I agree with Amclaussen and I routinely repair nonrepareable items. Of course the management at Apple decided to make it quite a bit less convenient for folks to repair the stuff. Just because I don't have every tool for every security fastener certainly does not mean that I am unqualified. It means that I have not come across that particular fastener before. Sme companies would weld the case shut if they could do it cheaply enough. A lot of organizations target product failure to coccur just about a week after it becomes obsolete. I read that in one of the design magazines a few years back.
I also agree that Bose is a master of advertizing, which they have to be because their stuff is way overpriced. I also have a Marantz, a 2235, purchased in the mid 70s. Unfortunately a bias control diode has failed and I have not yet gotten around to replacing the diode. But the failure was fairly easy to diagnose, and the package is a size that can be serviced without a microscope. I also have been given a much newer Marantz receiver that seems to have a failed processor. It is possible that I wont be able to fix that one.
For general information, the failure mode in many DVD players is a dirty laser lens, which gives an identical diagnosis as a failed laser system, but all it usually needs is a witping with a clean tissue, plus, possibly, a drop of solvent. That gets half of them playing again, the others will actually need some real repair work to make them play again.
After buying a house from the prevous owner, I noticed some problems. On more than one occasion, I invited the building inspector out. He looked at my situations and said that he was not the building inspector when my house was built. He told me that I could do the needed improvements myself with no permit required.
In Indiana, homeowners can do things like replacing their breaker panels without a license. You can get a permit and do it yourself. It still has to pass inspection. I even got a permit to repair my own septic system. The government still has to be in charge of my seatbelt useage. Pete O.
We sold it on ebay to someone who wanted it for the display. I tried to hunt down the source of the noise, but because of what appeared to be proprietary chips, it was not your usual discrete design, but failed. I'm sure that there's a Bose tech out there who could identify the source, but he wasn't anywhere to be found online when I needed him. Besides the hardware that we had is now obsolete and they wanted too much to upgrade. Why upgrade for something that failed after 10 years when my friend still has 1970s Marantz from high school?
Besides, while the sound was adequate, the price was far too high for what it was. Bose suffers from precisely what you talk about, in my opinion. So, I got a 1980s Marantz as the replacement. It's a nice discrete design.
Jeff: If the noise is being generated inside the circuit, it could well be a lifted or intermmitent ground, or a broken circuit trace that is letting a positive feedback loop to develop. If the noise is like "buzzing", try to identify if it is a 60 Hz hum(or the 120 Hz harmonic), and it is probably power-supply related, like an open filter capacitor. Other thing to look at are the selector switches used to selec the tuner or the CD or other input. Quality of hardware used by most assemblers nowadays has suffered because all are trying to use the tiniest components developed for portables, and those switches are uncappable of properly handling the current level, or at least for a long time... There are some sites specificallly devoted to repair and diagnosis of audio equipment, and you could be pleasantly surprised to find some information pertaining to your exact(or very similar) model in the web. Trying to find a repair for my Harman-Kardon CD player-recorder, I found that quite a few people had observed the same exact fault I was experiencing, which points to the low-low quality of design and production of present day products. These honor the concept of using it for a little while and then throw it away, to purchase another model.
If special HW keeps a person out then I say that they probably shouldn't be allowed in because if they were capable, then the special HW wouldn't keep them out. However, that capability may also be their downfall if they aren't knowledgable enough to know what to do after they gain access, like some of the people I knew who thought that they could fix that failing HD, in the days when HDs were physically large and one didn't need microscopes for everything. Live and learn.
When that FPGA or other custom chip fails let me know how that repair goes. Of course you could insist on ordering a new one, maybe you'll be able to find a supplier of the base chip. Now program it. Let me know how it goes when you try to find that special-order part that they had designed to fit the custom designed space.
I know what you're trying to say, I've been there. We had a Bose stereo that started to fail. After a while it would start buzzing and then build until it swamped the music. I figured out how to open it and connected my scope to it and found that noise was generated somewhere. There's no schematic and Bose wasn't interested in supporting a guy trying to fix an unsupported product. So, where was the noise generated and why? Which of the special chips in the circuit was I going to not be able to repair because there's no source?
Sure, some repairs can be performed by a person with a certain skill set, but in many cases, it's hopeless. So, while it would be nice to fix your device because there's not much you can do. Maybe, like me, you can take your DVD player apart and find a replacement belt for the drive. Let me know how many of your friends can do it. Maybe, like me, you can replace a broken gear or make a new ove from scratch. Let me know how many of your friends can do that.
Here's a great experiment for you. When I put my first computer together, I could replace most of the chips on the huge Mylex motherboard. Now you can access those easy, right out of the case. Now, buy a random nonfunctional motherboard and without a schematic or parts list, fix it and post it on youtube.
Seems like it. Particularly amusing are the responses from those who post their childhood disassembly triumphs as their motivation for becoming an engineer. And now that they are one (presumably), they've been thwarted by a simple screw which is easily remedied as many capable engineers on this forum have pointed out. For those complaining about their lack of ability, thanks for the laughs and may you one day find a job where taking things apart = engineer.
You just said: "I bet that there's little to nothing to fix... only to find that I'm f'd and couldn't fix a GD thing... there's nothing you can fix anyway... Etc Etc Etc.
Well, obviously you haven't take any advantage of the web, since you can easily find a lot of fixes for varied problems from VERY helpful people that constantly publish fixes to defective designs from Apple and a lot of "prestigious" companies all the time in their personal websites. Just GOOGLE "how to fix an Apple Ipod Touch" to find it returns over 385,000,000 results in 0.18 seconds (my search returned the following statement in the spanish language Google site: "Aproximadamente 381,000,000 resultados (0.18 segundos)"
If you believe any your statements, you are beyond hope... no offense.
Look, I have fixed not one, but several defective personal electronics , where not a single one problem was caused by me improperly handling the damn thing, but by truly defective design from the geniuses at the manufacturer. Take my old (2005) Creative Zen Micro MP3 player to start with; it has a defective design that causes the USB connector to detach from the main board... well, a good intentioned, clever, and obviously not timorous user, tired of trying to solve this problem trough the terribly lousy "support service" of 'Creative', decided to disassemble the device against the paper seal placed inside, and produced an excellent tutorial on how to properly resolder the faulty factory job. Next, take my Dell Laptop that has a badly designed charging jack that overheats to the point of burning a hole (no less!) in the Motherboard, and then tells the poor consumer that they don't bother with repairing their fault, they only sell complete motherboards for 484.95 USD!!! Well another goodguy took the pain to assemble another tutorial on how to fix this defective design, complete with very clear photos and references to businesses that sell the under 5 dollar replacement jack, including shipping! Other things that people with enough self confidence and a little dexterity have achieved can be found across the web, for persons like me that HATE throwing away perfectly repairable devices.
On the very same example you cited about "non-repairability" of the Ipod Nano, the Google search cites many repairs possible, from "freezes", take-apart repair guides, Upgrades... THERE IS EVEN a store selling Ipod parts (IPodParts.com) for God's sake, Don't tell us there are no repairs possible!
It does take some dexterity, intelligence and patience, but the proof is there.
My hat is off to the people that shows how-to's at their websites, most of them for free!. They deserve all the recognition for their positive attitude and time. They have demostrated thay they CAN teach the designers a thing or two.
@kenish - Exactly when was the last time your television, radio experienced this EMI interference from someone walking around with a loose cover or someone in their home workshop or basement having removed a cover? Let me guess never.
You can reach for the far extreme of things that might happen, and rarely if ever do, what if is a powerful statement but can encompass a lot of different things that might or might not happen.
Companies put warnings on things to protect themselves from liability not t protect the consumer and if the consumer has read warning that is clearly visible then it's like anything else in life you take your chances doing anything. that includes removing a cover or doing anything else to something you own.
It's not like Apple and others don't take their competitors devices a part to see what's on the inside, and I'm going to assume they bought the products to take them a part to do a break down of the components inside how else would some of these company know what to look for when a patent is violated?
The only reason people knew what was inside the iPhone when it was first release is because people took them a part and were able to figure out a BOM on that device and what it cost Apple to make the device.
I can't figure out why anyone would care if someone wants to take something they own a part, they're not taking a part something you own and they're not causing you any interference in spite of the far fetched notion that this would happen, seeing as how i seen people using all types of electronic devices that have cases taped together or the number of people who use their iPhones with cracked displays just fine.
If I recall correctly it was just last year that an error on Apple's part, as they used the default user name and password for the smart battery system, allowing potential hackers to rewrite the firmware. and possibly modify the battery's internal parameters that might lead to a dead battery, or in the worst case scenario, an explosion. This was discovered by a hack who tinkers around with his Apple products.
@ncourtney- Reassembling a device with the cover loose, a shield missing, or a gasket not placed correctly can cause EMI violations. Agencies require sustained compliance over life of the product. Of course an infant won't unscrew a unit...a phone in front of me right now has switch buttons captured between the front and back covers. If the cover was loose the buttons could fall out and be a small-part hazard.
Never underestimate the mis-use that consumer products receive. Many of the "stupid" warnings on a ladder resulted from actual lawsuits. Consumers (and their lawyers) expect absolute product safety despite extreme misuse and abuse. The logical design solution is to go overboard to prohibit tampering.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
4 
