My speaker set seems to have died -- at least it hasn't produced noise the past week or so. I took it apart to stare at it and drain static electricity off by grounding it on a water faucet. This is my standard therapy for wayward electronic parts -- it doesn't actually work on anything except my AT&T handset, but I do it because it's the only thing I know how to do.

I took it apart mainly because I wanted to see if there was some sort of electronic burn-smell, but all I can smell is the aroma of the pressed woodchip panels in the subwoofer -- actually not all that bad! There's a 3 amp 250 V fuse which seems to be intact and a bunch of discrete things like capacitors, transistors, and other stuff I don't know the names of. But there doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong -- no transitors that rattle when you shack them, no capacitors whose leads come off when you pull them, etc.

I've checked that the standard sound sources are actually producing sound, namely my sound cards and the headphone-out plug on my stereo amp. Also, I think its getting power -- at least the light on the wired controller is going on, which at least means the power brick is functioning. Of course I've also double-checked all the connections.

Do these things actually go bad? I don't use it that much, and its less than three years old! (We've got a set of living room speakers that must be over 20 years old.) This thing is long since out of warranty, so if there isn't anything that I can do, I guess it's time to ditch it. Given the season, that might seem like "good timing", but since I don't use it that much I hate to spend the money.

Would the little satellites work elsewhere? I'm not sure what their ohm rating is.

BTW, the headphone jack on the remote does have sound, so that seems to indicate the subwoofer/amplifier is dead.