Are office people really that, umm shall we say...slow?

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
Date: Sat Oct 20 12:41:59 2001

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
Received on Sat Oct 20 2001 - 12:41:59 BST