Joe’s natural enemy: Broken $30 DVD Player

I just spent 45 minutes tearing apart a broken $30 Wal-Mart DVD player. It stubbornly stopped working. Stopped playing. Stopped ejecting. Stopped even letting the tiny green LED light when plugged in. It just got broke.

So I was going to, you know, throw it away. But I couldn’t remember if I had left a DVD in there.

Seeing as how it would not turn on, this was a problem.

In some sense it’s a Schrödinger’s cat type phemonenon. There both is and is not a DVD in the dead player when I’m not sure there’s a DVD in there. So in some sense a tiny kitty will die if I don’t manage to open the DVD player.

Problem is, the damn thing will not open, no obvious manual switches. I unscrew a few screws, but the front plate won’t budge. I use a large pair of scissors to get rid of the plastic, stubborn, front plate. I had to wrestle with it a great deal. I hurt my hands. Screwdrivers, scissors, a bit of swearing.

And…

And…

No DVD inside.

And that, kids, is how I spent 45 minutes this morning.

I’m going to enjoy discarding that DVD player.