POLL: What do you HATE to work on?

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Yeech! I know exactly what you mean! Especially with remotes where stuff was
spilled all over it. - Reinhart

OK, here's one for you guys. I used to do bio-med equipment, and for some
reason someone sent us an Electro-Jack (I kid you not) brand device. Shaped
like a torpedo, about the size of a forearm, with two handles at the rear.
The device was to be shoved up the rectum of a bull, and apply an electric
current to the beast's prostrate to force it to ejaculate. Bull semen is
very valuable, after all. The device arrived smeared and partially covered
in - you guessed it, bull****.

We sent it off for factory service.

Mark Z.

 

[hemyd]

One time, I went to pick up a TV at a low budget Apartment in Lovejoy IL
(just outside E.St.Louis, 3 time worst then E.St. Louis), and when I went to
get the TV (It was one of those that came with a cabinet and Box Radio/CD
Player/Tuner, Think it was an Emerson or a cheap one like that), we picked
the TV and stand up, and pulled it out to disconnect the wires, and roaches
went everywhere. She just took a broom, and swept them away like they were
her pets. Me and the other guy argued who's van we were going to place it
in, but he won out because he had carpet in his. and mine was bare. We got
it back to the shop, took it outside, and opened the case. There were burnt
bugs all over the place, and roaches of all different shape and sizes
running everywhere. We tore the whole thing apart, pulled the board out,
the CRT out, down to a bare shell. Blew it all out, cleaned it up. Fixed
it, and returned it to the Cust. Not to mention a hefty bill for removing
the bugs and repair.

Rick

I once had a service call to an automatic teller which was infested with
fleas. I recall debating whether powder or liquid treatment would be more
harmful to the many rollers and belts. Fortunately we were not involved in
the final resolution.

Henry

 

[Jacques Carrier]

Ooops........... I forgot this one:

Replacing a tuner cord when you do not have the proper instructions.

It is a painful experience.........and very frustating.

Jacques

 

[Ricky Eck]

Not to mention, you don't know who that person is, or what he had been
typing in on that keyboard, and viewing.. YUCK. Reminds me of this Judge
Mathis show I seen. A guy was letting his friend borrow a Lap Top. Well,
found out his friend surfed Porn on the computer. He told the Judge ON TV,
that he didn't want his friend looking on his computer, because he didn't
want his friend having his hands on his "Joystick", and searching for porn
on his computer. So he sold his old lap top to him, so he (his friend)
wasn't on his computer... Makes you wonder.. LOL

Rick

 

[Ricky Eck]

And you know it is so hard to get people to believe this. I know on the
older Hard Drives, they were sealed, but not as good as they are now. Dust
could get in there, if you didn't watch it. I replaced may Hard Drives for
People who didn't watch how they blew out the computer dust. Some would
actually, blow into the HDD thinking dust was in there. I even had one who
tore it apart, thinking it needed it. This is another case, supporting
"limiting advice" to armatures. An armature with little advice is worst
then one with none. An armature with no advice is less likely to attempt
repairs, then one with a little advice, thinking they know everything.

Rick

 

[El Meda]

Ooops........... I forgot this one:

Replacing a tuner cord when you do not have the proper instructions.

It is a painful experience.........and very frustating.

Jacques

The easier way to install it usually gets the dial moving backwards.
:')

 

[BWL]

What I hate is mfr's who design equipment which requires you to buy their
service aids, such as harness extenders, special test boxes (remember the
Zenith System 3 testers?), and then completely rework the entire system two
years later, rendering all that test gear practically useless.....

 

[George S]

And now with canned air being so readily availible. Oh it's the little
things like that which help keep us employed.

 

[jakdedert]

Now you mention filth...
TV remote controls, with all the muck that gathers.
And, even worse:
Microphones on communications equipment. Truckers and taxi
drivers never learn not to speak with their mouth full of
pie.

Performance mikes are even worse. Vocalists 'kiss' right up to them with
their lips covered with slimey lipstick, or mouths full of booze or
smoke...or worse yet, throat lozenges. The cough drops are the worst. The
stuff congeals on and in the screen until it forms a shell which takes hours
of soaking to dissolve. Of course 'nothing' takes the lipstick off....

jak

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

And you know it is so hard to get people to believe this.

With hard drives, it is very unfortunate how people don't take that seriously.

For the people who may be reading this who don't believe this. A lot of people
don't understand that all that is keeping the floaters from rubbing the
platters during operation is a micronic air cushion that is formed underneath
it while the platters are spinning at several thousand RPMs. The floaters stay
parked in their landing zones or on the landing ramps until the platters have
achieved full speed on power up. They float back into their parking zones,
which is either a landing on an unused section of hard disk platters or a ramp
adjacent to the platters, when the drive is powering down as the platters are
slowing down. Of course, this is with modern hard disks that use voice coil
actuators to move the heads. Older disks that used stepper motors require that
you run a utility which parks the heads into their landing zones prior to
shutting down the computer.

A single spec of dust that gets caught can cause the floater to crash on the
platter while it is spinning, damaging a good chunk of clusters and possibly
causing other problems with that floater and head which may render the whole
drive utterly useless. - Reinhart

 

[Ricky Eck]

you run a utility which parks the heads into their landing zones prior to
shutting down the computer.

- Reinhart

I remember those.. RUN DISKPARK.EXE or STOPDISK.EXE or PARK.EXE. There
were so many of them out on the market.

Rick

 

[John Miller]

I remember those.. RUN DISKPARK.EXE or STOPDISK.EXE or PARK.EXE. There
were so many of them out on the market.

Anyone ever see HARDOFF.EXE? (I am not making this up.)

 

[James Sweet]

It seems that every electronics technician has at least one type of device
that he/she does not like to try to repair for some reason. Myself, I don't
like to work on microwave ovens. I have several technician friends who
don't like to touch television sets, but they're very good at just about
everything else.

Maybe it's something psychological, I dunno. You know how it seems that a
car will respond to the tinkering of anyone else except you? You can bang
your head on a circuit board for three hours, and someone will happen to
walk right up behind you, look over your shoulder, and point out the problem
instantly.

I've been on both sides of this, so I know at times all one needs is a fresh
pair of eyes. But I *still* don't like to work on microwave ovens!

Matt J. McCullar
Arlington, TX

Camcorders, blech, won't touch them. Microwaves on the other hand, those are
one of my favorites, nice big easy to deal with components, simple easy to
follow wiring, and the faults are generally obvious within minutes of
removing the cover. Another nice thing is people are afraid to work on them
so I don't have much competition

 

[James Sweet]

- Reinhart

I remember those.. RUN DISKPARK.EXE or STOPDISK.EXE or PARK.EXE. There
were so many of them out on the market.

Rick

I remember an old Seagate stepper actuated drive I had once, it used the
platter innertia to generate electricity to park the heads when it was
switched off, nifty!

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Older disks that used stepper motors require that
you run a utility which parks the heads into their landing zones prior to
shutting down the computer.

Just for completeness, not all of them did. Remember the ST-251s from
Seagate?

Those drives used the spindle motor as a kind of generator or similar to
provide enough power to make the head stepper move to a park position that
was at least suitable for turning the computer off. I don't recall now if
you needed to park the drive if you planned to move the computer, but I
think it was at least highly recommended.

IBM also had some self parking drives of the stepper motor variety as seen
in some of the early PS/2s. Those definitely had a special utility to
"prepare the computer for moving".

William

 

[William R. Walsh]

Hi!

Performance mikes are even worse. Vocalists 'kiss' right up to them with
their lips covered with slimey lipstick, or mouths full of booze or
smoke...or worse yet, throat lozenges. The cough drops are the worst. The
stuff congeals on and in the screen until it forms a shell which takes hours
of soaking to dissolve. Of course 'nothing' takes the lipstick off....

Years ago I got snared into doing some sound work with a mixing board for a
while and discovered that some microphone manufacturers recommend using
their mikes that way...in addition to seeing performers do that on TV all
the time. It made me wonder if such mikes were ever used more than once...

William

 

[jakdedert]

Hi!


Years ago I got snared into doing some sound work with a mixing board
for a while and discovered that some microphone manufacturers
recommend using their mikes that way...in addition to seeing
performers do that on TV all the time. It made me wonder if such
mikes were ever used more than once...

Oh yeah...some poor 'squeak' like myself is tasked with cleaning the gunk
out...unless the company or band is successful enough to be able to replace
the windscreens periodically. 'Kissing up' to the mike enhances the bass
frequencies (assuming a cardioid pattern mike--most vocal mikes are)...a
phenomenon known as proximity effect. A good vocalist 'plays' the
microphone the same as a guitar player or drummer varies his/her technique
in order to get the desired sound.

An inexperienced vocalist, on the other hand, is a nightmare to mix.

One famous performer with whom I worked, had a mike which no one else was
allowed to speak into. She's very sensitive to cigarette smoke, and most of
her techies over the years--self included--have been smokers. She owned an
identical mike to use for tweaking the system. The lipstick factor 'was' an
issue...worth it in her case. I rarely failed to get through a show where
she didn't do something so incredible that it ran a chill down my spine--a
perfectly held note, or a particularly delicate ending to a song--something.

jak

 

[Chaos Master]

mv /var/posts/William R.
Walsh/[email protected] /dev/null:

Just for completeness, not all of them did. Remember the ST-251s from
Seagate?

Those drives used the spindle motor as a kind of generator or similar to
provide enough power to make the head stepper move to a park position that
was at least suitable for turning the computer off. I don't recall now if
you needed to park the drive if you planned to move the computer, but I
think it was at least highly recommended.

I remember this on old 386's. You were not understood to forget to park the
drive :/

Thanks God that modern HDD's do not have this.

[]s
--
Chaos Master® | "I'm going under,
Posting from Brazil! | drowning in you
ICQ: 126375906 | I'm falling forever,
ask for e-mail/MSN | I've got to break through"
---------------------. -- Evanescence, "Going Under"

 

[Z]

My pet hate is where you turn the bit of kit upside down to remove the
bottom plate and there are say 6 screws , 5 are black and one is red.

electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on
http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~diverse

Nigel, Diverse Devices,S outhampton, England

On subject of screws I don't like things with tiny screws like on
walkmans, pocket SW receivers, cameras etc which no matter how careful
one is, always seem to get lost.
Now, where to get these?...

 

[Ron Bean]

'Kissing up' to the mike enhances the bass
frequencies (assuming a cardioid pattern mike--most vocal mikes are)...a
phenomenon known as proximity effect.

Bill Cosby was a master of this.

"Hey mister, what time is it?"

<deep voice> "It's... Ten O'clock."