Old Computer Collecting vs Electronics Building

At 05:52 PM 2/2/2006, a.carlini at ntlworld.com wrote: I had my $500 Sony TV repaired the old fashion way last summer. For $200 total or so, out of warranty, a guy from a big TV/appliance regional chain drove 40 minutes, debugged which transistor was flakey, then made the return trip with the replacement and resoldered it right there in my living room. Fairly old school, maybe 55 or so. But looking inside the TV, it was clear there weren't that many non-IC non-daughterboard parts. My problem was relatively simple; the TV wouldn't turn on reliably. But so few things are repaired these days. I know the IT people at several nearby school systems. Regional consortiums (called CESA in WI) once repaired their small electronic equipment, but now they're gone and now they're stuck. Where to go to repair a laser printer? An overhead projector? It was the CESA that once provided the dial-up DEC access that I used in middle school and high school, circa '77-81. The writing is on the wall for so many TVs to be replaced by purely digital devices. Not all, but many. Look at the average Joe and Jane who see the Media Edition bundles for $2K or so at Best Buy - the salesdroid tells them they can load 90 DVDs or 200 CDs to the hard drive or get movies off the net, they lust over the big flat panel, and the lightbulb goes on over their head. - John