Hark Tech
Help & troubleshooting
Honest, practical fixes for the problems we see most often in the workshop. No paywall, no sign-up — just what actually works.
Most useful right now
PlayStation Repair Guide — PS4, PS5 and DualSense
A practical index to every PlayStation repair guide on Hark Tech — what the fault means, what fixes it, and when to post it in for us to look at.
Games ConsolesController Stick Drift — Fixes for PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch
One fault, three controllers — the mechanism behind stick drift and every drift repair guide on the site, plus the hardware upgrades that make it stop for good.
CrealityCreality K2 Troubleshooting — First-layer, Extruder and Retraction Fixes
The Creality K2 is a capable printer with a handful of well-known quirks. This hub collects every K2-specific guide we've written, plus the general 3D-printing fundamentals that solve most first-time-user problems.
3D Printing (General)
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Cura settings for Klipper: the changes that actually matter
Cura works fine with Klipper once you fix the start gcode, hand the acceleration job back to Klipper, and let pressure advance do the work retraction used to do.
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How to reset Cura settings to default (and when you actually need to)
Three ways to reset Cura: roll back one profile, reset the visible UI, or wipe the whole config folder for a true factory state. Pick the lightest one that fixes your problem.
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Why your 3D print is curling up at the corners and edges
Curling on a 3D print is shrinkage pulling the corners up off the bed or away from the layer below. Fix it with the right bed temperature, a clean surface, and less part-cooling fan on materials that hate it.
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First layer adhesion: why prints lift and how to test the bed
First layer problems almost always come down to bed temperature, nozzle height or a dirty plate. Here is how we test for each one before blaming the slicer.
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Why your 3D printer is not printing anything (and how to fix it)
When a 3D printer goes through the motions but lays down nothing, the cause is usually a clog, a stripped extruder gear, a damaged PTFE tube, or a first layer set too close to the bed.
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Best 3D printer in the UK under £500: an honest view from a repair shop
If you have £500 to spend on a 3D printer in the UK, the honest workshop answer is a Bambu A1, a Prusa MINI+, or a current Creality K1 — but the right one depends on whether you want to print, tinker, or both.
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Orca Slicer settings for the Elegoo Centauri Carbon: a starting point
Orca Slicer does not ship with a Centauri Carbon profile, so you have to set one up by hand. Here is the starting point we use on the bench and what to calibrate before you print anything serious.
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Best Cura settings for PETG: what we actually use in the workshop
A practical Cura profile for PETG based on what works on our bench: temperature, speed, retraction, cooling, and bed prep, plus the common faults and how we fix them.
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ABS print settings that actually work: temps, bed, enclosure
A workshop guide to ABS print settings that hold together: nozzle 240-250 deg C, bed 100-110 deg C, an enclosure, slow cooling, and slicer tweaks to stop warping, cracking and layer splits.
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Best 3D print settings for strength: walls, infill and temperature
Strong 3D prints come from more walls, hotter extrusion and the right material. Infill matters less than people think. Here is what we change first.
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Best 3D print settings for miniatures: dialling in clean detail
A working tech's settings guide for printing tabletop miniatures: layer heights, speeds, supports, exposure and the small slicer tweaks that decide whether a face looks like a face.
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Why your 3D prints keep warping at the corners and how to fix it
Warping is the bottom of your print cooling and contracting faster than the top, pulling the corners off the bed. Most cases come down to bed temperature, a dirty or worn surface, first layer height, or a draught in the room.
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What is bed mesh levelling and when do you actually need it?
Bed mesh levelling probes the build plate at multiple points, maps where it dips and bulges, and nudges the Z axis to compensate as the nozzle moves so your first layer stays consistent edge to edge.
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Who can fix a 3D printer? Finding repair help in the UK
Local 3D printer repair shops are rare in the UK, so most owners send their machine to a specialist workshop by post — here is how to decide if you need help and what to expect when you do.
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Where to get your 3D printer fixed in the UK (mail-in repair guide)
If you cannot find a local 3D printer repair shop, mailing your printer to a UK workshop is usually faster and cheaper than buying a new machine — here is how it works and what to expect.
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3D printer stringing: what causes those wispy threads and how to fix it
Stringing is filament oozing from the nozzle during travel moves. Most of the time it is wet filament, too-hot a nozzle, or weak retraction. Here is how to tell which.
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Multi-colour 3D printing: how it actually works on a home printer
Most consumer 3D printers can produce multi-colour prints, but the method matters. Manual swaps are free and slow, automatic units like the Bambu AMS or Prusa MMU3 are fast but waste filament on purges.
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Getting something 3D printed in the UK: local shops vs mail-in
If you need a one-off part printed in the UK, your three options are a local print shop, a big online service, or a mail-in workshop like ours, and each suits a different kind of job, deadline and budget.
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3D printer not printing properly: how to work out what is wrong
Most 3D printer problems trace back to one of four things: the bed, the nozzle, the filament, or the slicer settings. Work through them in that order and you will usually find the fault in under an hour.
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Stringing on 3D prints: what causes it and how to stop it
Stringing is filament oozing during travel moves. Fix it by tuning retraction, dropping the nozzle temperature a few degrees, drying the filament, and speeding up travel.
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3D printer not printing: diagnosing and fixing common faults
When your 3D printer won't extrude, fails to stick the first layer, stops mid-print, or produces poor results, the fault is usually one of a handful of well-known culprits that can be diagnosed without special tools.
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3D print warping: causes, fixes, and how to stop it happening
Warping happens because plastic shrinks as it cools and pulls the base of your print off the bed — fixing it usually comes down to bed prep, material temperature, and keeping cold air away from the print.
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Small FDM print jobs in Basingstoke: Bambu A1 and Creality K2
We run a small Basingstoke workshop offering mail-in FDM 3D printing on a Bambu A1 and a Creality K2 Plus, with small jobs and short runs genuinely welcome — send us an STL or 3MF and we will come back with a quote.
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Where to buy a 3D printer in the UK: shops, online and what to check
Very few UK high-street shops still stock 3D printers. Most sales now happen online direct from the manufacturer or through specialist resellers. Here is where to actually look, and what to check before you pay.
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Where to find a library with a 3D printer near you in the UK
Library 3D printer access in the UK is patchy and council-by-council, but real - here is how to find a printer near you, what to expect on cost and turnaround, and the materials and sizes libraries usually cannot handle.
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Where to buy a 3D printer in the UK: retailers, used kit, what to check
There is no high-street 3D printer shop in most of the UK, so almost everyone buys online. Here is where to look — manufacturer direct, UK retailers, and the used market — and what to check before you pay.
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How much do 3D printers cost in the UK? A workshop breakdown
Entry-level FDM printers start around £150 if you are happy to tinker. Mid-range £300-£700 buys reliability. Higher-end £700-£1500 adds speed, materials, and repeatability. Resin printers need £200-£300 in extra kit on top. Here is what each tier actually delivers.
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Finding a 3D printer when you need one now: your real options
If you searched '3D printer near me open now', you probably need a part printed urgently. Here is what local options actually exist in the UK, when mail-in is faster than it sounds, and how to decide which route makes sense for your job.
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Bed mesh in Klipper: how to set it up and the settings that work
A practical walkthrough of bed mesh in Klipper: the minimum printer.cfg block, how to run BED_MESH_CALIBRATE properly, when to use adaptive meshing, and how to tell a probe problem from a bed problem.
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Bed mesh calibration explained: what it does and how to run it
Bed mesh calibration probes a grid of points across your build plate so the firmware can compensate for surface variation in real time, improving first-layer adhesion across the whole bed.
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How to clean stringing off a 3D print without damaging the surface
Stringing is the wispy plastic between parts of a print. Most of it can be cleaned with a heat gun on low, a sharp deburring tool or a soft brush, but persistent stringing is a print-settings problem and is worth fixing at the slicer.
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Best PLA print settings for the Ender 3 and Ender 3 V2
A practical, honest baseline of PLA print settings for the Ender 3 and Ender 3 V2, with the calibration steps that matter more than any single number you copy from a forum.
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Orca Slicer settings that actually work on the Ender 3 V2 and V3 SE
Orca Slicer ships with usable profiles for the Ender 3 V2 and V3 SE — this covers the settings worth tweaking, the Bowden vs direct-drive differences, and the calibration tests that quietly fix most failed prints.
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What is bed mesh levelling? A plain guide for 3D printer owners
Bed mesh levelling builds a height map of your printer's build surface so the nozzle compensates for warps and bumps during the first layer, giving consistent prints without making the bed perfectly flat.
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Finding a local 3D printer workshop: what to look for first
Most results for 'how to find a 3d printer near me' point to hobbyists or cafes rather than professional workshops. You need to check their tools and processes before handing over expensive hardware.
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Safe methods to clean a blocked 3D printer nozzle without damage
A clogged nozzle ruins prints and can damage your extruder if you force it. We walk through safe cleaning methods like cold pulls and needle clearing that work for most common blockages.
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Practical steps to configure Klipper firmware on your 3D printer
Getting Klipper to talk to your printer requires careful pin mapping and a few configuration tweaks, but we will walk you through the exact steps.
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Printing flexible TPU filament: settings, pitfalls, and fixes
TPU rewards patience; slow speeds and direct drives solve most problems, while bowden setups need careful retraction tuning to avoid jams.
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What is a good bed mesh range? Understanding tolerances for prints.
Bed mesh range shows the height difference across your build plate; a smaller number means a flatter surface and better first layers for most materials.
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What is insert moulding and when should you use it in repair
Insert moulding locks solid objects inside molten plastic to create permanent joints, but requires careful heat management and material selection to avoid damaging components or voiding warranties.
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3D printer warping explained: common causes and how to fix it
Warping happens when cooling plastic contracts unevenly and lifts off the build plate — fixing it means controlling that contraction through bed temperature, surface prep, brim settings, and enclosures.
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Smoothing TPU 3D prints: which post-processing methods actually work
TPU's flexibility makes it resist most smoothing methods that work on rigid filaments, so the best results combine careful slicer settings with selective use of wet sanding, controlled heat, or flexible coatings.
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Input shaper for 3D printers: what it is and how to calibrate it
Input shaper is a Klipper feature that measures your printer's resonant frequencies and applies a digital filter to cancel the ringing and ghosting artifacts that appear on printed surfaces after sharp corners.
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3D printer warping: what it is, why it happens and how to fix it
Warping is caused by differential thermal contraction as plastic cools unevenly; fixing it involves matching bed temperature to material, ensuring clean adhesion, adjusting slicer settings, and sometimes adding an enclosure.
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3D printer stringing: what it is, why it happens, and how to fix it
Stringing is thin plastic thread left across open gaps when molten filament oozes from the nozzle during travel moves; it is almost always fixable by adjusting temperature, retraction, and travel settings in your slicer.
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3D printer not printing: diagnose and fix the most common faults
Works through the most common causes of 3D printing failures — from extruder clicking and nozzle clogs to slicer settings and electrical faults — in the order they are easiest to rule out.
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3D printer nozzle clog: how to diagnose, clear and prevent it
A clogged nozzle usually clears with a cold pull or a brief needle clean while hot; if neither works, solvent soaking or a cheap replacement nozzle is faster than continued troubleshooting.
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How to unclog a 3D printer nozzle: cold pulls, needles and more
A blocked 3D printer nozzle can usually be cleared with a cold pull, but if that fails there are three further methods to try before you consider replacing the nozzle.
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Bed mesh levelling explained: what it is and how to set it up
Bed mesh levelling probes a grid of points across the print surface so the firmware can compensate for any warp or unevenness in real time, giving a consistent first layer even on an imperfect bed.
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PLA print settings: a practical guide for better results
The best PLA print settings depend on your specific filament and machine, but this guide covers the core variables — nozzle temperature, bed temperature, speed, cooling, and retraction — and explains how to tune each one without guessing.
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TPU print settings: practical guide to flexible 3D printing
TPU needs lower speeds, minimal retraction, and ideally a direct-drive extruder to print reliably — this guide covers every key setting and the most common failure modes.
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PETG print settings: a practical guide for getting it right
PETG prints hotter and strings more readily than PLA, but with the right temperature, retraction, and cooling settings it produces strong, heat-resistant parts consistently.
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Klipper Pressure Advance Tuning: A Practical Step-by-Step
A no-nonsense, machine-agnostic guide to tuning pressure advance in Klipper using the standard tuning tower, with realistic per-filament values from our workshop.
Creality
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Creality K2 Troubleshooting — First-layer, Extruder and Retraction Fixes
The Creality K2 is a capable printer with a handful of well-known quirks. This hub collects every K2-specific guide we've written, plus the general 3D-printing fundamentals that solve most first-time-user problems.
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Best slicer for the Creality K2 Plus: Creality Print vs OrcaSlicer
Creality Print ships with the K2 Plus and handles the CFS multi-colour system cleanly, but OrcaSlicer offers better print quality, calibration wizards, and tuning. Most enthusiasts end up using both — OrcaSlicer for single-colour, Creality Print for CFS jobs.
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Creality K2 Combo explained: what's in the box and what it does
The K2 Combo is Creality's enclosed CoreXY 3D printer sold with their CFS multi-material unit, giving you four-colour printing in a 350mm cube build volume without buying the bits separately.
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What input shaping does on the Creality K1 and K2
Input shaping is the feature that lets your Creality K1 or K2 print at high speed without ringing artefacts. The built-in accelerometer measures gantry resonance and the firmware filters the motion plan to cancel it.
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Input shaping explained for Creality K2 and Ender series
Input shaping cancels mechanical vibrations by timing stepper pulses to match your printer’s natural frequency, and Creality builds a dedicated tuning routine into their firmware.
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Cura settings for the Ender 3 Pro and S1 Pro
A practical guide to Cura slicer settings for the Ender 3 Pro and S1 Pro, covering the key differences between Bowden and direct-drive retraction, temperatures for common filaments, speed, cooling, and first-layer calibration.
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Creality K2 Plus PTFE tube: diagnosing and fixing common faults
A worn, pulled-back, or badly-cut PTFE tube inside the K2 Plus hotend is one of the most common causes of filament jams and inconsistent extrusion — this guide walks through identifying the fault and replacing the tube safely.
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Creality K2 Plus CFS: faults, fixes, and the small spool problem
The Creality K2 Plus CFS fails in predictable ways — from filament-tip detection errors to small-spool tangling — and most faults can be resolved without dismantling the hub assembly.
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Cura slicer settings for the Creality Ender 3, V2, and V3 SE
Recommended Cura 5 settings for the Creality Ender 3, V2, and V3 SE, with a particular focus on the retraction difference between Bowden and direct-drive variants, plus temperatures, speeds, and common fault fixes.
Bambu Lab
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Bambu Lab A1: what to know about the printer and common issues
The Bambu Lab A1 is a full-size bed-slinger aimed at people who want clean prints without hours of tuning. Here is what it does well, the faults we most often see in the workshop, what you can sort yourself, and when it is worth posting it to us.
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Bambu A1 nozzle guide: sizes, hardened vs stainless, when to swap
The Bambu A1 and A1 Mini do not have a separate nozzle in the traditional sense. You swap the whole hotend. Here is which one to pick and why.
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Picking an enclosure for the Bambu A1: what works and what to watch
What to look for in a Bambu A1 enclosure, including the size you actually need, soft vs rigid vs DIY options, ventilation, and the heat trade-offs unique to the A1's bedslinger design.
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What is the Bambu P1S Combo and is it worth buying
The Bambu P1S Combo is a P1S printer bundled with the AMS Lite four-colour unit. Here is what it actually includes, how it compares to the P1P and X1 Carbon, and the faults we see on the bench.
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What is the Bambu A1 AMS and how does it work for multicolour printing
The Bambu A1 AMS — properly called the AMS Lite — is a four-spool feeder that lets the A1 and A1 mini swap filaments mid-print for multicolour or multi-material work, mounted on an open frame rather than the enclosed box used on the P1 and X1 series.
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Bambu A1 and P1 series hotends: what they are and how they differ
The A1 series hotend is a sealed quick-swap unit fitted to the A1 and A1 Mini bed slingers; the P1 series hotend on the P1P and P1S keeps the nozzle as a separate screw-in part. They look related but share almost no components.
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TPU print settings for Bambu Lab A1, P1S and X1C that actually work
A practical guide to printing TPU on Bambu Lab printers (A1, A1 Mini, P1S, X1C): temperatures, speed, retraction, AMS caveats and the small mechanical checks that decide whether a flexible print actually succeeds.
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Bambu A1 Mini: what it is, key specs, and how it compares to the A1
The Bambu A1 Mini is a compact, beginner-friendly FDM printer with multicolour support via the AMS Lite; the larger A1 offers a 256 mm build volume and hotter bed but costs more.
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Bambu A1 and P1S clogged extruder: causes, diagnosis, and fix
If your Bambu A1 or P1S is under-extruding or clicking, this guide walks through cold pull, needle clearing, and nozzle replacement to restore clean extrusion.
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Bambu P1S vs A1: specs, material support, and which one to buy
The Bambu P1S is an enclosed CoreXY printer capable of ABS, ASA, Nylon, and Polycarbonate; the A1 is a cheaper open-frame bed-slinger best suited to PLA and PETG — this article explains the key differences and which suits your use case.
Games Consoles
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PlayStation Repair Guide — PS4, PS5 and DualSense
A practical index to every PlayStation repair guide on Hark Tech — what the fault means, what fixes it, and when to post it in for us to look at.
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Controller Stick Drift — Fixes for PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch
One fault, three controllers — the mechanism behind stick drift and every drift repair guide on the site, plus the hardware upgrades that make it stop for good.
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Fixing Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift at home: what to try first
Joy-Con drift usually means dust or wear inside the analogue stick. Try recalibration first, then a careful clean. A full stick swap fixes it for good but needs the right tools and a steady hand.
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Xbox HDMI port repair: what's involved on One, Series S and Series X
A practical, no-nonsense guide to repairing a damaged HDMI port on Xbox One, Series S and Series X consoles, including the tools required, the realistic difficulty level, and the failure modes that masquerade as port damage.
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Joy-Con stick drift: why it happens and how to fix it on every Switch
Joy-Con drift is almost always caused by wear or contamination in the analogue stick module. Recalibration and contact cleaner can mask it; a stick replacement is the only proper fix, and the procedure differs across Switch 1, Lite, and Switch 2.
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Repairing a PS5 HDMI port: what's involved and when to get help
Replacing a PS5 HDMI port is a board-level rework job requiring hot air equipment and SMD skills; this guide covers diagnosis, disassembly, the repair process, and the serious risk of lifted PCB pads.
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Joy-Con stick drift: how to fix it on Switch 1, Lite and Switch 2
Joy-Con stick drift is caused by worn potentiometers inside the thumbstick module; this guide covers recalibration, contact-cleaner cleaning and full stick module replacement for Switch 1, Switch Lite and Switch 2.
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Xbox Elite Series 2 Paddle, Bumper and Trigger Failures: What Goes Wrong
The Elite Series 2 has a handful of well-known mechanical failures beyond stick drift. Here's what actually breaks, what you can fix at the kitchen table, and what needs the soldering iron out.
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Steam Deck Overheating, Loud Fan, and Fan Rattle: Diagnosis and Fix
A workshop-grade walkthrough of why a Steam Deck overheats or whines, how to tell a healthy loud fan from a failing one, and what's actually worth fixing.
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Switch 2 Joy-Con Drift: A 2026 Field Report
Eleven months after launch, the first wave of Switch 2 Joy-Con drift reports is here. We summarise what's confirmed, what's still unclear, and the repair options open to UK owners in 2026.
Laptops
Electrical
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Vintage amp hum or hiss when warm: recap symptoms
Five symptoms that mean your 1970s-90s amp needs new electrolytic capacitors, what a bench recap actually involves, and what it costs.
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Capacitor plague: spot a swollen or leaking cap
How to identify a failed electrolytic capacitor by eye and by meter, which series to distrust, and the rules for replacing them properly.
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HDMI port repair — what happens on the bench
A workshop walk-through of HDMI port repair on PS5, Xbox, laptops and TVs — failure modes, the bench process, costs, and when it's not worth doing.
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PSU faults: capacitor vs MOSFET failure
How to read the five common dead-PSU symptoms on a TV, monitor, or amp board and work out whether you're looking at a £40 fix or a write-off.
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Lead-free vs leaded solder: which to use at home
A practical look at when to reach for leaded, when lead-free is the right call, and why the workshop keeps spools of both within arm's reach.
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Soldering iron tip maintenance: triple tip life
Three rules that keep soldering iron tips alive for years instead of weeks, and the common mistakes that quietly kill them.
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ESD at the home bench: what actually matters
A sceptical look at ESD protection for hobbyist electronics repair: what damages chips, what protects them, and what's just cargo cult.
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Reading a schematic for the first time: a primer
A working hobbyist's guide to reading schematics: the ten symbols that matter, how signal flow is laid out, and how to navigate the big functional blocks.
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BGA reflow vs reball — and when each matters
A plain-English guide to the two common BGA chip repairs, what they actually do, what they cost, and the honest success rates for each.
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Lifted pad rescue with kynar wire
A lifted pad isn't a death sentence. Here's how the kynar-wire bridge repair actually works, what it costs, and when a board is genuinely beyond saving.
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When recapping won’t save your vintage gear
A recap fixes a specific class of faults in vintage audio. Spend on it when the symptoms match; don't when they don't. Here's how to tell.
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Reverse-engineering pinouts from an undocumented PCB
How we map the signal topology of a board with no public schematic, using a multimeter, a microscope, and a methodical workflow.
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Microsoldering vs through-hole: which your repair needs
A plain-English guide to working out whether your broken thing needs a £15 iron or a £3,000 microscope rig, before you contact a repair shop.
General
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Computer repair reviews near Weybridge: what to look for before booking
A short guide to evaluating computer repair reviews around Weybridge: what genuine feedback looks like, the red flags to spot, the questions to ask a workshop, and when a mail-in repair is the saner choice than a high-street unit.
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Computer repair in Egham and across the UK: how mail-in works
We are a solo electronics workshop offering mail-in computer repair across the UK, including Egham. Here is what we fix, what we will not take on, and how to send a machine in safely.
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Practical ways to cut costs on your electronics and 3D printing repairs today
You can significantly reduce your spending on electronics and 3D printing by fixing minor faults early, optimising print settings, and maintaining gear properly.
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Common computer faults: what they mean and what to do
Most computer faults fall into a handful of predictable categories — this guide walks through the symptoms, likely causes, and which fixes are safe to attempt yourself before sending a machine in for professional repair.