It’s amazing the range of consumer electronic equipment that’s now available. However, while this is good for consumers, it does make it difficult for technicians to be proficient with all brands and models when it comes to servicing TV sets and displays. Fortunately though, most TV sets are variants of the "original mousetrap" and so similar troubleshooting procedures apply to all.

We also get the odd "orphan" that has strayed into our part of the world. For example, some months ago, a young man brought in a 51cm Panasonic TV/VCR designed for the US market. He had been given the set and it had a US mains plug fitted to the power lead.

I explained that it needed a 240/110V transformer to start with and even then it would only work with NTSC signals and the tuner wouldn’t work in Australia. Disappointed, he took the set away and I thought that that would be the end of the matter.

I was wrong. A year or so later, a young woman brought in a similar set which she said was dead and which, she thought, probably needed a new fuse. Apparently, she had been given the set by her male flatmate in lieu of rent, her "friend" being well in arrears when he left.

At first I didn’t recognise the set but it looked awfully familiar. Anyway, I searched for the model number on my computer database and up it popped.

It wasn’t until I checked the serial number that the penny finally dropped and now I could piece the sequence of events together. Someone had fitted an Australian power plug and the fuse had indeed given out – after all, 240 into 110 won’t go!

It turned out that what the cunning little rat had done was scavenge the set from the footpath during a council clean up and then deceived the poor girl into thinking it was a fair swap for the rent. After all, he said, it only needed a fuse!