The PC:

WTF?

Published on July 3, 2005 By Amitty In Gadgets & Electronics

THis starts out simple enough: I got a e-mail form the regional tech department the other day stating that if we are working on certina model e-machines, please note the motherboard type. Apparently certain motherboards and power supplies, when combined, will cause the computer to burst into flames.

I am not kidding.

I have lamented to colligues and the like that hardware is not up to the same standard as it used to be. While a lot of pre-fab computers makes my life as a techie easy, it scares me the rate of failure for these machines. While I understand that companies don't have the funds (yeah right) to test their products before they go out, maybe it is better if they do. If I had a dime for every motherboard that was DOA I would have a small fortune. I understand that the mold process for components makes mass production easier, but why are manufacturers not catching some of the flaws. Instead they put out revision boards that are like Windows: They fix one thing, but might open another problem.

The failure rate of such things as Optical drives are huge too. You would think that if you are making something like that for years, you might have gotten it right by now. As the technician that has to deal with these people when this happens, it is not pleasant. I think that people now, and reall, always, had a preconcieved notion that computers are flawed from the get go. Why leave it up to the manufacturers of parts to prove them right?

All I am saying is that there needs to be some sort of testing in place, and not one out of every 50 either...
Excuse me, I have to go..there is another angry customer at the counter.

Comments

JAMES

on Jul 23, 2005

I am surprised at your observations. Not just because I expect American goods to be of the highest standard and reliability because of all the litigation and regulation but also from the point of efficiency and ecconomics.

I was, in a former "life" ( that is, before I got one) a Quality Assurance Manager and know that product reliability IS closely coupled with the factories efficency and, inevitably, profitability.............So who are these people living in the 1960's and how are they avoiding lawsuites and bankruptcy.

I could go in to great depth about statistical testing schemes, failure mode analysis, etc but won't ( hurrah!)

Much of the early work on Quality Assurance was done by famous AMERICAN Industrialists and there work even in the 1970 and 80's was held up as the way to do things . There books and methods became the byword in these fields
SO WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?
One thing that did crop up in my mind was :
We ( England) once had a attempted invasion by a company called TANDY ( Radio Shack ) and at that time I did some Hobby electronics and radio stuff ( licenced)
There components often stated words to the effect " these component are likely to have a 15 % defect level"
As I was not used to seeing this on the British Components, or found any defective parts in practise it certainly put me off buying the parts .they were usually much more expensive than the "good quality" parts also.

They also produced a range of electronic consumables ( Radios Hi FI etc) most of which were poor shadows of the Japanese items such as Yaesu or Sony .
Needless to say I do not know of any Tandy shops with in 100 miles of me now when they seemed to be on every corner in 1989.

No conclusions really, I just don't understand the gap between theory and practise in the USA.
Is it that American expect and accept this high defect level ................I don't think we do.

I would not expect any electronic item to be defective these days; and if it was, I would expect not a repair but a NEW Replacement.
Glad it keeps you in a job ...............I hope you are ordering a JAGUAR with the proceeds.

IS IT that the controllers can " Talk the Talk " but can not "Walk the Walk"

foxjazz

on Sep 17, 2005

Just curious, when was it you think you died. I was just wondering if your quality experience was on Weapons such as Swords, or bows and arrows. Or was it rocks?

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