Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2002 14:44:45 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New European Warranty Message-ID: <3C48A55D.FEA81774@mindspring.com> References: <20020118224754.A804@tisys.org>
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Nils Holland wrote: > There are some devices that fail more often than a CPU, for example hard > disk drives. However, I know that manufaturers have generally given a > somewhat extended warranty on these - 3 years is common for Western Digital > drives, for example. Fans. Unfiltered power supply fans, particulary, but CPU fans with low clearance, as well. If the only thing that comes out of this is that the fans don't start making inordinate amounts of noice, it's cool. Personally, every new machine I get with a power supply fan (all desktop and desk-side machines, basically), I immediately take apart, open the power supply (voiding the warranty, in the process), and reverse the direction of the fan (making it pull air in instead of pushing air out), adding an external dust filter on the outside that it has to suck air through. After this modification, I now have power supplies that have lasted many years in "dusty" environments, when before the fan would sieze up in 9 months to a year, cook the supply, and then (occasionally) cook the computer as well. Not surprisingly, my CDROM and floppy and tape drives, with filtered air being escaping through them, rather than the unfiltered air being sucked into them, depositing dust over the optics and heads, also have had significantly fewer problems since I began this practice, 8 years ago. So if it also prevents idiots from keeping their jobs doing system design and building machines that fail around the time of their planned obsolescence, I'm all for that, too. And guess what? If you aren't buying replacement hardware every year or so, then they don't have a continuing revenue stream, and the money will have to come from somewhere, and you really can't expect it to come from them innovating new and desirable products, and selling those, instead. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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