On Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:14:24 +0000, Baron
wrote:

Erm, plastic tubs yes, sealed (as in welded into one piece in the
factory) I believe less so. /IF/ you could get the drum out through
the mouth of the tub you would be ok but on these you can't.

snip

Mmm. The ones I was thinking about have a series of metal spring clips
around the perimeter of the tub. The bearings are essentially clamped
in place between the lip on the inner side and a plate on the other
with the shaft and pulley, its retaining bolt holding the lot together.

Ah no. Inner bearing fits up against the drum and into rear bearing
mount from the front. Outer bearing from the outside held in place by
the belt drive wheel and a nylock nut (bearing construction similar to
a car road wheel hub etc).


It is indeed and that seems to have blown daughter and b/f some work
back up in Scotland as they are both tree surgeons. ;-)

At least something good from the destruction caused by the wind.

Well, yes, I guess. Still not nice to profit from the miseries of
others but there is still some 'good work' that can be done (clearing
side roads / tracks / paths etc). When they were on their way back up
last time the bridge was being washed away at Cockermouth. ;-(

snip

I've since ordered an external charger that should be ok for most of
the Dell batteries so at least I can prove if it's the battery or the
laptop.

They put these "one wire" interfaces into the batteries too !

No, really? ;-(

I've have cheap Chinese made ones that wont charge in a Dell !
Which sounds a bit like the one you refer to above.

It does indeed. However, after Googling about it seems there may be
some hope in a BIOS update? It's currently A2 and I think there is an
A5 or 6 to be had. I just need a charged battery in there to do it.
I've ordered an external charger as I'm told the pinout of most of the
Dell batteries are the same (so it will cover a fair range of models
and we have a few between us) in case I can't access another machine
or a charged battery elsewhere.

Might as well do the easy / non-invasive things first. ;-)

Cheers, T i m