Miscellaneous Items & Services

CRT projector repair service: We have worked on over 4000 CRT projectors since 1985 and stock lots of parts and can repair sets as well. We can troubleshoot and fix any make and model of CRT projector. Send me an email if you're having problems with your CRT projector or need spare boards.

We now refurbish and repair LCD flat screens, and also have a large quantity of refurbished units for sale.

Flat rate for repairs and sales, we have about a 70% success rate with our repairs.

Varying makes and models, 4:3 and widescreen models available, call or email Curt for current offerings.

Don’t recycle your old monitor until we've looked at it. Keeping a monitor out of the recycling program saves you money, and keeps our planet green!

XBox360 'red ring of death' repair service: As is well documented on the internet, the Xbox 360 consoles have been plagued with the 'red ring of death' or RROD failure. This causes the machine to shut down completely, and the power/diagnostic LEDs on the front of the 360 console turn red.

To be perfectly upfront, Microsoft is repairing these under warranty, and on July 5, 2007 announced that the red ring of death problem will be covered for 3 years from the date of purchase, and they will repair this problem/partial design flaw. So why am I offering the repair as well, you might ask? Well, as it turns out, the turnaround time for Microsoft can be anywhere from 3-8 weeks depending on the repairs required. In addition, if your Xbox 360 has been opened already and the Microsoft tamperproof sticker has been removed or altered, Microsoft will not even look at your machine! So for those that have hacked into the unit, Microsoft will not repair these machines, period. I’ve also heard that at least some of the returned consoles that were repaired under warranty have failed again shortly after being received from being repaired at Microsoft.

I therefore offer the following:

• I will repair the red ring of death (RROD) problem for $80.00 USD (Canadian at par!) if you pick up and drop off at my shop, or $99.00 USD/CAD incl return shipping if you ship it in.
• Turnaround time is typically 2 business days, including me running your unit for 12 hours after I repair it to make sure the repair is solid. I’ve repaired about 12 of these machines so far, and all are working fine.
• All I need is the console itself. I don't need the power supply, games, controllers or hard drive.

Other problems that do not display the red ring of death, such as 'audio works but the screen is blank' can also be caused by the same cure that repairs the more common red ring of death.

What we do when we repair the red ring of death:

• Install a fan mod so that the CPU fan is at full speed. This increases the noise of the XBox slightly, but the internals of the box run a lot cooler, extending the life of your XBox 360.
• Enhance the heat sink mounting method so that the main PC board does not flex.
• Install new heat sinking compound that has superior properties to the original compound.
• Test run your machine for 12 hours to ensure long life out of the repair.

Note that I cannot repair other Xbox 360 faults at this point such as intermittent reading of discs, bad power supplies, controllers, etc, but I perhaps will in the future.
Send me an email if you want to send your Xbox 360 in for repair. If you're shipping it to me, make sure to follow these instructions.

Need to re-repair your Xbox360? See our instructions for the most common re-occurring problem yourself to save time!
 

Return shipping included:
$99.00 USD/CAD

SVGA to 5 BNC breakout cables: I’ve got a great source for high quality 5’ molded breakout cables. These are surprisingly well shielded cables (I’ve cut one apart) with heavy duty molded ends. I use these all the time instead of making up custom cables; I’ve found that many custom built SVGA cables are very flimsy at the SVGA connector end, resulting in intermittent signals. For longer runs, I use one of these short SVGA to BNC cables, then use female to female couplers to couple the BNC ends to longer custom built BNC to BNC cables. If the SVGA end ever breaks, you only need to replace the short cable and not the entire expensive long one.

Custom cables with BNC or RCA connectors: I’ve now purchased the proper crimpers and crimps ends to make high caliber 5 RCA to RCA or 5 BNC to BNC cables, custom built to whatever length you need. The manufacturer claims that the crimps are solid enough so that the cable will break before the crimp does. The cable is great Belden YR 46942 as found here (140K PDF). I’ve run lengths up to 160’ in SVGA mode with minimal losses noted.

Plus $50 for 10 crimp-on ends, either BNC or RCA and heat-shrink at the breakout point.

10 sets of good condition HD 8 lenses: Fit all 8" non LC projectors. Got scratched ones? Replace them here for cheap.

ECP modules: I've got far too many ECP boards in stock and need to clear some out. I'll sell most of the boards out of an ECP (except HV and LV power supplies) for $50.00 USD each. I'll warranty and test all of the boards before shipping. This is a great way to stock up on some spare parts for your ECP!