[sf-lug] saga of my failed pioneer usb external dvd burner

[BillHill]

I want to relate this as another example of 'logic pays off', but the whole process takes place in a series of (psychological?) steps: 1) so thankyou Jason and Mikki for *encouraging* me to go to the sflug meeting last nite, and 2) those at the meeting helping me to *realize* that the problem of my external usb dvd burner (which used to work just fine) was indeed in the unit itself, and not in the interface cable or somehow in software. So then, needing still more reassurance that the problem may be solvable, 3) *don't give up*, Jason and I went to see if we might *ask for more help* from 'the wizards' at noisebridge, and I presented the problem to Mike Kan there.  It was clearly and logically a hardware problem, and 4) thinking it was perhaps a simple/obvious one, so *open up the box* and look (hardware, oh dear!!) - only 4 screws hidden under the rubber feet get the cover shell open, and as we got into taking out the drive unit itself, we noticed that the drive came off the connector to the attached circuit board rather-too-easily. Pushing the drive onto the connector better and reassembling the unit - wow! it works again! the computer 'sees' the unit again, so we find that 5) the 'hardware problem' was indeed just another *stupid/mechanical connection*, whereas most people would just say 'well hardware fails, go out and buy a new one'.

...just thought you-all might enjoy this story

--happycamper, billhill