I'm Kinda Like MacGyver

Something quite peculiar happened to me a few days ago. 

I haven't used one of my Roberts Internet radios for a few months. The rechargeable batteries inside the product had obviously worn out, so I took out the radio's AC adapter to charge them back up.

You're meant to charge the batteries while the radio isn't playing. I forgot that rule, so - when I came to the radio the following morning to listen to my favourite American stations - it wouldn't turn on.

I then remembered the golden rule, so plugged the AC adapter in. I noticed that the indicator light, to show that the batteries were being charged up, wasn't coming on.

'Damn,' I thought. 'The batteries must have completely died.' 

I went on the hunt around the house for a charger for AA batteries and found one with four slots. The radio needs six AAs, so I had to do some replacing across the few hours I was attempting to bring life back into the batteries.

After a few hours, I tried again. The radio still wouldn't turn itself on from the batteries. Therefore, I made the decision to buy a new box of batteries in the hope that the problem was with them and not the onboard charger inside my radio.

I have a little over £30 left over in my Amazon account from Christmas and birthday gift vouchers. I opted for some Duracell AAs.

Within mere minutes of my order being placed, I received a notice on my computer informing me that the battery in my computer mouse was low.

Seeing the notice that I had 5% remaining lit up an idea.

I opened the radio up, took all six batteries out and placed them one-by-one into my mouse to check their power status on the mouse.

85% here, 85% there. 

Then there was a 0%. 

After checking all six batteries, I figured out that two of them had become duds. Those two were the reason why the radio wasn't working.

When I first purchased the batteries three years ago, I had two left over, so I added those to the radio and...

It worked!

Upon realising that everything was back to work order, I logged back into my Amazon account and cancelled the order for the new batteries. They can hold on for another day.

If Angus MacGyver were a real person, he would have been proud of me for turning a computer mouse into a makeshift battery tester.