Sorry I didn't get this out sooner.
Original Post:
Hi folks! We have an old 19" Sun color monitor that used to be on a 386i but
is now on a SPARC2. The monitor is going out and we want to see if it is
feasible to have it repaired. We've talked to Sun who said they no longer
repair those monitors.
Does anyone know of a good place that could repair this dinosaur? (It has the
four different wires in the back labeled "R", "G", etc for attaching to the
Sun.)
Summary:
I was given several places to try, but because of the nature of monitors, we
decided to just replace our SPARC2s (and monitors) with SPARC5s with new
monitors.
Thanks to those that responded:
Mike Frisch <mfrisch@saturn.tlug.org>
"Robert D. Worsham" <worsham@gaea.aer.com>
Jim Harmon <jharmon@telecnnct.com>
"Joel L. Seber - Sun Workstation Lab Manager" <JLS2013@tntech.edu>
crock@kudzu.astr.ua.edu (Deborah A. Crocker)
"Seifert, John" <SEIFERT@COMSWSYS.TINKERNET.AF.MIL>
Detailed responses follow.
From: Mike Frisch <mfrisch@saturn.tlug.org>
I do not have anything to add as far as locating a repair shop, but I am
quite curious to know the results your your query. I have an old GDM-1604
which is my only Sun monitor at home which needs repair and I am doubting
whether or not it's worth to have to fixed. From talking to technicians,
I believe my problem is very trivial (slight screen distortion on the
corners), but if there is nobody who will open it up for a decent price,
it is certainly not worth it. One local repair shop charges about $250
USD to even look at the monitor and more for parts. They have a good rep,
but I can get a better (albeit still used) replacement for less money.
From: "Robert D. Worsham" <worsham@gaea.aer.com>
Try AMC Computer Services
146-B Rangeway Road
P.O. Box 286
N. Billerica, MA 01861
(508) 670-9395 - voi
(508) 670-9327 - fax
They are currently doing some of our hardware maintenance.
I reponsded to Robert's message with:
Thanks for your reply. Have you had them repair any old monitors, and did
the monitor last after that for more than a few months?
His reponse:
We have our monitors under maintenance with them, so I can't speak to
that issue. We have had them swap out monitors under our contract
and have had no problems with them.
From: Jim Harmon <jharmon@telecnnct.com>
Any good computer repair shop should have a registered CRT Technician.
It will probably cost between 60 and 150.00 for the service plus parts,
which could go as high as 2-300.00, but the tech should let you know in
advance before ordering any parts.
Just in case, make sure you put in writing that you must personally
authorize any part costs before they do any actual repairs, and STAY OUT
of Computer City repair centers. They send it to Radio Shack, and the
Radio Shack techs probably have never touched SUN equipment before.
From: "Joel L. Seber - Sun Workstation Lab Manager" <JLS2013@tntech.edu>
check out Electronic Business Solutions, Inc. at 508-663-2500. Their
address is 1 Executive Park Drive, N. Billerica, MA 01862. We have used
them for several years and are quite pleased with their service and prices.
I responded to Joel's message with:
Thanks for your reply. Have you had old monitors repaired by them with good
results (ie the repair lasted longer than a few months)?
His reponse:
The only monitors I've sent them were from another department. They have
not reported any additional problems to me with any of the repaired
monitors. I have used EBS mostly for motherboards in our department, but I
have every confidence that their work is trustworthy. They warranty most of
their work for 90 days, also.
From: crock@kudzu.astr.ua.edu (Deborah A. Crocker)
We've been through the repair problem on monitors a couple of times.
If your problem is the tube then 'repair' is an awfully expensive option.
We have only had tube problems and we end up getting refurbished monitors
as replacements and one time we got an uncertified (I forget the official
description) monitor to replace one of our larger ones (at about $1000). By
uncertified I believe it was not burned in nor tested for alignments. It
ended up working fine though.
There is a place in the Boston area called The Concorde Group but I have
gotten higher quotes from them. I also think their people are on commission
(excuse me if I'm wrong) and felt they were a little pushy. Most of
what I have found to call for quotes, etc, is on the West coast.
My last thought is that if you really want to get the same type of monitor
back you will definitely be getting refurbished. There is the option,
however of getting one of the new types and using a cable adapter. I
believe this can be done and a search of the sun-managers archives will
yield more info on this.
From: "Seifert, John" <SEIFERT@COMSWSYS.TINKERNET.AF.MIL>
I also lost a SUN RGB monitor last week. The contracting office, tried
to get SUN to work on it but SUN said that they no longer support that
monitor. The model number I have is 365-1000-01. They said that they
make an adapter to work the RGB to work with the new monitor the price
of the adapter is $45, but the new 20" monitor is $1400. This is in
Oklahoma City.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:12:01 CDT