What did you last repair?

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#1,621
Tubelab_com said:
I had a top of the line dual CPU Dell industrial PC under my desk at work from 2005. It cost about $3000 when new. A memory DIMM died somewhere around year 3 or 4, after that it just worked. I opened it several times for upgrades, and just to vacuum out the dust once a year or so. That huge motherboard had about 100 of the "crapcaps," many of which had vented, or split at the vent.
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I read somewhere that DELL was one of the companies that had a LOT of machines going down with bad caps.
And I also heard that Dell, to avoid having to RECALL all those machines, refused to admit to the bad cap issue, which likely would have made them bankrupt.
So the poor consumer had to pay for service or a new machine.


This shady business also happened with other companies, but kept out of the news - again, the customers paid the bill.
 
#1,622
Denon DCD-1630G

Hi Guys,
I'm rebuilding a Denon DCD-1630G for myself. Some idiot "upgraded" it and I need a manual to fix it up. They changed component values of course.

Here is a picture of this poor thing.

If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it

-Chris
 

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#1,624
Speaking of computers......
I just replaced a malfunctioning DVD/CD/R drive in this desktop computer.
Earlier, I wanted to copy a CD I made years ago, and give a fresh copy to my neighbor.
But the (sony) drive kept messing up and stalling - likely a bad laser.


A nice stroll down the street to my computer guy and $15 got me a nice replacement.
Just finished the copy/burn with no problems.
 
#1,625
#1,630
Hi,
Thanks so much for looking. The one I am looking for is around 1989, an older piece. It uses the PCM-1701 DAC (one per channel).

This one is only closer in model number. I wish I could find the general model number (normal cosmetics).

-Chris
 
#1,631
wiseoldtech said:
I read somewhere that DELL was one of the companies that had a LOT of machines going down with bad caps.
And I also heard that Dell, to avoid having to RECALL all those machines, refused to admit to the bad cap issue, which likely would have made them bankrupt.
Click to expand...

It's not a Dell specific issue. Other brands works the same way. Years ago, I purchased a few dozen Dell workstations for the office. Power supplies started to fail slightly after the first year of the 3 years support contract. I noticed that replacement parts had a different vendor code stamped on them. Customer support refused to admit any issue, but still sent a free replacement for all the workstations who had the original power supply. Again, it is not a Dell specific issue, but rather a industry practice. Most end-user IT devices aren't powered on 24/7, so there is no need to target an extended product life or plan extensive quality tests on suppliers; huge savings can be made. The increased failure rate would be obvious on a large organization with many devices, impacting future large sales, but there is a trick. Large companies get a "free" support contract that matches the expected product lifecycle or lease, so weak designs and parts are not a big issue anymore. IT products life is also limited by the increasing number of features that requires a back-end Internet service. The cost of this service is factored-in on the device price, so the device need to have a known, limited life to avoid financial losses. This may be implemented by a non-removable internal battery, discontinued software support etc.

H713 said:
It's all well and good to hang on to old appliances, but doing so negates the advances made in efficiency over the last 30 years.
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Of course many technical advances have been made and SOME new appliances have better energy efficiency than those of the past, but some don't, despite the emphasis on energy ratings that seems to imply that energy efficiency is always increasing. As example, today microprocessor-based product may have a lower standby requirement than yesterday model, but it is still higher than the older one that had no microprocessor, no auxiliary functions, and a mechanical power switch. Keeping the old appliance may be the most environamentally friendly option, provided that maintenance is done to keep it safe.
 
#1,633
Sad but mostly true. I still design my stuff to last. I guess an audio amp is the one tech that won't be obsolete. Until we have digital/biological interfaces 🙂

AM radio still exists because there's no real use for that little bandwidth for anything else, but my old NTSC TV is a static machine now unless I feed it a signal. Even if I did - why? Other than nostalgia? Oh and old video games!
 
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#1,634
This was my least fun repair in a long time. My wife called while I was at work one way to tell me that the clothes washer had been filling for 45 minutes without shutting off - it was a faulty water pressure switch. Water poured out of the top of the washer and ran across the tile floor from the bathroom to the kitchen and over to the rug in the living room. It also ran down through the floor every place where wires and plumbing go through. Right down into our finished basement. One side is a playroom for the kids, the other side is my home theater room. Both rooms have a wooden subfloor with tongue and groove edges and a plastic backer/footer to keep it off of the concrete floor. On top of the subfloor is a carpet pad and wall to wall carpeting. Once the water hit the floor, it ran EVERYWHERE and soaked the entire rug and pad in both rooms. I had to pull up everything, including the subfloor. The entire concrete floor was wet under the subfloor.

I went through gallons of bleach (1:10 dilution in water) in a sprayer to kill all of the mold and mildew, first on the concrete floor, then on the wooden subfloor tiles, then on both sides of the carpet pad, then on the carpet itself. Then, I had to buy a new rug shampoo machine - the 30 year old one we were using suffered a burned out motor during the clean up. Replacement parts weren't available due to its age. I'm surprised the dehumidifier survived running 24/7 for weeks. It usually gets more intermittent use.

Six weeks later, everything is back together again. Aside from time, I didn't need to actually throw away and replace very much at all, just a few ceiling tiles in one of the rooms and some insulation in the basement ceiling. Now I have a $5 water alarm on the floor by the washing machine.

Here are some "before" and "during" images of the work. Glad to have my theater back again!
 

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#1,635
I was lucky.... last June I went down to the basement to put out the weekly trash, and noticed the wet floor near the 33 year old hot water heater.....
Until I could get my neighbor's pickup truck 3 days later, I had no hot water, had to drain the heater.
I don't do cold showers either.
A trip to Lowes for a new heater, some minor plumbing work, and voila.... hot water again!
One never knows........
 
#1,636
Just fixed my bench patch panel, which was originally given to me by a friend. In this case, replaced a couple of intermittent switches and cleaned up the grounding.

The XLR connectors were originally pop-riveted to the panel, and over time they've worked their way loose. Drilled out about 20 pop rivets and replaced them with 4-40 screws, with a lock nut.


I have to say though, having a patch panel on the bench makes everything easier. All the connections for bench speakers, lab amplifier and lab preamplifier are all on one panel. Super easy, super convenient. Drastically cuts down on the "rats nest" when doing service and testing.
 
#1,639
Indeed, a benchtop patch panel is a must.
I made my own, a relatively simple affair with a few heavy-duty toggle switches and robust speaker/amp binding posts, along with a headphone jack for when I do "close up" monitoring.
I even added a "safe mode" setting that throws in a pair of 500uF 250V non polarized caps to protect my bench monitors from DC in case an amp I'm working on decides to go nuts.
 
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