On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:00:12 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Leon
Fisk quickly quoth:

On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:02:21 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

big snip
They are working on their second chance on a 6 month old 19" Acer
monitor that flickers on some computers, and works fine on others.(has
since new)

It's really a shame that these places hire "module replacers" instead
of techies any more. What a ripoff! What odds would you give that
the "tech" had a bad "brain" in his own (or a friend's) projector?
sigh

I've been out of the loop for several years already, but...

Ditto. I went through Coleman College's Computer Electronics
Technology course back in '88 and worked as a test tech for an
electronics company until '91. We were taught to test to the component
level and replace said components both at school and at Palomar
Technology. I was just getting a grasp on electronics when they were
bought by SKF. I had a chance to bail rather than working for a big
corporation (and all the bull**** that comes along with it, including
a couple hour commute to Sandy Eggo daily) so I took it. After
starting my own company and troubleshooting hardware for several
years, I discovered the fun of software troubleshooting and training.
After I built my first website, I found that even -more- fun and that
became the focus of my company. The t-shirts and glare guards came
later, during times of boredom. g

To make a short story longer, I got out of electronics in 1991-92,
shortly after getting in.


Motorola's new radio equipment all had to be shipped back to
the factory for the first several months. They simply
wouldn't release service info (we were an authorized
Motorola Service Center) nor any parts for them. They wanted
to see every failure at the factory to determine what was
failing and why (so the story went).

On one hand, I can see why they wanted to do that. On the other, since
you're authorized, why should they want to do all the work? Strange.


When they did finally release service info, many small parts
couldn't be had, only assemblies. Many times the schematics
were only block diagrams of these module/assemblies. Parts
pricing was such that it wasn't worth fixing a lot of the
time.

Suckage. My friend Bob works as a tech for Hobart (no, their
foodservice division) and has to go with assemblies most often, even
if he knows which particular component failed. Companies who charge
$100/hr+ find it cheaper for their clients to replace assemblies.
(They wouldn't lie to him, would they?


I don't think Motorola was doing anything much different
than everyone else and I sure things haven't changed much
since I got out (shrug).

I'm sure it has only gotten worse.


If you can't get service info (schematics, operation
explained) and parts, it isn't worth fixing...

Too often true! The smaller the pieces, the harder it is to get the
magic smoke back inside. sigh

--
Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity.
Don't fight them. Just find a different way to stand.
-- Oprah Winfrey