Finally fixed something of my own!

[CZroe]

Word spreads FAST when you fix a few coworkers' iPods and iPhones for the cost of parts, so I've been fixing other people's stuff for months now (lots of people in this warehouse)! On days when I'm not actually working on them during my lunch breaks I'm researching fixes and ordering parts. Yeah, it's quick, cheap, and easy, but due to the volume swallows up my free time! Yeah, I should start charging when I get these guys sorted).

Anyway, I got tired of fixing everyone else's stuff and took a break to look at a set of speakers I bought in 2003/2004: The Logitech Z-680 THX certified 5.1 405 watt RMS surround sound system with DTS and Dolby Digital decoding (RARE outside of a HT receiver back then). These were $400 speakers that I got new on clearance for half price a while before the successors arrived (Z-5500; mostly just cosmetic changes). I was already out of warranty when I first set them up (long story) and discovered that the front-right channel was blown, so I never got to use them.

The problem was common online and the fix was elusive, so I googled these every couple years but I was a little more intense this time. I always looked for Z-680/Z-5500 info, but I began looking at fixes for other sets with similar issues and I finally saw something that piqued my curiosity. I had looked inside for hidden fuses before, but now I knew EXACTLY what to look for: T2AL250V glass fuses hidden in heat-shrink tubing and soldered on. $3.50 later and some soldering and they now work beautifully! That also covered 3 spares in case it happens again.

I guess I'd better make sure to include the long story for anyone else fruitlessly searching like I was. Logitech's baffling and expensive warranty practices are part of this, so I'll start with how my warranty was gone before I ever got them set up:

I was building a 16x16x16 accessory building to use as a man cave, so I put these in storage until it was built and electrified a year later. Even then, I simply hooked them up to test the outlet layout. They seemed to work and helped me decide where I wanted wall plates for speaker wires and power outlets, so they went back in the box for many more months while we finished the place (paneling, converted loft to second floor, lighting, furnishing, etc).

When it was fully furnished, I built top of the line HTPC specifically to play Doom 3 with these speakers (don't laugh): Athlon XP+ mobile Barton with L2 pin mod (400FSB) in a Shuttle SN45G2 (nForce2 + MCP-T w/ DD Live encoding) + nVidia 6600GT OC. I even got a lift-top cocktail table with a Logitech DiNovo Bluetooth set and, got it all connected, and then realized something was wrong: Not all the speakers worked. Because they tested fine the last time they were out of the box and the speakers themselves worked fine (tried them in different channels), I thought that the problem was only in digital mode.

I was working two full-time jobs and it took me a few weeks to get back and confirm that it wasn't the PC configuration. The right-front channel was dead in analog mode as well. Time to call Logitech. It was the weekend so I had to wait a couple days but they wanted proof of purchase. I got that from Circuit City the next day and called Logitech back, but I was now exactly two days outside of my 2 year warranty. Despite discovering the problem well within my warranty, they could only offer me 50% off the current model (Z-5500). That totaled with what I already paid would put me at MSRP. I don't do MSRP, so I stubbornly looked for a repair option instead. Logitech does warranty replacements only and does not offer repair services (paid or warranty). They do not even RMA the broken ones when issuing a replacement (you keep it).

It looked like people online were having the same problem with various channels on both the Z-680 and Z-5500 speaker sets but no one could get it repaired by Logitech or a professional (no service information). Instead of simply replacing the defective sub/amp module, people in warranty were getting full replacement sets (Z-680 users were upgraded to Z-5500 speakers). This seems to be because the external control pods had different pin-outs across manufacturing revisions and because they don't repair/refurbish.

I dug in my heels and started looking for fuses other than the user-serviceable fuse accessible from the outside. I didn't find any and thought it would have been strange for them to put fuse protection in there that sacrifices itself to protect a device that is basically destroyed anyway as far as Logitech is concerned and only costs them money (they may not have had to replace the set if the fuse didn't blow). I eventually gave up, figuring that someone online would have mentioned this if it were that simple.

Fast-forward 8 years and I found someone saying that his completely different analog speakers blew a channel when he bridged two live speaker wires, which happens often on units with spring clip terminals instead of RCA cinch plugs (a revision they added later on). Mine had spring terminals and that's very likely what happened, so I realized that there probably was a channel-specific fuse on there somewhere after all. He mentioned that the fuses he found were wrapped in heat-shrink tubing. Sure enough, that's why I missed them! I took a look and found 5 glass T2AL250V fuses under heat-shrink tubing with axial leads soldered onto the PCB! They were even labeled F1-F5. I know to look at the PCB silk-screens, but they looked just like axial lead diodes so I had glossed right over them!

Radio Shack didn't have any appropriately-sized fuse holders to go with the 5x20mm fuses so I had to solder on some leads, but I now have a fully working set!

[Alex]

Was doing my normal thing of bumping unanswered threads, and came across this one from @CZroe; realized we hadn't heard from him in awhile. CZ - any new gadget stories?

[rasta]

Made me think of this

[JohnnyBravo]

that's still racist

[rasta]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBravo

that's still racist

Nooo it's cool dude, I'm Asian

[JohnnyBravo]

Haha I know, I oddly find racism amusing(as in retarded) cause everybody is something.... Long as your not killin, or whoopin folks I could care less what word or words a person uses. Some folks are overly sensitive though.

Ill leave this at that

[CZroe]

Yikes. It has been a long time.

I started a new job almost a year ago and my coworker unexpectedly quit, leaving me working open to close 7 days a week for almost a year! That's 12 hours a day that I am in my private office completely disconnected (no personal phones, no Internet). I call it "my dungeon."

I never knew it would go on this long and never would have agreed to it if it weren't for that elusive light at the end of the tunnel... which they kept extending over and over. I thought expanded holiday hours would force them to hire some backup for me and, well they did, but they fired him almost as soon as he was done training (he's actually a member here as well).

They finally hired someone last month but I had a year's-worth of things that I needed a day off to do. I have been too swamped with people begging for iPad, iPod, and iPhone repairs to even think about the Ninjette until today. Of course, the battery was ruined from a year of disuse. That's why I'm here today: to start a thread about my search for a replacement.

Thanks for thinking about me while I was gone. Even my neighbors thought I fell off the face of the Earth!

[JohnnyBravo]

Welcome back... I hate working 12 hours a day

[corksil]

nVidia 6600GT OC...... I had one of those.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by corksil

nVidia 6600GT OC...... I had one of those.

Yeah, it was a value legend In its day. That's a pretty old system these days!

Running a Swiftech H320 water cooled dual nVidia GTX 760 4GB cards in SLI these days (more powerful than a GTX Titan).

It's in an even older chassis though:
modified Cooler Master CM Stacker STC-T01 with a 3x120mm radiator mount replacing the laughable 80mm blowhole and top PSU bay (it has two). It also needed USB3.0, HD Audio, a 250mm fan in the 300mm grill (also had a laughable 80mm fan on it), and one completely useless "because I can" mod: inverted motherboard thanks to BTX-convertible design (still needed cuts to keep the cards on top).

[corksil]

I built a few computers back in the day. Back when counter-strike 1.5 was the bee's knees. Then 1.6 came out, time to rebuild computer, then CS;source....

Then I switched to laptops and stopped gaming. Sounds like a beastly machine but I don't follow the new-tech these days.