I own the Silver Eagle, its the little brother to the Eagle Spectrum, purchased in 1992. Same physical hardware, just less software options. The original LCD screens on these units have a known tendency to fail after a few years, spontaneously. Mine was kept stored in my bedroom closet, very snug & secure, no batteries in unit. When I went to power it up after several years, the screen was dead. White's, with a little pleading on my part replaced the LCD, installed new touch pads and thoroughly checked the rest of the machines functions for $79.00 + I paid shipping to get it there. They paid the return shipping. This was done in Sept 2009.
I think the tech told me at the time, the max White's would charge for any repairs, no matter how extensive, was $170.00. A factory fixed Eagle Spectrum, in good shape. will easily sell on Eb*y for $400.00. Maybe $500.00. Its well worth having it repaired. They are awesome units, even by todays standards. White's service is the BEST in the business.....period.
If you want to talk to a great technician at the Sweet Home factory, ask for Todd. The man is a genuinely nice person and very skilled. I am sure the rest of their techs are too, but I always deal with Todd.
Just my 2 cents from real experience.
And I own the Teknetics T2 and Bounty Hunter Time Ranger machines.........so its not only White's machines I am familiar with.
note: you can buy the Powerex NiMH 5000mAH rechargeable C cell batteries. They last 3 times longer than White's NiCads and can be recharged any time without developing a memory. The NiCads have to be fully drained before recharge which is a real pain. Powerex is what I use in mine. They cost more, but the quality is top drawer. The batteries are manufactured in Taiwan, not China. Big difference in quality in my opinion. If you get the Powerex batteries, make sure the charging unit has the ability to charge batteries with this high of mAH. Not all chargers do.
