23 Apr
2012
23 Apr
'12
2:14 p.m.
On Mon, 23 Apr 2012, Tony Duell wrote:
So, yes, its fine now. By the comments of some peopel
here, though it
shouldn't be in that reworkign the PCB should ahve reduced the
reliability. Maybe it did, if I'd got one that didn't need reworking, it
wowould go on even longer. But 20 years without problems, turned on and
used just about every day, doesn't seen unrelaible to me.
Competent "rework" fixed the other cold solder joints, etc.
Haphazard "just get it done" "rework" will only fix the one joint that
had
stopped making contact, possibly overheat adjacent pins and componenets,
add solder bridges, and in removal and reinstallation add physical
stresses to other bad joints.
So, "modern" incompetent "rework", as practiced by many companies,
could
indeed reduce reliability.
MY experience with Sportster(S) was similar, other than that I did NOT
make the needed repairs.
OTOH, I did not have any problems with their Courier(S).
We got rid of the unreliable Sportsters, and every WinModem that came
along. Deities! I hate those things!
Does anybody make a good reliable tiny portable USB modem?
The USR one that I got on eBay won't work with the supplied drivers nor
the ones from the website, but ALMOST works with some generic drivers.
In terms of "Customer Service" and "Tech Support", USR was
uninterested
and unwilling to provide any help with out-of-warranty Sportsters, but
provided free firmware update to an old Courier with unknown provenance.
Were they really the same company? (It must have been the Sportster
"division" that survived to become the one that Will Smith dealt with.)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com