[rescue] Slightly OT: Bad Cap Saga

[Curious George]

--- On Mon, 8/18/08, Carl R. Friend <crfriend at rcn.com> wrote:

> > Which should I, as a consumer, consider "cheap consumer electronics"?
> 
>     Well, in my case, you're dealing with a bloke who, in 1983
> dropped three grand on a 40" 3-CRT rear-projection television
> set, and I was massively ticked off when it died earlier this
> year and was pronounced "unrepairable" (likely because there's
> no talent left that can troubleshoot to the component level).

<grin>  Yup.  I had a similar vintage JVC TV that died last year.
Amusingly, it was a direct result of *my* replacing some bad
electrolytics (I put one in backwards  :<  my eyes aren't as
good as they used to be!)

> I am unamused enough that my wife and I are getting by on an
> even *older* 12-incher.  If I were to drop five grand on a
> television and have it conk out in two years' time I would be
> positively *furious*.

My set was just about $1k.  I was *sad* to see it go but was
delighted with the service I had from it and couldn't really
blame the manufacturer for *my* repair error.  :<

>     I can see failures that have a distict *cause* (e.g. the
> cat threw up on it and it dripped through the vents), but I
> do not appreciate failures on a micro-timeline (and I, for
> one, do not adhere to the current view of "three years and
> it's obsolete -- go buy another one) whether it's in the
> consumer sector or the business/industrial sector that are
> due solely to "planned obsolescence"; the "build it as cheaply
> as possible and the consumer (whomever that may be) be damned
> borders on, if not outright intrudes into, theft.

<shrug>  I think the Market should make that decision.
I am, however, dismayed that *my* voice in the market doesn't
seem to be addressed.  E.g., it doesn;t seem like it is possible
to buy "quality" at *any* price!

I once exclaimed that I would easily pay *double* (triple?)
for an item if I *knew* it would not fail.  No, not a
lifetime warranty.... I mean it WON'T FAIL, PERIOD!

[of course, that's highly naive thinking but it reflects my
frustration at encountering so many failed bits of kit]

> I routinely run computers that are older than many of my
> friends, and they run just as faithfully today as they did
> when originally manufactured in the 1960s and 1970s.  How
> is this possible, the modern mind will, of necessity, ask
> (for the modern mind is not accustomed to having anything
> last more than three to five years)?  It's possible due to
> two little things known as "good engineering" and "quality
> control".

I think that a bad example since so much of what people
consider to be a part of the computer is the "software"...
And, people are easily distracted by blinkenlights...

>  From the conversation in this particular thread,
> I'm getting the picture that "quality control" is a thing
> of the past -- yet another hollow echo of something that old
> farts like to call the "Good Old Days" -- but I'd really hate
> to see good design and engineering go down the same rathole.

Again, I think the Market should address this.  People should be
able to buy crap if they want it.  Unfortunatly, there are
*so* many people in this category that it wags the dog and
there end up being no (realistic) other options.

Note that lack of quality is not just a hardware issue.
How many times have you heard folks (office mates!) proclaim
"Well, you EXPECT some bugs in software..."

<frown>  Do you EXPECT your car to slam itself into reverse
and explode in a ball of fire while you are driving down the
highway?  :-/

> If your "design ethic" calls for something to be dead in three
> years' time, that's fine -- just make sure that the product
> is LABELLED that way.

They all are!  It's called the PRICE TAG!  :<

>  Speaking of things that are way past their expiry date, does
> anybody here happen to know what internal voltages are used in
> Pioneer CLD-3090 Laserdisk players?  I've got one that the logic
> and display turns on, but there's precisely no actuator motion.
> That sounds like power to me, and I'd like to get the thing
> working again even if it does mean an external supply.

Is that the "flip over" player?  I think I have the service
manual for it here.  Pester me if I don't get back to you
(offlist).
 
> I'd also like to rescue the Tangerine Dream CD that's stuck in
> it...  On the television -- does an analogue the old "Sam's
> Photofact" series still exist?  If I can find a schematic for
> the thing I'll likely be able to fix it.

I don't recall ever having any problems with mine (which doesn't
seem right as I'm prettty sure it has belt(s) inside).