Restore or Refurb - Which is it?

[RayB]

What's the difference between "Restoring" an arcade machine and "Refurbishing" it? I'm just a bit confused on whether or not I use the right terminology.

~Ray B.

[D_Zoot]

That's one of those things that seems to mean different things to different people!!   


To me,  "restore"  means something has been restored to it's original, like new condition both in terms of function and appearance.

I would take "refurbish" to mean that something has been brought back to a like new state from a functional standpoint, but cosmetic issues remain.

For example,  a refurbished arcade game would be %100 operational in every way, and play like a new one,  with an excellent monitor and controls, but may be lacking sideart, or the cabinet isn't perfect.    A restored arcade game, on the other hand would look just like it did when it was new in addition to playing like it did when new.

That's my opinion anyway..

D

[RayB]

Your view on this is exactly why I'm asking the question.    I myself was kinda leaning in the other direction. For example you can buy refurbished electronics, and they look like new but have had some sort of repair done to them.

If take a broken game cab, fix it up so it works, then fix up cosmetic issues so it all looks good (but not quite all new), have I restored it or refurbished it? 

~Ray

[GGKoul]

Restoring is to bring something back to it's original condition.

Refurbish is getting a dead item to work again.

[NIVO]

I agree with alot of you above, but i still hold a slightly different view.

Restore to me means getting all parts new and replacing so that the condition is new or better than new.

Refurbish to me means that you take parts of the exact that are dead and replace them with used parts from a donor machine to make it function like it should.

[Howard_Casto]

translation:

Restoring means when you are done, you essentially have all broken components completely replaced and it works and looks exactly like it did when it was brand new.  aka the right way to do things.

In other words, you don't send the board off to get repaired, you get a new (or in this special case nos) one. 

Refurbishing means to take the cheap route and replace as little as possible and in most cases attempt to repair.  The problem with that is when something is refurbished, most of that component is still 20+ years old and it's only a matter of time before it'll fail again.  This is also known as the wrong way to do things. 

Ever buy reburbished cmputer hardware?  It sucks.  That's because the part already failed and sombody replaced the bare minimum to get it working again....  who knows how many other parts are about to fail or were weakened from whatever accident caused it to fail in the first place. 

Now I realize that sometimes you can't afford to completely replace damaged components.... I'm just saying, that's the difference. 

[GodSend25]

I have the view that buying something referb. from a store is just as good as brand new.  Of course it depends on the skill of the referber, but we can all agree that when a ps/2 gets referb done on it because of a bad laser unit (for example) the unit goes through a test that is probably twice as good as the normal production test (if one exists at all).

I suppose the nature of the piece being replaced comes into question.  If I buy a brand new PDA only to discover the digitizer is broken when first openned and I return it.  Compaq fixes the ipaq by replacing the screen, tests it, and sells it referb.  In that case I consider that unit 100% acceptable, and the only reason I am paying less is because I dont get the 100% satisfaction of being the first person to remove the protective screen cover (although a new one is supplied).

O

[paigeoliver]

Of course even an NOS board can still have problems. Caps dry out on NOS boards, ROMS go bad, etc.

Not to mention the fact that there are almost no TRUE NOS boards floating around for any game anyone would ever want to restore.

You can find NOS boards for conversion games, but for dedicated games, well, forget about it. About a 3rd of the NOS boards I have bought weren't REALLY NOS anyway.

ANd for my 2 cents.

I have always viewed "restoration" to be a cosmetic thing, and refurbing to be a mechanical/electrical thing.

[RayB]

I have always viewed "restoration" to be a cosmetic thing, and refurbing to be a mechanical/electrical thing.

I like that definition the best! Well put.