sci.electronics.repair@googlegroups.com

Today's topics:

* problems with my Adcom CD player - 2 messages, 2 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/d0309f8834e2db93?hl=en
* Any Windoze experts on here ? Bit OT ... - 4 messages, 3 authors
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/cffb93376f721ce8?hl=en
* She is lovely and romantic. meet her online - 1 messages, 1 author
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/1a8ae2b2ef1b8e36?hl=en

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TOPIC: problems with my Adcom CD player
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/d0309f8834e2db93?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 6:10 pm
From: "Arfa Daily"

"Shaun" <rowl@nomail.com> wrote in message
news:yOh8p.17738$D94.1575@newsfe20.iad...
>
> "Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
> news:4673m6prr0ls8tlmj1kaaa2rid3sbapos7@4ax.com...
>> On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:13:20 -0600, "Shaun" <rowl@nomail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>I have a used ADCOM GCD-700 5 disk CD player that was given to me and it
>>>is
>>>overly sensitive to vibrations, bumps and slight scratches on the CDs.
>>>I've
>>>mounted it on vibration absorbing rubber and this has greatly impoved its
>>>bump and vibration sensitivity, but it is still very sensitive to the
>>>slightest mark or scratch on cds. How can I cure this.
>>
>>
>> First, clean out any crud from the laser head assembly. If that
>> doesn't improve things, replace it. That's a 1997 vintage machine so
>> parts may be tricky to find... Oh, too easy:
>> <http://www.adcomparts.com/part.php?item=46001400>
>> However, I don't think it's worth $50 to fix something that old.
>>
>> More:
>> <http://www.fixya.com/support/p134391-adcom_gcd_700_5_disc_cd_changer>
>> <http://www.fixya.com/support/t648590-adcom_gcd_700_tracking_problems>
>>
>> --
>> Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
>> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
>> Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
>> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
>>
>
> Thanks for the links, I'll probably order a new laser head for it, but
> first I'll lake it apart and clean the lenses.
>
> Shaun
>
>

KSS240A lasers should be available from many sources for much less than $50.
This is a very 'bog-standard' laser made by Sony, and used in many
manufacturers' products over the years, as well as their own. Try to make
sure if you get one from a cheaper source, that it is a genuine Sony one
though. Of all of the KSS series replacement lasers, I've found the '240 to
be probably the most critical, when used in most manufacturers' machines.

Arfa

== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 6:47 pm
From: Jeff Liebermann

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:10:14 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
<arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>KSS240A lasers should be available from many sources for much less than $50.
>This is a very 'bog-standard' laser made by Sony, and used in many
>manufacturers' products over the years, as well as their own. Try to make
>sure if you get one from a cheaper source, that it is a genuine Sony one
>though. Of all of the KSS series replacement lasers, I've found the '240 to
>be probably the most critical, when used in most manufacturers' machines.

Oops. I didn't recognize the Sony part number. Plenty all over the
web
<http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=KSS-240A>
and $17-$31 on eBay.
<http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=kss-240a>

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

==============================================================================
TOPIC: Any Windoze experts on here ? Bit OT ...
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/cffb93376f721ce8?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 4 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 6:26 pm
From: "Arfa Daily"

"Jeff Liebermann" <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote in message
news:0393m6tc7r3o7uae8okvqkef8u4ll3mq30@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:28:36 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
> <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>>Pretty bog standard machine here. AMD Athlon 64 processor, 2GB of single
>>channel DDR 160MHz memory, couple of hard drives etc. Running Windoze 7
>>Ultimate 64 bit (not my choice, put on there by my lad, when he built the
>>machine).
>
> 2GB is about the minimum I would use for Windoze 7 64 bit. If the
> machine and your budget can handle it, try installing 4GB total. Also,
> with twice as much RAM, it will take twice as long before it crashes.
>
>>There are a few 'background' progs running, such as a clock
>>synchronizer and a weather monitor, and Thunderbird as a mail client, anti
>>virus etc, so I guess that 35% is reasonable.
>
> Be specific. Some mutations of Thunderbird had memory leak problem.
> <https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Testing:Memory_Usage_Problems>
> If your weather monitor is Weatherbug, I vaguely recall additional
> memory leak problems. What program are you using for
> anti-virus/spyware? Microsoft Security Essentials had a really minor
> memory leak that was allegedly fixed in the latest 2.0.xxx release.
>
>>But over the course of a few
>>days, the amount in use creeps up and up until you reach around 90% usage
>>with the same background progs running, and it otherwise idling.
>
> Classic memory leak. Some application is probably the culprit.
> Monitor the memory usage and kill off running programs until you
> identify the source of the memory leak. Going from 35% of 2GB to 75%
> is a change of 40% of 2GB or 800MBytes change. Over a 3 day period,
> that 11MBytes per hour or 183KBytes/minute. That's not a memory leak.
> That's a program gone insane that should be exterminated from your
> machine. You should be able to see that much memory loss visually,
> using Task Manager, one of the numerous Windoze Widgets, or some
> program that shows available memory.
>
>>I have
>>tried a number of memory 'cleaner' programs and the best I have found to
>>date is one called simply "CleanMem". It claims to do a genuine job of
>>clearing unused crap out of the memory that's been left behind, unlike
>>other
>>cleaners which it says work by fooling the system in some way by filling
>>the
>>memory with zeros or some such.
>
> Memory defragmenters and cleaners don't do anything useful. Cleaning
> the heap and other junk left in RAM doesn't stay around long enough
> for any program to even detect misused RAM, much less doing anything
> to expedite their removal.
>
>>I'm not really au fait enough with the
>>workings of computers to understand just what it was saying, but suffice
>>to
>>say that it does seem to work better than the others I've tried.
>
> Sigh. I once tried a RAM defrag program and was amazed at how much
> available memory it was able to free. I eventually figured out what
> it was doing. When it started, it would allocate a huge block of RAM
> for scratch space. When it was done, it would magically free this
> memory, claiming that it was salvage from program garbage collections.
> Yep, it did, but the program the created the garbage was the RAM
> defrag program.
>
>>But even
>>that one seems unable to recover the situation beyond about 75% usage. The
>>only way to get the memory back, and thus recover the speed of the
>>machine,
>>is to do a "Restart", which is a royal pain in the arse.
>
> I help maintain a fairly reliable Windoze 7 machine that's up and
> playing SNMP network monitor:
>
> C:\> systeminfo | find "System Up Time"
> System Up Time: 13 Days, 4 Hours, 58 Minutes, 27 Seconds
> (...)
> Total Physical Memory: 1,980 MB
> Available Physical Memory: 1,030 MB
> Virtual Memory: Max Size: 2,048 MB
> Virtual Memory: Available: 1,996 MB
> Virtual Memory: In Use: 52 MB
> Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys
>
> No sign of any memory leaks. It normally stays up longer, but
> everyone has been playing with updates and revisions, so the uptime
> tends to be more than about 2 weeks.
>
>>So, is this just a poor characteristic of 7 that previous versions of
>>Windoze didn't suffer from ?
>
> It's probably NOT Windoze 7. It's probably some application that
> you're running. Download and install Belarc Advisor (free version)
> and produce (don't post) a system report. Look down the list of
> installed applications for a likely culprit for producing a memory
> leak.
> <http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html>
>
>>Does anyone else have a similar problem, or
>>have found a way to resolve it ?
>
> No problems, but if you want reliability, I suggest Ubuntu or one of
> the other Linux distributions. If you're running a fairly basic set
> of applications (Web, email, word processor, spreadsheet, etc), then
> Linux will be a suitable replacement. If you run a bizarre mix of
> eclectic utilities and apps, stay with Windoze 7. OS/X on a Mac is
> also a good substitute, but will cost about twice as much as the
> equivalent PC. Retraining your son on a new operating system might
> also be useful, as it will keep him occupied and out of your workspace
> for a few weeks.
>
>>Not looking for a long drawn-out discussion
>>on this - I can live with it.
>
> Well, if you want a one-line answer, you could at least have warned me
> or supplied a one-line question. Grumble.
>
>>Just interested to see if anyone better
>>qualified at this sort of thing than me, has a definitive answer.
>
> I do this kind of stuff every day. I only see broken computers. I'm
> sure there are users out there that have perfectly working machines,
> but I never see them. That's the curse of being in the repair/support
> biz. Also, if Microsoft ever produced a reliable product, I would be
> out of business. The company motto is "If this stuff worked, you
> wouldn't need me". It's on my biz card and all my stationary. Nobody
> has ever disagreed (or cared).
>
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com

Lots of good stuff there Jeff. Thanks for your time and effort. Appreciated.
Anti-virus is Avast by the way. I have never had any problems with that, but
who knows ? T-Bird version is 3.1.7. Yes, machine does have an eclectic mix
of applications on it, so not really a suitable candidate for a beard and
sandals 'makeover' .... <G> Weather prog is "The Weather Channel desktop
weather". I have been running it for years, without any problems on previous
machines / Win OS's. Clock synchroniser is Dimension 4, again used for many
years, without issue. Just as a matter of interest, one of my main suspects
as a culprit is what I am using now as a news client, which is Windows Live
Mail. I used to use OE for all email and news on previous versions of OS,
but since having this Windoze 7, I am using T-Bird as a mail client only, as
it is useless at news (for me anyway) and Live Mail for news only, as I
don't like the way it handles email. I liked OE. It was simple, worked, and
did everything I wanted it to, and I rue the day that I lost that one-stop
solution.

Arfa

== 2 of 4 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 6:32 pm
From: "Arfa Daily"

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:ijsc2l$d6b$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>> No problems, but if you want reliability, I suggest Ubuntu or one
>> of the other Linux distributions. If you're running a fairly basic set
>> of applications (Web, email, word processor, spreadsheet, etc),
>> then Linux will be a suitable replacement.
>
> That's the catch, of course. Operating systems other than Windows or
> Macintosh don't have fancy software written for them.
>
>
>> ...if Microsoft ever produced a reliable product, I would be out of
>> business.
>
> Perhaps, but I run W2K, Word, and other Windows software without problems.
> I
> do agree, however, that Windows sometimes behaves Most Strangely, for no
> obvious reason.
>
>

I have never had any real problems with Windows. I'm a fairly heavy user
compared to Joe Average, and have, over the years, had many varied and
exotic applications running on Windows machines with OS's from Win 3.1 right
up to Win 7. I know that it's not a very fashionable or approved position to
declare, but I actually quite like the Windows concept on the whole, and
would never indulge in Gates-bashing. I actually think that Windows has,
over the years, done more to expand the world of personal computing, and to
'standardise' application writing, than any other OS or platform.

Arfa

== 3 of 4 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 7:12 pm
From: Jeff Liebermann

On Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:36:37 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
<grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

>> No problems, but if you want reliability, I suggest Ubuntu or one
>> of the other Linux distributions. If you're running a fairly basic set
>> of applications (Web, email, word processor, spreadsheet, etc),
>> then Linux will be a suitable replacement.
>
>That's the catch, of course. Operating systems other than Windows or
>Macintosh don't have fancy software written for them.

Mac and Linux certainly do have fancy software, just fewer choices,
and generally not as well supported by the authors or manufacturers.
I've lost count of how many times a Mac support request degenerated
into "you don't need to know" or "it should be intuitive". Similarly
for Linux, I've received "just modify the source code yourself if you
don't like it" from various authors. Unfortunately, Windoze is no
better with the traditional "just reinstall the entire operating
system" and it should fix the problem.
<http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/poetry/support.htm>
From my warped perspective, all the various platforms are 90% the
same. However, the 10% that's different will drive you nuts. Some
are better in specific areas, but overall, they all have (different)
problems.

Moral: You can't win.

>> ...if Microsoft ever produced a reliable product, I would be out of
>> business.
>
>Perhaps, but I run W2K, Word, and other Windows software without problems. I
>do agree, however, that Windows sometimes behaves Most Strangely, for no
>obvious reason.

Windoze is strange, but my customers are even stranger. If you can't
find a reason, a conspiracy will usually suffice as a suitable
substitute.

Allow me to suggest an easy upgrade to XP, which will probably run on
whatever ancient hardware you're using. WinFLP.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winflp>
I have it running on a Celeron 400MHz with 384 MBytes of RAM and a 4GB
CFL SSD drive. It's kinda slow, but does function. There are some
update issues as some of the most recent updates will not install.
Same with some current MS add-ons. For example, MSE (Microsoft
Security Essentials) will not install. It can also be installed
without Internet Exploder. It may not take you from the stone age to
the space age, but maybe half way to approximately the Renaissance.

I recently tried to use the above Celeron 400 for an ADS-B monitor.
WinFLP would run just fine, but the various ADS-B monitoring
application (SBS-1 Basestation) is a gigantic bloated monster, which
beat the virtual memory to death. I had to get a bigger machine, and
run the real XP version, to get it to play. Careful what you install.

For every improvement in hardware performance, there is an equal and
opposite decrease in speed provided by the software. In 1981, it took
me about 2-3 minutes to boot my 5150 IBM PC from the floppy disk. Roll
forward 30 years, and it still takes about the same time on my
Dore2Duo machine. This is not progress.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

== 4 of 4 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 9:19 pm
From: David Nebenzahl

On 2/19/2011 6:13 PM Arfa Daily spake thus:

> "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:ijp0kl$j5l$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>
>> Do you notice any slowdown when this occurs?
>>
>> I have a similar "problem" under W2K. Windows creates a virtual
>> memory swap file when started, and expands it as needed.
>> Unfortunately, the expanding swap file causes the machine to slow
>> down, and a restart is eventually required. (This can take a few
>> days to a week or more, depending on how "hard" you push the OS. I
>> tend to have a lot of apps and files open at once, so I have to
>> restart as often as every four or five days.)
>
> Yes, it does slow down. I have the Windoze memory usage widget running, and
> you can see the usage creeping up over a couple of days or so, to the point
> where it reaches 90+ %, at which point, the machine is crawling, and having
> difficulty having multiple programs open at once.

Meaning no disrespect here, but are you sure it's *memory* that's
getting depleted here? I've got Win2K, and keep the Task Manager on my
taskbar. It indicates CPU usage %, not memory, at least if you're
talking about the visible indicator it shows onscreen. (Of course, it
also shows memory usage for each task as well as CPU usage.)

--
The phrase "jump the shark" itself jumped the shark about a decade ago.

- Usenet

==============================================================================
TOPIC: She is lovely and romantic. meet her online
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.repair/t/1a8ae2b2ef1b8e36?hl=en
==============================================================================

== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Sun, Feb 20 2011 8:38 pm
From: "culbert.bond"

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