Might find that helpful explaining the different groups if you know which category it came under.

http://www.ukwheels.com/Motorbike_writeoff_categories.asp

I can't believe that they wanted to charge for a new exhaust, professionals so they must have known that was a drain hole I got 3 on mine or maybe 2, on the can and connector pipe.

Just bookmarked that Fazer spares site as well can't believe the price of some of it on there.

I had the same problem with Oxford grips on my old Aprilia, went for the new version, which just had the small control with +/- and 4 Led's for power settings and they packed up after 14 months so considered them an overpriced pile of junk. I had an extra problem though not only would mine switch off when they felt like it they would also switch on when they felt like it so nice hot summers day riding along and the grips switch on to 100% so I ended up disconnecting them.

When I asked the shop I got them from they said there had been some problems with the new units, Oxford basically weren't interested and said they were knackered and as the controller unit was sealed not a lot could be done.

I got the original push button/dial type Oxford grips on mine as they came with it and touch wood they are ok but when they do go won't be replacing them with Oxford as like others have mentioned they are over priced for what they are.
 

I use the Osram Nightbreaker Plus, couple of £ more but I noticed a huge difference compared to the standard, glow orange like a candle standard Halogen bulbs I can actually see where I am going now but then I guess that depends on each person and what they expect and the Plus version last longer.

I'm using Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs in my 1999 Fazer after removing a botched headlight mod and so far have had no problems plus I got 2x H1, 2x H4 and 5x Ultra White 5w capless bulbs which were free.

I got them all for £26.13 including postage from Amazon, not bad considering I was previously going to pay over £48.00 for exactly the same bulbs and the Halfords range where £18.99 (H1) and £19.99 (H4) for each bulb. The Osram Nightbreaker Plus is also supposed to be UV friendly so will not damage plastic lenses.

These are the links to the bulbs I purchased from Amazon H1 and H4 and there is a link for Osram itself which in the FAQ section states that the bulb is marked with a "U" where it states:

The uppercase "U" indicates a UV-reduced bulb in accordance with ECE requirements (e.g. for use in plastic headlights). All OSRAM halogen automotive bulbs meet these requirements.

All the sites I have looked at when deciding to take this root for improving lighting stated that it is a direct replacement for the standard halogen bulbs, more light but same wattage and the Xenon bulbs at the same wattage don't run any hotter. Can have a look at this site for some details.

I have always built my own systems and for friends/family, only a couple of times it worked out cheaper to buy pre-built as all they wanted was basic for internet and office. I still maintain and upgrade my own and friends/family systems so unless there is a major problem it's cheaper just to replace the faulty component.

The Radeon HD6850 works fine with Windows 7, although there had been some issues with freezing and BSOD with certain manufactuers. One thing I never do is load the drivers that come with the cards, they are only tweaked versions of the chipset manufactuer so I always use it direct from them, I use Nvidia card in my system so get the drivers off there site but in your case the driver download would be from AMD but then I do that with any card.

As you said the engineers said the motherboard was knackered and the voltages it could be that causing the other problems, if the voltages are spiking it can damage other components or especially with a graphics card under voltage and the card won't run correctly. Probably find if they said they suspect the motherboard was knackered from new then that is why you had so many problems with the system and having so much replaced.

If it was just the motherboard I would have said just replace that but you mentioned getting new graphics card, CPU and hard drives, although if possible I would try the CPU, graphics card and drives on another system if you could rather than paying out good money if it's just the motherboard that is knackered. You can get budget boards but then I would pay a little extra and go for mid range if you did that as you pay for what you get. So if you know anyone that has a system they are willing to let you test the drives and graphics card on then I would test them first, if they are newish drives they should have SMART on them or download the drive diagnostics from the manufactuer site and run the self tests to tell you the state of the drives, the graphics card is easy as if that works just use a site where you can stress test it plus you.

To give you an idea I just upgraded a friends system few months back with an Asus P8Z68-V Gen 3 motherboard, 8GB of 1600Mhz gaming ram, i5 2500K CPU and a 500GB Western Digital Cavier Blue 6GB/s Sata drive and that cost just under £400 with the motherboard and CPU being the most expensive items. So based on that if you were using the system for just basic things then you could probably build around what you got for around £325 with an entry level i7, be cheaper to go for an i5 2500K as that is faster than some of the entry level i7's, semi budget motherboard, budget graphics something that is still fast like a Nvidia GTX 500 series as they dropped in price since the release of the 600 series, same as AMD if you prefer them and my personal choice a Western Digital drive.
I always used to use either Seagate (they own Maxtor now so buy a Maxtor external and you will find a Seagate inside) or Western Digital but I found that the Western Digital Cavier range to be very reliable and slightly faster, especially over 500GB as my own system I got two 6GB/s Western Digitals and a Seagate Barracuda and that is the slowest of them all despite on paper it should be faster. So now I tend to fit Western Digital rather that Seagate, although again all depends what you want.

I'm lucky enough to have a local shop that more or less matches internet prices, although I do buy a lot of stuff through him so much easier than on-line of there is a problem as you got all the hassle of returns but like someone said you can pick up secondhand stuff off eBay, although it you wanted to go new there are places on-line like:

Overclockers UK
Ebuyer
Micro Direct
Dabs
Aria Technology
NovaTech
Scan Computers
 
All of these sell the replacement parts or pre-built budget systems. If you choose to go along the pre-built route then often like I did with a friend worth paying that little bit extra for a system that has the expansion slots as some very low priced systems have very little upgradable options, most come with onboard graphics and sound but I prefer to disable these and use a dedicated card for that and that onboard feature is just a backup if a component fails until you get a replacement.

Personally though before deciding I would see if you know anyone willing, even if they have an old system they don't use to test the graphics card and drives as seems pointless paying out for things you don't need to replace. Be nice if someone had a motherboard laying about to test the CPU but then that should hopefully be OK as the new ones are designed to prevent damage, although saying that all that side of things is run from the motherboard. Other thing that may have fried your motherboard is the power supply, that's something else I always use a decent one of I'm currently using a OCZ Technology one but the Targus, Antec and Cooler Master are decent ones, there are some other makes so good idea to check out what the popular ones are.

Hope you get it sorted anyway.

Forgot to mention the Nightbreaker H1 that I got from them as well Jayplay, forgot to look at what year your's was but mine being a 1999 takes a H1 on the left and H4 on the right so got a set of each and the capless are free for your little 5w 501 bulb.
 
Also forgot to mention there are two types the Osram Nightbreaker and the Osram Nightbreaker Plus, it's the Plus you want to go for as they are the newer version that last longer than the standard Nightbreakers.

Hi Jayplay, the Osram Nightbreaker Plus where just straight swaps so no mods or conversions only difference is standard bulb is Halogen and the Osram Nightbreaker Plus are Xenon but make a hugh difference without having to change anything. The bulbs are rated the same but as 90% brighter, 10% whiter crisp light and only downside is they last slightly less than the Halogen but I am fine with that as I would sooner see where I was going, plus instead of the £48.00 I was going to pay for the Osram Nightbreaker Plus originally I got for £26.13 including the postage with 4 free 5w capless bulbs that are ultra bright.

Got them from AP Motor Store on Amazon.
The bike actually had the mod on it when I got it but they wired it in wrong so I stripped it out as sooner have things as standard. These are the actual H4 I got.
Hope that helps, the original Halogen where like a dull orange colour when they where on, this are nice white colour.

Thanks AdieR, I'm not sure of the load rating of the relay either and seems odd that wired correctly it heats up but incorrectly stays nice and cold but headlights have same effect but can't really be bothered to work that one out as it's coming off, not like it is being used anyway with the fuse out of it and sooner not have obsolete relays and wires that don't have any real function. It's likely what you said that it either is or close to exceeding the capacity.

So once I run the fuel down from a almost full tank going to snip off the red wire in the box that has been spliced and soldered onto the main beam and tape it up as the original wiring should still pretty strong being soldered then that and the blue wire from the headlight that go back to the relay can be taken off and then finally just disconnect the 2 wires from the battery and that's it out the way, just a bit fussy having stuff on it that serves no purpose.

Going to stick to the standard set up and most likely use the new Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs as I have had good results with Osram before plus these bulbs where voted best bulb not too long ago.

I only had the Fazer a couple of weeks, filled up the first time put in £19.30 which was full but on the side stand and only got 141 miles before the fuel light came on. Refuelled with it on the center stand and funny as it only took £19.00 of fuel this time to completely fill up and this time it was 186 miles before the fuel light came on.

Only difference was first time round it was a mix of town and DC but mainly town, second fill up was more high speed DC. I'm happy with that considering I was using a 250cc for local stuff going to town and that and I worked it out as the fuel tanks were the same size that the 250cc was actually using more fuel than the Fazer. 

Hi, just brought my self another bike and managed to pick up a 1999 Fazer which I quite like as it's more upright that the old XJ600S I had a while back.
 
I noticed that someone had done the headlight Mod on it or so I thought, not exactly sure what they have done so hoping someone can give me some advice as at first it seemed they had done the Mod on here until I lifted the tank. Started off fine, apart from not working a single Blue wire covered with a Black sheath off the headlight connector so traced it back to inside a little black box under the front of the tank with a load of other connectors in there.
 
Everything seemed fine, until it came out the other side and was now a Red wire and a Blue wire in the original PVC sleeving so I traced the Red wire back inside the box and found that it had been spliced onto a 3 wire Brown connector. The wires were Blue/Black Stripe, Blue and Red/Yellow Stripe and the Red wire had been spliced and soldered onto the Blue/Black Stripe wire.
 

 
The Blue wire actually goes direct from the headlight to a little black unit under the left side panel, the Red wire only comes in once you get to the black box at the front of the tank but also goes to this little black unit under the side panel then both wires connect directly to the battery + and - terminals.
 

 
Be grateful for any advice if it is safe to remove this lot as I want the bike as it came out the factory as I tend to just use bulbs that have 100% extra brightness, plus some insurance companies won't pay out if there is a claim and the wiring has been altered unless it's a shop purchased product which this isn't.
 
The thing I want to know most is what exactly had that Red wire been spliced into as I don't have a wiring diagram so thought some one might know, if it's safe I will snip the red wire off and just tape up the soldered section of wire then remove the red and Blue wire completely. As it is the Mod doesn't work so makes me wonder what exactly they wired it into as everything works fine apart from that.
 
Only other question is when I lifted the tank the 2 pipes came off, does it matter which one goes on which side as I just put them back, one had a slight bit of rust so I put the pipe that had some residue of rust back on that one. Oh one last thing take it the petrol tap is just an on/off position at the back of the tank? These are the pipes.
 

 
Hope I haven't put any one into a coma reading this, just be grateful for any advice especially on removing the headlight Mod and what that Red wire has been spliced into as I don't see the point in having things just wired up that leave me sat there wondering what they are doing as it's not operating what it is supposed too. 
 
Thanks
 
Tim