"Dear Abby..."

I bought my Empeg car 18GB in August of 2000. Earliner this year, I upgraded it with another 18GB drive. About a month ago (after the warranty period expired, but that is moot since it's more than a year old) my poor baby slipped out of my hands onto a very unforgiving linoleum floor. The damages were amazingly few. The handle broke in half, the chassis was bent a little, but otherwise, everything is in perfect working order. Unbelievable. The VFD is pristine, the hard drives are fine... I am one lucky bastard!

Except... Well, soon thereafter when I went to replace the handle (thanks to David for getting me one!) and as I pulled the fascia and faceplate off, my "left" button fell off (not the gray plastic one, the actual button mechanism.) It had cracked in half during the fall, but was being held by the faceplate. Well, putting it all back together didn't do anything, and my left button is now permanently broken. David also sent me a set of buttons, but my soldering skills are just not good enough to put the button on.

So the $699 price drop came at a perfect time. I really shouldn't have spent it, but I did, because I'm doing enough hacking that I could use the 4 extra MB of RAM, and if anything should happen to my MkII, I've got a brand new one to use. Like others who bought a backup, I can't imaging driving without an Empeg in the car. Yes I'm addicted.

But now I'm thinking I want to use the MkIIa now and keep the MkII as the backup. The problem is by taking the drives out of my MkII and putting them into my brand new MkIIa, I'm throwing away an entire year of warranty coverage right out of the box. But I get a unit with more RAM, a working left button (not having it kind of sucks) etc But then again, if the MkIIa sits idle in my closet for a year, the warranty will also be void.

So I pose this question to you all... In this situation, what would you do? Sending my MkII across the pond for repairs will rip another $125 out of my pocket. $125 is WAY too much for a left button. I have friends with better soldering skills but it's a REAL small area! (Anyone with GOOD soldering skills and who lives in the USA want to make a few bucks???)

I really bought the MkIIa as a backup in case mine is stolen or experiences an unrecoverable death, not to get a left button. But now I'm torn between using the new one or leaving it alone. What should I do?

Signed,
Penniless in Pennsylvania