AlbertLionheart
Posts: 1,997 +3
A system arrived here yesterday with a failed DVD/CD-RW combo drive - door refused to open.
As this was one of mine from a few years ago I said to the owner that I was disappointed that it had only lasted for (checking the serial number) 3 and a bit years before failing. He said nothing - I suspect because he saw this as a precurser to being told there was no warranty on it. Sharp operator that one! Anyway, as usual he denied any knowledge of the reason for the failure and muttered something about it being hardly ever used and then only for playing light music. I nodded wisely and did the usual IT engineer eyeball rolling exercise.
I plugged it all in and true enough the drive door refused to budge. Following standard procedure No 1 I inserted the special probe into the special probe orifice and pushed. Nothing. Pushed harder - still nothing, not even a bit of mechancal whirring to indicate the thing was at least making an effort.
Looking at the front of the thing I noticed some small scratches around one corner of the panel on the front of the caddy tray - looking a bit closer this looked like marks on a transparent plastic - nope, it is on a thin clear very hard film. Grasping the trusty craft knife I cut round the edge of the door and Lo! it sort of moved. I tried the special probe and the door opened! Wowsers - what a gadget. Still, the thing refused to open and close without help so I decided to fit a new drive - some tut tut tutting from the client but he was witness to all this and could hardly complain.
It took two strong men and a lot of bad language to get that drive out of the system case - that clear hard film was all over the front of the drive and the pastic front panel of the case.
Any idea what it was?
Apparently, and this was a grudging admission of 'well might have been', his son had upseit his daugter and she by way of revenge had superglued the door shut. And herself to the machine - the scratch marks were Mum's very careful peeling of child's finger off front of PC.
And a final kick in the nethers from that child - she said she had glued the boy's favourite CD in there - it was empty so now she has to remember where she really hid it or that comes out of her pocketmoney too.
Moral - Client who says nothing is probably as guilty as sin!
As this was one of mine from a few years ago I said to the owner that I was disappointed that it had only lasted for (checking the serial number) 3 and a bit years before failing. He said nothing - I suspect because he saw this as a precurser to being told there was no warranty on it. Sharp operator that one! Anyway, as usual he denied any knowledge of the reason for the failure and muttered something about it being hardly ever used and then only for playing light music. I nodded wisely and did the usual IT engineer eyeball rolling exercise.
I plugged it all in and true enough the drive door refused to budge. Following standard procedure No 1 I inserted the special probe into the special probe orifice and pushed. Nothing. Pushed harder - still nothing, not even a bit of mechancal whirring to indicate the thing was at least making an effort.
Looking at the front of the thing I noticed some small scratches around one corner of the panel on the front of the caddy tray - looking a bit closer this looked like marks on a transparent plastic - nope, it is on a thin clear very hard film. Grasping the trusty craft knife I cut round the edge of the door and Lo! it sort of moved. I tried the special probe and the door opened! Wowsers - what a gadget. Still, the thing refused to open and close without help so I decided to fit a new drive - some tut tut tutting from the client but he was witness to all this and could hardly complain.
It took two strong men and a lot of bad language to get that drive out of the system case - that clear hard film was all over the front of the drive and the pastic front panel of the case.
Any idea what it was?
Apparently, and this was a grudging admission of 'well might have been', his son had upseit his daugter and she by way of revenge had superglued the door shut. And herself to the machine - the scratch marks were Mum's very careful peeling of child's finger off front of PC.
And a final kick in the nethers from that child - she said she had glued the boy's favourite CD in there - it was empty so now she has to remember where she really hid it or that comes out of her pocketmoney too.
Moral - Client who says nothing is probably as guilty as sin!
