Philips and auction finds (was: Re: I hate Radio Shack)

From: Tothwolf <tothwolf_at_concentric.net>
Date: Mon Jun 17 00:18:19 2002

On Sat, 15 Jun 2002, Tony Duell wrote:

> > The operating word is "cheap" : those for whom price is the only guide
> > will never find good quality. Not at Philips, nor at any other
> > brand....
>
> Agreed. I don't want to buy on price, but I can't seem to find much
> good quality stuff any more.
>
> I'd rather pay \pounds 2000 and get a VCR that's built like the old
> VR2022 I have awaiting repair (It'd be nice if the modern VCRs had all
> of the features of that beauty as well), than pay \pounds 100 and get
> a plastic chassis that will last the 90 day period and not much
> longer. But I can't

Veering a little OT (though the equipment is indeed 10 years old), my
current gripe with Philips/Magnavox is the lack of printed service
literature. A few months ago I inquired about a service manual for one of
those "cheap" VCRs, and was told they _now_ only send out literature on
cdrom to their "authorized" service centers. Whats worse, is that I think
I own at least 4 different (but similar) Phillips/Magnavox VCRs...

Back to something more on topic... This last week at auction, I picked up
one of the oldest cd writers I've ever seen, which is ironically made by
Philips. It appears to have a SCSI interface, and seems to be in good
shape physically. If there is any interest, I'll update the list once I
get a chance to inspect it further and test it out.

Another item I picked up in the same lot was (yet another) Pioneer
DRM-604X cdrom changer (I collect 'em ;). It had the magazine jammed in
it, and when I broke the unit down for inspection, I found that whoever
previously "repaired" it, had left their test "JIG" (as marked) optical
pickup assembly installed. The assembly was missing 2 of the 4 leveling
springs, and the two that were installed were in the wrong places (two
different tensions are used). One of the springs is also bent out of
shape. The disc table motor's connector has a small crack in the shell
surrounding the pins. There is also visible wear and tear on the flat
cable for the optical pickup, where it connects to the main board. Based
on what I found, it appears that a service shop accidentally left their
"JIG" optical assembly installed when they shipped it back after repairs.
Since it had leveling problems due to the missing and improperly installed
springs, it eventually jammed up.

I picked up lots of other nice bits of older hardware, but I think most of
it would still be considered OT for now.

-Toth
Received on Mon Jun 17 2002 - 00:18:19 BST