[volt-nuts] 3458a with 202: Slave Test Convergence (sigh)

[J. L. Trantham]

Willy,

I would encourage you to call Gary Bierman at Agilent/Keysight, Loveland,
CO, and ask him your questions.

He is very easy to talk to and open to any question or thought about how to
proceed.  IMO, he takes a personal interest in these instruments and wants
to make them the best that HP/Agilent/Keysight can produce.

>From my conversations with him, they prefer to do component level repair,
not assembly level repair, and take advantage of all the 'aging' that has
occurred over the years.  Obviously, if there is something that is
destroyed, they will do an assembly replacement, not component level repair.

If you opt for their 'Repair Per Incident', at $2740.46, they will bring it
up to 'spec', provide the 'Agilent Cal' and return it to you, eligible for
their Repair Agreement at $178.68 per year, with a discount available for
muti-year agreements, up to 5 when I did that.  I don't know if that would
include compliance with all Service Notes or not but I'm sure Gary can
answer that question.  They do not routinely replace the Dallas chips but,
if they have failed, they will be replaced.  If you get the Repair Agreement
and the Dallas chips subsequently fail, they will replace them and provide a
fresh Agilent Cal, at no charge (except probably for shipping) except for
the annual rate of $178.68 that you would have already paid.  It is easy to
remove the Dallas chips and install sockets.  You can read the chips,
archive the data, then program a new chip and install it.  Just don't try to
read the chip when it is still warm from the removal process.  Trust me on
this. :^).

I don't know about the firmware upgrade but, again, Gary Bierman can answer
that question.  One thing I was wondering about recently is whether it is
possible to upgrade the 'inguard' firmware to version 2 or if it has to be
done at Agilent.  The 'outguard' firmware is upgradeable by removing and
replacing the EPROM (or six EPROM's, depending on which version of A5 you
have) with a new one (or set) from Agilent.

The only thing you need to achieve in order to qualify for eligibility for
the Repair Agreement is to send the meter in and have it able to be Cal'd.
If it passes their calibration process, then it is 'up to spec' and is
eligible for their Repair Agreement, as I understand it.

However, I defer to Gary Bierman regarding all of this.  You can't go wrong
calling him and seeing what he has to say.

My guess is that he will be able to make a recommendation to you about how
to proceed and be able to give you some insight into what the problem is and
how to resolve it.  Depending on what the issues are, it might be
easier/cheaper to fix it yourself or return it to Agilent.

Others on the list have great experience with these DMM's and I'm sure will
provide their insight as well.

Good luck.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: volt-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:volt-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of new
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2014 1:36 PM
To: volt-nuts at febo.com
Subject: [volt-nuts] 3458a with 202: Slave Test Convergence (sigh)

I know that HP will (gladly?) take your sick 3458 and bring it up to current
specs, followed by a calibration. Since my sick one is at engineering level
2 or 3.something, it must be like it was built in 1989 - the dates on some
components.

Should I try to do any troubleshooting, or just send it to HP?  

Will they upgrade the current (aged and pretty much not drifting) boards?

Or do they take a good board from their stock and replace the current board
with one that may be new and 'drifty'?

I have read here that there are some unlisted upgrades that they do, also.

The RAM batteries will be replaced also, right? 

The biggest positive I see is the ability to go on the service plan and
never have to worry about a failure again after the 3458 is brought up to
current standards.

Willy
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