I wonder if repair culture will expand in the US if prices on consumer elections rise with tariffs.
The US is unable to fix anything even if they are willing. Throw-away culture has consequences.
India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
181–190 of 203 posts
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#182[dead]
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#183I'm living in Russia. Can't say that we lived wealthy any time, maybe near 10 years at the beginning of XXI century. So the culture of repairs and repair shops is widely adopted here.
It is so widespread that even a special sort of frauds have been invented. First, a fake "repair shop" where you can lose money on paid "diagnosis" of broken parts or on extremely high cost of "repair". Which is just an installation of less broken parts or non-original and cheap parts ordered in China.
Second is a fake repairman, who comes to fix someone's PC and charges unreasonably high price for simple things, like cleaning the case from the dust or changing the thermal paste. Or even installs viruses to convince the user of the "real problems" and takes the computer to the "repair shop" where the obviously working parts will be stolen (swapped to smth cheap chinese parts) and the user ofc gets the unreasonably large paycheck for these operations.
Usually the technically illiterate people are the main target of such scammers.
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I'm still using the PC from 2013 year and the heavily modified Thinkpad X220. Yes, maybe some operations (mostly the modern Web-related operations) take more time than on the modern computer (mostly because of JavaScript). But editing text, programming, watching videos and listening to audio still works pretty well.
Maybe, some day some time, the battery will be a problem. But it is detachable, so the main problem is the BMS (Battery Management System), which prevents me from just swapping the old battery cells for the new ones.
But for now it has 2K screen (installed it because photo editing with 1366x768 isn't easy), new WiFi card with new WiFi revisions support and so on. Can say what this laptop have enormous repairability compared to the new laptops. One flaw — the CPU is soldered to the board, so I can't change it to something newer, like I can do with much older laptops.
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Companies should have to bear the full cost of cleaning up, repairing, or disposing the products they unleash upon the world. Where I live, you pay a "removal fee" when buying electronics or appliances for just that. If you're buying a new washing machine for example, the party delivering your device is obligated to take the old one with them. Of course, that's only part of it, your country also needs to have good…
That's an interesting law. which country is that? I would love to know more about it.
I don't know where he is from, but we have something very similar here in BC, Canada. It covers mostly electronics, but we also have a large appliance program which is similar.
Basically you just drop them off at your local recycling center, and they have a program that ensures they go to an audited recycler. There is a small fee when you buy electronics that pays for the program.
https://www.recyclemy-assets.com/1738262511-epra_bc_obligate...
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#185It's simple, the labour cost for repair is lower than the replacement cost, we also have people scavenging for valuables in landfills. As/When India will become rich enough, this will become uneconomical. Long term solution is to force companies to build products with repairability in mind.
Companies should have to bear the full cost of cleaning up, repairing, or disposing the products they unleash upon the world. If I have to throw away my laptop because it broke, Lenovo should pay the cost of disposing (or repairing) it and bringing the environment back to the condition it was in before the product existed. When my car dies, Toyota should have to tow it away, part it out and reuse what it can. We've s…
Most places in North America people will pay you to take your old dead car away. They strip the useful parts, and send the rest for metal recycling.
Why does Toyota need to get involved if there is already a multi-billion dollar salvage industry doing what you already propose with no obligation?
My last car I was paid ~$200 and that was low because I had them tow it from my home.
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#186Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
A good way to penalize planned obsolescence would be to charge a decreasing penalty if the goods are recycled/disposed earlier. So if I return the fridge for recycling after a couple of years (bad fridge) then the company gets charged automatically 5% of the fridge cost. If I recycle after 10 years then the company gets charged zero (as an example). Maybe instead of a charge this could be a credit. If the recycling h…
> So if I return the fridge for recycling after a couple of years Here in Norway consumers enjoy a 5 year warranty on products that are meant to last, and 2 years on other non-consumables. So if my fridge dies due to a manufacturing flaw within 5 years, the store I purchased it on has to repair free of charge, replace it with an equal or better product, or give a full refund. If the product keeps breaking in the same…
Well there's the issue innit? You're not placing fault on the manufacturer of the shoddy goods, but on the stores, which I presume are the local distributors?
Sure, you're disincentivizing crappy goods, but then you'd also barr a strata of society who can only afford those crappy goods. While it's not as much of a problem in Norway I suppose, it is a problem in the majority of the world.
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't know there was a term to it. I wouldn't think of my stance currently as advocating of purposeful scarcity in an anticipation of better distribution. Instead I do consider it critical to "take a step back" and "evaluate the problem statement at hand". Is the end goal more consumption or better living?
The end goal is progress and prosperity. Semiconductors are one of the few areas where there is rapid progress. Depriving your large working age population of the tools they need to improve their lives is counterproductive. The problem statement at hand is that you have a poor country plagued by graft and bureaucracy with the only sliver of hope being technology that can create upward mobility for your billion+ peopl…
> poor country plagued by graft and bureaucracy
Tells me how little you know about the country. And that's okay. There are several "rich" countries that are also plagued by graft and bureaucracy. And no, they aren't as happy as Economist indices would tell you.
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#189A few years ago, I wanted to add more RAM to a Lenovo laptop. I opened the thing, remove the RAM, and like a complete idiot, switched on the power without any RAM in the slot. The laptop refused to start. I took it to the Lenovo center and they said about 7-10 days and a minimum of Rs 10,000 (about $150 in those days). Since this was too much for an old laptop, I looked for alternatives. Someone suggested a repair sh…
Wait, you mean the laptop refused to start after replacing the RAM? And - was the price quote you got for adding RAM, or for fixing the laptop so that it starts again (with the old RAM SODIMM)? I couldn't quite follow the example.
I never replaced the RAM. Switched off the laptop, opened it, removed the RAM, and then accidentally switched it on again without any RAM in the slot
Re: India's repair culture gives new life to dead laptops
#190A few years ago, I wanted to add more RAM to a Lenovo laptop. I opened the thing, remove the RAM, and like a complete idiot, switched on the power without any RAM in the slot. The laptop refused to start. I took it to the Lenovo center and they said about 7-10 days and a minimum of Rs 10,000 (about $150 in those days). Since this was too much for an old laptop, I looked for alternatives. Someone suggested a repair sh…
>I opened the thing, remove the RAM, and like a complete idiot, switched on the power without any RAM in the slot. >The laptop refused to start. >I took it to the Lenovo center [...] This makes no sense. Why didn't you just replace the RAM? I seriously doubt starting the laptop without RAM bricks the laptop.
I forgot I had no RAM in the slot and switched the laptop back on
Why it refused to start after that is something that's beyond my expertise