Ask a Repair Shop • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#131

Post by falsedan » Fri, Jul 14, 2017, 11:28 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #120

falsedan wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TV - 4 years old, needed new main board The whole board was trashed? The PSU on my previous TV failed (due to capacitor plague); I ordered a complete part replacement kit from eBay for like 10 bucks and swapped the bad caps using a wood burner as a soldering iron. Did you check for broken/for parts listings for the same TV? At 4 years old, I'd expect a lot of 2nd-hand supply.

Lightning damage! Couldn't track the fault, only that it appeared to be on the main board: part fried chip I think. I don't keep things any more as I tend towards hoarding and live in a small house with an unexpectedly enlarged family. I found similar main boards from differently labelled TVs but all with subtly different layouts (and codes) and prices just too large (for me) to warrant giving it a go. Bad caps, I fe…

> Lightning damage!

lol, not what I expected!

Bad caps are obvious, they bulge out or their resistance is shot.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#132

Post by gorkonsine » Fri, Jul 14, 2017, 2:23 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #125

gorkonsine wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well these days, with Amazon, that's what the reviews are for. I've passed on lots of purchases because I looked at the reviews and saw too many negative ones, and bought other things after seeing almost all glowing reviews. A bad-quality product can lead to poor reviews, and this can affect sales. Manufacturers' warranties are only so useful; a lot of companies make you jump through hoops to actually make use of the…

I'd like to point out an addition to this. Always read the negative reviews. Don't just count them. I put much more weight on the negative reviews than the positive ones. You can frequently tell if the bad experience is due to a user error or if it's a systematic fault in the product. If a product has 70% negative reviews, of which 90% are operator error, I'll probably still prefer that product to the one with only 3…

That's a good point. A lot of bad reviews are clearly user stupidity: I even see ones where they obviously bought the wrong thing, had unrealistic expectations, etc., and then gave a poor review based on this. Or reviews where the merchant (usually Amazon) screwed up somehow, so they give a poor review to the product.

On the other hand, positive reviews are frequently either lies or fluff, so you're exactly right to weight them much less. A lot of them look like they're written by shills, some of them even clearly say they got the product for free or cheap in exchange for a review, and many are written shortly after acquiring the product so they really haven't had enough time to fairly test it and see if it's reliable long-term.

Also, well-written negative reviews will go into great detail explaining exactly why the product is crap, so look for those. I'm remembering a great (and long) review I read for an automatic cat litterbox which attaches to a toilet here, and sometimes ends up cooking cat turds...

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#133

Post by jaclaz » Fri, Jul 14, 2017, 3:39 PM UTC

kqr wrote: post #127

jaclaz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple aside, there is anyway an issue with a broken market for spares and repairs. A single data point: I recently went shopping for a replacement pump for a (professional) dishwasher, and while I was at it I was looking for a spare "programmer" (which is an electromechanic thingy, a motor with reduction gears and three cams that operate switches at a given timing). I was given an estimate from the local repair shop…

> the actual factory is no more than 150 km away from where I live (but of course they don't sell directly). You probably tried this already, but in case you didn't: see if you track down and speak directly to one of the people on the factory floor. Ask them if there's any chance they have a unit lying around that's been used for demonstration purposes, testing, or maybe there's a cosmetic fault that made it unshippa…

Well, yes and no, we are still talking of the diffence between 400 and 290 Euros, it wouldn't have been worth it, though for buying costly appliances I have done what you suggest in the past, of course.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#134

Post by reitanqild » Sat, Jul 15, 2017, 9:54 AM UTC

kqr wrote: post #128

cyphar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's intentional. They do not provide schematics to anyone outside of Apple and FOXCONN. They only provide diagnostics tools to "authorised repair shops" (which actually don't repair devices). They provide no information to repair shops on where they might be able to buy replacement chips (aside from searching the chip name on AliExpress). It's not as though they don't know how to repair devices, there is mountains o…

Ugh. This makes me so sad. I was very close to buying a Fairphone 2 or something for its repairability, but I ended up getting a recent Samsung model anyway because it beats the crap out of everything else in almost all categories – especially ones I value highly, like nonexistent shutter lag, weather sealing, battery life and such. But they're also very anti-tinker, from what I understand. The more I read about stuf…

Wait until warranty is expired or you have saved enough to replace it.

Next time: consider buying second hand if that is an option where you live. Should give you more options wrt 3rd party sw alternatives.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#135

Post by dvtv75 » Mon, Jul 17, 2017, 1:29 AM UTC

gist wrote: post #85

> “Oh, we don’t repair GE anymore. They’re pretty much throwaways now. When they break, you just buy a new one.” Reverse engineering of motive. If it were only that simple. Although this 'business response' could be correct I wouldn't assume that is the case as if the repair shop has no axe to grind or other reason to make that statement. Could have also lost their authorization or access to parts to repair GE applia…

A bit late to the party, but yes, I agree that there could well be other motivations. I worked in one PC shop where the owner had refused to take a mandated course to become an authorized Apple reseller. When they, in turn, refused him, he started telling every customer similar tales about Apple, and some of it plain invented.

Aside, not wanting to derail the comments: When I say "invented stuff" I mean like how Apple switched to Intel chips, because "the industry" got together and said that if Apple didn't, they would make a new internet just for Apple. There was also the line about all Apple developers being jealous of Microsoft's success, so they were the ones developing all the viruses and malware to take down Microsoft's OS, and there were fewer and fewer of these developers because they were all being put in jail with the Linux developers, who were busy doing the same thing.

One day, a Mac-based publishing shop foolishly decided that they needed our help. They got a lecture on how Microsoft Publisher was the industry standard and they should just get with the times. They never called back.

Incredibly enough, 10 years on, the repair shop is still in business and hasn't been sued.