VOGONS


Reply 240 of 261, by Caluser2000

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Can say I've never had to replace a fuel cap. Ever...

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 241 of 261, by imi

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the timing on this couldn't have been more perfect x3
literally after writing the above post I drove home from the office and stopped to fill up my car, and as I was waiting my fuel cap just fell off... welp, guess I gotta buy a new car now :p

...or

...or... imagine this, I could just go and buy a new fuel cap for $10 and replace it myself.

Reply 242 of 261, by Caluser2000

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imi wrote on 2021-10-27, 15:41:
the timing on this couldn't have been more perfect x3 literally after writing the above post I drove home from the office and st […]
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the timing on this couldn't have been more perfect x3
literally after writing the above post I drove home from the office and stopped to fill up my car, and as I was waiting my fuel cap just fell off... welp, guess I gotta buy a new car now :p

...or

...or... imagine this, I could just go and buy a new fuel cap for $10 and replace it myself.

No NO NO! You must get an authorized and qualified Fuel Cap Fitter do do that.....

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 243 of 261, by TheMobRules

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If the official service manual used by certified fuel cap technicians says that the cap is not serviceable and you must replace the entire car in that case, then do that. Better be safe than sorry, don't want to get a potentially lethal injury while trying to replace that fuel cap yourself.

Reply 244 of 261, by imi

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speaking of being safe, the gas station attendant was smoking next to the other pump... guess that has to be one of those certified skills, knowing how to safely smoke there.

Reply 245 of 261, by hyoenmadan

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cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-27, 14:15:

And even if these changes were made, 99% of these "easily serviceable power adapters would never be opened just like the ones being made now. Unless the market overwhelmingly demands this change, it won't happen. It doesn't make business sense to make changes such as these. Recyclers aren't going to do anything different either.

Well... Sometimes I make a bit of easy money repairing original laptop chargers in my free time, some of them even Apple (the ones which don't have potted management IC). My customers learned to value more their original "bought-with-device" chargers after being scammed multiple times by Ebay, Amazon, and local retailers who supply themselves in AliExpress with $20 USD cheap crap, some of it even filled literally with bolts and nuts to make them weight as the originals.

Reply 246 of 261, by dormcat

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imi wrote on 2021-10-27, 16:50:

speaking of being safe, the gas station attendant was smoking next to the other pump... guess that has to be one of those certified skills, knowing how to safely smoke there.

The majority of LPG cylinder deliverymen in Taiwan are smokers, and they smoke at work. 🙄 Once I even saw a guy smoking at a refilling depot next to a sign "smoking and fire are strictly forbidden."

Reply 247 of 261, by luckybob

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You guys missed my point. Thats my fault.

I was trying to point out, not //every// part needs to be serviceable. Every one was hyper focused on one small part when the greater whole needs more attention. I think there is a German word for it, likely worth at least 100 Scrabble points...

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 248 of 261, by retardware

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luckybob wrote on 2021-10-27, 17:54:

I think there is a German word for it, likely worth at least 100 Scrabble points...

Wartungsfreundlichkeit?
(literally: service friendliness)

Edit:
I repaired a lot of TVs back in the 1980s and I liked the German ones (most of them at least):
Just loosen two retainer screws, fold open the chassis like a closet door, identify the well-ordered functional groups easily, take measurements easily, access and replace every component in a snap, close the chassis and done.
Contrary to this the Japanese TVs... just the time required to disassemble the whole cramped and chaotically convoluted thing, only to access a part or to connect a probe, made repairs uneconomical in many/most cases.

Last edited by retardware on 2021-10-27, 18:16. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 249 of 261, by imi

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luckybob wrote on 2021-10-27, 17:54:

You guys missed my point. Thats my fault.

idk if it was a good point, PSUs are one of the most failure prone parts of any device, expecially those should be servicable imho.

Reply 250 of 261, by weedeewee

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imi wrote on 2021-10-27, 18:10:
luckybob wrote on 2021-10-27, 17:54:

You guys missed my point. Thats my fault.

idk if it was a good point, PSUs are one of the most failure prone parts of any device, expecially those should be servicable imho.

They're even very failure prone in humans. bad food, lack of food, all are cause of erratic behaviour or premature failure of the humanoid entity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starv … tion_Experiment
😁

Right to repair is fundamental. You own it, you're allowed to fix it.
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
Do not ask Why !
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Reply 251 of 261, by luckybob

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Yes, but in most cases, the brick is easily replaced. Gone are the days where every device uses a unique wall-wart. Granted, Sony is still a huge offender, but the number of 12v bricks with the same negative-center barrel jack is startling. Usually the worst case scenario, the connector is non-standard and the voltage is slightly off. Both things that are relatively easy to rectify.

I personally like what is happening in the EU with mandating a universal power delivery. ex. Apple & USB-C

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 252 of 261, by imi

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the point is that you don't need to throw away the entire power supply just because one or two caps have gone bad for example, sure it's easily replaced (for now at least) but the point of RTR is among others to reduce the amount of ewaste produced exactly because of practices like these.

Reply 253 of 261, by cyclone3d

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hyoenmadan wrote on 2021-10-27, 17:15:
cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-27, 14:15:

And even if these changes were made, 99% of these "easily serviceable power adapters would never be opened just like the ones being made now. Unless the market overwhelmingly demands this change, it won't happen. It doesn't make business sense to make changes such as these. Recyclers aren't going to do anything different either.

Well... Sometimes I make a bit of easy money repairing original laptop chargers in my free time, some of them even Apple (the ones which don't have potted management IC). My customers learned to value more their original "bought-with-device" chargers after being scammed multiple times by Ebay, Amazon, and local retailers who supply themselves in AliExpress with $20 USD cheap crap, some of it even filled literally with bolts and nuts to make them weight as the originals.

For the most part, I don't use aftermarket power adapters. I did buy one for a Toshiba laptop at one point from China and it was super cheapo and actually had a cooling fan to keep it from melting. then later I found that missing original power adapter in the person's desk that gave me the laptop..... grrrrr.

The $10-$20 I was talking about is for original power adapters. Not sure about Apple adapters, but as far as Sony, Toshiba, Dell, etc, the original power adapters go for pretty cheap on eBay. It is generally really easy to tell the junky aftermarket ones from the original ones just by looking at the label... but I know what I am looking at so it doesn't surprise me one but that a lot of people get scammed by the cheap Chinesium adapters.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 254 of 261, by Errius

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You need to check these aftermarket fleabay PSUs. I picked up a "13.5V" unit that actually is 21V.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 255 of 261, by retardware

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Errius wrote on 2021-10-27, 20:08:

You need to check these aftermarket fleabay PSUs. I picked up a "13.5V" unit that actually is 21V.

Hope the resulting magic smoke was not too thick.
I guess the specs of this kind of transformer/unregulated rectifier+cap "PSUs" must rather been read 13.5V at nominal load...

Reply 256 of 261, by hyoenmadan

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cyclone3d wrote on 2021-10-27, 19:42:

The $10-$20 I was talking about is for original power adapters.

Here in Mexico doesn't work like that. People here knows the value of the original adapters, and the ones in good functional and cosmetic condition get sell by just like 5% or 10% (if you get really lucky) lower than the cost of a new one. And since here the USD spread and importation costs are high, you really get nothing buying eBay instead the local sell pages (mercadolibre or similars), and you get the risks of being scammed with Chinesium.

So here there are real demand repairing original chargers. What sometimes I do, if customer's one is truly gone (as when the control IC on the charger is unobtanium to me, or got potted like new Apple stuff), is get them one with the power plug and/or cord damaged, or with not so good cosmetics. Sometimes is incredible how a working stuff get magnitudes devalued because minor or cosmetic damages like these.

Reply 257 of 261, by dormcat

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Two weeks ago a friend of mine retired an Acer Aspire X1800 and asked me to help him backing up personal files then wipe its HDD clean. After doing so I'd like to perform a few tests and benchmarks before deciding whether to keep it myself, put it on auction, or (in the worst case) gut it for useful parts and send the remaining dead or unstable parts to e-waste.

Turned out this 11-year-old SFF system was better than I thought: the HDD SMART was healthy and loaded with Win7-x86 recovery partition (plus lots of bloatware, although they did no harm); after fully updated and bloatware uninstalled, the system took 28 seconds from POST to Win7 login screen -- not too bad for a 320 GB mechanical HDD on Pentium E5400 with 4 GB DDR2 RAM. Furthermore, unlike most pre-built SFF systems which are more like laptops without a monitor (using SO-DIMM, proprietary MB form factors, and ~90 W external power bricks), this one uses standard DIMM, an almost standard mATX MB (with only two PCIe slots instead of four: one 16x and one 1x), and a Delta 220 W internal Flex-ATX PSU. Adding a low-profile graphics card and an SSD would make it a low-key yet quite capable Win7 machine or a killer WinXP build.

Then it suddenly refused to turn on yesterday.

I didn't have any spare Flex-ATX PSU so I took two working ATX PSU to test it. No effect.
I replaced and reseated the CR2032 battery (this MB would refuse to boot if there isn't one). No effect.

Then, instead of using its power switch connect to the front panel, I shorted those pins on MB with a steel tweezer. Voila!

I took out my multimeter and confirmed the micro switch underneath the power button was the culprit: it wouldn't short when pressed. A micro switch is less than $1 if you buy a single one retail and a dime for a dozen if you buy bulk. However, that micro switch was buried in the plastic front panel assembly with glue and molten plastic rivets. I found no way to replace it without damaging the front panel permanently, although a replacement switch could still be hidden behind the panel if small enough, or could be relocated to the back panel where the 1x PCIe slot has minimal use.

And I bet there had been many, many consumers who would recycle a similar pre-built SFF computer just because the $1 power button failed. 🙄

Reply 258 of 261, by Caluser2000

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I got given 2 Compaq/HP CQ62s. Both had broken lcd screens(looks like the idiots that use to live over the had been jumping on them), one had ram an hdd removed from one but the the other had these. They'd also been left on the driveway for quite a number of weeks if not months as well. Managed to get one boot up to an external lcd screen. We had plenty of suitable power bricks. Not long after a rally gave me an i7 Samsung laptop with ram and hdd but the keyboard was toast. The lcd screen on the Samsung was the same size as the CQ62 ones. I pulled the lcd screen from the Samsung, removed the cracked screen from working CQ62 and modified the CQ62 screen brackets to fit the Samsung lcd screen and hooked up the screen ribbon cable.. Then connected it all in the working CQ62 screen housing turned it on and WALA! a fulling functioning CQ64.

I liked the way the CQ62 was assembled/disassembled, parts availability and the documentation was readily I decided to purchase a really good second hand one via our local auction site.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 259 of 261, by retardware

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Apple caves in because of their behavior the Federal Trade Commission wrote to the corporation earlier this year vowing to “address unlawful repair restrictions,” adding it would also “stand ready to work with legislators":
https://www.rt.com/news/540556-apple-right-repair-devices/