Thanks for the help! I tried replacing the resistor and tried everything else but couldnt get the stupid thing to work. In the end I gave up on fixing...

Ive tried #2 already although the previous owner said he tried bridging the resistor with some wire so hes probably knackered it already.#1 is a good ...

Yeah Ive got a multimeter. What I need is a magical multimeter that can see into the past and tell me what the resistor was.