A couple of months back I posted about an eMate that had suddenly developed
a very loose hinge and strange power management issues on the very day I
bought it. Many list members provided help and information in various ways,
and I'd just like to thank you all now (you know who you are) and apologize
for not having kept up my side of the conversation. [Warning: excuses
ahead] I went into an insanely busy period right around then, capped with a
hospitalized family member (she's going to be OK), and just couldn't find
the time and energy to organize all the information enough to make an
intelligent report back. So, I'm sorry, and I'm very grateful for all the
help. OK, having got that off my chest ...
I can now confirm that the eMate in question did, as feared, suffer from the
famous popped hinge spring cutting the display ribbon cable syndrome. It
just hadn't cut through the cable far enough to make the screen
unresponsive, but it did eventually. I don't know if the strange power
issues were related, but it seems very likely since they started at the same
time the hinge suddenly loosened. The dead screen followed a few days
later. From this sad tale, there are two issues arising that I'd like to
mention, for all you eMate lovers:
1. It has been suggested before that this syndrome results from a
manufacturing error where a spring is used that has one leg too short,
resulting in it eventually popping out from under its retaining screw.
However, the short-legged spring in my eMate appeared, in the opinion of
some sharp-eyed observers in the operating theatre, to be broken, rather
than to have been made that way. This is important because, if true, then
it means that it's a design flaw, not a manufacturing error, and therefore
all eMates are potentially in danger of suffering this fate. (It might be
just that I'm more aware of the issue now, but it does seem to me that there
has been a proliferation of screen-dead eMates on the planet lately.) So,
even if your eMate is fine, and even if you open it up and look at the hinge
springs and they have long legs, it might be a good idea to do the
add-a-washer fix anyway, on the theory that this might make the spring less
likely to break in the future.
2. Regardless of which theory is right, there is a dire need to find a
replacement for that darn ribbon cable. It seems such a shame that there
are probably hundreds, maybe thousands, of eMates lying dead in closets and
classrooms that only need that little cable to come back to life. Somebody
on the list tried a contact at Apple who reportedly said they don't have any
but that (IIRC) it was not a custom made part. (Although it's a very
definite shape, with a right angle turn, so I'm not so sure.) So ... does
anybody have any ideas where or how to look for this part? Or, would a
custom manufacturing run be feasible? (I'm guessing probably not, unless
you want thousands of them, but who knows?) There shouldn't be any problem
getting a dead cable as a sample, and the connectors on the ends are
probably all still OK. With the thousands (?) of people on this list, I'm
hoping somebody knows about this particular corner of the industry. I'll
bet some enterprising and skilled person with access to a supply of these
cables could do a brisk business reviving all the dead eMates.
In hope,
Michael
-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Sat Mar 02 2002 - 10:03:55 EST