On the bench today was a set of good multi-function hair clippers with all the accessories. The motor had been running slower and slower, finally not starting at all - even after full charge.
Sunday 28 October 2018
New Life to Babyliss Clippers
On the bench today was a set of good multi-function hair clippers with all the accessories. The motor had been running slower and slower, finally not starting at all - even after full charge.
Wednesday 18 September 2013
Broken DVD Player part 2
Ordering those parts wasn't quite straightforward. The diodes, capacitor and fuse were all tuppenny parts and easy to find, but the 5L0165R is now more or less obsolete. Nobody seems to stock the DIP-8 version in the UK, and carriage from the USA or China is crippling for 1 or 2 chips, so what to do?
Friday 6 September 2013
Broken DVD Player
Here's a case of premature component failure in a Pacific DVD Player model 1002Mk2.
Pacific is a brand sold exclusively in the UK by the Asda supermarket chain. The electronics seem quite well made, and this model has had very good reviews. This particular player was bought new circa 2007. It suffered a power fault about 3 years ago, which was traced to a 1000uF electrolytic capacitor on the main power rail. That was replaced at a cost of about £0.20 - no other components appeared faulty at that time.
The player came back to me a couple of weeks ago with similar symptoms - on power-up, the standby LED would light, but it wouldn't do anything else. Once on the workbench I powered it up to observe symptoms for myself - sometimes users don't always notice everything! However, on pressing the standby button, the display flickered into life and the drive started spinning up. After just two seconds, there was a loud bang, a small flash from inside the front right corner and everything died. Life-expired then?
Pacific is a brand sold exclusively in the UK by the Asda supermarket chain. The electronics seem quite well made, and this model has had very good reviews. This particular player was bought new circa 2007. It suffered a power fault about 3 years ago, which was traced to a 1000uF electrolytic capacitor on the main power rail. That was replaced at a cost of about £0.20 - no other components appeared faulty at that time.
The player came back to me a couple of weeks ago with similar symptoms - on power-up, the standby LED would light, but it wouldn't do anything else. Once on the workbench I powered it up to observe symptoms for myself - sometimes users don't always notice everything! However, on pressing the standby button, the display flickered into life and the drive started spinning up. After just two seconds, there was a loud bang, a small flash from inside the front right corner and everything died. Life-expired then?
Tuesday 3 September 2013
Windows Update KB2859537
Microsoft seem to be having a poor time with their monthly Windows updates in 2013. August's monthly updates included several security patches including one for the kernel - KB2859537 - which seems to be causing a few problems. Reported symptoms include application freezes and BSODs, but many systems are are unaffected.
Based on superficial evidence, problems may be affecting systems that have:
Based on superficial evidence, problems may be affecting systems that have:
- Windows 7
- IE10 installed
- more than 3 cpu cores
- Avast antivirus installed
- third-party apps that directly alter the kernel.
Sunday 24 March 2013
Trouble with Service Pack 1
SP1 was released in February 2011, yet it was now January 2013 - why the delay? Reasons were:
- SP1 initially had issues - let others prove its stability first
- the target system is critical to the users
- the target system had hardware issues: backup drive, memory
- no pressing drivers exist until support for Win7 RTM ceases in April 2013
- techie time is scarce.
After about ten minutes, this fateful error message appeared:
Installation was not successfulIt's at times like this you realise how useful the world-wide-web is.
Error E_FAIL (0x80070002)
Saturday 23 March 2013
Murphy Strikes
For those not familiar with Murphy's Law, it states "if anything can go wrong, it will". No more true than with IT things!
One day a week (mostly) I assist in the archives of a local museum. In late 2010, we spent time migrating the archive database to ModesXML - lots of planning and test runs, finally completing the task in early 2011. Ideally we should have dedicated a server to the database; its resource demands will grow as data and user access grow. But money is tight, so we took the opportunity to put the database onto a lightly-used PC - which also happened to be the newest so it was quite well specified. Worth a mention here is that it runs 32-bit Windows 7 for legacy reasons.
All was well after initial migration. Subsequent customisation took place, along with creation of templates, lists of object terms, many new entries, and so on. It was gratifying to see the system settle in and moulding to our needs.
During the early weeks of 2012, some odd behaviour had been noted on the backup drive - a Samsung 1.5TB USB Story Station. Some days it would fail to start, requiring manual switch off, a pause and then on again. Then it started throwing errors during backups. Running CHKDSK would usually fix it for a few days, then it reverted. This went on for many weeks as investigation was hampered by more serious issues: broadband internet faults, viruses in other PCs on site - oh, and an incapacitating leg injury!
One day a week (mostly) I assist in the archives of a local museum. In late 2010, we spent time migrating the archive database to ModesXML - lots of planning and test runs, finally completing the task in early 2011. Ideally we should have dedicated a server to the database; its resource demands will grow as data and user access grow. But money is tight, so we took the opportunity to put the database onto a lightly-used PC - which also happened to be the newest so it was quite well specified. Worth a mention here is that it runs 32-bit Windows 7 for legacy reasons.
All was well after initial migration. Subsequent customisation took place, along with creation of templates, lists of object terms, many new entries, and so on. It was gratifying to see the system settle in and moulding to our needs.
During the early weeks of 2012, some odd behaviour had been noted on the backup drive - a Samsung 1.5TB USB Story Station. Some days it would fail to start, requiring manual switch off, a pause and then on again. Then it started throwing errors during backups. Running CHKDSK would usually fix it for a few days, then it reverted. This went on for many weeks as investigation was hampered by more serious issues: broadband internet faults, viruses in other PCs on site - oh, and an incapacitating leg injury!
About...
These are the tales of a self-confessed tech-head. Your scribe dabbles in IT and electronics: planning, designing, supporting and maintaining all sorts of things. My main aim is to learn about technical things, but also trying to help gear stay out of land-fill.
Along the way, unexpected things happen - and I try to fix them. If I think someone (you?) - might benefit from passing that knowledge on, then I'll write about it. Please leave a comment if something helps you.
So here are those things, some simple, some crazy, some complex, but hopefully interesting - just techie stuff!
Along the way, unexpected things happen - and I try to fix them. If I think someone (you?) - might benefit from passing that knowledge on, then I'll write about it. Please leave a comment if something helps you.
So here are those things, some simple, some crazy, some complex, but hopefully interesting - just techie stuff!
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