About a month ago my neighbor left a nice looking TV out by the trash for bulk item pickup with a note saying, “not sure if this works, but free if you want it.” Cosmetically the unit looked to be in good shape, but sure enough when I bring it inside to test, none of the HDMI ports would pick up a signal. I tried different HDMI cables and devices to double check. All of the TV menus would work and there was static on the cable channel, so I knew the pixels themselves were fine. I opened the unit up to find 3 separate circutboards inside, a main board (with the HDMI ports soldered on), a power board, and I think a timing board or something like that (forget the acronym I came across researching). Well I decided to roll the dice and replace the main board with a $130 purchase for a replacement, took about 30 minutes to swap out. Sure enough with a new main board the TV, HDMI units and all, worked perfectly. Now I’m up a 60" Sharp AQUOS TV (~$1500 new) for the price of the replacement board. More importantly, the satisfaction of plugging in an HDMI and seeing a signal come through was priceless. Support right to repair, we have an obligation to preserving and reusing the resources we have access to.
Have you ever had a Logitech mouse start to act funny with the left click? Maybe it double clicks when you know you’ve single clicked, or you click and drag and it doesn’t? Yeah it’s probably the microswitch. I’ve got a little herd of M570’s, after a few years they all start doing that, so I pop them open, it’s like 4 or 5 screws hidden under the little rubber feet and one in the battery compartment, desolder the switch, solder on a new one, and it’s back to working like new.
I’ve had a guy arguing with me that that’s not worth it.
I had a random orbital sander stop working. So many people these days would say “It’s a $99 tool, I’ll just throw it away and buy a new one.” I took mine apart and cleaned the dust out of it. Running like brand new.
Personally, I think a factor is there’s been a shift by companies in general to not make things as obvious to repair. My dad has a unibody 2012 MacBook Pro and the book literally tells you how to open it so you can service it by upgrading the RAM; a far cry from the situation today.
Older tools were held together with some common screws and were all built the same, so there wasn’t too much concern from the layman popping one open to clean it out to service it. Modern power tools just don’t look like you should be opening them, as the screws are completely hidden, they’re hard to open comparatively, and its usually the battery that goes anyway, which can’t be replaced when it’s been discontinued.
My Logitech G500s had the funny clicker, I have a soldering iron but that felt a bit too fiddly (at the time) but I was able to dismantle the switch itself on the board and bend the contacts a bit. Been three years and it’s still behaving. The cable went too at one point, with random disconnects as it moved. Was surprised to discover I could just order a new cable that plugged into the internal socket and it was good as new!
Sometimes it can be an exercise in frustration. My wife’s Redmi note 10 is on its 4th screen, the original and third ones were dropped, the second was shit and crapped out after a couple of months, the fourth is showing signs of going the same way. Along with occasional locking up and WiFi problems that are fixed with a reboot (pretty sure I didn’t break it on my many delves into its guts) I decided fuck it, its a ~£200 phone, get something else this time.
So instead I’m tearing my hair out trying to get her new Samsung A54 to restore the last Google backup.
Wish I had your neighbors. Mine almost always smash their stuff before dumping in the bin so no one else can use it.
Although a few things have creeped through. My current desktop is a AMD something or other, 4Ghz, 32GB Ram, 500GB ssd and all I had to do was get an IO shield and replace some fans.
Reminds me of the time I found a TV in the trash that said “remote doesn’t work.” I opened it up and the sensor had somehow been bent out of alignment, so I bent it back and that TV’s been in my bedroom ever since.
About a month ago my neighbor left a nice looking TV out by the trash for bulk item pickup with a note saying, “not sure if this works, but free if you want it.” Cosmetically the unit looked to be in good shape, but sure enough when I bring it inside to test, none of the HDMI ports would pick up a signal. I tried different HDMI cables and devices to double check. All of the TV menus would work and there was static on the cable channel, so I knew the pixels themselves were fine. I opened the unit up to find 3 separate circutboards inside, a main board (with the HDMI ports soldered on), a power board, and I think a timing board or something like that (forget the acronym I came across researching). Well I decided to roll the dice and replace the main board with a $130 purchase for a replacement, took about 30 minutes to swap out. Sure enough with a new main board the TV, HDMI units and all, worked perfectly. Now I’m up a 60" Sharp AQUOS TV (~$1500 new) for the price of the replacement board. More importantly, the satisfaction of plugging in an HDMI and seeing a signal come through was priceless. Support right to repair, we have an obligation to preserving and reusing the resources we have access to.
Have you ever had a Logitech mouse start to act funny with the left click? Maybe it double clicks when you know you’ve single clicked, or you click and drag and it doesn’t? Yeah it’s probably the microswitch. I’ve got a little herd of M570’s, after a few years they all start doing that, so I pop them open, it’s like 4 or 5 screws hidden under the little rubber feet and one in the battery compartment, desolder the switch, solder on a new one, and it’s back to working like new.
I’ve had a guy arguing with me that that’s not worth it.
I had a random orbital sander stop working. So many people these days would say “It’s a $99 tool, I’ll just throw it away and buy a new one.” I took mine apart and cleaned the dust out of it. Running like brand new.
Why are people so afraid of fixing things?
Personally, I think a factor is there’s been a shift by companies in general to not make things as obvious to repair. My dad has a unibody 2012 MacBook Pro and the book literally tells you how to open it so you can service it by upgrading the RAM; a far cry from the situation today.
Older tools were held together with some common screws and were all built the same, so there wasn’t too much concern from the layman popping one open to clean it out to service it. Modern power tools just don’t look like you should be opening them, as the screws are completely hidden, they’re hard to open comparatively, and its usually the battery that goes anyway, which can’t be replaced when it’s been discontinued.
My Logitech G500s had the funny clicker, I have a soldering iron but that felt a bit too fiddly (at the time) but I was able to dismantle the switch itself on the board and bend the contacts a bit. Been three years and it’s still behaving. The cable went too at one point, with random disconnects as it moved. Was surprised to discover I could just order a new cable that plugged into the internal socket and it was good as new!
Sometimes it can be an exercise in frustration. My wife’s Redmi note 10 is on its 4th screen, the original and third ones were dropped, the second was shit and crapped out after a couple of months, the fourth is showing signs of going the same way. Along with occasional locking up and WiFi problems that are fixed with a reboot (pretty sure I didn’t break it on my many delves into its guts) I decided fuck it, its a ~£200 phone, get something else this time.
So instead I’m tearing my hair out trying to get her new Samsung A54 to restore the last Google backup.
Wish I had your neighbors. Mine almost always smash their stuff before dumping in the bin so no one else can use it.
Although a few things have creeped through. My current desktop is a AMD something or other, 4Ghz, 32GB Ram, 500GB ssd and all I had to do was get an IO shield and replace some fans.
Reminds me of the time I found a TV in the trash that said “remote doesn’t work.” I opened it up and the sensor had somehow been bent out of alignment, so I bent it back and that TV’s been in my bedroom ever since.