Apart from the fact that as many of them are public domain they are freely available to download they get in my way on searches for interesting old stuff. Take a search on Studer tonight, over 500 results and over 400 of these for service manuals or Studer documents for their reel to reel and other audio products from the past all of which can be downloaded from Studer’s public FTP server!!

I know some may call it legitimate business but I feel sorry for anyone who’s paid over a tenner (£10 GBP) for one even if it’s supplied on a nice shiny CDR or printed on laser paper and bound in a plastic wallet!

So, for everyone who likes to understand how things work and fix their own old equipment and not just throw it away, here’s some of my ‘favourite’ manuals that aren’t so easily available on the internet – for FREE!:

Tascam 112 Mk 1 Service Manual

Tascam 238 8 track Service Manual

Tascam DA88 DTRS 8 track service manual

Teac C-3x Service Manual

Nakamichi 610 Preamp Service Manual

Arcam Delta 70 CD player Service Manual

Philips CD104 Service Manual

NAD 3020 Service Manual

The fix is relatively easy, remove the heatsink unit, blow it clean with compressed air, clean the old CPU heatsink paste off with isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and spread a thin but even film of good quality heatsink paste on the CPU. Put it all back together, keep your fingers crossed and it should be fine!

This has fixed several laptops permanently and with this Advent I could go ahead and wipe the old Windows XP Home from it and install Ubuntu 8.04 that’s fantastic and  installs perfectly without any ‘geeking around’ necessary. My only problem is the fan control from linux, but that’s another story……