20 Oct
2001
20 Oct
'01
5:41 a.m.
Rumor has it that Tony Duell may have mentioned these words:
Of course the other thing that bothers me is that
people here (who in
general are hackers) don't pull the case of their monitors the day they
get them and measure important voltages inside (at least the CRT
electrode voltages, PSU outputs (if you can find them), flyback-produced
supplies, etc. These will come in _very_ handy when the monitor stops
working. You can quickly see what area(s) the problem must be in.
Well [for me anyway] TV repair was never my strong point -- and that
includes monitors. I just don't like being inside the buggers.
And I've tried to resolder the HDE15 -- once -- and it was a pain, without
the right tools (which, of course, I didn't have...) It took me over 2
hours to solder the thing together *correctly* and have it stress-relieved
enough to last more than a week...
But that's just me. YMMV (and it seems it does! ;-)
Hmmm... At least in the UK, a device has to be 'of
merchantable quality'.
If you do a repair on something, and it subsequently fails in some other
way (say, in this case, the flyback transformer failed a couple of weeks
after you resoldered the connector), then I am pretty sure that if you
can prove your repair had nothing to do with the second failure, then the
company has to give you a refund. Period.
Makes me wanna move to the UK...
In the US, cable failures are not covered under the warranty, but if you
put a new end on the cable to make it functional again, that will void the
warranty with most monitor manufacturers that I've dealt with.
This is why I refuse to purchase a monitor without an HDE15 on *both* ends
from now on... unless it's a "$5 special"
purchased at a "car boot sale" I
believe they're called in the UK -
garage/yard sale here in the US.
On several occasions I've repaired minor faults on
new equipment only to
have other things fail later (things that require expensive parts to
replace). I've never had much trouble convincing the manufacturers that
(a) I am clueful (turning up with the service manual and pointing out the
bits on the schematic is often a good trick :-)) (b) I know what parts I
need to replace and (c) they darn well ought to give be said parts if
they don't want to end up in a small claims court....
Here (sadly), it's the other way around...
Anywho, If I ever get the cash (doubtful) or you find yourself *and me* a
damn-fine paying job (also doubtful) I'll move to the UK and enjoy laws
that protect the clueful... but until then, if it's under warranty, we send
it back.
<sniff>
Roger "Merch" Merchberger