Be Excellent To Each Other

Haven't we done this before? A thread about all our tech that broke, how and how long it lasted? Can't find it but don't want to duplicate.

Never buy a Thomson tv. I went through three in a year.

At work a chap's 'power' button came off his iPhone 4. He fixed it back on with superglue and it still functions.

I got one of those cheapo TVs with a built in DVD player from Tesco. The TV if not too ba, but the DVD player conked out pretty quick, and would only work one time in ten. Ended up replacing it with an equally cheapo stand alone DVD player.

Can't really think of anything. But then I don't buy new stuff very often. And then it doesn't break. For example - Mr Dave's original Xbox and also his ancient Samsung telly, the latter of which is not only still working, but working *better* than it was a year ago

Hmm, the DVD burner in my iMac is about the only thing. And that's a 6 year old computer, and I can't actually be sure it ever worked so I'm not too stressed about it.

DVD players became disposable items remarkably quickly didn't they?

Meanwhile the blu ray writer in my laptop has died. I think I've written about five blu rays in the last three years.

The Alt key is broken on this keyboard. I just found out as I tried to Alt+Tab as the boss walked by.

Laptop died last year, numerous pc components, the inevitable 360 RROD, a Panasonic CRT tv and a monitor are pretty much the only casualties I can think of.
Oh, and a Sony Ericsson phone.

Logic board on a 17" G4 Powerbook (Bought it second hand and managed to sell the duff unit to the repairer for the same price )

32" Samsung LCD TV - Needed panel replacement.

RRoD on my first 360

The DVD RW drive in my laptop has gone, which is a bitch, as this means I need to go out and buy a new laptop which cost twice the price as this one with an HDMI output and a new car.

New car?

To match the new laptop.

More Freeview boxes than I can shake a stick at. And several DVD players, too. The 15 year old CRT TV is still going strong, mind.

Mrs P is death to most electrical stuff, except Apple. Her MacBook Pro was used for 18 hours a day for four years. By the end, the battery was dead, the wireless didn't work, the CD/DVD drive had failed, it ran so hot the case cracked and she got about an hour out of it before the thing was too hot to touch. But it still kept going.

The very first new audio amp I bought was an Amstrad bottomoftherange jobby and it pretty much fell apart as I got it out of the box. (This was about 1975 and cost around £20). I mean the casing literally fell off the damn thing. I managed to refit it, but it hummed like a bee when switched on and one channel was crackly and failed intermittently. I know it was only £20, but it should still have worked. I took it back and got a replacement, which wasn't much better, so I got a refund and went back to using my old valve amp until I could afford something better.

Also had a Phillips TV that died on the exact 12th bong of Big Ben on New Year's Eve about 5 years ago. But the TV was about 10 years old anyway, so we'd had out money's worth with that one.

I think the only other real stinker was a washing machine that died about 20 minutes after the guarantee ran out, although we'd already had to have new parts for it during the first 12 months. We argued with the manufacturer for months about it, and in the end they gave up and repaired it again, under the guarantee. This must have been about 1980. Not had a lot of tech problems since then, apart from a SCART splitter that was crap straight out of the box.

2 laptops. A HP one that I managed to kick the screen and ruin it so the screen doesnt work, it then subesquently refused to turn on after about 6 months or so.
And another laptop I spilt tea all over and wrecked it.

I should probably stop drinking tea.

Creative Labs 4.1 speakers from 2001 (cream ones on tripods!)- crapped out on me 8 months after coming as part of a PC package from Evesham. Got sent replacements.

Creative Labs Zen Sleek Photo 20gb player - headphone socket knacked within a year. Got it replaced.

ATI Radeon HD4800 card in my current PC- lasted about 2 months before the GPU went. Replaced.

XBox 360 - RROD, but power brick has ALWAYS had a high-pitched transformer whine. When I called in the RRoD I suggested this might not be normal, as my other 360 brick is silent - they agreed and wanted to charge me £20 for a new one, I said they should give me one free as it had always been wrong, they declined because they are cunts. I turn it off at the wall when not in use.

Samsung 2032MW monitor/telly - Caps blew after 2.5 years.

Wii - has the drive death rattle they all seem to get, came on after about 18 months.

Samsung 2333HD - see other thread. Never buying a Samsung again.

Both 'quality' hifi systems I've owned have had the CD player start not reading tracks within 2 years.

Acer laptop screen went just before warranty. Got it repaired, screen went again just after warranty expired. Subsequent damage caused by me rendered unit irreperable.

Sony Playstation - stopped reading disks after about 4 years.

....and that's for starters.

I'm struggling to think of any major hardware purchase I've ha longer than a couple of years that hasn't broken or arrived substandard. These days I'm rather put off getting any new stuff unless I really really have to, and my main PC will never be a laptop because at least boxes can be treated on a part-by-part basis and £20 quid in maplin gets you something to see you through.

I thought putting useless output connections in washing machines only started a couple of years ago.

Christmas 1991, I got an Atari Lynx (yes, I know, but they seemed like a gift beamed from the future at the time). First one, the screen would go black without warning (but the sound would continue). Took it back for a replacement, got it home, found it had exactly the same fault. Realised that when I'd opened it, the packaging wasn't intact, and that they'd just taken the faulty Lynx out the back of the shop, put it back in the box and then given the same one back to me.

Third (but actually second) one, the PSU connector was fucked, so if you so much as looked at the plug, the power would go off.

Fourth (actually third) one, it was near-impossible to select down-left diagonally on the d-pad. The shop however refused to see any fault with it and so wouldn't replace it. It was only after I got home with my still-faulty Lynx that I realised they'd taken the California Games cartridge out of it and kept it.

"Chips" of Middlesbrough and Redcar, there.

In fixing a colleague's personal laptop, I noticed that both the HDD and DVD drives were faulty. Popping the DVD drive out, there was a sticker on it with the replacement part number which I searched for on Ebay and found a suitable replacement for £13 which didn't seem a bad price.

I generally don't have too many problems with tech I've bought, besides the ubiquitous 360 RROD. The PC Power problems I'm having at the moment are rather annoying though - particularly as I checked my initial order for the PC and the PSU came with a one-year warranty.. which ran out last week.

Oh yeah. My PS2 stopped reading DVDs but was fine with games.

I'm almost certain that mine can't be remedied in this manner.

Come now, sir. You and I both know that's ... misdirection, shall we say.

What on earth do you do to your stuff man?

Off the top of my head I can't think of any recent tech failures in our house.

Ummmm, the really old microwave (literally circa 1985) broke last year. We could have replaced it ages ago with one costing £50 but since it refused to break for 25 years it seemed silly to do so. (It belonged to the in-laws originally we sort of picked it up off them.)

Mrs AE is dreadful for breaking her own stuff (putting a phone into a tightly packed pocket with a bunch of keys for example), but that's her fault not the gadgets.

Generally speaking my tech gets chucked simply because it's too old to be of any practical use, not because it actually breaks.

Oh one does spring to mine, my expensive Denon CD player (proper hi-fi separate job) broke at about five years old (wouldn't read discs properly), I replaced it with a Technics and that's still going strong some six years later.

I've finally given up on our shower after its sporadic habit of deciding not to bother heating up. To my amazement, it has a 5-year warranty, so they're coming out to replace it with a brand new unit, and fitting it for us. Which, considering we had a third party fit it in the first place, is pretty bloody impressive. Oh, and if you're thinking a shower isn't 'tech', you've not seen my shower.

The Sous-Vide Supreme water bath I got for Christmas seems to randomly decide to not stop heating when it gets to its target temperature as well. Once again, excellent customer service - they're sending out a courier to do a swap on site completely free of charge.

I got my XPS 15 today - it really can't.

She can break stuff by looking at it. Opposite of "techies aura".

I only make things worse when I try to fix something. Well, when I say make it worse, make something possibly repairable to definitely unrepairable.

My tech lasts forever and usually stays looking brand new. I have a complete PC that I built in 1999 that still runs as well as it did back then. I might try installing Windows 7 on it

In short: I am awesome.

The only tech failures I have had in the past few years, have been endless different routers. Most of the consumer models are absolute shit, Draytek FTW!

I plugged my original master system in the other day. Still works a treat. Never did complete Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

God dammit. My 360 was used unattended by a visiting child and now the DVD drive doesn't work. Coincidence.
Anyone got a scrapper I can have/buy with a working drive?

I've got a busted Elite. Any good to you?

Slightly broken Marantz AV amp is about it for now, I've moved often enough that I've got good at cleaning out. Oh, but I've still got my Lenovo laptop that went pop.

Yes, I think so. Let me know how much with postage please

Ne'mind, it's no longer broken.

My poor old iMac, she is dying

Screen rot getting a bit worse every day.. Could try to find a new panel, or plug in a monitor but I've been itching to buy a new one anyway

Aaahh, 3 in 1 oil. The cure of all ailments mechanical and electronic. All hail!