Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with malfunction

Car Door Lock Malfunction

forallmankind — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:52:35 -0800

When I lock my car with the remote, approx every 1 in 5 times the drivers door doesn't lock. I hear the mechanism activate, but I can see that the little lock handle on the inside of the door only moves halfway. Similar thing happens on unlock. What's going on here and who can fix this - my regular mechanic wasn't able to help. I had a few other electrical quirks (fuel guage inaccurate, lights not powering off after locking car) which have been resolved by replacing the battery, but the lock problem's still there.

Is this something worth trying to fix? It's a minor pain that I'd like resolved, but it ain't such a big deal as to drop $100s on. Who fixes things like this? And why does it happen intermittantly - that's what's driving me crazy!

03 Infiniti G35 Coupe, 77K miles.

What's wrong with my fire alarm?

RustyBrooks — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:13:05 -0800

My fire alarm started going off randomly last night, several times, after doing so inter-mittently over the last year. What is causing this, and what can I do? So here's the symptoms... we moved in about 1.5 years ago, and the fire alarms went off randomly like once every few months. Usually it would just do the alarm cycle 3 times, like beepbeepbeep... beepbeepbeep... beepbeepbeep... and stop (this is the same thing it does when you press the test button...)

I've replaced all the batteries (although none of them had the check battery light on, or were making that obnoxious chirping sound)

Then last night it did this at 2am, 4am, 4:50am and about 5:30am. Because nothing was on fire and I wanted some sleep, I removed *all* of the fire alarms (unplugged them from the ceiling, removed the batteries).

These are "normal" fire alarms, same as in every house I've ever lived in. They plug into a small outlet in the ceiling, they're "networked" together so that if one goes off, they all do. What might cause this? What can I do to fix it? Would one "bad" one convince the network of them that an alarm was going off? Bad wiring? I'm assuming there's no central control panel for them in the house (I've never seen one) but maybe there is some where?

How do I escalate my AppleCare problem?

snarfois — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:19:22 -0800

I'm disappointed with the service I'm getting from an Apple authorised repair centre. Where do I go from here? A month ago on AskMeFi I described a problem with my Mac Mini, 6 months old and still under warranty and AppleCare. As mumkin recommended on that thread, I took the Mac in for repair, especially as it was defeating the computer's main purpose of being a media centre.

I dropped the Mac off 3 weeks ago, with a video I took demonstrating the problem in action (using 2 different remotes and a clean install), and links to websites where 3 other Mac users describe the same problem (without reaching a resolution.)

The people at the repair shop keep telling me they are unable to recreate the problem. I admit it could be difficult: it usually only showed up after the Mac's been on for hours, and not every time. They say that until they can recreate it, they can't fix it. They are unmoved by the thought of me moaning about them, Mac servicing and Macs in general on the web.

Isn't it perhaps time for giving me some benefit of the doubt? It should be clear I'm not imagining the problem, nor doing without my media centre for laughs. If they can't find the problem, they can swap the machine for a new one. I'm just worried that this will drag on for weeks and weeks, I may never get it fixed, and my brand new Mac media centre will end up being a big waste of money. Or am I being unfair?

Another Mac Question

priested — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:01:23 -0800

Yes, another ibook question... Freezing/Crashing...(more inside) Okay, I know this has been asked before on Ask Mefi, but it just gets so specific from machine to machine I thought I'd ask again. Of note, I am not the most computer savvy person.

Here goes: I have a 14" 1.33 GHz Power PC G4, w/ 1.25GB RAM ibook bought in Feb, 2005 that runs 10.4.10, has 5 GB left on a 60 GB hard drive (lots o' music)... In the last 2 days (and for the first time), it has crashed/frozen twice... The first time, an odd warning with 4 different languages came up telling me to turn off the power. The second time, the screen flashed 4 different colors, ultimately forcing me to turn it off manually again.

Also of note: In the last year I had to get the video card replaced, (this is bad, but I can't quite remember if it was the video card. Basically, the monitor cut out on me. The sound still worked, nothing could be seen). Apple fixed whatever it was for $300 in lieu of me not having apple care. I also got the battery replaced. (went through 300 cycles).

Most recently I did 2 things...
1. I downloaded Safari 3.0.3, hated it, and have since got another version of 2.0.4 that oddly enough, has "2.0.4" on the icon in my dock.
2. Had to get a 65 Watt power adapter as my 45W frayed. Since then, these two things seem to be the catapult....

My question is this: What should I do at this point that doesn't involve spending a bunch of money on an older but for the most part up-to-date machine? Is it time to start thinking about getting a new one?

Thanks for hanging in there and reading this lenghty question...

Power Window Power

Jon-o — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:48:30 -0800

Can anyone with classic car restoration experience help me with a strange electrical problem that I'm having with a 1961 Lincoln Continental? This car came with a feature where by the rear power windows would descend about an inch or two upon initial opening in order that they clear the deployed soft top. When shut, the window would then re-extend itself into the fully closed position. There's a pin switch in the door frame that, when the open door allows the spring tension to close the switch, a relay in the trunk is energized and the window motor is activated. There's a limiting mechanism in the door that cuts power to the motor after the window has descended the correct amount. When the door is shut, it actuates the pin switch again, and the motor scrolls the window up until the limiting mechanism de-energizes the motor to prevent it from running constantly.

At least that's what I can gather.

Only, this neat feature doesn't work with any consistancy. I know that the circuit is correctly wired and intact because it works SOMETIMES. I can hear the fist-sized antique relays clunking away in the trunk and I can consistanty operate the windows using the conventional switches. I can even sometimes roll the window down a little bit with the conventional switch and then actuate the pin switch in the door frame and watch the window roll up, like it's supposed to.

So there must be some problem with the limiting mechanism, right? Can anyone in MeFiLand lend me some insight or point me towards a (free or really inexpensive) resource that would shed some light on this for me?

The pretension is killing me...

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:56:56 -0800

When, why and to what extent have seat belts moved from a mechanical trigger to an electronic one? My wife was in an accident last week, during which neither the seat belt nor the airbag in our 2005 Honda Civic restrained her. She hit the steering wheel and now has a broken rib and possibly a fractured scaphoid.

We were told that the sensors for the airbags are low in the bumper and weren't hit during the collision because the car she hit has a high back end. This pisses me off, but I chalk it up to shitty design on Honda's part.

The seat belt, however, infuriates me. Honda says it did not lock because its sensors also were not set off during the crash. Sensors? I was under the impression that seat belts had a mechanical trigger instead of an electric one, but this page indicates that our Civic has "pretensioners." Forgive my ignorance of autos here; are pretensioners an additional safety feature of mechanical seat belts or replacements of them?

I'm not looking to sue, as the other driver was at fault (she cut off my wife then slammed on her brakes). I'm asking mostly to find out why a simple mechanism as important as a seat belt would be electronically updated.

squishy is good for pillows, not batteries

Lucinda — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:28:51 -0800

iPod battery turned soft and squishy. Why? I replaced the battery in my 3rd generation 10GB iPod back in October. The battery started to lose its charge too quickly about two weeks ago (a full 8 hour charge would provide an hour of playback, tops), so I opened it to see what was going on.

When I put the battery in back in October, it looked like a flat, hard, wrapped in silver package. Now, it's slightly inflated, soft and squishy (but not leaking).

Has this happened to anyone else? Do I need to worry about damage to my iPod (it seemed to be working fine except for the battery issue). Did I do something to cause this to happen (I didn't treat it with kid gloves but I didn't throw it down flights of stairs)?

(I'm sending it back to the company for a replacement, though that was arranged before I opened it and saw the battery's condition.)

DVD burner issues

ontic — Sat, 29 Jan 2005 09:58:26 -0800

I have a Pioneer DVD-ROM drive and it was quite good at playing DVDs. I didn't use it for playing movies for a long while and eventually installed a DVD-burner (Pioneer too, actually). Now I can't play movies on my original DVD-ROM drive. It just spits them back out with an unceremonious "No Disc Detected". Data discs, even burned DVD-Rs work fine, as I use the drive for my main drive. Playing them on the burner works fine. Is this copy protection at work or just a strange coincidence? [MI] Oddly, I don't even want to use the burner to copy DVDs. My old DVD player burned out and this forces me to play all of my DVDs on the burner, to which I'd like to give less of a workload. I've looked around the net and have seen a number of people with this problem, but it's never given a real answer, nor can I find any reference to a copy-protection scheme that works this way. But it's just a little convenient, y'know?