Oh man, I feel this one. It’s wild how one little piece of forgotten plastic—that vent flap—can turn into a full-on troubleshooting rabbit hole. We’ve all missed something like that at least once (But now you’ve got a quiet fan, a dark light, and no sign of a blown fuse ,,,Yeah, frustrating and weirdly familiar.
You mentioned the “thermally protected” sticker, and that’s a solid clue. That phrase usually means there’s a thermal fuse or cutoff switch hidden somewhere inside. The catch? Once those trip, they don’t reset. No polite beep. No little red switch. They just stop playing the game.
And here's the kicker:
They’re often tucked away like they’re hiding from daylight! under insulation, clipped to the metal chassis, or wrapped up in shrink tubing near the motor. If you didn’t know to look for it, you'd assume it wasn’t there at all.
