How many times have we had an electrical or electronic item that conked out just after the warranty expired? A lot I bet. Manufacturers nowadays build cheap and with a short life so you will get the latest and most expensive version as a replacement. It’s a fact but how many of you think that the lifetime is being limted by artificial means, such as a timer inside the box. A lot of you it seems if you are a Sony user.
Personally I think the risk is too great for a manufacturer to do and so I thought ‘conspiracy theory’
However, why would a TV need a software patch? Especially one that ‘fixed’ an errant controller that caused the TV on off switch not to work exactly after 1200Hrs. My Panasonic has an on off switch. No software required so why does Sony have one, and one with a bug in. Sounds really dodgy to me. Normal TV, button in and telly comes on. Sony version, button in check software….. for what? A decision whether to come on is what the conspiracy geeks are saying and I find I can’t think of an alternative reason for software on the switch.
It does remind me of every PC I’ve ever had though. When a new version comes out the basic system, oh so fast when you first got it, takes ages just to power up and get to the login screen. I feel a conspiracy coming on.
Many many years ago, when I was setting up a servicing department for a company we found one piece of very expensive equipment had a component, which at first glance seemed to be a multiturn variable resistor – except it wasn’t. It was in the electronic start circuit and I wanted to know what it did. No where could I find any information on it, not even in the manufacturers servicing data.
We found out what it did some 6 months later when a unit came in because it would not start – the marker in the device had reached the end of its travel. Bridging it out returned the unit to full working condition so I instituted o policy of bridging them out when a unit came in for any work.
A couple of years later I heard from the service manager – the US manufacturers were wondering why there were no repeat orders, only new ones. We both had a laugh over that.
As to computers taking time to power up – at least if they use any windows OS – seems to be because nothing gets cleaned up. Every so often I get asked if I can work some magic on a PC when I visit friends. I have a USB stick I use just for that with the necessary cleaning tools on it. The best I’ve managed is to remove 26 GB of temp files and other junk and over 400 redundant entries in the registry. The owner said it was like new when they used it.
Ivan,
Exactly. I’m still doing that now with my PCs.
The hardware story reminded me of a similar thing with a computer manufacturer and some tape drives. Working in a MoD site meant we couldn’t leave him alone so we chatted or just watched depending on the engineer. After we spent £5K upgrading a tape drive from, well something like 24 from 12 fps, those were the days, I was surprised to see the engineer simply engaging and inline switch which shorted a resistor on the controller board. He showed me exactly where and what it was. It appears they simply designed 24 fps units and someone came up with the idea of making ‘cheaper’ models by adding a resistor in the motor path. Good marketing plan and cheap upgrade costs for them.
You seem very well-informed about this subject and it comes across. Looking forward to future posts.Thanks