Electronics warranty kill switch - How do they know when to die.

My laptop worked fine for two years then about a week ago the DVD drive started making noise then yesterday morning the screen was fine that evening dead would not light up.

I called tech service and the warranty expired ten days ago.

This is to coincidental top be anything but a conspiracy. There must be a kill switch that is set to kill the computer, TV DVD player phone etc, hours after the warranty expires.

What bugs me is that I know that if I had extended the warranty the laptop would have never had a problem the kill switch would have been somehow reset to kill the computer at a later date.

Paranoid.

just a coincidence mate, they give you a warrenty of that long because they know it's going to last about that long... sly, yes, illegal, no.

I've been suspicious of things like that for a couple years now. I know exactly what you mean. Not only that but a lot of times you have to purchase a warranty. So basically your paying for the company to say "yeah our product will last". But yeah, I agree, mighty suspicious. No saying they sit there and wait for the warranty to expire and flip a switch, but they are def up to no good.

Be serious. My HDTV went out ten days BEFORE the warranty expired. Why did they not wait eleven more days to kill it? Instead they had to come out (twice!) and replace an expensive part all on their own dime. The whole issue is statistical. hey know on average how long to have a warranty that won't cause them any expense. Besides, you've got everything backed up, right?

It is a conspiracy.

It can be a few things though.

1. You are really hard on your equipment, it overheated and stopped working.

2. The manufacturer only makes products that last 24 months as they don't make any money if you don't have to buy a new one every couple of years.

It's probably #2...

But no, a remove kill switch for HARDWARE, is pretty much impossible, and somebody who is tech savy would have noticed and called them out on it.

~Keeper

There's actually some merit to this I think, not a killswitch per se, but there was a big stink a few years back about a major computer company using 'cheaper' capacitors that had a life span that was almost exactly the length of the warranty of their products. I have an Atari 1040 ST in my closet that still works, but I have about four or five modern computers lying around that fried out in a couple years. It's all about the money, why sell people something that you know will last for decades when you can sell them something that will burn out in a year and need to be replaced?

reply to post by logicalthinking


I was just reading about this the other day -
There is a name for it - can't remember but I am searching.

Basically certain 'components' are set to trip after x 1000 times of use or x amount of days.
This basically ensures you as a consumer will keep consuming.
They could make phones that last 10 years but then they wouldn't be able to sell you another one till then...
So you get the drift.....

Its something like Corporate product cycling or something similar...still googling...

they dont make em like they used too.

Im convinced they build xboxs with a certain life span,any x box owner goes through 3 xboxes if hes a gamer,I stoppped at the second,I take care of my stuff,it just died and its common knowledge they go belly up.they could fix this fault but why bother when people will always buy a new one.

Could be just that they are on an assembly line,millions of them being put together from many different components and some parts will be dodgy.But i have always thought they build these electric equipment with a limited lifespan so you keep buying when it reaches its time to die.

edit ....agree with the poster before me,Ive read somethig similiar.

i feel ya! i got my laptop through a rent to own place (dont recommend it) and it took me about 2 years to pay it off. after i had paid it off, it was like everything was going wrong with it. i had a friend wipe it and install windows 7 and its been running fine ever since.

reply to post by twitchy

Yep, capacitors and contacts that wear out too fast. I've been a heavy consumer of electronics and music equipment and they seem to be doing this deliberately. My oldest electronic equipment (ten to twenty-five years old) still works with no blown capacitors or worn contacts. I think companies that make products that end up useless within a couple of years ought to be fined or taxed...

All electronics and appliances made now are crap......
It's all I can say here.
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by ChrisCrikey
reply to post by twitchy

 

Yep, capacitors and contacts that wear out too fast. I've been a heavy consumer of electronics and music equipment and they seem to be doing this deliberately. My oldest electronic equipment (ten to twenty-five years old) still works with no blown capacitors or worn contacts. I think companies that make products that end up useless within a couple of years ought to be fined or taxed...

Yep I have a Murantz (spelling) receiver from 1978 and it still kicks ass and runs perfect.
Even all the lights and gauges work perfectly to this day and it sounds great.
Regards, Iwinder

There is indeed some merit to this - hardware hackers have discovered a chip in Xerox printers that basically instructs the printer to stop printing, it essentually decides the printer is broke! - Google xerox and phaser drum unit, they ID'd it and then went about finding a way to get around it, surprise! They did, and the 'broken' printers function perfectly!

Scam after scam, all this modern stuff is designed for the dump, a small amount of people make it rich and the entire world gets raped.

on the subject of new technology.I have an old philips cd player,have it for about 10 years,wasnt seduced by the new #,its going great ,why change. I have an old style fat portable tv and its great.

I've seen those new flatscreen tvs and no matter how many slogans tell me the image is clearer I dont see it,its blurry,gets pixelated and smudgy.The old heavy big fat tvs had a better smoother picture.call me crazy but Im convinced they designed this mass produced lighter tv,you can ship way more flatscreens in a container than the big ole ass fat ones,size and weight wise.convince us were watching crystal clear smooth images with slogans repeated again and again and well accept it,

Originally posted by Now_Then
There is indeed some merit to this - hardware hackers have discovered a chip in Xerox printers that basically instructs the printer to stop printing, it essentually decides the printer is broke! - Google xerox and phaser drum unit, they ID'd it and then went about finding a way to get around it, surprise! They did, and the 'broken' printers function perfectly!

Scam after scam, all this modern stuff is designed for the dump, a small amount of people make it rich and the entire world gets raped.

wow,just as i always suspected.I gave up on printers,two have died on me for no reason.they are cheap now cause the money is in the ink.its like buying liquid gold,screw that.

Originally posted by Angrybadger
on the subject of new technology.I have an old philips cd player,have it for about 10 years,wasnt seduced by the new #,its going great ,why change. I have an old style fat portable tv and its great.

I've seen those new flatscreen tvs and no matter how many slogans tell me the image is clearer I dont see it,its blurry,gets pixelated and smudgy.The old heavy big fat tvs had a better smoother picture.call me crazy but Im convinced they designed this mass produced lighter tv,you can ship way more flatscreens in a container than the big ole ass fat ones,size and weight wise.convince us were watching crystal clear smooth images with slogans repeated again and again and well accept it,

We have a 32 inch Sony tv here and its at least 20 years old (It was my mothers) still perfect picture and never a problem but the sucker is heavy and I mean heavy......the weight is probably due to quality as in well made.
Regards, Iwinder

Ah, don't even get me started on printers. I had two identical printers that stopped working on exactly the same day and I knew there was absolutely nothing wrong with them and was not a virus - one was hooked up to an online computer while the other was on a computer I never use online...as for printer ink I did manage to get in on a class action suit against one prominent manufacturer but that must have been at least six or seven years ago.

Originally posted by ChrisCrikey
Ah, don't even get me started on printers. I had two identical printers that stopped working on exactly the same day and I knew there was absolutely nothing wrong with them and was not a virus - one was hooked up to an online computer while the other was on a computer I never use online...as for printer ink I did manage to get in on a class action suit against one prominent manufacturer but that must have been at least six or seven years ago.

Just asking you there Chris could you drop one letter of the alpha bit to give us a hint?
Might be helpful down the road of what not to purchase for a printer.
Regards, Iwinder

most of the new technology now is disposable.

reply to post by Iwinder

Yeah, started with an "E" but they paid a price and maybe are better about things now but I think they're all crap now though so I just buy cheapos that start with and H and am lucky to get two years out of them. If you search you'll find a large class action suit against the first mentioned about seven years ago but that was just for ink levels and the chips that say they're empty when they are not. I just hate contributing to garbage and landfills and that's why they all make me so angry. Built in obsolescence should be a crime.