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Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

theregister.com

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Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#51

Post by alpaca128 »

isykt wrote: post #37

I always hear about how modern laptops and smartphones “aren’t repairable” and then I spent a week in Shenzhen.. where there were floors and floors of independent repair people doing specialized fixes to the most intricate parts. I had an old Apple Watch repair for about $20, only to discover that I got ripped off — I could have negotiated it down to much less.

With "repairable" people mean repairs with freely available tools, parts and (ideally) schematics.

Apple and others put in a lot of effort to stop independent repair shops from sourcing original parts or making them impossible to successfully replace due to hardware DRM. It is already impossible to upgrade some Macs with more RAM because they will simply refuse to boot if they find more RAM than they got in the factory.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#52

Post by baz00 »

dmbche wrote: post #38
baz00 wrote: post #27

Step 1: stop soldering USB-C ports to the boards on your thinkpad line as they are NOT replaceable and will end the entire machine if damaged. That is the aforementioned T14 gen 3 in the article.

I don't do a lot of hardware, but they really aren't ? You couldn't remove it and solder another connector in it's place?

Usually no. If you damage the connector it tears the traces off the board irreparably. If it doesn't do that then there are two rows of pins which need to be resoldered. One row is under the connector. It is near impossible to solder those properly without non trivial equipment. Usually if you get a repair they solder only one pair of pins to the board and that means your USB connector only works plugged in one way up.

This is one reason amongst many that I'm not a particularly big fan of USB-C

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#53

Post by baz00 »

benoliver999 wrote: post #36
baz00 wrote: post #27

Step 1: stop soldering USB-C ports to the boards on your thinkpad line as they are NOT replaceable and will end the entire machine if damaged. That is the aforementioned T14 gen 3 in the article.

Oh it's funny you say that, I have a T495 and one of the USB-C ports has stopped working. Luckily there's another one I can charge from but it really feels like a ticking time bomb.

Yeah my ex wife threw something at me and broke the only USB-C on my old T470. Fortunately it has an old charge port.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#54

Post by benj111 »

isykt wrote: post #37

I always hear about how modern laptops and smartphones “aren’t repairable” and then I spent a week in Shenzhen.. where there were floors and floors of independent repair people doing specialized fixes to the most intricate parts. I had an old Apple Watch repair for about $20, only to discover that I got ripped off — I could have negotiated it down to much less.

It's about ease though.

On a desktop pc you can repair anything pretty easily. Some things we wouldn't even call a repair. A new monitor is call just that. A new screen for a phone is much more involved.

And then there's granularity.

Can that broken usb port be replaced or does it require a new motherboard.

Your $20 Apple watch repair has 2 components. The parts cost and the labour cost.

If the repair takes 2 hours by a skilled technician that's going to cost more than a 5 minute job that anyone can do. And in first world countries, it's probably labour that will dominate.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#56

Post by sokoloff »

miragecraft wrote: post #39
isykt wrote: post #37

I always hear about how modern laptops and smartphones “aren’t repairable” and then I spent a week in Shenzhen.. where there were floors and floors of independent repair people doing specialized fixes to the most intricate parts. I had an old Apple Watch repair for about $20, only to discover that I got ripped off — I could have negotiated it down to much less.

I think when we generally talk about whether something is "repairable" we're referring to the ease of repair, which translate to the repair being affordable and makes economical sense so people actually do it vs buying a replacement.

Without any extraordinary effort and having only typical DIY skills, I have repaired a half-dozen of my family members' iPhones that people complain are "not repairable".

To me, "repairable" means "capable of being repaired in a practical way". I'll also grant you the unstated "at a reasonable price", which for me, having a cheapskate nature, I've always found the repair parts (batteries, screens, and buttons) to be extremely reasonable in price.

For people who don't want to DIY it, most every mall has a kiosk that will do it for 2-3x what I paid, but still <15% of the price of a new iPhone.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#57

Post by CWuestefeld »

AraceliHarker wrote: post #3

"(Lenovo) said people buy new smartphones every other year but became accustomed used to buying new PCs every six or seven years. The industry needs to do better at motivating people to buy new devices" https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/05/microsofts-panos-panay-expla...

Back through the 90s and 00s, I think that ~3 years was the norm, at least for the part of the population that even owned computers.

But since then, there are fewer major improvements coming that fast. GPUs improve, but most people aren't hardcore gamers for whome that matters, and these can mostly be upgraded independent of the computer itself instead.

Other than that, if you're mostly just using your web browser, and maybe doing some spreadsheets and desktop-based email, what's the point? Even if you're doing more demanding stuff like Photoshop, we're at a point where the app's demands aren't growing fast either.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#58

Post by lostlogin »

7thaccount wrote: post #35
newsclues wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a thick and strong chassis, the ability to pick which (camera) sensors are plugged in, standardized Single board computers, and add in batteries. Phones should be DIY projects with Cheap off the shelf components. The PC equivalent.

If only they would try to make that work. I don't vape, but have noticed those that do seem to take customizing their pens pretty seriously by changing out certain components. I heard someone describe it as like a Jedi building their lightsaber haha. I'd like to do this for a phone for sure, but it'd be hard to get manufactures on board I think.

like a Jedi building their lightsaber, but more addictive.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#59

Post by HumblyTossed »

isykt wrote: post #37

I always hear about how modern laptops and smartphones “aren’t repairable” and then I spent a week in Shenzhen.. where there were floors and floors of independent repair people doing specialized fixes to the most intricate parts. I had an old Apple Watch repair for about $20, only to discover that I got ripped off — I could have negotiated it down to much less.

Repairable means I can replace most major components in my laptop (wifi, ram, battery, SSD, BT, etc) with nothing more than a torx and screw driver. No soldering, or specialized equipment.

Re: Lenovo PC boss: 4 in 5 of our devices will be repairable by 2025

#60

Post by autoexec »

Friendly reminder that Lenovo has repeatedly shipped laptops infested with malware and backdoors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo#Security_and_privacy_in...) sometimes doing so in exchange for money. They've also hidden malware in UEFI so that even reformatting your hard drive wouldn't help.

In one case, after they were found out they first claimed "we have thoroughly investigated this technology and do not find any evidence to substantiate security concerns" and only after it started being reported by more and more news orgs did they finally admit to what they'd done and release instructions on how to fix it.

Sadly, those instructions removed the bloatware, but left the vulnerability it introduced in place giving users a false sense of security, and only after they were caught out for that in the press did they finally release a "removal tool"

The wikipedia page doesn't even list all their offenses or the most recent events. See also : https://www.zdnet.com/article/lenovo-patches-uefi-vulnerabil...

Repairable or not, use Lenovo at your own risk.

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