Two or three times since my lamp was replaced on my DLP HDTV I’ve heard that same beeping/buzzing when turning my TV on. From what I understand, that’s the early stages of the lamp going bad. The manufacturer’s warranty is good for one year past purchase date, which ends for me in mid January, 2008. It’s so far been only a VERY minor inconvenience, but it could become something more serious.

So I sent an online request to have it repaired, and the Samsung guy came out the next business day. They told me they’d call me 20 minutes before they arrived, which was good — I wanted to take pictures in case I had to replace the lamp myself in the future. Unfortunately they did not give me 20 minutes notice, I got a call from the wife saying that the repairman was already here replacing it. Come to think of it, this same thing happened last time, and I remember thinking afterwards, “Gee that’s a convenient ‘mistake’, I wonder if he even replaced it…”. Odd that it happened again.

I was reminded to get the lamp replaced by a warranty extension renewal I received in the mail… something like $500 for 3 years. Are you kidding me?!? I guess next time it goes bad, I’ll need to replace it myself.

John sent me an e-mail this morning to tell me about “round 2″ of the Xbox Live banhammer. Nobody I’ve ever helped has been banned — yet. That doesn’t mean we’re exempt.

I just checked, and my account is still OK. Time to be cautious…

This is what it looks like if you’re banned:

or maybe like this

I bought my Wii back in August. What I neglected to mention is that I got it for free. No, I didn’t do the BS “sign up for these 5 programs and refer 5 friends who do the same and get a free Wii” gimmick (not that I haven’t tried that before). I got a slick deal on it.

So in mid to late July I applied for an American Express Bank of America Rewards Card, which promised $250 in rewards for $250 of purchases. I was a little skeptical at first, but it looked legit, so I went through with it. I received my card on August 6th, and purchased my Wii (the first thing I could think of that was $250) on August 7th. A few weeks later I applied for the reward — to be shipped to me via a check in “1-2 billing cycles.” A few weeks ago I wondered what was taking so long — I went to their site and had to confirm I was ready to accept the check.

Today I received the $250 check. That makes the Wii free, after 3 months. Worth it, I’d say.

Me: I have this game that doesn’t work. I get a “The Game Disc could not be read. Please read the Wii Operations Manual for more information.” message.
Them: What speed did you burn it at?
Me: I don’t know, does it matter…?
Them: Yes, try it at 4x.
Me: … uhm, ok.
{16 minutes go by}
Me: Thanks, that worked.

Who’da thunk it, the actual burning speed affects whether or not burned backups play. Does that mean that data is not completely in tact when a faster speed is utilized? That doesn’t make any sense… I’ve never had this issue before.

I remember hearing something back in the day that Dreamcast games should be burned at 1x or 2x, else a similar issue will occur. I always burned them at 8x (the fastest my drive would support) with no issues.

Well at least I know now, burn at 4x.

I went to the professional and got both my and Tom’s Wiis updated to firmware 3.1, chipped with official Wiikeys, then updated Wiikeys to firmware 1.9g.

My Job:

His Job:

See the Flickr photoset, from start to finish

The installer was very professional, fast, and thorough. $40 is a very reasonable price, I talked to a modder in the Seattle area that was doing it for $100+. I definitely recommend him to anyone looking to do it, but not wanting to go through the hassle yourself.

The modder’s name was Jay, e-mail him at mmodzilla@excite.com if you’re interested.

Now, if only the Wii would get more than 1 or 2 decent games…