GE Microwave: No Lights, No Nothing?

[(PeteCresswell)]

This one:

Less than 3 years old. Slow learner that I am (and needing a particular dimension) this is the second one of this exact same make/model I have bought - the first one having gone belly-up after less than a year.

Somebody put a cup of tea into this one, pushed the one-minute quick-start button. It started making normal sounds, but stopped after less than a second.

At this point, no LED lights, no nothing - seems totally dead.

Sounds to me like something got fried, but what?

If it were the magnetron, wouldn't we still be seeing LED lights?

Before I start trying to take this thing apart, I thought I'd ask if anybody has been here.

Do these things have internal fuses?

[philoÂÂ]

Confirm the the outlet is live and the tines of your AC plug are not burned.

[The Ancient]

I had an old built-in microwave that I tried to keep working for 10 years. It kept blowing fuses. It is usually blown by the door switch not working c orrectly. The door usually has 3 switches to make sure the door is not open when the magnetron is running. It blows very fast. It is a direct short to ground through the fuse and through the door switch. I would "bend" my swi tch arm until it finally did not work anymore. Mine was too old to buy a ne w switch. But if you can find the parts, then it should be under $10 to fix the door switch.

If you change the fuse (usually mounted inside on the bottom metal plate) a nd it blows again, try to see if there is any correlation to opening/closing the door when it blows.

The only other parts I have changed is the magnetron capacitor/diode combo ( about $17 from foxatlanta appliance ). But, usually the clock display sti ll works when these go out due to a voltage spike.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Thanks!

Pulled the housing off.

Managed not to electrocute myself via the high-voltage capacitor in there.

Pulled the only fuse shown on the schematic that was taped inside the housing. Tested it and found it a-ok.

Replaced the fuse.

Re-attached the housing and.......

.... it worked!!! ????

My only guess is that there was some sort of thermal circuit breaker (that I am too clueless to ID on the schematic) and it returned to normal temp during disassembly/reassembly. Doesn't really hold water though, bc after initial failure it sat for a good hour and the period of use before it stopped working was sooooo short.

Go figure....

[philoÂÂ]

Slight oxidation of the contacts.

Had to do the same with the power supply output for my computer yesterday. I just had to unplug it and replug.

[Jon Danniken]

I have become convinced that some appliances just get lonely, and refuse to continue working until someone goes through them and plays with their innards.

It is the only logical conclusion possible.

Jon

[micky]

You're probably right. I've been fixing things since I was 9 years old just by taking them apart and putting them back together again. Most things, never found anything wrong with them.