Riplock - NEC 3540

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bob
  • Start date Start date
My general philosophy about warranties is to test a product
fully when new then ignore the warranty if you find it
useful to mod a part... otherwise you become a slave to the
warranty. There may occasionally be some part that fails
and you have to take a loss due to voided warranty, but then
we're not taking about a $500 video card let alone entire
OEM system.
Click to expand...

Thats my general POV since I cant remember the last time I actually
got anything replaced under warranty. Maybe 7 things in the last 8
years.

Four were motherboards - two mine, two neighbors with one a bad cap
problem.

I did one hard disk a WD eons ago and that was actually recalled, it
didnt fail. And a digital camera where the battery compartment lid
broke.

I think the scariest thing is digicams if they are expensive though it
still follows the same scenario where most are well built so they
probably wont break unless you drop it , get it wet etc in which case
its not covered by a warranty anyway and the value drops like a rock
after a short time like any digi device. Id still probably pay
nowadays a bit extra for an extended warranty since there are a few
digicams with problems like the Oly 5060s mode dial that may break
after the 1 year warranty.

Even my NEC /Maddog for most it wouldnt be worth sending it back. It
would probably cost 8-12 bucks to send it in and by the time it breaks
after the usual year warranty , itll be outdated and a new faster one
will probably be on sale for $40 and it may take 3-4 weeks so youd end
up buying one anyway.
 
I just googled and found a couple alternatives but I leave
it to you to assess them.
http://binflash.cdfreaks.com/
Click to expand...

Of course I know about them - that's where the authors for the latest
hack hang out. Its LD3540_1W5 that I have now but have not flashed.
I believe some of these packages include the flasher.
http://www.micheldeboer.nl/firmware/3540.html
Click to expand...

That's an interesting site - I missed it when I Googled. I see that
1.01 is the latest official firmware, which is what I have.
Often what happens is that if a firmware works fine, nobody
says anything... it's only when it's bad that people stomp
and yell about it. In a popular forum, it shouldn't take
long after a firmware is posted for a popular drive, for
someone to report problems.
Click to expand...

was released July 9, 2005. That's only a month ago. How long does it
take to be sure it's been tested enough?
Well you could always learn to mod firmware yourself?
There's bound to be a tutorial or two out there...
Click to expand...

I may just do that.
 
Thats my general POV since I cant remember the last time I actually
got anything replaced under warranty. Maybe 7 things in the last 8
years.
Click to expand...

I didnt even mention that may times I expect the mods to
actually increase the lifespan of the parts, like swapping a
video card fan, so in the long run the gains tend to
outweight the losses.

Four were motherboards - two mine, two neighbors with one a bad cap
problem.
Click to expand...

Sssssh! You just remined me I have to order more caps
again... You wouldn't happen to know any place that does low
volumes on somthing like Rubycon MBZ or other similarly-low
ESR? I've been getting Panasonic FM recently because I
won't pay the outrageous prices for anything more exotic
than electrolytics.
I did one hard disk a WD eons ago and that was actually recalled, it
didnt fail. And a digital camera where the battery compartment lid
broke.
Click to expand...

Yes, what is it with battery hatches? They act as though
you'd not ever have to replace the battery. I could see if
this were new technology but what's older in electronics
than battery power and a compartment for that battery?

I think the scariest thing is digicams if they are expensive though it
still follows the same scenario where most are well built so they
probably wont break unless you drop it , get it wet etc in which case
its not covered by a warranty anyway and the value drops like a rock
after a short time like any digi device. Id still probably pay
nowadays a bit extra for an extended warranty since there are a few
digicams with problems like the Oly 5060s mode dial that may break
after the 1 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Yep, digicams are one of the very rare items on which I pay
for extended warranty if it didn't start out with over 1
year.

Even my NEC /Maddog for most it wouldnt be worth sending it back. It
would probably cost 8-12 bucks to send it in and by the time it breaks
after the usual year warranty , itll be outdated and a new faster one
will probably be on sale for $40 and it may take 3-4 weeks so youd end
up buying one anyway.
Click to expand...

Yep, and even worse for many parts, as one could go without
an optical drive if they had to... especially many of us who
have more than one box on a lan and would merely have to use
another one if the disc hadn't been ripped to HDD.
 
Sssssh! You just remined me I have to order more caps
again... You wouldn't happen to know any place that does low
volumes on somthing like Rubycon MBZ or other similarly-low
ESR? I've been getting Panasonic FM recently because I
won't pay the outrageous prices for anything more exotic
than electrolytics.
Click to expand...

The only place I even remotely know that was selling caps for MBs in
small qtys was that bad caps website.

http://www.badcaps.net/kits/

Where Im at it was torture even finding a LED that was the right size
for my tube hybrid amp the Jolida. Luckily they were cool enough to
send me a replacement free of charge. If I have to buy a cap I have to
go to Radio Shack ! There are no big electronics stores here unlike
LA.
 
The only place I even remotely know that was selling caps for MBs in
small qtys was that bad caps website.

http://www.badcaps.net/kits/
Click to expand...

Yep I"ve seen that, but they have a little markup per kit
and since I"m not buying only a couple dozen the savings
disappear. I ended up getting Panny FMs at Digikey again as
the price gets lower > 100. Mouser has some Nichicons that
would've worked too but beyond a certain point it's not
worth wading through lots of little parts to redo the rest
of an order there instead of Digikey.

Where Im at it was torture even finding a LED that was the right size
for my tube hybrid amp the Jolida. Luckily they were cool enough to
send me a replacement free of charge. If I have to buy a cap I have to
go to Radio Shack ! There are no big electronics stores here unlike
LA.
Click to expand...

What was the LED, a 5mm blue?
 
What was the LED, a 5mm blue?
Click to expand...

Its a red one not sure about the size though as Radio shack only had
these big honking LEDs.

Caps --- the prices for various coils and caps and resistors for
audiophiles is so marked up its ridiculous. I thought $40 for a Xover
was getting high now they have $200-300 per Xover prices with so
called audiophile caps and other components. It seems like every few
years they come out with a new twist on basic electronic components
that supposedly sound better and sell for higher and higher prices.

Im still going to make a simple straight forward passive 4th order for
some planar tweeters for my Magnaplanars - I got the the ones you hang
on the wall for only $550 a pair. They dont have separate tweeter
panels built in so though no one mentions in reviews I think they
suffer a bit because of that. Luckily the planar tweeters and maggies
seem to have flat impedence curves so I dont have to know that much
about fancy schmancy crossover design.

I might buy the Behringer active crossovers and biamp - using that
instead for the planar tweeters it if that digital active crossover
falls low enough in price as it has been falling this year from $400 a
ridiculous price.
 
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