Support for an OS has several angles.
I would hope the negotiated deal for a piece of equipment with an embedded OS would have a lifetime, fully transferrable license for that piece of equipment. So your Win2k scope should have the rights to use that OS until the instrument is scrapped.
I don¡¯t think Microsoft should be forced into infinite support in the form of security updates, although they sort of secretly do for Win2k and XP, if you set the registry flag indicating they are in a bank ATM. But even that can¡¯t last forever. However, if the scope is operated standalone or on a very well protected network as a practical matter a lack of updates doesn¡¯t matter.
As for Tek supporting older instruments, there should be reasonable limits. It will be increasingly expensive to support older gear as fewer and fewer personnel are familiar with the older technology. Should Tek still support 545 vacuum tube scopes? What about parts which are no longer available? But, from the customer perspective, what is reasonable? Should 10 years of replacement ASICs be stocked? What about increasingly complex and expensive test setups, which themselves may have unobtanium repair parts? 10 years would be satisfactory to me for standard instruments, maybe 5 for highly specialized ones, but I would definitely balk if less than that, and try to avoid a company that hinders third party repairs. I¡¯ve worked at many places that have older gear which is maintained and calibrated by these third party firms and if gear must be sent back to inly the manufacturer then there is little difference to Chinese or Korean test gear.
Peter
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On Jul 26, 2019, at 8:29 AM, nigel adams via Groups.Io <nigel.adams@...> wrote:
Problem is, and not wishing to sound arrogant in any way...., In their eyes you have had this scope too long and
Tek is expecting you (like Keysight/HP and others) to roll over and buy a new one.
I wonder how they would feel if their shiny new BMW, Mercedes was deemed unrepairable/unserviceable after only 2 years..
Most companies think a lifetime of between 5-10 years is more than enough to keep top end/high tech equipment.
The use of an embedded PC style OS is a real help to them as the moment M/soft or whoever declares end of support then
the test equipment supplier rubs his hands with glee and can happily refuse to support it.
So many companies now are calling EOS for their equipment as soon as they can.
Not nice when it is hard to justify replacements especially in a teaching or research environment.
What is needed is for the salesmen to be nailed to the floor with written statements that they will support and honour
any stated equipment lifetime such that it makes it really hard for them to sell kit.
That will hurt them (the manufacturers the most) - only then will they consider change or lose a sale to up coming
Instrument makers (eg. Korean or Chinese) gradually their performance is improving and hopefully the more advantageous
pricing will help all of us.
Unfortunately gone are the days of beautifully prepared manuals and information about everything to do with the item from
well known TE companies such are HP, Marconi, Tek etc.
Regards
Nigel
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Susan Parker
Sent: 26 July 2019 12:32
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [HP-Agilent-Keysight-equipment] What would you do if you had some test equipment with Serial No: 0000001?
Dear All,
As Alwyn says: "What really annoys me is the lack of support of equipment which uses older versions of Windows- knowing the policies of that company, I now insist on hearing how long term support will be assured before I buy."
Indeed!!!
I have a Tek TDS7000B series in our group that I am trying to "repair"
because its Windows 2000 OS has gone AWOL from a hard drive failure. Tek refuse to supply the Microsoft Windows restore discs "because of licensing issues" which to me seems entity bogus for a piece of equipment that cost well over GBP20,000 in 2003 (i.e. more than a Hi-End VW Golf Turbo).
We have happenchance found an original Restore Manual and set of discs on e$ay which fingers crossed will resolve the issue, but the lack of support from Tek is astounding for such expensive equipment (TDS7154B).
I am now recommanding Pico Technology scopes wherever possible, even though I personally prefer a 'scope with knobs on it the price differentials are to great to ignore.
Best,
Susan.
Susan Parker, Laser Consortium, Department of Physics, Imperial College London, UK.
