iFixit - Answers With Device "Lighting"

LED Christmas Lights: Half of the string of LED Christmas lights doesn't light up.

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 15:00:44 -0700

A bit of a low-tech, although seasonal, question for you:

I have a bunch of Noma LED Christmas light strings, each with 70 LEDs. With one string, exactly half of the LEDs don't light up when plugged into the AC. The whole string used to work, and it's only about a year or two old.

My understanding is that Christmas light strings like these are often two independent circuits, with fuses built into the plugs at either end. I notice that most of the way through the string there are three wires—but at the middle-point of the string, there are only two wires joining the 2 halves. So, this idea that there are actually two independent circuits seems to make sense to me. There must be a fault in the 2nd half of the string, or the fuse in that half must have blown.

My question is this:

Has anybody ever tried repairing this kind of LED Christmas light string? Is it worth it to try replacing the fuse? (Of course, it would only make sense doing so if there wasn't some other more serious fault in the circuit—but how would you debug the cause of the failure?)

The plug at the end with the problem looks like it has a small catch you could push in with a small screwdriver, but it appears almost impossible to pry open the plug without damaging it. Even if I did get the plug open and find the fuse, I'm wondering if the fuse is even some standard size or type that can be readily replaced. Is this just a one-shot type of fuse?

Failing repairing the 2nd half, I might cut the string in two and just insulate and seal the cut end with heat shrink. Has anybody done this to a broken string of LED lights?

⟐ Commented декабря 29, 2024 at 15:00 GMT-7

Incandescent Light: I can't change the lightbulb by myself!

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 12:11:09 -0700

I have a bulb out in one of my lamps. Can someone come over and change it, please. Please be sure the wattage is consistent with what the lamp can handle. I prefer soft white and am a GE fan, but any manufacturer will do. Also, I don't really like the energy saving flourescent as they cast a ghastly green shadow on my otherwise ghostly complexion.

⟐ Commented июля 24, 2015 at 12:11 GMT-7

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb: Repairing energy saving Lamps

Fri, 04 May 2018 23:20:53 -0700

Hi All,

With over use of energy saving light bulbs,we are left with thousands of non functioning bulbs around us.I have heard that 80% of them are malfunctioning due to faulty electronic parts inside the starter circuit.Any clues on repairing them?Any guides etc....

Thanks

⟐ Commented мая 04, 2018 at 23:20 GMT-7

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb: How do you easily tell if a CFL bulb is bad?

Sun, 06 Dec 2015 19:48:25 -0700

In incandescent bulbs, you can shake the bulb or look at the filament to tell if a bulb is dead without having to put it in a socket. With a CFL, is there any way to tell if a bulb is bad without plugging it into a socket and trying it out?

⟐ Answered декабря 06, 2015 at 19:48 GMT-7

Fluorescent light: Fluorescent lights dim and flashing

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 17:08:05 -0700

I have a fluorescent light fixture that uses two 40-watt 4' long tubes. It has recently started acting strange. When first turned on, it works fine for a minute or two, then one of the tubes becomes dim and the other becomes dim and flashing. It's not the tubes, as I've replaced those and nothing changed. Someone suggested it might be the ballast. I'm not exactly sure exactly how old the fixture is, but I'd guess it's at least 10 years old and has been used daily for that entire time. Is the problem caused by the ballast, and if so is that something that can be changed, or should I just buy a new fixture?

⟐ Answer edited апреля 15, 2023 at 17:08 GMT-7

Christmas Lights: 1000 Low dim light not bright twinklers

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 04:22:55 -0700

My husband and I have spent the entire weekend stringing lights around the house and through the yards, front and back we set up several blow up displays and some standing ornaments in the yard all with lights. My husband fancys himself as a handy man and for the most part he is.

We have at least 50 or more strings of lights on the house and garage and garden shed. There is maybe 20 or strings of lights on the trees around the yard and all the ornaments and blow ups have lights. We bought high end outdoor power bars and ran them all to a control panel an electrician friend had built for us.This in turn is wired into the main fuse panel in the garage which has heavy power as my husband puts it . He has a work shop in the garage with lots of power tools. So the question of power should not be a problem but it is.

Heres our problem when we turn on the lights they are very dim . We have tried shortening the extension cords taking off lights we've tried cutting the number of lights down but the only thing that seems to work is taking the LED lights out of the equation. when we take out the led and leave only the older strings of lights everything works fine but when we use the newer ones it all dims out. hes out there now trying to hook up only the led to see if they will work alone has anyone had this problem and can you tell us what we can do to run both the old lights and the new.

UPDATE :

Paul's still out in the yard without any luck yet hes tried the control panel removal , didn't work, he's now checking each strand of lights to see if there's just a bad strand. will keep you posted please more ideas would be appreciated.

⟐ Answer accepted апреля 11, 2016 at 4:22 GMT-7

Casper Glow Light: Wireless Charging base failures or options?

Mon, 26 May 2025 11:34:11 -0700

I’ve had FOUR chargers go bad on me. When I contacted Casper about the first one, they sent me two more. That’s not a good sign. Those charging bases are notoriously prone to failure. There’s two pins to connect to the light to chargé and they constantly get pushed into the charging base and stop charging the light. Anyone got another way to charge the Glow light? Or repair the charging base pins?

⟐ Commented мая 26, 2025 at 11:34 GMT-7

Floor Lamp: Touch activated floor lamp unresponsive to touch

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 12:23:54 -0700

I was foolish enough to buy a cheap floor lamp that, rather than having an on-off switch, is supposed to turn on and off when touched. This touch feature lasted less than a month. I can no longer return it (I waited too long). Any ideas on how to fix it?

⟐ Commented октября 28, 2024 at 12:23 GMT-7

Flashlight: How to remove dead batteries from flashlights?

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 04:15:50 -0700

Does anyone know how to get dead batteries out of flashlights when the batteries have swollen up and wont slide out on their own?

⟐ Answered сентября 29, 2024 at 4:15 GMT-7

Philips Wake-Up Light: How to fix the light buttons that not always work properly?

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 17:12:16 -0700

I have a philips wake up light HF3470 and there are 3 buttons to control the light. (brigther, turn it on/off, dimm). Now 50% of the times these work properly. But sometimes when the on/off button is pressed, the light will dimm (as if the button below was pressed), and when the dimm button is pressed, the volume goes up (which is the button below it).

At first I suspected it to be a physical problem that the plastic of one button presses the other a little bit. But I dissassembled the light, and even when pressing the buttons without the white protectors, it still has the same behaviour.

⟐ Commented июня 27, 2025 at 17:12 GMT-7

Philips Wake-Up HF3520: Light doesn't stay on when clock reaches actual alarm time

Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:26:03 -0700

My clock has an issue where the light comes on during the build-up to the alarm, but turns off once the clock hits the actual alarm time (but demo mode works perfectly). It usually would keep the light on for about 90 minutes after the alarm time unless turned off, but it stays off during this time as well. What’s strange is that the clock display is brighter, like the clock knows the alarm is happening, but the actual wake-up light is not on. Sometimes, unplugging the clock for a few minutes and plugging back in can fix this for a few days, but other times that doesn’t work. It’s very frustrating and has made the alarm completely unreliable.

Also, occasionally I get the random clicking sound like it thinks the buttons are being pressed when they’re not, as mentioned in a question by another user. I’m not sure if these are related or not.

As stated, I’ve tried unplugging and plugging back in, I’ve also tried unplugging and holding down the light on/off button for 15 seconds as suggested in another comment. But regardless, the issue eventually comes up again. Any help is appreciated!

⟐ Answer edited декабря 26, 2025 at 0:26 GMT-7

Floor Lamp: Threading the new cord through the lamp

Sun, 24 Dec 2023 10:01:14 -0700

I've tried to thread the new cord through the lamp (stand is in 3 pieces that screw together). Taping the end doesn't seem to help as it must go through a very tight piece at the very top of each section. Is there another trick for this?

⟐ Commented декабря 24, 2023 at 10:01 GMT-7

Philips Wake-Up Light: Wake up Light not responding to any button presses.

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:11:47 -0700

Hello Guys,

This is a my first question here and have seen Forum helping people with the simillar product , hence this post.

The problem: The clock was working fine but has stopped working since yesterday. On the LCD screen it shows time only and no hardware button seems to do anything i.e. - , +, Select, Menu, Light Buttons except volume and the FM buttons. Sometimes the volume will increase with a button press and you can listen to the FM station but within fractions of seconds the volume will go to zero and the LCD will then show "OFF" only with a speaker sign.

I have tried taking the power off and leaving it for a few hours but no change.

Many thanks

⟐ Answered февраля 12, 2024 at 15:11 GMT-7

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb: Tips on replacing a 60W lightbulb?

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:09:20 -0700

I have a really old lamp, and I want to put an energy efficient bulb in it. I can't seem to find 60W compact fluorescent bulbs anywhere though. Do they exist? Are there certain types of lamps that I shouldn't use compact fluorescent bulbs on?

⟐ Answer deleted января 07, 2013 at 19:09 GMT-7

LED Christmas Lights: Can I change AC LED Christmas Lights Strings to DC?

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 20:06:53 -0700

My first year with LED Christmas Lights.

I know that LEDs are DC. But these work off of house current/voltage.

Is there a way to change them to DC, where I can connect them to a battery or some other power source? (Cut the plug end off or something?)

⟐ Answered августа 07, 2022 at 20:06 GMT-7

Maglite Solitaire: Trouble opening ro replace battery

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 14:27:24 -0700

I am trying to open the bottom to replace the battery but it won't budge. Any suggestions?

⟐ Commented октября 13, 2025 at 14:27 GMT-7

Flashlight: Where are the hi/low settings on a Rayz LED Flashlight?

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 13:10:22 -0700

I have a Rayz flashlight.It says it has a high and low setting. how do i use the settings? idem number 180900

1000 lumens

⟐ Answered сентября 09, 2016 at 13:10 GMT-7

Floor Lamp: Can I replace the base weight on a floor lamp?

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 16:16:02 -0700

The base weight of my Kendal Three Lamp floor lamp is falling apart. It appears to be concrete wrapped in plastic. It is making the lamp unstable. Can the weight be replaced? Where to buy one? Can I do it?

⟐ Commented февраля 15, 2026 at 16:16 GMT-7

Lighting: How to replace "irreplaceable" bulb in philips wake-up light HF3480

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 13:14:18 -0700

Approx. 3 years ago I bought the Philips wake-up light, type HF3480. Now, the lamp inside the device broke down and strangely enough Philips claims that "because of safety reasons" the lamp cannot be replaced, not by the user nor by Philips themselves. This means if I want my light back that I have to throw away/replace this 3 year old alarm clock of which the alarm & clock itself works just perfectly fine.

In the Netherlands even a TV show gave room for this stupidity of Philips. So I thought, this is a challenge for real fixers! I wouldn't know where to start or with what to replace the light bulb, but maybe one of you can help me with this quest?

⟐ Commented января 10, 2024 at 13:14 GMT-7

Christmas Lights: Why does an entire string of lights that worked last year not work?

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:31:27 -0700

Three sets of lights were working just fine last year. I plugged them in this year, and all three strings were dead. Why?

⟐ Commented февраля 19, 2026 at 5:31 GMT-7