New Technology is worthless!!!!

[Buzzfuzz]

Don't get me started with new stuff.
I have a Sony BluRay player that has a dead optical port, but I'm not risking repair and maybe ending up with a dead unit while it is still working, and I can still use the coax digital port.

 

[Nathanieltolbert]

Ouch. I haven't had many problems with the Sony items that I have bought (aside from the HD reciever blanking out the audio if there is no signal being sent, so calibrating rock band is a pain in the butt. ) aside from my PS3 breaking down several times (which I solved by moving over to an open air location. Apparently a component rack for audio equipment doesn't offer enough air flow. Been running fine for close to a year now. Knock on wood.) everything else I own from Sony has been a rock. Have a receiver in the bedroom made by Sony that is close to 8 years old and still working great. That being said the Pioneer Receiver I had previously to it only lasted all of about 2 years before component failure. I still prefer Pioneer for my receivers as they just sound very nice, but they do break. There are certain brands that I will avoid like the plague from past experience. 1 - I will not buy a Sony TV. Had very bad luck with them in the past. 2 - I will not buy a microsoft anything that isn't an OS or a gaming console.(Serious issues with their keyboards, mice, and sadly the ZuneHD, that damn thing never worked right.) 3 - I will never buy XFX for a video card again. After the fiasco with the NVidia 200 series cards failing and their refusal to repair or replace dead cards less than 8 months old means I would rather spend more on a different brand than buy from them. 5 - Individual Computers make the best products for the Amiga that I have used. Now if we could only get them to make a PCI busboard....

On the TV front, aside from it being Ginormous (that's a real word... honest ) the audio sync was the only issue i was facing. Once I sorted out what was causing that and changed the TV settings, it works perfect now. AV Sync is now a respectable 30ms versus 100ms. So 120Hz mode appears to have added a delay of 70ms to the audio timing. How strange. I do really wish that there had been a 50 inch model, 5 inches more may not seem like much, but when you get it mounted to the wall and look at it, we had to move the couch back an extra foot because you couldn't see the whole picture where the couch was, so the couch is now 10 feet from the screen.

 

[Harrison]

Regarding home insurance... I could have told you they wouldn't pay out for a faulty TV that suddenly went wrong. What you do is accidentally drop a hammer through the screen whilst performing some DIY in the room. They will pay out then. (It's what everyone does).

With your iPod, it sounds like the OS might have just crashed and locked up. Have you tried forcing a reset and reboot of it? Look at the following article and it will give you the 2 button reset button combination needed for your specific model to reset it. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1320 If none of that works then the battery is dead and will need replacing, which can only be done by Apple as they are fixed and none replaceable.

Definitely does seem to be a lot going wrong at once, and I would have asked about the power supply to your house if someone else hadn't already above. Might be worth getting the house's power tested to make sure it is within regulation.

Regarding computer PSUs. I've had a few blow over they years, or been faulty. The most recent was only a couple of months ago. A Thermaltake Modular 750W PSU started playing up. It was working OK but wouldn't not switch off. The system would power down, but it would keep supplying power so the fans and HDDs were still spinning. Only using the wall socket switch or main switch on the back of the PSU itself would switch it off. I had purchased it from a fairly local store called Novatech, so instead of ringing them, I pulled the PSU out of the system and as it had a 5 year warranty I just took it to the store. Still had the box (tend to keep them all in the loft) so packed it up like new, along with the receipt. Got to the store and was told it would need to be tested so they have me an RMA number and took the PSU, saying they would call me within 2 weeks. Next day I got a call from the tech department saying they had tested the PSU and confirmed the fault, and that Thermaltake could no longer provide a replacement for the model, so instead they said they would honour the warranty by allowing me to pick an alternative replacement from their stock to the value of £85 (the old PSU had cost £78). I already knew the replacement I wanted if offered, so asked for a Coolermaster Silent Pro Modular 700W PSU, which they said was fine, and it arrived by Carrier the next morning free of charge. That has to be the best customer service I've ever received on a warranty return ever! Highly recommend Novatech now. And even though some of their prices might be a few pounds more expensive than some other online stores I now tend to purchase most computer stuff from them because they are within easy reach if needed.

And I just remembered about a TV we had that went wrong. The Samsung we had in our living room suddenly lost the image. Sound was still working but the image was blank. When we switched it on the image would appear for about a second then be gone. It had a 3 year warranty, so we took it back to Argos, and the assistant said it would need to be returned to Samsung to be repaired, and could take up to a month, which we were not happy about as we ideally wanted a replacement. The guy started filling out the paper work to have it returned and picked the TV up to move it to the returns shelve and dropped it! Opening the box the screen had shattered. He went bright red and had to issue us an immediate full refund! Result! With money in hand we went elsewhere and got a new TV.

 

[FOL]

Regarding home insurance... I could have told you they wouldn't pay out for a faulty TV that suddenly went wrong. What you do is accidentally drop a hammer through the screen whilst performing some DIY in the room. They will pay out then. (It's what everyone does).

[RANT]

LOL, well the Insurance Company didnt ask my old company to look at it.
I think you will find decent repairs / inspectors exist.

I think the practice you just mentioned is disgusting. I have never and will never contribute to this attitude of fraud. Something breaks, you simply buy a new one or get it repaired.

I used to laugh when we would get a TV in, that had been dropped. We would fault find the original fault (yes even if it was destroyed).
Then we would explain electrically why it had gone faulty, before it was dropped. They would not get paid out then.

I was eating a meal the other day, there was a guy talking loudly, about how he wanted to replace his perfectly good working laptop. He said "I will just smash it up and claim off the insurance".

I was like WTF, no wonder Im paying skyhigh insurance. I have never ever claimed on anything. Just another reason to not want to stay in this country.

[/RANT]

Had to say something, just hate seeing people say, commit fraud, its excepted these days, whos it going to hurt. The people that never claim anything, thats who.

EDIT:-
Just read some of the comments I missed. I have to say, I feel like the postie in steve's aggghhhhhhh thread.
I have seen if from the other side of the coin, when I used to repair this crap.

People saying its not fair to the customer, what about the retailer. Remember all stores are not argos, tesco, etc etc.
Alot are just small companies, giving good service to their customers, but they cant absorb the costs when a manufacturer screws up.

I remember one occassion, where I spent a whole week going round customers houses (half werent even our cusomters (favour to panasonic, which they screwed us over on)) fixing a screw up Panasonic made on an Over Air Update. That was a nightmare, cost my old company thousands.

 

[abraXXious]

This is surreal! I have the EXACT OPPOSITE problem!

I can buy the cheapest Chinese no name 550 watt psu and it will happily work (and within voltage limits too) for years. I bought a 52" Celestial (read shit brand) Plasma TV cheap ($800.00 AUD and its high def!) to use with an XBox 360 - its been running like a champ day in day out (beautiful picture, no burn in) for over 12 months now. A $9.00 soldering iron? Going strong 3 years now. No matter what I buy new and despite how dubious I am at the time, the gear seems to run well and last (longer than I expect anyway).

BUT as soon as I purchase an Amiga, no matter how much I pay for a premium unit in VGC. Despite replacing caps, logic ics, gals, rca sockets, agnus sockets, keyboard connector, mouse and joyport connectors, simm sockets, psu etc...

...I still seem to have non stop problems!

Weird huh? Tell you what. Ill swap some of my "new electronics fortune" for some of your "old electronics fortune".

 

[Nathanieltolbert]

Don't get me wrong, I have had my problems with my Amiga's in the past, but based on the age of the machines. I had an A3000T that wouldn't play sierra games, as the sound went crazy. I never identified what caused it. My A600 had to have all of the caps replaced because it had been stored in a closet for close to 6 years when I bought it. My A4000D had to have the motherboard replaced because the original one failed. Then on the new one there were serious problems with the audio caps that had to be fixed. The only reason I didn't talk about them much here was because I could converse with Ed, as he still repairs these, and that was how he paid me for several of the machines I sold for him here. I have had old at power supplies fail on my PC's as well but those are easily repairable. I cannot repair the TV. Oh and I did try to reset the OS and nothing happened.

 

[Station240]

I hate so called modern technology, its almost designed to be impossible to fix.

Take the $0 laptop I've got now, had two faults, first was the fan shutdown as soon as it booted the OS, second was the backlight flickers and is now dead.

First the fan controller, tests show that the mosfet still has voltage, it just doesn't like switching on an off any more. Hotwire the swine so its on 100% of the time.

That fixed I turn my attention to breaking the CCFL in the process of trying to get it out. Had to dismantle the entire metal framework around the LCD just to release two wires that run to the now two part class tube. Wait friggin ages for replacement tube (it was burnt out anyway), due to christmas, new years, Royal Fail postal unservice.

The rest of the laptop is an absolute pig and :wooha:
I swear you need a rubber mallet to get the :nuts: motherboard back in. Insane design with multiple ports and connectors heading in all directions, annoying plastic slot releases that catch on the casing, internal connectors in loony places. The usual 100 odd screws that get all over the place.

My advice, unless you got it dirt cheap or free, its just not worth the trouble. One of the wireless antenna connections broke, not sure I want to pay the $7.50 for a tiny plug.

 

[Nathanieltolbert]

I hear you on that. There is a something going on here with new tech that we didn't see with the older technology. We've seen it in kitchen appliances for years, as well as automobiles and just about everything else. It's called planned obsolescence. What this means is simple, everything is designed and built to break down after a certain period of time. For cars it's usually 5 years. For kitchen appliances it is approximately 10 years. And if the person interviewed in the computer hardware industry is to believed for computer parts it 18 months. Hows that for companies trying to take every penny you have? So basically what they are saying is before you pay off the computer you bought from the store on a 2 year payment plan, it will be dead and you will be buying a new one. Consumers that know nothing about computers are getting horribly screwed. No wonder they go with Apple. Might as well get screwed hard if it's going to happen.

 

[Paul_s]

Arrggh!!!! Could the last 4 days get any worse!?!? I understand the whole planned obsolesence, but could the be a little more covert about it? Okay let me start from last Thursday when the fit hit the shan.

Thursday morning my wife wakes me up and says, 'My computer is making a funny noise, can you take a look at it?' So I get up and before I even make it down the hall to the computer room, I smell that acrid burn smell when electronics fail. So I whip her computer off and pull the side of the case off to find the 6 month old Antec True Power 550W that I bought for her has died. 6 months old. Okay you no big deal, just fill out an RMA and wait for a return, right? Nope, they won't be able to send a replacement for 3-4 weeks said they on the phone. Just send in the defective power supply (pay for shipping yourself, thank you.) and we'll get one back to you someday. Grrr. Okay I have a spare power supply I can use, but the thing scares the living out of me as it's one of those off brand junky ones, PC power and something. So her computer works for the moment. Then I attempt to use my USB card reader. Nothing happens. Windows 7 and Xp both identify it as an unknown device. Hmm, that's strange it was working last night when I turned my computer off. So I open the case and take a look. It's plugged in right, so I unplug it and move it to another jack. Still nothing. Grr, well that was only 15 bucks, not much trouble there. I go down and buy a replacement. Come back install it. Press the power button on my case..... and nothing happens. Well that's weird. So I pull out my little ATX power supply testing unit and plug it in. Nothing. No voltage, no wattage, just plain nothing. !!!!!! I just got back from the Damn computer store and it's a 30 minute drive there!!!! So back into the car and off to the store I go.... Again. But a replacement power supply.... 120 dollars down the drain. (old power supply was 4 years old and no longer covered by the warranty, it was an OCZ) By the time I get home, my wife is back from work. I put in the new power supply and get my computer back up and running. not even 30 minutes later my wife comes in and says, 'Honey the TV won't stay on.' What?!? So I go out to the living room and take a look. Sure enough, our DLP is not working. The picture comes on for 10 minutes then goes out and the whole TV resets itself. I start looking around online to diagnose the problem. Turns out my TV model was sold with a defective DMD board (No clue what this is.) and it will have to be replaced by a tech. Okay no problem, oh but wait! When they replace the DMD they have to replace the Colorwheel because when the DMD goes out it damages the Electronics in the Colorwheel as well. What the..?!? So I call Samsung and tell their tech support what's going on. They confirm the same crap I read online. Here's the number the local repair shop. Oh, and by the way your extended warranty expired on Monday, the 3rd. !!!!!!!! I call the repair shop (the only one within 100 miles by the way.) And get a quote. Oh that job has a minimum of 7 hours of labor associated with it. Okay, how much for the parts? 900 bucks for the parts. :wooha: And the hourly labor cost? 135 an hour.. For grand total of 1845 before tax!!!! We paid 1200 for the TV when it was brand new and 150 on the extended warranty. So off we go to use the damn Nebraska Furniture mart Card to buy a new TV while they have no interest for 33 months on purchases over 500. We find a TV and buy it, they say we'll deliver it on Saturday. Okay. Call Saturday, sorry we are too booked up how about Sunday? Fine. Sunday - Sorry we overbooked Sunday how about tomorrow? F**king deliver our TV already!!!!! Oh and today we got 6 inches of snow, and it's still coming down. Guess what the Jackasses said, We need to have a clear path into your drive and to your door otherwise we cannot deliver the TV. So guess what I've been doing all morning? Yeah. And while I was out there laboring myself, I was listening to the iPod my wife got me for my birthday the year before last. Suddenly the music stops. That's strange, I just charged it last night. So I try to turn it on. The screen lights up, but nothing happens. It's been sitting here for the last 2 hours in that state with nothing. So yeah, somehow I managed to destroy my birthday present from my wife. How am I going to explain that to my wife? I f***** hate new technology. I have 20 year old computers that still work while computers 2 years old fail and stop working. I would rather pay more for something to last longer, but that isn't an option nowadays, you pay for the stupid name and it breaks down just as fast as the 5 dollar version. Okay I feel better now.

Please let me re-write this for you

Thursday morning was bitterly cold as I wrapped myself up in bed trying to muster as much body warmth as I could... My wife came into the room with a tray which held a rack of toast, an omlette, orange juice, the morning paper and a flower. 'Good morning my love' I said with my teeth chattering with the cold. She looked startled and thought I may have a temperature or some flu bug.

It was then that she attempted to access Google on her computer to see if Doctor search engine could help. 'My computer is making a funny noise, can you take a look at it?' So I clambered out of bed and managed to step onto my wife's hairdryer plug. 'For fvcks sake' I yelled. 'Bloody Loreal hairdryer'. Sigh. 'I'm not worth it according to Loreal'.....

It was then I smelled that acrid burn smell when electronics fail. So I whip her off the computer and we made sweet love on the bench. Unfortunetly I forgot about the keyboard being under my back and now I have an imprint of the numerical keypad on my ass


Anyway, four hours later we were both bolloxed so I took another look at this crock of carp PC. i pull the side of the case off to find the 6 month old Antec True Power 550W that I bought for her has died. 6 months old. 'You useless bag of carp' I muttered. Okay no big deal, just fill out an RMA and wait for a return, right? Nope, they won't be able to send a replacement for 3-4 weeks said they on the phone. At that point I lost it and phoned them back asking to speak to Jack Ass. It turned out their MD was called this much to my surprise

I had a spare power supply but at this point I could not give a monkeys as my wife came into the room wearing just an omlette on herself. 'Remember your breakfast' with a wink. At that point the computer universe did not exist. All that existed was an omlette.

10 hours later the omlette was in my stomach.

The End. What power supply.

---------- Post added at 09:10 ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 ----------

I have just realised you are the chap sending me a free CDTV caddy. I'm not sure if you will want to kill me now :|

 

[Station240]

Its not a return policy, its a rectum policy. :readit:

Every now and then it makes noises and stinks more than normal but nothing comes out, then a few of days to a few weeks later the same old carp comes out. Your relieved its over but it still smells like arse and its still carp.

I love the 3 year rectum policy on some hard drives, where you have to pay to mail it back to the company, overseas . So its $20 postage to replace when you can buy new and bigger one for $50.

 

[Nathanieltolbert]

Please let me re-write this for you

Thursday morning was bitterly cold as I wrapped myself up in bed trying to muster as much body warmth as I could... My wife came into the room with a tray which held a rack of toast, an omlette, orange juice, the morning paper and a flower. 'Good morning my love' I said with my teeth chattering with the cold. She looked startled and thought I may have a temperature or some flu bug.

It was then that she attempted to access Google on her computer to see if Doctor search engine could help. 'My computer is making a funny noise, can you take a look at it?' So I clambered out of bed and managed to step onto my wife's hairdryer plug. 'For fvcks sake' I yelled. 'Bloody Loreal hairdryer'. Sigh. 'I'm not worth it according to Loreal'.....

It was then I smelled that acrid burn smell when electronics fail. So I whip her off the computer and we made sweet love on the bench. Unfortunetly I forgot about the keyboard being under my back and now I have an imprint of the numerical keypad on my ass


Anyway, four hours later we were both bolloxed so I took another look at this crock of carp PC. i pull the side of the case off to find the 6 month old Antec True Power 550W that I bought for her has died. 6 months old. 'You useless bag of carp' I muttered. Okay no big deal, just fill out an RMA and wait for a return, right? Nope, they won't be able to send a replacement for 3-4 weeks said they on the phone. At that point I lost it and phoned them back asking to speak to Jack Ass. It turned out their MD was called this much to my surprise

I had a spare power supply but at this point I could not give a monkeys as my wife came into the room wearing just an omlette on herself. 'Remember your breakfast' with a wink. At that point the computer universe did not exist. All that existed was an omlette.

10 hours later the omlette was in my stomach.

The End. What power supply.

---------- Post added at 09:10 ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 ----------

I have just realised you are the chap sending me a free CDTV caddy. I'm not sure if you will want to kill me now :|

I just sprayed cola all over the screen after reading this!!! I can't stop laughing!!! The sad thing is that stuff like this is true!!! I won't go into details, but things like that have indeed happened in the past between me and my wife! Also, no worries about the CDTV caddy. I'm not too much of a punitive person.

 

[AmiNeo]

Hope I find a wifey like that someday

 

[salaxi54]

@Paul_s: I was reading your post this morning, and by the way of your writing, i thought: hmm, this guy's a writer! But i didn't know how well you'd take a question like: "are you a writer/poet?" so hesitated to ask;
That was until i read the thread you started https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=12841
Guess i was sorta proven right..