[Coco] An interesting computer repair story

[Louis Ciotti]

I totally agree with you Mark.  America has become the throw away society,
and many of todays youth have no ambition to learn how things work or how
to fix things.  I grew up wanting to know how things works, and was
constantly taking things apart, sometimes breaking things in the process.
Part of the problem today is that some items can be had for such a low cost
many times it is just not worth reparing the items.  Take my lawn mower, a
simple push type mower, nothing fancy.  Well I clipped a rock a while back
which was large enough to cause the shaft to bend just enough to cause it
to vibrate.  Well I looked into the cost of a new crankshaft,  around $125
+ shipping/tax.  For a few bucks more a new one can be had, and involves
far less labor on my part.  Old electronics are the same in many peoples
eyes.  Why fix the old one when a new one can be had so cheaply.  Lets face
it if a new monitor was in the $500-$600 range  you would see far more
people opting to repair the older ones.  Same goes for computers.  When was
the last time you seen a company offer an "upgrade kit"... Remember the old
evergreen processor upgrades?  When a new computer can be had for $300 at
walmart why would anyone upgrade an older one.




On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Mark Marlette <mmarlette at frontiernet.net>wrote:

>
> Not singling you out here but this is the problem with society today....It
> is easier to just throw it out and go buy new. I can't, I can't.
>
> Robert could have done that as well, but he wanted to see what 'made it
> tick' and was successful. Nice job Robert. I look at it as, heck it is
> already broke, so what harm can I do to take a look? I can fix anything,
> that was evident by just getting rid of a TV from my Grandmother that past
> away many years ago and I fixed for her several times. I couldn't let it go
> and it had to be 25+ years old. It was her gift to me after she past, but
> eventually I had to let the old Zenith go. :)
>
> Had a brief conversation with my son this past weekend as he commented to
> me 'that he isn't as smart as Dad and can't do these things'. I replied, do
> you think I was born with this knowledge? I work hard and spend many hours
> learning, the same things you could learn, if you truly wanted to. He
> didn't want to talk anymore about it. :) He is 27.
>
> Electronics are electronics, just packaged differently for it's final
> application. What is learned in a monitor can apply to many electronic
> items.
>
> Mark
> http://www.cloud9tech.com
>
>
>