Was challenged to fix one of these cheap neon "fake flame" lights. This one a bit more sophisticated than most. Changeable batteries, not unreachable coin cell (3 AAA in this case). ON mode and an automatic 8 hours on and 16 hours off mode, supposedly.

Only operated in display mode with two wires coming out a small connector at the bottom to a small micro switch sandwiched in TRY ME cardboard. That worked when you pressed the switch. But pull out the plug as instructed for normal use and nothing.

Easily untwists and opens completely for battery access. Hmm. That's odd. Two wires leading from the bulb, but one of them has a short stripped area near the middle of the wire. Now why would they do that unless it was supposed to connect to something?

D'oh! Nasty design flaw. That little stripped area of the wire was supposed to be tack soldered to a pad on the tiny circuit board. But the wire is so short that the mere act of opening the lamp to install batteries would almost inevitably pull the wire off that pad.

Works now.