Right, I've checked the power supply/transformer which is fine and removed the board and identified the problem to be the Cap as suggested. Next question is where to get the replacement capacitor & bridge rectifier from. Chris.

Ah - the wife factor - a universal leveller Thank the Lord my wife likes huge pentagon shaped columns . Chris.

In my experience the MMC20** range of cartridges tend to age better than the later MMC1-5's - Friedmetts comments seem to confirm this. They also don't suffer as badly with losing contact with the coils either. @John, drop me a line and we'll have a meet & knees up before you bu**er off to Sheffield BTW - you won't be skint FOR EVER

Well that was a right old palavar getting that to download - I won't go into the geeky boring stuff and appear sadder than I really am (the truth is I basically winged it) Any way here's the photo of the strange 5 pin SP cartridge, never seen this meself so I'll hand it over to our resident cartridge guru - Peter. EDIT - is it just me or

burantek: i wonder if they offer any warranty? that would be huge! Mine came with 12 months warranty Chris.

j0hnbarker: So, would a new SMMC4 be a better bet than a used MMC3, for example? Yes, I have both and you're more than welcome to drop in for a comparison test John. Chris.

Craig: shame you can't bring the car back with you. Craig Can't? - probably more a case of daren't Craig Chris.

Brilliant! I'll keep you posted Chris.

That's great stuff guys, the mains transformer was one of my suspects (yes Martin it does blow as soon as power is supplied) and the info' on the capacitor to check first is great. Chris.

Yep, you're right, I've also used this method but instead of super glue I simply stuck some foil to double sided sticky tape before punching them out (we call it a paper/hole punch funnily enough). I found this a lot less messy than using glue. Chris.