This troper has fixed a computer monitor, a TV, and an XBOX with this method!

This troper's old computer would only spin up the hard drive if you gave the case a hard whack at the right time in the BIOS self check.

So did this troper and his old PC. But, the hard drive had to be '''kept spinning''' in order to work. So he wrote a small program that just did that: every 60 seconds, open a file, write random numbers there, close it, delete it. It worked for 3 months straight, until the HDD gave up.

Happened to mine too, but only for the last few months of the power supply's life. Replacing the power supply fixed it.

This troper's laptop monitor has a power supply problem that causes it to flicker. This can be fixed by rapping in the correct spot on the casing.

This troper had a TV that had fucked-up color balance. While my cousin was jumping around, he jumped too close to the TV, and the color went back to normal. We never really touched the TV though. It worked for a while too.

This troper had an old computer monitor with a similar problem. Hitting it would occasionally fix it for a while, or just turn the display a different color (tired of yellow? How about fuschia for a while?)

This troper had a calculator that would intermittently freeze, taking two whacks with a hand (and, on one occasion, a headbutt) to get it working again. Similarly, his Macbook can also be restarted by knocking in the right place.

This troper has actually managed to get her slow computer to work by applying what she and her friends call 'the Universal Fix-It Method'. It was only recently that she realized that the name not only implied that whacking machinery and electronics worked on any kind of said devices, but also alludes to Universal Studios, which presumably has released movies that employ this trope...

Averted with this troper. Any unnecessary force will cause her Gameboy Advance SP to reboot. This includes setting it down gently on any surface.

Question: is any aversion of this trope also a subversion and an inversion simultaneously? I mean, you whack it, then it works.. but then, you whack it, and doesn't work/gets worse, thus you fulfill the criteria for all failures of the trope.

This troper used to own a DVD drive in his PC that occasionally failed to start it's engine properly. More often then not it could be fixed this way. At other times it required a computer reboot.

The car of this troper's mother had a malfunctioning starter, caused by a bad contact. Until the back-ordered parts arrived, this could be fixed by hitting on it. Since it was quite far in the engine, the best tool was an umbrella.

Surely you mean simply hitting it? I'd hate to see someone hitting on a car starter with an umbrella....

Somehow....... I want to see that but GOD I don't want to see that.

This troper has spent his life learning how to time his percussive maintenance to make it look like he's fixed a machine. Everyone around him looks in awe and then tries it themselves next time. With hilarious consequences. I've made everything from a PC tower to a supermarket digital scale work through what looks like a carefully placed thump. I've also watched a friend knock over his PC tower, bouncing the HDD into oblivion as he did it.

This troper used to fix his dying CRT tv by giving it a good couple thumps whenever it got static-y. His current computer is also heavy and stable enough that hitting it has no (or minimal) detrimental effect, but feels ''really'' good whenever it decides to do something unwanted.

My family has always referred to this as "Fixing it the Russian Way." It's okay because we're Russian. And because it works, at least with our crappy old TV. (It has knobs to change the channels.)

After numerous attempts to turn off the smoke detector, this troper's father simply opened the door and threw it at the ground.

He threw the door to the ground?

In tech support, this is known as "percussive maintenance". Even in the cases where it doesn't actually fix the problem, it does help the user's blood pressure. :-)

Just don't ask any tech worth his salt what "I/O error" ''really'' means on the paperwork :)

At this troper's workplace, we keep a rubber strap wrench around for this exact reason. :D

The US military calls it this too. That and "Emergency Repair Procedure #1". "#2" involves a foot. Does the above troper have occasion to report any ID-10-T errors?

This Tropers father was n the Army in Sicily during WWII as a mechanic. The tool of choice for percussive maintenance was a large rock. It that didn't work the back-up tool was a ''larger rock''.

The Israeli Army discovered when deploying a new heavy machine gun that the safety was defective - required excessive force to shift from 'safe' to 'non-safe' and back. This didn't stop deployment, since "you never run out of rocks on a battlefield."

In ''Sonic 3D Blast'' for the Genesis, there is a failsafe script in the game that sends the player to a debug/bonus level whenever the game would otherwise crash due to a bug or error. This included giving the cartridge a good smack.

Contrary to the article's indroduction, a good whack sometimes helps even solid state technology. While the chips and components themselves are pretty much shockproof, their connectors and solder joints are not, and can occasionally benefit from being shaken around. Rarely does such a fix work on the long run, though...

This troper used to have a TV that would refuse to turn on. Smacking it worked, just about every time.

BigT was also known to use this method on his old TV. One day, though, he hit it so hard that he broke it. He treats his new [=TVs=] much better.

This troper's 13-year-old TV tends to "fuzz up". One good whack, and it's okay again.

''This'' troper fixed hers by throwing a carrot at the screen. Her friend now advises anyone complaining about their TV simply to "Throw carrots!"

This troper had an old console TV. During the last few years of its life, she had to smack it to have the picture come up. This worked well...for a few seconds.

This troper has a CRT TV which tends to produce annoying, high-pitched sounds, starting shortly after powering on. It stops if you wait long enough (less than 1-2 minutes), but alternatively you whack the frame of the screen to make it stop immediately.

This troper used to do this with a real old computer she had (a Power Mac, where the computer was separate from the monitor) when she put a music CD and it wouldn't show up on the desktop. It worked, but it came with a price: eventually, she knocked loose something to do with the sound. Oops.

This troper's ancient laptop had problems with its display every time it booted up that would go away if he squeezed the left side of the screen in a few places.

This troper had the same thing. Until one day, he squeezed too hard, and it cracked. Oops.

This troper once had a cathode computer monitor which behaved like the TV above: it would randomly turn itself off after an unspecified amount of time, and a good whack or three to the side of the monitor's housing would bring it back on for another X minutes.

This troper once broke a camera by dropping it, and proceeded to fix it by dropping it so the opposite side hit the ground. Sometimes, reversing the polarity does work.

Another editor has a flaky car alarm remote control. Hitting the control in just the right spot gets it to work.

Related: Blowing into a cartridge to get the dust out and/or repeatedly turning the power on and off on older game systems.

Newer consoles are not necessarily immune to the Fix: The motion sensors of the Nintendo Wii Remote can sometimes get "stuck". Giving it a couple of whacks is recommended by official Nintendo tech support when all else fails.

The other half of gamers argue that blowing makes the problem worse in the long run by leaving moisture all over the inside.

That's why they sell canned air.

This trope has worked for Me when My computer started buzzing and tick-- *Buzzzz* Pardon Me. *CLUNK! CLUNK!* There it's fixed now.

This troper has a laptop that literally will not turn on without dropping it from a height of a few feet a couple times. The worst part is that that's not the worst of its problems.

This troper's computer mouse will occasionally stop working. The solution? Bash it on the desk a few times. Hey, the mouse is dying anyway...

During the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission (November 24, 1969), the astronauts tried to fix their TV camera by giving it a few whacks with a hammer. It didn't work.

This troper has always called this "The Donatello Touch". It seems to be related to that YKTTW that's up about hitting keys harder to make them do things quicker.

And on the note of "reducing blood pressure" or generally making the user feel better... she's thought about designing a monitor or monitor attachment shaped like a neck, that makes gurgling sounds when you strangle it. Bet it would sell like hotcakes.

This troper would so buy that.

Ditto. Get a patent quick.

How much do you want for the prototype?

This troper's monitor will sometimes inexplicably turn pure white. Pressing the monitor's power button doesn't work, nor does disconnecting the monitor power cable. Sometimes things will revert back to normal on their own...but this troper has found a sweet spot on the upper left corner of the back of the monitor that, when lightly rapped, solves the problem. It's hard to hit the right spot at first, leading to some interesting bongo drum sessions on the back of the monitor.

This troper's computer NEEDS a good whack in order to turn it on -- right in the built-in touchpad usually gets the trick done! Plus it feels good, damnit.

In 1991, this troper's mother bought a TV set built in the former USSR: the TV set never worked right unless you hit it hard one to three times in a row. The most funny thing is that nearly 20 years after it still works great: you just have to hit it hard before. It became a sort of a joke in the family to claim that the TV was built using some ''stalinium''.

This troper had a digital camera that would need to be repeatably hit to get to work. There was an actual reason for this, the batteries would get misaligned.

This troper's grandparent's have an ancient (about 6 years old) computer that runs very very slowly, she usually ends up giving the computer, the monitor, or both a good kick/slap at least once every time she goes over there, even though it doesn't make it run faster. It does make her feel a bit better sometimes. She will feel even better after she finally manages to finish organizing the replacement of said computer.

Lead-Free solder has an unfortunate side-effect of randomly crystallizing at room-temperature, producing "whiskers" that can cause short-circuits. Any military repairman will confirm that equipment stored on vehicles tends to last longer than any kept in storage- the vibration breaks off any whiskers before they cause problems. As for fixing the commander's handheld radio (which tends to live a much more sedentary lifestyle), a solid bench-thwack (out of earshot, naturally) and a fresh battery are all that's needed to magic it back to functionality.

This Troper's engineer father has a story about that - he showed it to his boss and identified it as "Tin Whiskers." Boss later was on the phone with someone else (within earshot of father) told them about it, said "Yeah, they're tin whiskers...no, we don't know what they're made out of...." Turned out Boss thought Father had an accent, and was saying "'''Th'''in Whiskers."

My computer at work hates me. When it's taking too long, I tend to whack it (or just the monitor, for effect) to fill up the time, since we have to keep the customer engaged and not just stare at the screen while they wonder what's going on. It's gotten to the point where, if I need to buy some time, I pretend the computer's messed up again and whack it for no reason.

This Troper's parents' computer has over the years developed an obnoxious whining noise. Smacking the top of the case sorts it out just fine.

This troper recommends against this, on account of having broken quite a few computers by applying too much force.

This troper has had a TV that worked better after you hit it once on the side. His current one starts acting wonky if you jump on the sofa or do anything else that shakes it even a bit.

This Troper has to do this to his own head at times to clear his thoughts.

This troper, being the resident technical geek, was asked by a classmate to have a look at an old CRT monitor that was playing up - you could see it was trying to display the startup logo but all the pixels were jumbled and out of place. I didn't know how to fix it, so I just made a joke about "percussive maintenance" and bashed it before saying I'd mention it to the Computing teacher... Turning back, I was quite amazed to see that the image was now almost visible. A couple more solid whacks and it was good as new.

Sounds like the shadow mask or aperture grille had become misaligned.

This troper once had a TV that refused to have sound unless he pounded on the side of it. His friend had a stereo that worked the same way.

This troper's Xbox once malfunctioned. First all the text in games became scrambled and unintelligible, then the console completely lost the ability to read any kind of disc. Restarting and other such standard procedures did nothing. The solution? Pick it up and shake it. Never gave me any trouble again.

I was borrowing my friend's {{Playstation}} 2 when it stopped working and wouldn't load any games. I called Sony technical support and tried a bunch of things they suggested but none of it worked. They finally suggest I ship the {{Playstation}} 2 out to a repair centre and pay $100 for the repair. So I'm pacing and worrying about how I broke my friend's {{Playstation}} 2 when I trip over the cord and the game system comes crashing down to the floor. I tried it out and it worked as good as new!

Played straight and subverted with This Troper's antique (1920's era) dime bank, which locks when you put in one dime, and only opens when you have ten dollars' worth. Once I dropped it on its side and it refused to take dimes anymore. So I smacked it, hard, on the ''other'' side, and it started working perfectly...until it fell off the shelf and now seems to be irreparably damaged.

ThisTroper's toilet, after flushing, will sometimes continue dribbling water into the bowl. My brothers usually flush it again, but I find a good thump makes it stop.

This troper was once called by a friend to help fix his computer. The first thing I did was kick it... and it worked.

This Troper's old TV had a temperamental vertical hold, which would always start working again if I whacked the top of it.

This troper has a fluorescent light above his desk. Towards the end of its lifespan, it would flicker and dim and needed a good smack to come all the way on again. This worked very well, until one smack caused the tube to ''explode'' and send glass shards all over the room...and into his hands. The replacement is working well... so far.

And, his GameCube was...tempermental, to say the least. It would only play (sometimes) when precise pressure was apllied to a precise region on the lid...or after a pretty good punch to the side. Thank you, Nintendo, for the backwards-compatible Wii.

This guy noticed that the buttons on one of the water fountains in the dorms where he lived would often get stuck...so he hit the fountain. Yep, it fixed it.

ThisTroper is famous for this. Friends will often hand me broken technology just to watch. Notable fixes include a waterlogged cellphone and several computers. The trick is a careful application of excessive violence.

Can I quote you on that last part?

My old TV I used to watch in middle school deteriorated to the point that the vertical scan wasn't working. A good smack would get it going. Now when it was midnight on a school night and I was supposed to be in bed, loudly smacking a television set isn't a good way to try to watched scrambled HBO unfettered.

Way back in middle school (I'm now 23), this Troper attended a summer camp and stayed in a cabin whose councilor's portable stereo would make skipping noises not caused by the [=CDs=]. The only way to get it to stop, at least temporarily was to stomp somewhere on the floor near the stereo. Sometimes even that didn't work.

This troper has been known to shake her computer like a baby with colic when it stops working. Uh. Not that she would ever shake a baby...

This troper's old Commodore 64 would frequently freeze up during use. The cure? A single, well measured punch on the keyboard. Worked EVERY time!

A good lovetap in the right place fixed this troper's old and grumpy game gear.

This troper's job at the snowball stand was made better by two things: amazingly cute girls and getting to smack the hell out of the ice shredding machine with his fist when jammed. One guy even looked in and went "Eyyyyyyy..."

This troper would smack the battery end of his TV remote against something when it wouldn't respond. This was near the end of the batteries' life, and they eventually got replaced.

This troper had a computer where the screen periodically cut out. The solution was smashing a fist down on the right front corner of the PC's (not the monitor, oddly enough) casing. This persisted until he got fed up with doing it and took it apart to fix the problem more permanently.

He also encountered a faulty hydraulic mechanism that was fixed by walloping it on the right side of the control panel's casing.

Related: This troper stacked freezable ice packs (those kind with the freezable gel inside) on top of the case to keep a system alive until he could replace the fan/power supply.

Back to a contribution from the troper above, who's been reminded of a similar temporary fix. It wasn't all my doing, but when during the set up of a stage show, the main fan on the computer we were using to run a third of the lighting systems broke, the solution was to take the computer's case off and set up a 24" fan normally used for blowing stage smoke around to blast cool air across the motherboard (at least until we got a replacement CPU fan). Ironically, the CPU temperature gauge told us this was considerably more effective than the original fan, although a lot noisier.

This troper, around the early 2000s, had a CRT monitor which would slowly black out and then stay that way for a long time. One day, this troper was playing a game of Civilization 2 and was very concentrated and then interrupted by this problem. I was so pissed that I smacked the monitor. To my sheer one-more-turn addicted happiness, my monitor returned to working form once again! This problem continued for almost a year, until one afternoon, while playing Civilization 2, his monitor blacked out. He then smacked it and noticed the smell of SMOKE. Then I was computer-less for almost a year until my brother brought what was needed to fix it, thank god.

"computer-less for almost a year"? AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

This troper was at a vending machine which clearly stated on its instructions that the huge buttons with pictures of the products within must be ''pressed'' for three seconds. She ''punched'' the Diet Coke button and got a Diet Coke, bottled water, and a Sprite. For three dollars. Would one call this a Percussive Discount?

This troper used a variant of the Percussive Discount on a vending machine. The school installed a vending machine that had a mechanism to refund money if it jammed and did not sense a product dropping (likely because of excessive percussive maintenance attempts in the past.) Problem: the machine had a flexible Plexiglas front. One could press on the glass at the opportune time to cause an intentional jam, have the machine dispense a refund, then smack the front to have all of the snacks that were caught drop. Tortilla chip bags that were top-heavy were particularly vulnerable to this trick. Cue borrowing fifty cents from a person, looping the process until the machine ran out, then tossing it back along with half a dozen bags of chips.

This troper somehow got a related result, ''without'' Percussive Maintenance. I was trying to get a bag of Red Vines at the lunchroom vending machines. The spiral delievery thing stopped just short of the bag dropping. Luckily, this particular machine has something called a "[=GoldenEye=]" delivery thingy. Instead of a refund, it just spun the spirals again. (This setup is probably for if the vending guy accidentally leaves a slot open.) Cue ''two'' bags of Red Vines falling at the same time. For $1.25. Now, I think of myself as a bit more moral than the average college student. So instead of keeping both bags (as most of you other Tropers probably would've), I decided to keep one, and give the other bag to the guy standing in line behind me. I had considered either putting the other bag back in, or putting the $1.25 I "owed" into the refund slot, but I knew the next person to use the machine would probably just take it. Probably also due to the fact that I had just scarfed a very large slice of pizza and chugged a Mountain Dew, and didn't have room for two bags of candy. I'm considering trying the Percussive Discount on the vending machine at G███ W███ Hall (another building on campus), where the same exact bag inexplicably costs an extra quarter.

At this troper's high school, each vending machine will only accept a certain type of currency (ex: coins for one, paper money for the other) and most users kick the machines after they've put the wrong type in the machine. The school has installed safety grates for this purpose. (Also, it's illegal to kick vending machines where I live.)

Someone at this troper's high school managed to glitch out a vending machine by holding the top beverage button, then jamming randomly on the other buttons. The money display would shoot up to $7.00 or so, then count down a dime at a time. When it hit $1.00, the display would bug out for a second, the machine would dispense a pop, then the display would shoot back up to $7.00 and repeat the process. Cue entirety of the 10th-12th grade classes huddled around said vending machine randomly jabbing and holding buttons for free pop.

This troper is familiar with a particular model of Pepsi Vending Machine, though I cannot say what model it is -- I can only recognize them on sight. However, thumping said machine on the right-hand side two-thirds of the way up from the bottom, towards the front side, causes the catch on the right-most dispensing unit to slip, dumping ''all'' of the cans out of the machine. The best part about it is that the right-most dispensing unit is where the Pepsi goes! Promise you will only use these powers for Good... or for awesome.

As the resident techie in her English class last year, this troper often had to fix things that either weren't broken or completely obvious to fix. There was an old TV that was obviously past its prime that fuzzed and other things. After trying several things, a couple people suggested she whack it. She tried several times even after the teacher said not to; didn't work. On the other hand, it has worked several times on other occasions with other things. Frequently with the wireless Xbox controller (which has been retired for a new one).

ThisTroper's house has a fence with one of those automatic spring-loaded thingies that open by turning the key less than a quarter turn. Now that it's old, it tends to get jammed in. The fix? A good smack with the base of the hand. If that doesn't work? A good kick with the heel.

This Troper has a tendency to abuse hardware when it doesn't do what I want it to. However, in one situation, where my computer makes an annoying whine when being started up in the morning, hitting it in ''just the right place'' makes it stop instantly.

This Troper's Xbox 360's RF Module (The device that controls the Ring of Lights, and syncs wireless controllers to the console) was on the fritz for a month. Not wanting to void the warranty or send it in, he took the faceplate off, and whacked the place where the module sat. Lo and behold, no more light and synching issues.

This troper lived in a cheap shared house for a while, where the cold water tap on the kitchen sink worked in a very interesting way. After being turned off for a while, if you tried to turn it back on, nothing would happen - and then when you turned the tap a bit further, suddenly freezing water would blast everywhere. We used to let it drench every visitor at least once before telling them the secret: ''before'' you turn on the tap, give it a good hard whack with the heel of your hand. Teaches it to behave (and, incidentally, knocks out the air bubble).

In one of this troper's lecture halls, there was a stubborn projection screen that simply would not go back up into its housing. It was not powered, and every attempt to coax it back up was futile. Then, on the last day of class, one student walked up and pulled it...hard. It retracted.

This troper had a system for opening her locker one year in Jr. High. If the combination didn't work the first time, hit it. If it didn't work the second time, kick it. If it didn't work the ''third'' time.... go get the assistant principal, he has the key

This troper uses psychic maintenance on his DVD player. If it starts acting up, occasionally he can stop it by aiming the heel of his palm at the player, and sharply shoving his arm forward. It reliable restarts a quearter scond later, no more, no less. Normal percussive maintenance is required for his wireless PS2 controller (the O button catches), and the television connector when combined with the old DVD player, which required a weight of at least 120lb to hit a particular floorboard at a minimum speed of 14fps.

Standard procedure every time when this troper wants to repair something, this is the first step he tries. If someone asks about it, he gives an effective explanation including entropy and that the most optimal condition of the machines contains the less mechanical energy possible. Well, in 80% of the cases it doesn't work, but in the remaining 20% it spares a lot of time.

The copier in my office is either incredibly stupid or possessed by a gremlin who likes frustrating us. After you open and close the tray to refill it with paper, the machine will refuse to make copies and continue to tell you the tray is either open or empty until you kick a precise spot. When a paper jams, it doesn't recognize you've unjammed it unless you slam whichever door you had to open closed. Several times.

This troper's mother has a TV which is nearly thirty years old. One day, it stopped turning on. So she called him over to fix the damn thing. After nearly an hour of increasingly frustrating failure, he got so pissed off that he kicked it hard enough to send it flying off the table, where it crashed to the floor, and turned on.

This troper had a rather old TV set that would occasionally display the entire picture in a red hue, likely due to failing colour tubes, smacking the TV on the side would alleviate the problem and restore normal colour for a time.

This is the standard repair method at the Dollar General store this troper works at. Toy won't stop making noise? Hit it with a hammer. Toy won't start making noise? Hit it with a hammer. Cash register scanner won't read items? Smack it. It almost never fails. Incidentally, this method almost never works outside of work for this troper.

One of this troper's friends has a computer monitor that regularly turns either red or yellow. It either switches between the two or recovers when given a good solid bash on top. Of course, regularly he just leaves it red and yells "Blood for the Blood God!"

Is your friend named James, by any chance?

No, try again.

This troper's room in her first year of college had a faulty lightbulb, that would not always work when switched on, but would almost always work if whacked or rotated. The method worked until almost the end of the year, but an actual replacement did become necessary.

This troper used to own a TV set that would occasionally go monochrome green. A quick thump on the side was a surefire fix for that.

This troper's first computer (vintage 1989 Zeos) got to the point where the image displayed on the monitor would be distorted or nonexistent most of the time. A good whack with a hammer applied to the VGA connector proved so effective at fixing the image that eventually we just kept the toolbox next to the computer table.

This troper has had a stereo for years which posseses a LCD screen for station numbers and whatnot. after a few years the right side of said screen began to progrssively darken, presumedly the backlighting failing. It was disregarded for the fact that the cd player and tape players on the machine were worse and treated as an "aw crud. oh well." Then one night this troper was mad that the radio station he was listening too had been dead for several minutes and smacked the device out of pure frustration. Bling! the screen worked again!

in an unrelated side note, the same toper has a laptop chill pad that makes an annoying vibration noise only while at home. at his college dorm, no noise. the only way yet found to alleviate the problem is liberal and violent application of smacks until it shuts up.

There is a copier at This Troper's office that would repeatedly say it was out of fuser oil even when full. A smack on the side of the fuser loosened the problem part up causing it to work again for a while until the replacement was installed.

Also in the above Troper's office an old black and white copy machine will sometimes stop taking paper from the feeder. Turns out a small switch gets stuck and a simple smack resets it.

This Troper's TV has a cable port that's not quite the right size for the cable to plug into; we made a workaround in which the weight of the TV keeps the cable in place, but every once in a while the signal still gets fuzzy, so the solution is to give the TV anywhere from a good whack to a gentle nudge to realign the connection.

Not necessarily percussive, but this troper's old Mac computer absolutely refused to use the tablet mouse attached... at least until you waved the mouse across the tablet face very, very fast at a precise time while the computer is loading. Didn't get it right? Shut down the computer and try it again!

At this Troper's place of employment, they had a very old accounting calculator (the type with a printer) that one day decided to refuse to turn on anymore. Her co-worker's solution? Hold the calculator four feet above the floor and drop. This technique coaxed another couple months' life out of the calculator. The second time it died, though, repeating the technique had no effect.

Troper here needs to pimpslap her computer sometimes. It works... Mostly.

This Troper could adjust his old screen's brightness level by slapping it when the levels started dropping because of age.

This troper's computer is an inversion. When ever it is lightly wacked, it starts a aggravating grinding noise. Nothing bad goes on, aside from the grinding; everything is working alright. Today I lightly taped it with a heavy piece of plastic, ''lightly tapped'', and it went on longer than it should have.

This troper, when he was younger, thought a game he was playing on his computer (from a CD) wasn't starting up fast enough. He decided to hit the computer, for some reason. Soon after, the CD drive gave off a wonderful scraping noise, at which point he ejected the CD to find a wide circular scratch between the edge of the CD and the label. The game worked fine afterwards, but he still wonders what he was thinking.

For a while before it gave up completly this trooper could get the disk drive on his laptop to work by smacking the desk ''next'' to it.

This troper has a stuck CD drive that, when empty, refuses to open, and requires a nice whack to the top of the tower in order to make the caddy come out. It always opens when there's something in it.

This troper once kicked a vending machine that didn't want to return the coins. For another one, a simple whack was enough. Not mentioning slapping a failing monitor from both sides at once.

This Troper once had a TV remote that was refusing to work for a while. One day she smashed it against the floor, and it started working perfectly. She also employs this tactic with her DVD player remote, which often acts up. As well as this, a friend of hers TV occasionally emits a schreeching sound, which is stopped by repeatedly hitting the side.

This troper does it with his satellite receiver remote. It has lots of duct tape in it, and it still works!

In one of my high school plays, the entire left side of the lighting went out during the middle of the second act. Our director's solution? Come out on stage with a seven foot pole and smack the power box until the lighting came back up.

This troper can't stand buzzing or ringing noises for more than five seconds. Recently, something plugged-in in the tangled mess of wires underneath her computer desk has started making such a noise. She has not figured out what it is so far, but gives everything a firm thumping in an effort to locate the noise that's driving her to insanity. She has also personally put a dent in her computer in an effort to keep it from shutting down and subsequently locking up.

This tropers tv has sound problems that can usually be fixed by hitting it. Also her schools design room printer occasionally jams. Her classmates fix it by taking out the paper tray and slamming it back in. One other incident that she recalls was when she accidentally dropped her iPod and the songs kept stuffing up. She tapped it against a handrest on a bus one day, and it worked.

I've learned that each time my computer breaks, I have to kick the printer, hit the monitor, then slam the speakers on the monitor.

This troper's Xbox has a sticky disc drive. The answer: slap it till it works.

Occurs to, of all people, this troper. Oftentimes his ears become clogged for no apparent reason, and a rush of gas from his heavy soda drinking (never quite forms a burp, however) is usually enough to pop his ears and fix his hearing.

This troper has his roots in '90s gaming and at least started the thread on the subject in the main article, but the strangest thing he ever had to do for Step 7 actually happened with a Nintendo Gamecube. When the picture would go out, he would often jiggle the video feed plug (the yellow one) a bunch of times, remove and replace it, etc. On one occasion, he tried ''licking'' the plug after removing it and before replacing it, ''and it worked''. Sadly, he could not replicate this success on future occasions.

This troper had a mouse which would stop working sometimes. He got it to work again by tapping it on the table, although it did not always work. Well, that trick doesn't have to be used anymore.

Is happening right now. This laptop upon which I am writing this is freezing up every few seconds, and a sharp rap next to the mouse-like touch pad is all it take get it going again.

Oh a friend of mine had the same problem. It was the harddrive, eventually it died completely.

This troper's aunt always used to keep a hammer in the glove box of her old Land Rover for precisely this purpose.

Som old-style chocolate vending machines (like the Cadbury ones you usually mostly see on London Underground platforms) respond fairly well to a well-placed thump at the right moment. This troper's record was ten bars for the price of one.

Growing up in a family where this troper's father would tell a story about a sonar chief fixing as USN sub's main sonar system like this, it's only natural that he would have some respect for the method. Then the troper (at college) gained a reputation for being "good with electronics" due to fixing things through a combination of PercussiveMaintenance and ''talking'' to the uncooperative machine. Worse, this is now a habit, and said troper's (mostly elementary) students are starting to pick up the habit.

Talking to the offending machine can work quite well. One troper once worked in a convenience store with video rentals. The pen-style barcode reader was incredibly temperamental. Troper started telling the offending machine about things like axes, chainsaws, guns, and her retired Marine uncle who lived a few blocks away and knew about explosives (troper did have ready access to all listed weapons, and the part about her uncle was also quite true). It reached the point that the machine started behaving itself as soon as it heard the troper's voice, even when she stopped in on a day off to pick up some minor item or get a video.

This troper works at a hotel. One of the vending machines tends to get stuck about half the time. Step one involves palm-strikes to the machine. Step two is a good kick. Step three is rocking the machine onto it's two front legs, and slamming it back the other way HARD. While I haven't yet brought the machine down onto myself, it's normally enough to get at least the stuck candy out. Sometimes more.

Although [=TVs=] are the most clichéd device for this "procedure", in my experience it actually is very important to "expand" the lifespan of any printer (or at least ink-jet printers). When they get older they tend to jam all the time, or other parts of the mechanics not quite working as they should. Whacking them helps. However, at first you have to hit the printer every once in a while, some time later you'll notice it'll require more frequent whacks and eventually EVERY time you try to print something. From that point on it'll deterioate rather quickly, picking it up and shaking the whole printer might help a couple of times, but sooner or later it just won't work, no matter what you try.

Oh, and another tale about printers: I once got "summonned" to help an acquaintance of my parents to resolve his printer problems. After eliminating all possible software causes, I tried some percussive maintenance, after assuring him that "this sometimes helps". However, it didn't. Maybe I was too shy to hit it hard enough. Eventually he said, he'd just get a new printer, and I could take that one with me and if I could fix it, I could keep it. I thanked, however didn't really believe I could do anything to make it work again. So I put it on the carrier of my bicylce, went home, and without doing anything the printer worked on the first try. We made jokes about that for years! "What, it doesn't work? Maybe you should try taking it with you on a short bicycle ride." ;)

This Troper's TV's screen often goes bright blue or goes suddenly really really dark.I decided, the first time it happened, to hit it. I was rather excited when I found out PercussiveMaintenence works. (BTW, i'm the one responsible for the renaming of this trope)

In This Troper's Sixth Form Common Room, there is a drinks vending machine, and giving it a swift kick to the left side dispenses drinks sometimes. Hit the right side however, and it has a chance of knocking the drinks selection panel off, which means the machine has to be switched on and off at the mains.

This Troper's and her friend's fanfiction more often than not have the 'Universal Repair Method' mentioned. The most memorable was when a technological genius worked on a malfunctioning item for a few days and finally performed the Method. It (a mechanical Pokémon) worked, but got a severe personality swap as well... The URM act usually goes something like this. #QUOTE#Alice: Aww, man! The [whatever] is broken! #QUOTE#Bob: Did you try the Universal Repair Method? #QUOTE#Alice: No. What's that? #QUOTE#Bob: ''[walks up to the broken object with a blank look on his face and kicks it]''

This troper, while working in a lab, encountered a malfunctioning balance. She asked a resident scientist what to do about it, and was told that the balance did act up occasionally, and the usual solution was to smack it. Hard. She returned to the chemical room and dealt the offending machine a wallop to the side. The screen blinked, and began displaying numbers again. The thing is capable of measuring amounts as small as 0.01 grams, you'd think it'd be fragile!

It probably is. When was the last time you checked the calibration on that thing? It may show numbers that aren't anywhere close to correct after that whacking, or didn't somebody teach you about precision, accuracy, and bias?

This troper does tech support for a living, and a cow-orker's computer once refused to start up, going 'click-click, click-click'. I said "Ok, it's not your computer, it's already broken, I can't make it worse. Do you want me to try and fix it?" He said sure, so I booted it one with my steel-toed size 13s. It went ''BEEP!'' and booted right up. He never had another problem with it. We figured it couldn't believe I had done that, and didn't want it to happen again.

How exactly do you ork a cow?

With a loud WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH! Tends to get messy, though.

One I'd forgotten for a while as well... my old 1985 Nissan 200sx, the dash was all electronic, VFD and LED displays... they'd go flaky, showing that I was going at 188 kmh AND mph at the same time, as well as the engine revving between two and 9000 rpm. A good wallop on the right side brought it back for a while; since the car basically doubled in value when the gas tank was full, it wasn't worth having it repaired. Surprisingly, I never cracked the dash doing that, although it eventually stopped fixing it. There's also the old adage I always quote at times like this. "If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer."

This Troper's entire family, save his mother, is prone to this. She is constantly telling us to try other methods that do not involve smacking offending object, and will take a good 15-20 minutes trying everything and failing, while my brothers and I will walk up, give a good hard tap somewhere, and its all fixed in 10 seconds.

This troper used the Fonzie Fix to get a heat lamp at [=McDonald=]'s working again.

This troper has a nice Panasonic 8-track player hooked up to the line-in port on his computer. Occasionally when I'm playing a tape, the sound in the right stereo channel will develop a loud buzz, which is easily fixable with a few good smacks to the side of the player.

This troper got a DVD stuck in the player (as in, the wee little door would NOT open) during an attempt to get it working right and, in frustration, whacked the top of it. The DVD-shelf slid right out with no problems. This troper went 'Aaaayyyy', very quietly.

NeoSilverThorn: My stereo needs this nowadays. A good sharp smack to the top, next to the CD player usually gets it running just fine.

This troper's mom once fixed an N64 cart by licking the chip on the bottom.

This troper's angry father once tossed an XBox down his basement stairs. The previously busted up XBox then began to work like a charm.

This troper's elbow tends to stick rather painfully, due to a tendon issue with his shoulder. This is fixable by rotating the forearm around the elbow joint, then locking it straight with a little force. This results in a loud, painful-sounding crack and instant relief.

My old computer's monitor used to randomly go black. I used to unplug it and re-plug it in to get it to work, but one day it pissed me off so much I hit the top of it with my fist AND IT WORKED.

My current monitor will occasionally produce an extra-loud version of that ultra-high-pitched noise electronics sometimes do. A good whack helps.

I had an iPod that worked erratically at best. After seemingly bricking for the third time, I gave it two good thumps against my desk, and lo and behold, it worked.

Still working quite well, though I can't put any new music on it, and just have to listen to the songs all ready on it. Oh well, mostly broken is better than all broken.

One of the fans in This Troper's old computer had a set of knackered bearings that occasionally made an annoying grating sound when they came unseated. Leaning over and smacking it stopped this and re-seated the bearings.

This tropers TV will occasionally lose its picture or sound (or both). when this happens hitting the top of the telly actually fixes it better than anything else. We now have 2 gladiator style pudgles to hit the tv with without having to get up (due to being lazy students)

This Troper once got his mostly-broken laptop to power on by ''throwing it across the room'' then reseating the battery.

When this troper worked for a cell phone manufacturer, he had a client who couldn't complete a software upgrade. The solution was to drop the device from about 4 feet onto carpet before attempting it again.

The sound on this troper's brother's Zune will sometimes put out an audio signal for only the left or right earphone. A couple whacks on the bottom of the thing will get it working again. Also, I always have to hit my Alleged Car twice at the back so the BRAKE LIGHTS will work.

This troper has a sticky power button; when you press it, it stays pressed and the computer turns off again a few seconds later. Thus he turns on the computer by pressing the button and then kicking the machine just above the button. Of course I don't kick too hard, I'm not stupid. Just violent. :D

My previous laptop (now 4 laptops) had a problem with it's powercord. This was easily fixed by slamming my boot down on the box in the middle of said cord. When that stopped working, I opened the box (without unplugging it) and handed it (bared wire guts and all) to my brother. Somehow it feels like my fault that his bioelectric field is messed up.

This troper once had a senior coworker whose 3-year-old Mercedes hit a nail on the highway. Fortunately, half the office was right behind her. Within moments, we had the following crowd attempting to change a tire on a luxury car: a manager with three Master's degrees (the owner of the car, natch), two experienced demolitions consultants (myself and one other), and the manager's two daughters who read off the manual to the others (it turns out that changing a Mercedes tire is not as simple as changing the tire on any other ordinary passenger car, actually). The manual is followed. the jack is raised. Retaining pins are set. Lug bolts removed. Retaining pin removed. Force is applied in all directions. The wheel remains stuck on the hub. Two cell phones come out-one to AAA and one to the Mercedes dealer, while this troper rereads the manual. The AAA truck arrives at the exact moment the Mercedes dealer's mechanic comes on the line. The AAA tow truck driver approaches the crowd just in time to hear over the speakerphone, "Oh yeah. That happens. Give it a good kick, it'll come loose." While the college-educated consultants stared at the phone in disbelief--were we just told to KICK a Mercedes?--the tow truck driver takes aim at the lower edge of the tire rim and heartily applies the dealer-recommended percussive maintenance. The wheel comes right off and its replacement is quite easy from there.

This troper used to have a Playstation 2 that required steady pressure on both the top and the front of the disc tray if it was going to ready PS2 games with any reliability. Read PS1 games like a champ, though.

One day, Da_Nuke's laptop started acting up. It would automatically switch off after 2 minutes of being powered on. He then noticed the fan didn't seemed to spin. It was jammed. The fix? Three hits of course!

At this tropers job, we use RF scanning guns, one of them for some reason will not scan and the laser light won't come on. Just for the heck of it, I smacked it against my palm a couple of times and it worked again. I also had an MP3 player that inexplicably refused to turn on even with a fresh battery in it. The solution? Held it in my hand and whacked it against the floor. It rebooted and has worked perfectly ever since.

Recently averted by this Troper's computer. Whenever I boot the system up for the first time in a day (or basically if it's been off for over an hour), there's an unusually loud whirring noise from inside. I'm not sure if it's the CPU fan (it's not the only fan in there, at least) or the hard drive motor (NOT COOL!). Naturally, I've tried giving a good whack to the side of the computer, both with my fist and my foot (the system is on the floor), but it rarely worked. You know what fixes it? Shut down the system, wait about five or more seconds, and reboot. No more noise. Even stranger, a forced shutdown via power strip doesn't stop the noise from showing up on reboot, nor does an automatic restart. Unrelated: it takes forever to close the browser window, unless I use Task Manager. This thing is ''weird''.

My old microwave is starting to get like this. (Cheapie, got it back around 1994 when I was in college.) The only controls are a timer and the latch to open the door. I think the cutout switch on the door is getting a bit worn or might be close to breaking, since I sometimes have to tap on the door to get it to start.

This troper once fixed an original {{PlayStation}} doing this (For a while, the only game that would work was FinalFantasyVII; anytime I tried to play anything else, the drive would give out...until I hit it on the side, which made everything fall back into place and work again. It held me off until I was able to afford a replacement CD drive for it). Also, his car's dash lights require being hit on the top in order to cut on.

This troper once killed the blue screen of death with a three hole punch, causing the computer to work just fine without a restart.

Well, This Troper is skeptical, knowing the BSoD is caused by software issues...

This troper commonly uses this method to fix registers at his job and it works.

The picture on this troper's computer monitor sometimes sort of pinches together in the middle going half way to a sort of curved hour glass. A good hit to the side and it's fine again.

This troper uses this method at work, especially in regards to the remote that makes my electric cart pusher go. If it's being fussy, whack the remote hard against your palm a few times and try again. If it's STILL not working, walk back and kick the main body of the machine. If that doesn't work, turn it off, then on, kick it again, then press the button.

During high school This Troper had a calculator which would only turn on after a short, sharp palm-strike to the face. As a friend remarked, "Who said violence never solved anything".

The lamp over the mirror in this troper's bathroom just decided to cease working one day some time ago. Well, the ceiling lamp provided enough light, anyway. Time passed, and I didn't even care about the lamp above the mirror anymore. Then one day, I slipped when closing the cupboard on the wall next to the mirror, so instead of closing it gently, it closed with a slam. Naturally, this caused the lamp above the mirror to start working again.

Also, once upon a time in school, this guy I know had problems with his laptop. Wouldn't work properly. So he slammed down on it with his palms... and it was back up and running.

This troper has dealt with a number of things that needed hitting if they refused to work. One notable item was her house's toilet when she still lived at home. Sometimes, after flushing, the tank would not refill itself. It needed to be hit with an open palm in just the right spot, and it would fill right up.

But the most interesting thing from this troper's persepctive happened on a two-woman road trip that was cut short by the car malfunctioning. We had no real knowledge of car maintenance, but we managed to make it to a camping area where we got someone to take a look at the engine. He found the problem was with the charger and produced a hammer, showing us the right way to hit it to buy us enough time to drive home. We later made a stop at a garage to have the charger checked up real quick again, and the mechanics there noticed it had ceased to function again, so they hit it with a hammer (a little harder than the other guy had), and we drove home. We found it hilarious that percussive maintenance seemed to be the official way to deal with that particular problem.

This troper used to have a TV that wouldn't have sound unless you smacked it.

This troper had a fantastic one at his job. We needed to get rid of some ancient [=PCs=] by selling them ($75 a pop) to employees. During the demo of one, the DVD drive got stuck trying to open. I brought my fist down on top of the tower hard enough to make it ring, and the tray slid out. The look on their face after I said "That's typical" was priceless.

This Troper currently owns a Razer Baracuda 5.1 headset. The sound was giving out in the left earpiece and in mild annoyance, I struck said earpice - the headset began working perfectly immediately and continues to do so. I did the same thing with an earlier 5.1 headset I owned (Speedlink Medusas) when the sound started failing in one of the earpieces (AFAIK hardware failures are fairly charactaristic of these ones). This earlier attempt subverted the trope however when I made them ''worse'' instead and the failing earpiece essentially stopped working altogether.

This troper used to own a custom-made laptop his uncle created for him. One of the nice things about it was that a solid hit on the casing below the keyboard and to the left of the trackpad would shut down the computer immediately. He still has that laptop, mainly because computer shops usually don't accept customs, and this laptop IS custom. His Wii, on the other hand, was different. It would never accept the disks after starting up, after he conducted PercussiveMaintenance on it. The only way to get it was to lightly insert the disk during the start-up, when it flashes blue. His father, on the other hand, prefers to use a long string of insults in at least 3 languages (Dialects don't count) which he makes up on the fly. Both methods work most of the time, for some reason.

This troper has an iPhone that tends to have issues with the rotation feature on Safari and whatnot - her solution is usually to give it a few good whacks against the nearest hard surface. If that doesn't work, shaking it around like a martini shaker tends to do the trick.

This troper's primary way of fixing things that are inexplicably on the fritz. Fixed items include an NES, a Nintendo Gamecube, a PlayStation 2, an egg timer, two laptop computers, three desktop computers, a modem, at least one television, and this troper's own car. This troper also introduced the phrase to more than one family worth of friends by way of demonstration.

This troper used to be able to fix her PlayStation 2 by just giving it a few good whacks. Unfortunately, it seems to have recently built up a resistance to this method.

At this troper's work, the hand scanners at the register regularly stop working (even though they've been replaced). The solution? Smack it with your hand or off the counter. Works every time. Though it does get some funny looks from the customers that go away when the scanner works.

This troper's sister and step-brother both got spray fans for their birthdays. For some reason, one of them doesn't work unless you hold the power button for the fan down; once you let go, the fan stops instead of staying on until you hit power again. It briefly worked correctly after this troper administered a series of smacks to the button.

My old computer's moniter used to cut out all the time. At first I'd unplug the power cable and it'd sometimes come back on when plugged in again. One day I got so pissed off I just smacked the top... and it worked. Eventually I got the laptop I have now because (A. I needed one for college and (B. I mostly used my computer at night, and I didn't like having to regularly beat the shit out of my moniter at 11:30 at night.

This happened in the research lab where I work. The power supply for one of the devices was not starting, so the teacher that was on the same room punched it rather hard. Guess what?

I used to own a small TV with built-in VCR. Occasionally we'd take it on long trips and watch movies in the back seat. Sometimes the picture would go fuzzy or the audio wouldn't work. My brother had no idea how to deal with it. I'd watched too much television at this point and knew to just hit the thing. So I did. And it worked. I had that TV for years, and it never failed me.

This troper works for Starbucks. And you'd be surprised how often the advice given by espresso machine repairmen is "Hit it real hard with a wrench, and see if that works."

This troper has found that a lot of problems with scratched/dirty/otherwise unreadable [=CDs=] or [=DVDs=] can be fixed with a sharp blow just above the disc tray. This causes the disc to skip a bit and the built-in error correction to kick in. Also works for scratched LP records, obviously, although manually resetting the needle to a point after the scratch is preferable in that case.

This troper has cystic fibrosis. She has a fancy vibrating vest now, but up until she was twelve, her medical routine involved one of her parents performing this trope (though in a controlled fashion) on her chest for thirty minutes twice a day.

This troper wanted to play some Super Castlevania 4. Its graphics were messed up. He tried blowing on it. Didn't work. Blowing on the cartridge slot. Didn't work. Smacked the damn thing against a bedpost. Worked perfectly.

I have a fairly old laptop which works...most of the time. However I found that with specific percussive maintenance I can get it to do different things. I whack to the left of the mousepad freezes all Input to the laptop (mouse and keyboard), a whack to the back or left side crashes it completely and a smack to the right side causes it to instantly reboot. The other day I also found that if i hit it near the left back (just under he screen above the keyboard) It forgets I have a sound card and needs a few more blows and a reset to remember it.

This Troper has a thermostat that often sticks in the off or on position. Depending on whether it's too hot or too cold in the house, to get the air conditioner to stop or start he just whacks on the wall.

When this Troper used to work in an electronics factory as a BEAB saftey tester one of his instructions for fixing a unit that had failed a BEAB test was to left the unit about 6 inches off the tray and just drop it before retesting which worked 99% of the time except when the fault was serious which usually required dismantaling the unit.

also a while back this Troper's mother was put on dialysis and one night (well early morning) it developed a fault and started beeping, no one could work out how to fix it while going through the manuel so this Troper walks in and suggests "just hit the stupid thing" to which they argued that it's to delecate and expensive to risk breaking cauing this Troper to push past picked it up claiming he was just looking it over then and drop it (with the obligatory "oops") which not only stopped the beeping but also it hasn't acted up since and that was a year ago

Finnish Army artillery uses this. There's a small sledgehammer for basic maintenance and big sledgehammer when something's really broken. But only when dealing with Russian guns.

Slight variation: This Troper's Government teacher was trying to show us a DVD that was practically falling apart, it was so old. As a result, it would freeze up about a third of the way through. The teacher found that banging on the DVD Player would fix it for a brief moment, so he pressed down on it, which allowed the movie to play for a little while longer before freezing for good.

I have a laptop with a slightly screwy keyboard (it's a pretty old computer, I'm surprised the battery holds any charge) that will only work if I press on the keyboard really hard near the I and K keys. I think it's got a bad connection or a bad connector in it somewhere. I've whacked it a few times, but I found that a steady hard press works just as well. I've also used the percussive trick to loosen up a CPU/Power supply fan that was starting to vibrate, but that was only a stopgap measure before I replaced said fans.

The first thing to fail on my old Hewlett Packard was the fan. It still worked, it just made hideous noises the entire time it was running - but it would quiet down for a while if you thumped it. Eventually I replaced the whole machine when the hard drive failed. I'm sure the percussive maintenance had nothing to do with that...

In a funtastic subversion this troper would hit his computer to fix a noisy DVD drive, eventually the hitting disconnected the drive from the rest of the computer. Still was noisy somehow.

A smaller example: My TV remote kept (against my will and for no apparent reason) switching from SAT to DVD, meaning I had to regularly switch it back if I wanted to change the channel. And even then it would sometimes switch back instantly. One day I got really pissed off at it (and was already pissed about another thing) and I whipped it across the room, which actually fixed it.

My laptop has a small bent RAM holder. When it's out of place, absolutely nothing works because there's a short in the system. As it's easy to accidentally dislodge and time-consuming to pull the thing apart and fix it, I've found the best way to get everything working again is to turn the laptop over and sharply strike the left upper corner of the base, right below where your hand rests. Works every time.

I (DarkSerge) am currently 18 years old. I got my first computer in 1998: a Compaq Presario. Windows 98, a few gigs hard drive (I think) and 56 MB of RAM. Also, of course, a 13" CRT monitor. Lasted me for a good few years until it was starting to die; got it replaced with a Windows XP machine in 2002. In order to save money, I kept the CRT monitor instead of getting a new one since it still worked very well. Fast forward to 2005. While playing SimCity 4, the monitor's display "scrunched up". In frustration I pimp-slapped the side of the monitor. Voila, back to normal! This worked for a good 6 months until the thing just would not go back any more; it was at that point that I finally replaced the monitor.

This troper used this method on her old TV that had a picture tube with a resonating problem - mainly, it would whistle in pitches high enough to not be heard by the parents, but good at giving her a headache. She also used to do this with her old laptop (with a lot of cursing involved) to keep the disc drive from locking up, before realising that being nice and patient and precooling the disc/DVD and the disc slot worked much better.

This troper's English teacher does this with his dying overhead projector. Today, when he did it, the kid behind me stuck his thumbs out and yelled "AAAAAAAYYY!". HilarityEnsued.

This troper has a self-built desktop computer with several case fans. Occasionally upon startup the fans will make rather unsettling grinding noises whilst not putting out as much air. The solution? Several well-aimed taps to the case!

This troper has found it to be a reliable way to get change machines to take your ratty dollar bills at the arcade. Don't forget to make the Fonzie noise. Eyyyy!

This Troper has used this to get his car radio to work and to get his TV to switch between displaying in Color and displaying in Black and White by giving it a good whack or kick to it's base depending on if he was standing or sitting.

This Troper's dad once fixed a car horn by simply hitting it once with a hammer.

Every now and again, this troper's old computer will make a repetitive clicking/tapping sound, which can be remedied by lightly smacking the case

This troper has a old TV that occasionally loses sound. Up until I bought speakers for it, I found the best solution was to hit it until the sound came back.

This troper once bought a Kodak Signet 35 at auction while on vacation. This camera is known for being very rugged and easy to repair, but a specific piece had come out of alignment and would not stay in place. I figured since it was already broken, I might as well just stick it in my checked luggage. It was working perfectly when I took it out of the suitcase on the other side. The jarring and smashing that happens to luggage and has probably been responsible for many a broken camera ''actully knocked the piece back into place''.

This troper had a laser pointer that she threw at the wall once in frustration. It broke, but could still be made to work sporadically by hitting it hard against something. However, it eventually broke for real.

ThisTroper had a classmate in high school who could turn the Pepsi vending machine back on after lunch hours by getting a good 30 foot running start and hitting it with a full body slam.

I have a first-generation iPod nano with a clickwheel that occasionally sticks on fast forward. The solution? Turn it off (this step optional) and thwack it against a hard surface.

This troper has a grandfather clock which broke. One day, my little brother was playing with the clock's innards, and it starts working again. Now, whenever it breaks, we call him to fix it.

This troper used to own a Commodore 64 whose operations frequently stopped following a bad fuse burnout from which it never fully recovered. Even with multiple stays at a repair shop, it would freeze very often and only a punch of the right strength applied on top of the keyboard would unfreeze without fail. Combine this with a host of quirks that required tricks to make it work (like when to unplug the hard drive or punch it to stop spinning, keeping multiple copies of the same game because only specific disks could overcome critical crashing bugs, etc), it had full-on overlap with OnlyICanMakeItGo.

This troper used the magical punch to fix:Mobile Phone,Playstation 1,Commodore,Vending Machine,Kettle,Fire Alarm,several miscelaneous electical appliances,person.

This troper[[hottip:*:samusaranfan]]'s little brother went their dad's computer, and messed up a program Dad had open. When Dad found out, he mashed random buttons on the keyboard and somehow fixed it.