to open it, but also don't

[@nelzelpher2088]

@@mexican_geese7134 that could be risky. Open it outside if you will open it. Yikes.

[@mycelia_ow]

Don't have bugs then. If you do, they're going to be inside a PC/console. Roaches and spiders especially love dark and hot secluded environments.

[@stephenfiler3204]

You would likely know if there were roaches in your PS4 before you took it apart. You'd see you them come and go

[@ErimlRGG]

Just clear your house regularly and don't let the spots behind furniture alone (I had a bad experience with a stash of VHS I never moved.. don't ask) and also open up your consoles for cleaning every once in a while. I clean my PCs every 6 months or so. You may not have roaches but sure get dust and that dust builds up and you could kill your console by having too much dust by creating a short or overheating

[@camerongallo5940]

Imagine waking up on a day near the end of your junior year of college and being like "oh darn I forgot to pick up my Playstation"

[@Ayameex]

I work in another industry that involves people dropping off stuff to pick up again later and you would not believe how common it is for people to either simply forget they own something or just decide it's not worth thier time to pick it back up. Even AFTER they've paid!

[@cezerelecrucio9717]

@@Ayameex It's free real estate.

[@mattjohnson8090]

@@cezerelecrucio9717 no that’s called stealing

[@cezerelecrucio9717]

@@mattjohnson8090 Property burden laws allow businesses to legally include obligations for the customer to retrieve their items, otherwise ownership defaults to the person with the burden of storing the goods for X amount of time, usually 30 days. So no, it's definitely not stealing.

[@AustinJohnPlays]

idk how you don't have PTSD Nam-style flashbacks from these repairs.

[@zeroturn7091]

He’s got the 1000 yard stare. He’s seen some $#!+

[@esmooth919]

@tlessmo or your Lyft driver

[@ben_automotive]

Yeah NAM style

[@raijin2950]

"Ive seen some thing maaan, done some stuff............................I wouldn't recommend it."

[@ghanshyampandey5278]

@@zeroturn7091 .. ..

[@Spartan3457]

When you said "let me show you a picture" after that roach story I just thought OH GOD NO I'M NOT READY FOR THIS.

[@betweenthehammerandanvil]

Yup. I definitely wasnt prepared for what I thought what was going to happen 🤣 he was very quick with it as well

[@Spartan3457]

@MR FREEZE-98 I've cleaned out pcs which were roach infested. It was disgusting, and we could never get rid of the smell. At no point did it become normal or enjoyable lol

[@shae1547]

"if you cheat, start hiding your expensive stuff"-spawnwave 2019

[@HoudiniFontmeister]

That one killed me

[@bobolimasterflex]

I was hoping someone commented this epic quote.

[@shae1547]

@@bobolimasterflex I gotchu brother

[@bricelewis7869]

Or better yet dont cheat lmao

[@shae1547]

@@bricelewis7869 hey man sometimes shit happens

[@TechSpec814]

I repair stuff once in a while. My worst repair was opening my friend's PS2 and finding dead bugs inside of it.

[@Japanlover79]

Trem that’a nothing I had to clean a dead mouse out of a pc once there was blood and guts all over. To top it off it was my own PC because stupid me forgot to put the dust cover back on

[@xNativeDjx]

Had something similar but with a SNES, it pretty dirty but nothing out of the norm. I got to the internals and was able to remove parts to find like a dust bunny nest with big worm things. They were super old and crusty white.

[@pcharl01]

Better than live ones

[@hasnihossainsami8375]

Dead bugs are much better than live ones. Especially roaches, I'm terrified by them. A long time ago, during the Win XP days, my pc had a live roach infestation (as well some dead ones too, accompanied by a ant infestation, inside the CD drive) and I didn't want to go anywhere near it. I didn't use the pc for almost a month until we got it cleaned out by a then visiting cousin. The CD drive had died.

[@blatz423]

Got a Ps2 in desrepair from my friend in high school, from his shed. There was a LIVE COLONY of cockroaches in there. I've never cringed so much in my life. It was on my back in my bag all day :I

[@purify_guitar]

The guy who left his PS3 for 3 years probably went to prison in between him leaving the system and picking it up, that honestly feels more possible than him just forgetting about it.

[@antoniomendez3870]

Lol yeah I was thinking prison or deployment

[@johnnyneutron1530]

Antonio Mendez What’s the difference?

[@purify_guitar]

@@johnnyneutron1530 Ouch...

[@ElectroBotVideo]

At the computer store I used to work at we had a 30 or 90 day pickup policy (can't remember). If it approached that we'd call the listed phone number a few times over 2-4 weeks and only once it was in the shop for 1/2 year did we actually take ownership of it (called once more before doing it). Most of the time customers would say they pick it up next week and usually take 1-2 more weeks to do it, but very few were actually left behind. Most of the ones left behind were done so due to the laptop screen replacement ($150-$300 range with labour) costing 1/2 the cost of a brand new cheapo laptop (a few customers stated that).

[@DannyWilliamH]

Bingo. The options are that or a scam where he found the old receipt and thought "imma get a new console with this". Some repair shops abuse the time they'll hold the item but 3 years is insane. Nobody could reasonably expect it to still be there, especially at a small, strip mall shop. It was prison or a "how dare you" scam. A channel that does repairs actually made a video about customers doing this. I think it was Northcal Repair (or something like that). Tells a few stories of customers dropping off old, busted iPads, never returning their calls to pick it up and then popping in a year later demanding a brand new device.

[@deformemvita]

Preach, brother. I do repairs at the independent game store I work at, and some of the shit I've seen... well, you probably know. Dude came in with a 360 with a stuck disc tray (his kid made a game disc out of playdough and forced the tray closed... and then it dried). I've seen roaches plenty. I once pulled apart this stoner's PS4 to replace the fan and change the thermal paste, and the entire inside was coated in pot smoke residue... it was like someone painted the heatsink with honey, and when I turned it on; it smelled like a goddamn music festival.

[@FFXIK]

Either that or cigarette residue. House full of heavy smokers, they can't be bothered to clean their houses. Years of nicotine residue with dust and dirt. I looked like I had just got through playing in the dirt after cleaning those gems.

[@stanj85]

I don't do any drugs, so I was unaware that smoking so much can leave behind a residue. Good to know.

[@miladanki8380]

Same here

[@Nuvendil]

@@stanj85 If you go to an old office building or any old building with offices, check the lounge or breakroom and you may see one or both of two things: yellow ceiling tiles and what looks like a big AC unit that will also be yellow. That is a cigarette smoke vent/filter that was put in buildings back when you had smoking indoors. That smoking is what turns the ceiling tiles and that vent yellow.

[@hubzcaps]

Teh_D3th_St4r hahaha. dats wax brugh. lol

[@anemicbowl4873]

I remember specifically, with my Wii U, it all of a sudden didn’t want to display on the tv, so we looked into it. And in the ventilation area, THERE WAS THE CARCAS OF A DEAD LIZARD THAT SOMEHOW MADE IT IN!!

[@boiz9552]

Spawn wave Presents:Tales of the video game industry 1.Episode 1 the terror of Video game repair

[@PixsolsProps]

This is great.

[@danielwestgames6746]

Terrorwave

[@DivisibleByWaffle]

I bought a Sega Genesis at a con that I found out was full of dead cockroaches once I brought it home to fix. There was even one baked into the power socket! A lot of TLC, cleaning, and some fresh solder and a new controller socket later, it's up and running beautifully. I've been happily playing Sonic and Knuckles on it! If it wasn't for people like us, these great consoles would end up in the trash!

[@covenantpig8440]

Those cockroaches were probably from the 90’s.

[@DivisibleByWaffle]

@@covenantpig8440 Damm, I could have sold them for a mint! Collectable Retro Bugs, now only $300!

[@TheDismack]

Definitely enjoyed the stories, reminds me of the horror stories I can tell working in retail.

[@chaikagaz]

My stupid dumb fuck boss made me kill mice instead of calling pest control. I was a sales associate for a book store..

[@BurntTM]

@GamerCalledBen how?

[@mohammeds5339]

@@chaikagaz lmfao

[@Carrot101]

@@chaikagaz idk why your boss didnt do it themselves 😂

[@khafail6902]

@Carrot101 Cuz he's boss 💀💀💀💀

[@pat2430]

As a licensed pest control technician, this doesn't surprise me.

[@chaikagaz]

Yup i bet bed bugs are the norm for you..

[@pat2430]

@@Vegasguy79 I've been doing pest control since 2011 I've seen TVs with roaches just piled up inside, shoot even land line phones.

[@lilbyrd27]

Were im from, we had a river and lots of old trees .. and the temperature doesnt drop below 30 but only 8 days out of the year ... and old run down vacant building ... roaches are everywhere. You can spray, fumigate, etc. They wouldn't be gone for long.

[@dylansmith8777]

@@Vegasguy79 I live in Vegas I pay a pest control company like 300 dollars a month it works but damn its expensive.

[@user-yv2cz8oj1k]

Surely constant cock roaches is a good thing for business. 🤣

[@Pendleton115]

The first one reminds me of an iMac G4 20” I once purchased for restoration. They’re very rare and I thought the $100 I payed for it was a deal as it was in good condition and still worked (Or So It appeared) although, upon taking the base off I was greeted with a complete horror. Thousands of cockroaches large and small started scuttling out. Long story short it took a COMPLETE machine disassembly, (And I mean complete!) I even had to remove the controller board off the Hard Drive to get underneath and spray for cockroach eggs. They even got between the plastic exterior and the metal chassis! I still have nightmares to this day...

[@Lynarrr]

That’s one of my biggest fears in restoring electronics, the bugs. I’m not good with them. But besides that, had one time I was looking for old computers and decided that it would be great for parts or something. Opened it and the remains of a mice were in there and everything. Got scared and never touched that pc again.

[@Spartan122S]

Damn this just gave me a whole anxiety attack xd

[@gilbertocaldeira5935]

It's funny how so many people I know who worked at repairing consoles is that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEN, have some bizarre story

[@gilbertocaldeira5935]

@El-ahrairah like I said, everyone of then have some kind of story, and yours is perfect

[@jmccain22090]

I ran a little side hustle in high school repairing PS2 systems(yeah shows my age), but dang some of the stuff I saw was nuts, and I only repaired 30 or so.

[@bunnyfreakz]

You clearly never work at retail. bizarre story happens on a daily basis.

[@fernandosepulveda8748]

@El-ahrairah lmao best story ever. Dam I would have been happy too

[@gilbertocaldeira5935]

@@bunnyfreakz my country doesn't have retail stores, so.....

[@stinkynacho2362]

I was over at my cousin’s house one time playing Xbox 360 with her when her little sister (my cousin as well, obviously lol) tripped and accidentally dumped a bunch of liquidy slime on the Xbox. It was the Xbox 360 S and it was set up vertically, so all the slime went through the grill and soaked into the components. We said a prayer and hoped for the best. We never cleaned it out (or even tried to) and it still works amazing to this day 😂

[@DaFro3713]

3 years to drop off a system, come on. You can’t expect people to hold onto something that long. It’s why most game shops I’ve seen give 30 days max.

[@TechnologistAtWork]

Didn't even contact them to tell them to do him a favor and hold on to it for longer. 3 years. That guy either was in a coma or high out of his mind for 3 years.

[@fade6355]

Probably went to jail for some time

[@TechnologistAtWork]

@@fade6355 that's very possible.

[@KRDecade2009]

TheFade it would be ironic if he was in Jail for 3 years and the first thing he does is call the cops for a ps3

[@bobbyberrier8175]

I gave my xbox to "xbox" and they held it for 5 months before they repaired it

[@cigarnewbie6436]

Many years ago a girl I worked with knew that I built and repaired computers so she asked me to take a look at her PC that suddenly stopped working. I take it home and open it up to find dozens of dead cockroaches inside and several still alive. That was the first time I'd ever seen such a horror show inside a computer. Completely freaked me out.

[@yurei8004]

I guess it's good that glass window PC cases are getting very popular now. Lol :D

[@mikukumiku]

I’m an amateur when it comes to repairs, but I totally enjoyed this! Especially that last one attempting a self-repair. I’d admittedly repair stuff on my own, but the moment soldering is involved, I nope the heck outta there and send it to pros like you, haha!

[@malaki7123]

Same here. I like being able to fix my own stuff, and there's a lot of great resources out there, but when it comes to the finer stuff that requires more tools and care, time to find someone!

[@chaikagaz]

I fix my own stuff too but im scared i may break it sometimes.

[@boi-condrift5129]

Yeah most repairs I’ve done have stopped short of soldering. I have a gba sp 001 that needs soldering and I contacted my brother in law for help since he’s more experienced. I’m not messing around with that cause I know if I do it I’ll just end up buying a whole new board.

[@josephmcsticc164]

I've never done my own repairs before, i think the closest i'm gonna get is cleaning(which isn't really repairing), however right now I've got a noisy Xbox one x i'm thinking about opening to give a bit of a clean. But before i do that i'm gonna watch some tutorials first so i don't break any thing.

[@nessotrin]

I learned to solder by trying and breaking stuff. It's doable, just be prepared for a few massacres at first.

[@mclaine33]

That dude who left the PS3 in the shop for almost 3 years was probably in prison LOL. How the hell do you just leave it there for 3 years and then all of a sudden remember it was there?

[@teacherfromthejungles6671]

you know... LIFE happens sometimes? death of relatives, moving to another city, a business trip to another country.. and btw, what's so funny about being in a prison? look at the current state of the law system. anyone can get the for a minor mistake (an insult or something like that)

[@DasAntiNaziBroetchen]

@@teacherfromthejungles6671 Lmao you again

[@teacherfromthejungles6671]

@@DasAntiNaziBroetchen slowpoke much? look how old this thread is before typing something like lMaO oLoloLo ahAhaHa again. bye.

[@LordBonesaw]

@@teacherfromthejungles6671 you are one weird person who also has a face only a mother could love

[@EndlessFunctionality]

Can just see the guy in his cell everyday. First day when I get out. I'm going down to get my Ps3 back!

[@matthewmartin5930]

I’d like to see more of these

[@herohunter81]

This channel is like the modern tech tv, G4. I have memories of Adam Sessler and Xplay when watching. Keep it up!

[@TheRiverRat96]

I’ve worked on thousands of rental houses in my life and you’d be amazed how a lot of people live. I swear some people view roaches as pets. Will literally sleep with them

[@grim1937]

PLEASE more of these John!! This is awesome and I know you’ve been in the industry for a while now. Not only to entertain your audience, but to log your life for yourself later on. This is amazing and thank you!! Hope you have an awesome Christmas!!

[@TheFalloutCollector]

Loved it, do more :) please I used to buy ps3 units to repair off Ebay. Bought and fixed TONS of them but the 1 I'll never forget was the one filled to the brim with dead roaches. It was something I knew could happen, but never seen myself before. It came from an apartment building in New York, there were literally hundreds of these small 1"-2" long roach's, in and under every component of the system. The smell was absolutely TERRIBLE, I had to remove every piece of this system, clean every inch, especially inside the power supply. Got everything cleaned and working flawlessly, even gave it a clear shell, and modded it for a buddy. Everytime I went to his house I looked at it thinking about how disgusting it was. 🤣 Confession time: He never knew of its past.

[@PortgasDAce-wt2qu]

Me: Thank god my switch is not big enough for cockroaches to enter! Ants: We're about to end this man's whole switch 🐜🐜🐜

[@gurjindersingh3843]

They're going to flip the switch on your faith

[@rac1equalsbestgame853]

My DS died because of ants 😑

[@teacherfromthejungles6671]

just keep it clean and don't eat in your living room. no food for bugs => no bugs...

[@more4u2c]

You should make a Respawn Wave youtube account and post broken things getting repaired. Get it your respawning the item after it died for whatever reason. Joy cons, old systems, controllers, etc

[@Hat-]

Great idea!

[@eddiee99]

K

[@cooloobahn112]

That roach one made my face contort and my nerves get all jumpy. I'm terrified of bugs and that story really made my anxiety come out. Lol

[@bluebomber875]

Same lol

[@theconfusedllama]

I usually designated a certain controller to be dissected and used for parts for multiple broken controllers and then re-assemble that controller using the broken versions, take it into one of those places that does trade-ins and just trade it in for whatever the price is for a broken controller.

[@boi-condrift5129]

I have a bag full of ps2 controller parts! For some reason I enjoy making Frankenstein ps2 controllers.

[@alanescareno9748]

I thought i had mosca in my screen.

[@yoshi7236]

Hey Hey Hey has has

[@TheIronRafael]

Props to you, man! People who fix consoles and electronics are up there with doctors in my list of respect. I have a used PS3 slim that came with a bad HDMI port and it was freaking annoying because it would overheat and I just didn't know what to do. Thankfully, my trusted technician figured it out and got it working again.

[@robbitjuice2115]

I've been doing cell phone repair for about a year now (professionally). I want to get into soldering soon, but this industry is NOT something I want to do for about 10 years. The clientele you get...let's just say it can be volatile. I'd love to do console / handheld repair in my spare time, and I LOVE how modular the Switch is. Thank you for sharing your stories! I'd love to see more stories like this! Also, I wish there was a video game repair shop near my home!

[@infernaltim]

Story Time with Jon and Evan could seriously become my favorite series behind News Wave. I deal with people for my job every day and get crazy requests (restaurant stuff, not tech issues) so I love hearing crazy stories that we all share.

[@OfLaSoul]

The composure in which you narrate the story is insane. I would have PTSD lol.

[@CasualDraws]

My friend usually comes to me to repair his stuff because I like technology He asked me to clean his PS4 (original) What I dident know is that his 3 brothers basically kept it running 24/7 for 5 years (thanks to Fifa and fortnite) So Istarted it up just to see how bad it is and from the get go it sounds like a fighter jet I loaded fallout 4 and it was even louder I turn it off and open it up. Next thing I know is that my desk has a thin layer of dust in it I had to use half of a can of compressed air to get most of the PS4 clean half a family size q tip box to do the rest I decided. Might as well replace the cooling paste the board was stuck to the metal frame and I had to pop it off the old cooling paste was so dry it crumbled off . I apply new cooling paste and put it back together and turn it on and show him he said to me "Wow it's so quiet I never knew it was this quiet in the begining" Tldr: I was bombed by a dust bomb because of Fifa and fortnite

[@lovetheLord2005]

Keep it up Spawn wave, I'm liking this type of content!

[@chevron-vw5rn]

more of these please! This was fun, so far favorite story is the 3 year late pick up, reminds me of tales from the game store from Ian on Pat the NES Punks channel

[@awesomeraincloud]

had a lady come into my gamestop wanting to sell her ps4, so i take off the lid and there were a bunch of dead spiders inside, seeing them sprinkle out like a salt shaker made my teeth crawl

[@BurntTM]

That's disgusting. What do you mean with "sprinkling out"? I'm concerned

[@prosfilaes]

Returns warehouse I worked at had to evacuate one night due to fire. Turns out one of our returns clerks opened up a box with a laptop that had roaches, which got thrown right into the bin. The bins that led to the box shredder, which does bad things when you feed a lithium ion battery through it.

[@mrmaniac3]

"There are bugs in the system."

[@MrFuller876]

Literally.🤣

[@crusty_]

Badum tsss

[@DizzyDez613]

Repair guy: There’s bugs in the system. Customer: I know. That’s why I brought it to you. Repair guy: No! There’s BUGS.... in the SYSTEM! Customer: Yes. I need you to fix them! Repair guy: Who’s on first base?

[@francisphillipeck4272]

always are

[@benmcmahan8189]

Roaches in game consoles I see all the time, sometimes even alive but the worst was a PS4 we had brought into the shop that sounded like a rain stick because of all the dead roaches in it. We don’t take consoles with bugs but that was the worst I’ve seen

[@Mike__P]

ha! Man I work in pest control and we always get calls to go to video game stores to treat for roaches because customers return infested consoles and the employees just throw them on the shelf in the back room.

[@yurei8004]

@Neocereus Well not having bugs, but I'd guess gluing interlining to cover the ventilation holes would work. Just make sure there are no gaps. Interlining should allow the ventilation to work fine still. Sorry English isn't my first language but by interlining I mean the special fabric you use to prevent a PC from gathering dust.

[@rac1equalsbestgame853]

@Neocereus Make sure your house doesn not have bug problems. If the problems are chronic you can protect the console's ventialtilation with what the other comment said

[@TheBdog113]

I worked at a major electronics retailer in the storeroom so we had to deal with taking in consoles and sending them to repairers. They sit in a bay ready to be packed and shipped to the repairer, that happens to be next to my desk. I was sitting there eating lunch and a roach runs across the desk. At this point me and my coworker had to bug bait everything in the area. A day or so later, one of us actually see a roach run out of a PS4 we took in for repair. At that point it's too late, the roaches had infested our storeroom, staff kitchen, everything. I check who took the system in and of course it was the store doofus that doesn't check *anything* when checking in customers repair items. I go and speak to him and it was like a lightbulb going off when I told him what happened, he said he wondered why there were roaches all of the sudden at the desk he booked the console in at. TLDR: trust me, we would much prefer you tell us that your console has bugs in it, because surely you'd know. Also work with smart people.

[@DeynaMoonbringer]

I've been watching so many console repair channels/videos and am seriously looking into doing it as a side-thing. Love hearing these stories, keep it up!

[@squiggle2054]

whenever people say roaches i keep thinking the huge roaches we have in the south that are like a good 2 inches big and are scary af but ik people mean those tiny things that are barely the size of the tip of my finger

[@hisstatus]

Squiggle ikr i keep thinking ‘Holy shit how could a roachget in a closed console?’ And then I saw those tiny fucks

[@squiggle2054]

@@hisstatus yea, huge roaches freak me tf out and the fact they can fly makes me want to burn the building down

[@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou]

we have big roaches bruh... When I was a kid if I went out to the road with a flashlight and started shining it around especially near the drainage grates you would see hundreds of big roaches running around everywhere. oh nevermind LOL you said south... Im in the south.... I swear I thought you said South America lol

[@squiggle2054]

@@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou oh bro FUCK THOSE THINGS

[@hisstatus]

R H not south america LOL

[@ryanceyjr2910]

So my cousin gave me an old ps3. It was INFESTED WITH ROACHES. INFESTED OUR HOUS

[@TheFrogInYourClosetWatchingYou]

that happens with TV's a lot too...

[@jah5390]

PS4'S DO NOT DESERVE TO BE ABUSED IN A RELATIONSHIP 😭😭😭

[@MrFuller876]

Ikr😔

[@birddude3123]

yes very true 😔😔

[@ElectroBotVideo]

True, but some people unfortunately choose to use items/pets/children as collatarol damage/barganing chips.

[@cecillavine249]

I agree on that one Playstation four's are meant to be played not damaged or misused😞😞😞

[@DasAntiNaziBroetchen]

@@Matanumi It's cruelty free!

[@zanderstigen]

This would be a fantastic series given the fact alone that you have a decade plus of experience. PLEASE do more of these!!!

[@jmccain22090]

Would’ve told that fool that left his system there for three years to hit the damn road. He was obviously scheming for a deal.

[@TheCoolDave]

You know what, They made a customer who was VERY upset even though it was their fault a happy one, They gave a discount on a system but, very , very high chance they were STILL making a profit on it. So they made a customer happy and made some money. For a business, that is a Win Win because odds are, that customer will be back or tell his friends...

[@jmccain22090]

TheCoolDave he was probably a crack head looking for a way to make some money to buy dope. I get what you’re saying, and yes Ideally that would be awesome in a perfect world, but I’ve been in retail management all of my professional life(12 years) I can almost assure you this guy was a schemer.

[@Deadsea_1993]

True, but honestly they wanted him out of there. Someone like that is interfering with business, they are unpredictable and could start destroying the store by flipping over racks and throwing stuff off the shelves, they could be a distraction as someone has to keep an eye on them. They probably won't do business with him again lol. Like they could refuse service.

[@ErectedGasCan]

This was a really interesting video, i worked for years at retail and also ended up as main warranty supervisor for that store by accident for some time. I had more automotive based stuff to deal with as we sold spare parts to them mainly, but the most interesting electronic device i had to do with was a Celly brand usb charging device, the ones you just hook up in a outlet and connect a usb cable in for charging phones/tablets/mp3s etc. Well a man walked in, calm as a summer morning breeze, and politely asked if he could get a new one as his Celly charger had "done... something?". Well i can say that it looked like a piece of art, somehow this device had eighter short cirquited or overheated like crazy, that it should not have been able to do as here they require that all chargers sold have to cut power if a certain heat level is achieved. This thing looked like a piece of art, the plastic casing had molted into a long drip of plastic, electrical components slightly visible and resembled a huge chewed bubblegum. The guy was happy to get a new charger of same brand, and had no other issues as his phone had no problems..

[@jamesburchill7522]

Cockroaches LOVE electronics. I used to repair televisions, VCR's and early DVD players. I'd say a good 20% of my repair jobs involved roaches. I'd repair the items, and then take the customer away from the general public, as not to embarrass them and explain what happened, and that if they still have an infestation, this will certainly happen again. Though. There was a time when a 15 year old kid came in with an emergency. He had gotten his parents porno tape stuck in the VCR and they were going to be home in two hours.

[@MEXUS.]

That teenager part sounds hilarious. Did you manage to help him out?

[@jamesburchill7522]

@@MEXUS. Of course. My man can't go out like that.

[@HoudiniFontmeister]

@@jamesburchill7522 GG lol

[@sharot28]

Lol

[@BurntTM]

@@jamesburchill7522 good job on saving his life man. After reading all these horror story comments it makes me not want to work at gamestop or anywhere that repairs consoles... it's a good thing I'm only 14 and I still have some time to decide

[@ss3mania28]

Please do more videos like this. I’ve been having a bad week but this video really cheered me up !

[@jamesalexanderjr1603]

“And they were alive” instant classic 😂😂😂

[@MrBergste]

When you started that last story I was about to brag because I soldered in a daughter board into a new disc drive for my Xbox One a couple of years back and it still works to this day. As I continued listening to your story, however, I realized that what you had to do was much more difficult than what I did lol.

[@booploopboi]

6:34 "Bugs in the system"

[@scibrew2922]

boop loop pun intended

[@zwerker]

Good one, please bring more! Remember Colin of "This does not compute" had good stories of bug filled computers also. If I recall they used to take the sketchy looking machines outside before opening them.

[@Warunicorn]

I once had a what seemed to be a mile-long centipede come out of a Packard Bell computer... lol

[@kevingagnon928]

You definitely need to make a series out of this. Either on this channel or SW+. Love this!

[@jamylhurtado]

I just bought a used PS4 on eBay now I’m paranoid about roaches

[@brocksexton4804]

The minute you mentioned roaches, I started laughing my ass off - (I worked at a Repair & Hobby Computer Store) I had a customer who bought a brand new computer from me on a Friday Afternoon, he came back the following week on a Tuesday while my boss was in claiming I sold him a broken computer and it had only worked for a few hours before making a noise and turning off. Began to open the system and the PowerSupply was filled with Cockroaches, we took the whole thing outside they ended up climbing the side of the building and got into the hvac system. Our landlords were trying to put the cost on us for clearing out the building but luckily only a few had managed to get in and were killed before anything else came of it. But 100% tell the store you bring it too, because I'm sure it's not uncommon that landlords will try and make that business pay and this is easily hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the size of the building and if any other units are inside.

[@ChiefYoshi]

I saw your reply to his tweet and knew this video was coming

[@Victini0510]

Maybe not for the main channel, but this is the perfect type of video/series for Spawn Wave Plus. Doesn't have to be specifically gaming, but I'd love to hear more stories from you!

[@christopherwallace7259]

My nephew had candle wax spilled in his 360 years ago and I had to open it up and clean it to the best I could. Still works too

[@FloppyDiskMaster]

I’ve been looking forward to a video like this forever now, would love to see it become a series!

[@confusername]

This is like... the earliest I've caught one of these videos.

[@paintfatpurple7394]

Confusername turn on the dingy dong bell

[@WSoulMoony]

Oh this are great, you definitely have to do more of this. I have one of my own, I once was helping my uncle repair an old tv so my grandma could use it, according to her it needed just a little dust off and it shouldn't take long so we opened it up and take a look, to our surprise and absoulute horror we found a nest of dead rats right in the middle of it, there were like mumified little corpses around and a lot of tiny bones, I'm noping right the hell off but my uncle soldiers on and begins cleaning it, that's when an alive rat jumps at him and we realize that some of the corpses are being moved by something underneath them. Let me tell you that tv when straight to the dumpster and my uncle straight to walmart for a new one for my granny. In all my years I have never heard a man scream like my uncle that day.

[@Drewsefer89]

I'm very curious to know why someone would leave a system there for 3 YEARS! How does that even happen? How can someone even forget something like that? I need to know.

[@lucleadergaming3487]

Drewsefer89 maybe their mom was going to sell it so he hid it at the store and waited until he moved out. 😂😂😂😂

[@spartan456]

I once had to deal with a lady who left some laptops with us for a little over a year and a half. Sometimes we do trade-ins for things that we have for sale. If the stuff you bring in looks like we can actually sell it, we will gladly knock some money off of another purchase. This lady brought in 3 laptops and they were all in good shape, had decent enough hardware. Some of them needed a new keyboard and batteries and whanot, but nothing terrible. We figured we could flip them and make anywhere from $30-$50 off of each one. Not a great sale but hey, profit is profit right? So we offered to knock $100 a computer she was interested in buying from us. Generous for what she gave us, but safe enough that if we only sold one or two it wouldn't leave us losing money. She says she'll think about it, and wants to leave the laptops with us while she mulls it over. Not a big deal, it's easier if we hold onto them anyway. Well a year goes by. Not a peep. We tried contacting this lady 4 or 5 times over the course of the year. No call backs. No e-mails from her. Nothing. At this point we considered them abandoned and sold the ones we could sell and recycled the ones that needed too much work to be profitable. About 5 or 6 months after this she finally calls us back and asks if she can come in and get that desktop. Are you kidding me lady!? I told her we had recycled those laptops months ago as she had left them with us for a year and we heard nothing back from her. She FIRED OFF at me on the phone, went absolutely ballistic. "It hasn't been that long! Why didn't you call me? That's illegal! You took my stuff!" yada yada fucking yada. I'm more than happy to keep things for people *if they tell me* and at least keep me in the loop. I've kept things for YEARS because every once in awhile I'd at least hear back from them, letting me know they are aware they've got stuff to pick up and letting me know that they are still interested in getting them. This lady chose to never get back in touch with us until a year and a half after the fact. What blows my mind is that she thought we would still have the same computer in stock after all that time...people be crazy man.

[@maarkaus48]

I can relate man. I did pc repair at Staples and had some crazy things to deal with. Once got a printer covered in manure and other barn things... best part is they wanted the extended warranty to cover it.

[@thepoliticalstartrek]

I got a feeling the new consoles will be tri layer boards. That will make them pretty much un-repairable if one of the embedded caps or resistor goes.

[@DualFace_1]

you need to do more videos like this, its so interesting listening to the situations that lead to these damaged systems and how they were repaired

[@Twitter_Posts]

8:07 *HE* stopped coming back, but he sent someone else haha

[@Poemiserable]

Would absolutely love this to turn into a series!

[@astaynax7531]

I was taking my 10 year old psp apart and all was going well, all the screws were coming out nice, but I got the the bottom screw and it instantly stripped beyond saving, I ended up drilling the head of the screw off.....

[@TheIndustrialphreak]

I did repairs at a local shop called gamers in Omaha,NE many many years before the ps3 was released. Some of our horror stories were similar, though as a sadist I actually enjoyed re-balling and rewiring. "Micro-Solder" connections, try working with surface mount parts the size of grains of sand. At a later job I repaired satellite phone boards often having to depopulate the whole board, and rebuild traces with this metal foil tape. It helped we actually made the PCBS so we had all the stencils in house as well a laser etching machine to do any custom masking that ever arose. Back at Gamers regarding bugged consoles we actually had a special box air tight box built that we would drop those bug foggers in like a scene out of a movie.

[@ChristianPerrotta]

3:56 "May be the PS5 will fix that" well... where do I begin with?

[@twig-e6431]

I loved this, man! You can call it "Jon's Corner" and share your memories of a time or situation, whether work-related or not. This is a neat idea.

[@wishbone8275]

either the guy told her what gamestop he took it too..or she stalked him to your location which is also weird? stupid decisions....on both sides.

[@MonadoJoJo]

I'd love to see a series about this!! This was really interesting and crazy to hear about! Video Game horror stories like this always fasinate me.

[@FormulaFanboy]

I like how we all immediately knew who Scott was.

[@mkrudesign4036]

These stories are giving me GameStop war flashbacks. Worked there for 6 years. I think I had a story similar to every single one you told me and yes, that stress is very relatable.

[@Jdub62]

Wow this is done juicy gross interesting stories and I wanna hear more 👀

[@Vortex_Zero]

As a fellow repair tech. I feel that. Personally I work on mostly laptops, desktops, and sometimes phones and consoles, but yeah you always get some unique experiences repairing electronics for customers.

[@TheSterlingArcher16]

All those reballs done and it was never even the problem lol.

[@jrvegeeta]

Dude... I think you’re on to something here. Not only is it entertaining, it may also help by letting people know what NOT to do before bring a system in for repair.

[@PrinsessePeach]

This needs to become a series! Really interesting stories! 😁👌👍

[@igiuLoiraM]

Please make a series out of this. It was very fun and interesting to listen to.

[@Rundle77]

Spawn Wave, where did you learn to do repairs on consoles?

[@SprunkCovers]

I'm not a pro at fixing consoles, but in most cases is trial and error lol

[@gumbojohnson8872]

12:55 my man is an ABSOLUTE L E G E N D!! "Hide the expensive stuff"

[@SourStrawberrys]

I wouldn't have given him a discount on any system. The moment he called the police in I would have the police excort his ass out. And if he refused to leave at that point than they are free to arrest him because at that point he is trespassing.

[@EricVogt97]

Unfortunately when you run an independent store like this you have to humor these kinds of people to some degree as they can destroy your reputation with a negative yelp review or BBB complaint

[@bubbaXzone]

@@EricVogt97 shit you are right BBB complaint my mom does alot lol.

[@jimbeaux89]

That’s police brutality.

[@sladekiske]

Would rather take my chances with roaches than bed bugs!

[@skullbyte1594]

Okay, this is a great concept. Please keep making more of these!

[@iMac9991]

*that one dude almost 3 years later, randomly* "oh yeah i have a ps3"

[@FightForDreames]

The level of detail, what with the diagrams, was an unexpectedly amazing touch.

[@3boodPhotography]

I tried to repair couple of my consoles back in the day.... Rip to them 😂.

[@GC-ji3ye]

I love a DYI project, but I know my limits. Soldering electric guitar wire harnesses and minor console mods (backlight gameboys and GBAs) are one thing, but major repair jobs are a whole different animal. Ya gotta know when to let a pro take over. That being said, loved the video and look forward to this being a series. Thanks!

[@mahnamejeff]

That’s what I call a “Paranoid Android.”

[@bryanfrye8770]

I've had a few with bed bugs inside. Always keep repairable consoles in a shed and gut that thing and clean it before you bring it in your house

[@EvilRiceGuy]

My real question is that how Scott got candle wax on his xbox

[@gureguru4694]

more please. its pretty rare for someone in the business tell their story.