tmetro@pro-angmar.UUCP (Tom Metro) (02/06/88)
About a year ago my //c color composite monitor quit working. Its warranty had expired so I thought there was no harm in removing the cover. The immidate problem was a blown fuse. It looked like something simple to fix. A new fuse was purchased and installed just to find that it blew again. At this point it seemed obvious that there was something more serious wrong. The monitor was taken to a local computer repair shop. Conviently they also rented used equipment. I rented a monochrome monitor to fill in while the other was being repaired (I had a final for english to write that week.) A few days later the repair shop called back saying that they couldn't fix it. They needed a schematic and it was not possible to obtain one. They recomended taking it to a local Apple dealer. So the monitor was brought to Sherman Howe Computer Center where it was fixed. The bill came to about $50. $45 or so for labor and $1.50 for the part. Apple changed their specifications for the fuse to a higher value. My question is: why, when Apple had my registration card showing that I purchased a //c color monitor, couldn't they have mailed out a postcard stating the new specification change or at least had the repair preformed for free seeing as it was their mistake?? Within the past two months my ImageWriter II (now 2 years old) required a print head replacement. A repair that is quite simple, but Apple doesn't make the information or the parts available to users. Some other printer manufacturers actually give instructions for print head replacement in the user manual. This repair, preformed at Sherman Howe Computer Center, cost about $45 for labor and $50 for parts (probably a 5 minute job to unplug the old head and plug in a new one.) When the unit was picked up and brought home it wouldn't power up. The status lights didn't even come on. It was returned back to Sherman Howe. A couple of weeks later it was ready to be picked up. The bill went as follows: $90 for main logic board replacement. No labor - it was covered by their short term warranty because it had just been repaired. They claimed that the main logic board was blown and that traces of brown liquid was found on the board. (Somebody spilt their coffee on it!) After arguing with them for a while that the unit was inoperative as soon as it got home and they claiming that it was tested and worked (although no test sheet was in the platen as it should have been) I gave up. I got stuck with the extra repair cost. Before leaving I made sure that they powered up the printer and ran it through a self test while I watched. For the past month the printer has been working fine. It even runs faster than it did before (probably because of the new motor control software on the replaced logic board.) But within the past few days it has developed a new problem. Now it won't Line Feed properly. After printing a page of text some of the lines appear to be double spaced and some overlapped. A form feed gets jammed halfway through and the feed motor hums. Nothing visable is jamming the mechanics. It does this with or without paper installed. It is probabbly the feed motor that needs to be replaced. So now I'm wondering what I should do. Should I risk taking the unit to Sherman Howe again (maybe their warranty that covers labor is still in effect)? Should I find a new Apple dealer to preform the repairs? Should I try once again to obtain servicing information and fix the unit myself (this is my preference providing I can get the information.) SAMS publishing has an ImageWriter service manual available, but as far as I know they don't have one for the ImageWriter II. Its disappointing to see that a company that was started by "hackers" and made computers for hackers now no longer supports people who want to get into the hardware. Tom Metro tmetro@pro-angmar