Brought my 30GB Zune into this tiny repair place in Tucson back in March, and the guy behind the counter literally snorted when I set it on the counter. Still took 20 minutes to swap the battery for $15, and now it's my daily driver for podcasts, which is more than my phone does. Anyone else ever get judged for old gear and then get helped anyway?
Last month I drove from Seattle to Portland using my trusty old Garmin because I thought a paper map was too retro, and it rerouted me through three closed streets for a 'shortcut'. Has anyone else trusted a dying GPS over their own eyes and ended up in a random neighborhood, or am I the only one who forgets the map in the glovebox?
I grabbed a Garmin nuvi back in 2012 for a road trip out to Flagstaff, figured it was worth the cash since my flip phone had no nav. The thing still turns on and locks satellites fine, but the last map update was 2018 and the company just says it's end of life, no support. Anyone else sitting on an old GPS that works perfectly except for the fact that it wants to route you through a mall that got torn down 6 years ago?
Pulled out my Rio Karma from a box in my parents' basement and it actually turned on, battery even held a charge for like 3 hours. The software to sync it was gone from the internet so I had to use some random Linux driver patch from a forum, anyone else keep a graveyard of dead gadgets that still surprise you?
I held onto my Tungsten E2 for like 9 years because I thought it made me organized, then I tried to look up a bus route on it in Chicago and the web browser just froze. My phone does everything faster, and keeping the Palm was just clutter I felt guilty about. Anyone else here keep a dead device around for sentimental value even though it does nothing?
The tools and parts revived my 2nd gen in an hour, but the replacement battery died after 3 weeks and the seller ghosted me. Anyone else gamble on revival kits for unsupported gear, worth it or total burn?
Pulled it out this morning and it just gave me the sad face logo, after all those miles on the bus in Portland... guess the hard drive finally gave up. Anyone know if that one guy on eBay still swaps them with a CF card, or am I just stuck with a brick now?
My buddy dared me to jump start my dead Rio Karma using a 12V car battery for 30 seconds, and the screen flashed every color before the battery swelled up and popped out like a Pez dispenser. Now I'm wondering if anyone else has destroyed something trying to resurrect it with too much juice, or is this just my dumb luck?
My 2007 iPod Classic finally gave up after I dropped it last month, and the battery won't hold a charge past 20 minutes. I keep going back and forth on whether to spend $40 on a replacement battery kit and crack it open, or just admit the phone does everything better now. The old-school click wheel and the way the whole library fits in your pocket are still hard to beat, but syncing via iTunes on my current laptop is a nightmare since Apple dropped support. Anyone here still keeping these alive, or did you all eventually retire yours too? What made you finally swap, and was it worth the hassle?
Heard my buddy brag about his Spotify playlist at work today, made me remember my 30GB Zune from 2008 that I finally tossed. The battery gave out after like 7 years, and Microsoft stopped supporting the software, so I couldn't even sync new songs. I miss the simple click wheel and how it felt solid in my pocket, but now I'm stuck with a drawer full of dead MP3 players. Anyone else keep broken gadgets around for sentimental reasons or is that just me being a hoarder?
Spent 3 weekends replacing the hard drive on a 5th gen and the click wheel stopped responding right after, so I'm torn between ordering a $15 parts board or just leaving it as a brick... anyone else break theirs worse trying to keep old tech alive, or do you stop at the first failure?
I used to swear the Zune desktop app was pure garbage, and I'd only drag music over when absolutely desperate. Then last month my laptop died and I had to rebuild everything from a backup, and somehow the old sync tool just... worked. It took 20 minutes to load my 3,000 song library, but it didn't crash once, and the album art actually matched the tracks. I think the issue was I always had a newer PC with USB 3.0, and this old 2011 laptop with USB 2.0 was slow enough for the software to keep up. Now I'm wondering if my hatred was just impatience, not the app being broken. Has anyone else gone back to unsupported software after years and found it's better on ancient hardware?
Bought a replacement lamp for my old Epson projector off a third party site in March. Paid $130 thinking I was smart, avoiding the $200 official part. It worked fine for a few months, then started flickering and gave out completely last Tuesday. The seller's support email bounced back and their phone line just repeats a busy tone. I took the lamp apart to see if I could fix it, but the bulb is sealed and there's no way to swap just the glass. Now I'm stuck with a projector that's otherwise perfect, just no bulb. Anyone else get burned by dead stock sellers on discontinued parts, and is there a reliable source left for these old Epson lamps?
I pulled my old Magellan RoadMate 300 out last week and the map data still lists the old Route 9 bridge near Pine Bluff that got demolished 14 years ago, so has anyone else kept driving with outdated tech just to see how far off it'll get you?
Honestly, after 3 tries with every ROM out there, flashing a stripped-down Android 4.4 from some random XDA mirror got my old Nexus 5 running for another year, so has anyone else had luck with ancient firmware on unsupported phones?
I was digging through a 2006 forum thread archived on some random geocities mirror, trying to fix the clickwheel drift on my Rio Karma. Buried in the third page, someone mentioned holding the play and rec buttons together while plugging it in. Tried it on a whim and got a full battery voltage readout and hard drive error log on the little screen. Always figured that thing was just a dead brick after the proprietary dock fried. Makes me wonder what other secrets are hiding in these forgotten players. Anyone else stumble on a hidden feature in their old gear that nobody documented in the manuals?
I dug my old Rio Karma out of a drawer last month after it sat dead since 2011. The battery wouldn't hold, and the original software won't install on Windows 10. I found a forum post about swapping in a generic 3.7V cell from a hobby shop in Austin, cost me $9 plus shipping. Now it syncs through a 20-year-old USB driver with the compatibility mode trick, and I've got my 500 favorite tracks back on a device with no wifi. Anyone else still keeping a dead DAP alive just for the physical scroll wheel?
I've been nursing that old MP3 player since college, replacing the battery twice with random eBay packs that somehow matched. Last week the click wheel just stopped responding, and I wasted about 6 hours trying to find a Linux driver that still works with it. Anyone else keep a dead device around for sentimental value even when it's totally useless now?
I dug out my Garmin Nuvi 255 from 2009 last week for a road trip to Flagstaff and the USB port just flashes on and off. Tried three different cables and two laptops but the thing won't connect at all, probably because Garmin stopped updating the software back in 2014. Anyone know a workaround for getting maps onto these old units when the official app is dead?
My dad handed me his dead Zune last month that's been sitting in a drawer since 2018, and I spent 4 days rebuilding the hard drive with parts from two other broken ones I found on eBay. It booted up with all his old playlists still intact, which felt like finding a time capsule from high school. Has anyone else managed to revive a dead media player from the 2000s?
I was cleaning out my dad's old desk drawer last weekend and found his original Palm Pilot from 2002. I plugged it into my laptop with a serial to USB adapter I had lying around, and to my surprise the screen lit up. The batteries were still holding a charge after all these years, which I never expected. I managed to sync it and found his old contact list from when he was a real estate agent in Phoenix. There were notes about houses he sold back then, with prices like $120,000 for a three bedroom. It made me realize how much simpler tech was before smartphones took over. Has anyone else found an old PDA or gadget that still boots up after decades?
Saw someone on Facebook Marketplace selling a 30gb iPod classic with a clicking hard drive for like $15. Figured what the heck, bought it and ordered a compact flash adapter off Amazon for $12. Took maybe 20 minutes to crack it open with a spudger and swap the drive out. Now it boots up in about 3 seconds instead of waiting forever for that old spinning disk. Battery life went from maybe 30 minutes to around 6 hours after the swap too. Anyone know if the solid state drives work any better than the CF cards for these old iPods?
I was three songs into a road trip to visit my sister in Portland when my old Zune 30 just froze on a pixelated album cover. Tried the hold button trick and the battery pull like 5 times but it's completely bricked now. Has anyone found a way to resurrect these things or am I just stuck with a fancy paperweight?
I was complaining to a buddy at a coffee shop about how my old iPod nano wouldn't scroll right anymore. He grabbed it, pressed the center button, then slid his thumb around the wheel. Turns out I was just tapping it like a touchscreen the whole time. The click wheel needs a firm press and a glide, not a tap. Anyone else discover they were using old tech totally backwards?
Found my beat up Zune HD from 2009 in a box under my bed. Plugged it into my laptop and it still fired up with all my playlists from college intact. Problem is the Zune software is completely dead now, Microsoft killed it years ago. Anyone know a way to sync new music onto one of these things without the official app? I got maybe 15 gigs of space left and I'm tired of just shuffling the same old songs.