[ale] Can Bad Video Settings Fry LCD Monitors?

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

The $ 15,000 I mentioned was for one of those electronic pianos that David brought up.  I know I'm not even in the league to LOOK at a Steinway for purchasing purposes.  In any case, I think I'd rather have a new decent house for $ 300 K.

I do like the idea of handcrafting something, be it a piano, car, computer, whatever, that someone ELSE is willing to pay multiple $ K for.  As an engineer, I find it hard to get into that mindset of super luxury items.  I heard about a $ 10,000 cell phone once.  I just cannot imagine paying that, for that.  So, it would probably be difficult for me to market it too.

Ron



Jerald Sheets <questy at gmail.com> wrote:

>Ummm...  Steinways can start as high as 300k for grand pianos...
>
>Jerald Sheets
>Sent from my iPhone5
>
>> On Oct 31, 2013, at 10:32 AM, "Ron Frazier (ALE)"
><atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi David, and all,
>> 
>> Just had an interesting thought or two.
>> 
>> You mentioned pianos.
>> 
>> Wikipedia says that Steinway received their first major awards for
>their (mechanical) pianos in 1855.  So, it is conceivable that one of
>their classic pianos, if well preserved, could still be functional
>after 150 years.
>> 
>> Now, I'm a geek so I like things with power supplies.  But you said
>some of the electronic units are failing after 5 years.  Sounds like
>mechanical is trumping electronic.  If I paid $ 15,000 for a piano,
>regardless of type, I DEFINITELY wouldn't want to replace it after 5
>years.  More like 35 years.
>> 
>> What happens when we have no more mechanical ones to base electronic
>ones off of?
>> 
>> Of course, I cannot afford a Steinway.  I'm much more likely to
>afford a $ 500 Casio or Yamaha electronic instrument.  $ 5000 - $
>15,000 is definitely not within my budget, but then, I'm not a
>musician.
>> 
>> The other thought I had was what if these bad caps got into the ECU's
>that run our cars?  That's a scary thought.  Hopefully, it would just
>die gracefully and not cause a crash or an engine fire.
>> 
>> Sincerely,
>> 
>> Ron
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> David Stephens <linuxrootuser at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> I work in a small electronics repair shop here in Atlanta. As of
>late
>>> we
>>> are seeing  a lot of gear suffering from failed capacitors, most are
>>> smt
>>> devices. It is one thing to have failed capacitors in a home
>>> computer/laptop since generally people upgrade systems on a regular
>>> basis
>>> as speeds/capacities increase.
>>> 
>>> Musical instruments are another story. People don't want to
>"upgrade"
>>> an
>>> electric piano that cost $5,000 to $15,000, every five years. The
>only
>>> solution is a complete re-cap job. The process is not difficult, but
>it
>>> is
>>> time consuming. Use Chip Quik to remove the failed capacitor, clean
>the
>>> trace pads of all corrosion, inspect with a microscope, position new
>>> capacitor, solder new capacitor and re-inspect, repeat for the
>>> remaining 99
>>> capacitors.
>>> 
>>> I suspect that there are more than a few servers running in data
>>> centers
>>> that are 2002 - 2005 vintage machines with the same failing
>capacitors
>>> on
>>> the motherboards. The effects of these failing capacitors will most
>>> likely
>>> be attributed to "bit rot".  Modern error correction can reduce the
>bit
>>> rot, however, when bit rot is generated by noise on the bus data and
>>> bus
>>> lines and supply lines feeding the error correcting circuits there
>>> isn't
>>> much that can correct the problem.
>>> 
>>> We recently recapped several old IBM workstations, we're cheap and
>tend
>>> to
>>> hold on to shop gear, until the magic smoke escapes. The recaps
>worked:
>>> boot times returned to like new speeds, the systems actually
>shutdown
>>> when
>>> you asked them too, and the blue screens of death and kernel panics
>>> went
>>> away.
>>> 
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
>>> 
>>> On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 9:46 PM, Ron Frazier (ALE) <
>>> atllinuxenthinfo at techstarship.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> 
>>>> I just had a wild thought after reading an article in computer
>power
>>> user
>>>> magazine about liquid electrolytic versus solid electrolyte
>>> capacitors.  As
>>>> you may know, many modern motherboards use Japanese solid
>>> electrolytic
>>>> capacitors to increase quality and reliability.
>>>> 
>>>> I already knew that.  What I didn't know is that, around 2002, the
>>>> industry started experiencing waves of returns / complaints about
>>> defective
>>>> motherboards due to a bad batch of capacitors with unstable
>>> electrolyte
>>>> compounds.  This caused a great deal of trouble above and beyond
>the
>>> normal
>>>> failure rate, and severely disrupted the industry.
>>>
>http://www.computerpoweruser.com/DigitalIssues/ComputerPowerUser/CP____1311__/
>>>> 
>>>> Like I said, long shot, wild thought.  But, maybe, if your monitors
>>> are
>>>> several years old and of similar vintage, they're all starting to
>>>> experience premature death.  This could be an outside factor that
>>> could
>>>> affect many units with nothing obviously in common but time of
>>> manufacture.
>>>> The article says this affected monitors, network switches, a/v
>>> equipment,
>>>> and other things.
>>>> 
>>>> In any case, I thought it was interesting.
>>>> 
>>>> Sincerely,
>>>> 
>>>> Ron
>> 
>> -snip-
>> 
>> 



--

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Ron Frazier
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