Topic: Creative Labs trade-in deal for broken JB3s

[scoper]

Oops... make that a PCM-M1 (the "pro" twin to the TCD100). Nice little DAT, that one.

Ah, that's what I figured.  But FWIW, the SBM-1 and M1/D100 do not have the same AD stage.  An excellent post on this matter (not surprisingly) from Todd R over on the old Oade forum, with a couple links to comments by Doug Oade, as well.

Just proving my rookie status - I was perfectly happy with my MD recordings for six years, but hated the disc flips. So when the MD died and my friend recommended this little forum I discovered the jb3, which I had never heard of before. I bought that instead of the HiMD I had planned on, and that started me down the path to....

Trouble
with a capital T
which rhymes with D
which stands for dollars

I was blissfully ignorant of the dark side, and I blame TS.com for ruining a perfectly good mind with thoughts of A/D converters, preamps, and the inevitable 24 bit plunge that will follow.

Seriously, though, this is the best place for this hobby that I've ever found, and a bunch of great people ready to support (or stomp) whenever needed.

Scott

[scoper]

I just got off the phone with Creative (my RMA hasn't been updated on website since 10/17.) They basically told me flat out they'd charge me $161.xx to fix the hard drive, as the hard drive test failed... Tried to give me this nice 'offer' about switching to another player, as the jb3 is now obsolete and I'd get a credit for the jb3. I told them flat out to send back my old player, and that $160 fee to replace a Hard drive was fucking ridiculous. I mentioned the $40 deal, and the fact that that was the ONLY reason I had sent it in to begin with. Rep said they changed the policy, and now it's $24.95 and it has to be in warranty (1 year)... something about originally buying the jb3 off of ebay and the creative site/powerseller. :p  Oh- the rep also quoted a motherboard replacement at $110.

Glad I  called THEM 'cause no one bothered to get back to me. Grrrrrrr.   

Sorry your experience worked out that way. Mine was still in warranty, thus the difference. Then again, I remember that Sony was ready to charge me 125 bucks flat to repair my seven year old MD, which I thought was robbery. Good luck finding a replacement - there's always someone selling here in the Yard Sale.

[spyder9]

I just got off the phone with Creative (my RMA hasn't been updated on website since 10/17.) They basically told me flat out they'd charge me $161.xx to fix the hard drive, as the hard drive test failed... Tried to give me this nice 'offer' about switching to another player, as the jb3 is now obsolete and I'd get a credit for the jb3. I told them flat out to send back my old player, and that $160 fee to replace a Hard drive was fucking ridiculous. I mentioned the $40 deal, and the fact that that was the ONLY reason I had sent it in to begin with. Rep said they changed the policy, and now it's $24.95 and it has to be in warranty (1 year)... something about originally buying the jb3 off of ebay and the creative site/powerseller. :p  Oh- the rep also quoted a motherboard replacement at $110.

Glad I  called THEM 'cause no one bothered to get back to me. Grrrrrrr.   

Wow!  Bummer!  +T for your troubles.  They must be running low on them to change their policy.  I don't even have a receipt for either of mine and they sent me new refurbs.

[hitch]

Sorry your experience worked out that way. Mine was still in warranty, thus the difference. Then again, I remember that Sony was ready to charge me 125 bucks flat to repair my seven year old MD, which I thought was robbery. Good luck finding a replacement - there's always someone selling here in the Yard Sale.

Wow!  Bummer!  +T for your troubles.  They must be running low on them to change their policy.  I don't even have a receipt for either of mine and they sent me new refurbs.

Thanks guys!
I feel better now.

[hitch]

Update: I fixed the jb3 myself.    Well, 2 of 3 problems.

First, was the hard drive was busted. So I realized swapping out a new HDD looked easy enough. Then I had the dreaded firmware O/S error on start up that would never let my upgrade my firmware. I had f/w 1.10  and wanted to go to 1.40.  I kept getting the  'Sorry wrong firmware' message. So I figured it was too big a jump.  Then when I tried to go to 1.11 (before going to 1.40) I kept getting the "Firmware error, your player needs to be restarted message." I tried both USB and Firewire on a Windows XP SP2 machine.

Finally, I decided there must be something screwy with my computer, so I tried updating to 1.11 on a Windows 2000 SP4 with firewire. It went through! I updated the drivers and then updated to 1.40. So for any of you that are having the problem with updating firmware, try a few differnt computers and possibly O/S's!!!   I wasted enough time trying to FORCE the update on my XP box.

The only OTHER problem I found out about is that the headphone jack is loose, and there isn't sound when I plug in my headphones (needs wiggling.) I noticed the previous owner made an attempt at soldering. How difficult is it to re-solder?