That is the WRONG attitude to have, though. Even though you are tech support, you still have to perform some basic customer service functions. After all, a customer who gets the problem resolved but who was treated in a poor manner will leave for greener pastures just as fast, if not faster than, a customer who doesn't get the problem resolved. You also have to remember this customer has contacts who WILL be told about their horrible experience, and THOSE people have contacts, etc. (Yes, I come from a tech support background. I now do training for those tech support people, and we have an entire module devoted to customer service - how to do and NOT to do it and how to deal with people who probably were last talking to somone with your attitude and are now angry customers.)
Here's one that's got tons of links in it, pretty well organized too. It's from a teacher's perspective, so it's really more educational/research than fun.
I have a 390x that I got around March 2000. The first Li-ion battery lasted until September 2001, and it displayed similar symptoms (sudden % charge drop, over a period of a few weeks degrading to a 100%->double battery warning w/in 5 minutes). I bought a replacement in October 2001, and that one did the same thing in November 2002. Right now I'm stuck using it tied down to AC, as I don't have the $ for yet another battery. At least there's enough residual charge to move it from one part of the house to another and plug it back in, so I suppose I should be grateful for that.
I sure would like to know if there's anything I can do to revive these batteries before I scrape up the coin to purchase yet another short-lived battery.
Prior to the battery dying, my typical usage was AC by day and battery by night (battery low meant I needed to go to sleep anyway...). The first battery saw a lot of off-AC usage since it had wireless internet and I had it up in the car, etc., yet it seemed to last a bit longer - go figure. I normally would let it go to a 20% or less charge before plugging in the AC life support.
I was one of the 4 sys admins for Ricochet and used it regularly on the road to and from work, as well as from home and in the office (it was faster than our corporate LAN most days, and certainly came in handy when someone cut the fiber between Houston and Dallas and/or San Jose). I was able to VPN into our corporate net w/ no appreciable different in speed and monitor the network from home. It sure was handy when I got calls in the middle of the night from the NOC, since I was an hour's drive away from the office. I usually kept my laptop up on the drive to and from work w/ the realtime traffic map displayed so I knew which route to take to work.
I just wish we had never gone BK -- it's a cool technology and there's still nothing out there that works like it did.
I'm not sure *where* you were moving, since my R2 works fine at the advertised 70 mph (albeit not at its max speed, which I've clocked at 300Kbps on occasion).
I remember the first (and only) time I heard one of these sounds. My heatsink/CPU fan had popped off which, of course, allowed the CPU temp to rise above the alarm threshold. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the Sam Hill was happening. I can imagine a luser would probably have a herd of cattle if it happened to him/her.:)
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That is the WRONG attitude to have, though. Even though you are tech support, you still have to perform some basic customer service functions. After all, a customer who gets the problem resolved but who was treated in a poor manner will leave for greener pastures just as fast, if not faster than, a customer who doesn't get the problem resolved. You also have to remember this customer has contacts who WILL be told about their horrible experience, and THOSE people have contacts, etc.
(Yes, I come from a tech support background. I now do training for those tech support people, and we have an entire module devoted to customer service - how to do and NOT to do it and how to deal with people who probably were last talking to somone with your attitude and are now angry customers.)
Here's one that's got tons of links in it, pretty well organized too. It's from a teacher's perspective, so it's really more educational/research than fun.
Teach the Children Well
I have a 390x that I got around March 2000. The first Li-ion battery lasted until September 2001, and it displayed similar symptoms (sudden % charge drop, over a period of a few weeks degrading to a 100%->double battery warning w/in 5 minutes). I bought a replacement in October 2001, and that one did the same thing in November 2002. Right now I'm stuck using it tied down to AC, as I don't have the $ for yet another battery. At least there's enough residual charge to move it from one part of the house to another and plug it back in, so I suppose I should be grateful for that.
I sure would like to know if there's anything I can do to revive these batteries before I scrape up the coin to purchase yet another short-lived battery.
Prior to the battery dying, my typical usage was AC by day and battery by night (battery low meant I needed to go to sleep anyway...). The first battery saw a lot of off-AC usage since it had wireless internet and I had it up in the car, etc., yet it seemed to last a bit longer - go figure. I normally would let it go to a 20% or less charge before plugging in the AC life support.
I was one of the 4 sys admins for Ricochet and used it regularly on the road to and from work, as well as from home and in the office (it was faster than our corporate LAN most days, and certainly came in handy when someone cut the fiber between Houston and Dallas and/or San Jose). I was able to VPN into our corporate net w/ no appreciable different in speed and monitor the network from home. It sure was handy when I got calls in the middle of the night from the NOC, since I was an hour's drive away from the office. I usually kept my laptop up on the drive to and from work w/ the realtime traffic map displayed so I knew which route to take to work.
I just wish we had never gone BK -- it's a cool technology and there's still nothing out there that works like it did.
I'm not sure *where* you were moving, since my R2 works fine at the advertised 70 mph (albeit not at its max speed, which I've clocked at 300Kbps on occasion).
I remember the first (and only) time I heard one of these sounds. My heatsink/CPU fan had popped off which, of course, allowed the CPU temp to rise above the alarm threshold. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the Sam Hill was happening. I can imagine a luser would probably have a herd of cattle if it happened to him/her. :)