Awesome post and I wanted to add that also there are times when the supply will read the correct voltage, even under load, but it still will not boot and that is from too much AC ripple.

95% of the time, if a supply is bad and measures good with no load, it will fall in it's face when you give it a load (plug it into the chumby) due to not being able to supply the needed current.

But please don't let the other 5% gettcha either. I had one that measured 5vDC with or without a load and what I found is a good one has about 10mA of AC ripple and the one I had that would not boot from, measures 115mA of ripple.
Ripple is noise basically and you need to have your meter set on the AC scale to read it.

So if it measures find with the meter on DC with a load, then move the switch on the meter to AC and see what you read....

Thanks again Duane for taking the time to write this post and all your awesome support!

Your welcome!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(electrical)
Also, the symptom I had prior to it totally dying was the alarm would sound, I would dismiss it and the unit would reboot. This went on for about a month. Then one day, the alarm sounded and it would not boot after the glitch and would just get stuck in a reboot loop. Once I unplugged it from the wall and let it sit for a couple hours and cool; when I tried again it was dead to the world and measured fine [5.20vDC] with the meter on DC setting using a Fluke 73 series III (current model is a Fluke 77 and they are about $250) DMM and 115mV on AC.

Please see this thread for one possible solution for this problem.

If you're brave enough to try to actually *repair* the power supply, forum member duharris has created a really nice video here.

The power supplies for the I3.5 and C1 are the same connector.

Neither I nor Insignia have power supplies in stock.

The supplies that come with the device accept 110-240V, 50/60Hz - the only requirement is that it reliably output 5V @2A, with the correct connector.

No, I have them - they're just too expensive to actually ship to Europe.

OK - the power supplies are "European" only in the sense that they come with a set of replaceable non-US plug attachments. fixed

The power supplies themselves are "universal", in that they'll take both 110/120 and 240VAC, and handle both 50/60 Hz.  This is very common for these types of wall warts.

The problem is that you can't plug them into a US outlet, since the prongs are wrong.

OK, if what Nathan has a device that is simply European female->US male, then it should indeed work.

I was assuming "converter" was an electronically active device, not just an adapter.

Whew, even now you're saving our bacon.  Both our Chumby Ones died within a few days of each other (one being 5mo or so younger than the other) so we thought it had something to do with chumby.com, maybe--they're running zurkware, but maybe there was something it wasn't covering?  Gosh, we had no idea.  Hey...the chumby.com forums are still there....

And check this out, there's a fix!  I borrowed the Insignia's power cord and the chumby booted happily back up again.  They're alive!  The timing was merely coincidental.  All we have to do is replace power cords?  Oh how awesome.  We can do that.

No, that's for the Chumby Classic.  The Chumby One has a much smaller power connector, and requires 5V, 2A.  The Classic had on-board voltage regulation and could take a wide range of supply voltages, with the official adapter @ 12V.

I'm assuming the reason for the removal of the on-board regulation in the C1 and later devices was due to cost and heat. A power supply costs $X per watt regardless of output, so if you just get an adapter that outputs what the device needs in the first place, you don't need on-board regulation and save $$$ on those parts. Also, voltage regulation generates heat, which in the small cases of the Chumbies could shorten the life of the devices.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to find a supply that would work "out of the box" for your C1.  That particular listing disturbs me because they list the output as "1000mA (2A)"... but 1000mA = 1A, not 2A.  Also, the picture shows a 12V power supply even though they claim it's 5V.

You found the right numbers (5V, 2A)... it's just that the particular listing also has some conflicting information

You may want to look into my adapters here -- they will enable you to use a supply with a much more common connector.  It's a bit pricier, but "future-proofs" your investment because should you find yourself needing another replacement supply down the road, it'll be easy to find and cheap.

Cruise the forum and you will learn what is happening. We have less than we once had but more than what we were headed for. There are several options for future uses of the chumby with the unlikely thing that chumby will not have something to do.  As for Chumby history you can go to the chumby wiki to learn the evolution. Prototype...Chumby Classic (soft)...Chumby One (plastic block with volume control added and more)...cousin Infocast 3.5...Then Chumby 8 and Infocast 8 bigboys. Sony Dash has a separate life but similar to Chums. All have some shared similarities but all kinda different from each other. This is probably not the end of Chumby and actually may be the beginning of a second life for this rather unique gadget. There seems to be a small but loyal following which has fueled the hope of a brighter future. Former Chumby employee Duane Maxwell has acquired what is left of Chumby (aka Blue Octy) and has plans to give new life to this critter with the help of some the IT geeks out there that are reluctant to give up. This actually a very interesting story that needs to be sold as Kindle book.