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Ask a Repair Shop

philip.yurchuk.com

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Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#41

Post by dexterdog »

richdougherty wrote: post #32

I did this when I was choosing a laptop. I called up a few laptop repair shops. It as so helpful! They could tell me what was junk and what was OK. I also do something like this this when choosing a new ISP. I call the support line instead of the sales line. Somehow ISPs can answer sales enquiries instantly while support calls take 45 minutes to answer. This strategy has led me to use some of the smaller (slightly mo…

Hard to do with laptops if you prefer the newer ones. They don't have much of a track record when I usually buy one.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#42

Post by earfarm »

cyphar wrote: post #30
w458cmau wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think though that this is Apple actively trying to reduce your ability to repair, or is it that they pursue other goals and the ability to repair is waaay down on the list? I would assume, from experience in large corporations, that it is the latter.

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…

As far as I know, no manufacturer supplies laptop circuit diagrams to outside parties, except Panasonic for the Toughbook series. All the other schematics out there are leaks. Automotive manufacturers only supply wiring diagrams of the body wiring harnesses. The only electronic assemblies in cars you can get a circuit diagram for are radios; ECU internals are jealously guarded. Even in the consumer electronics industry, manufacturers don't tell you how to buy parts through components distribution. They either sell you the parts at humongous markup or direct you to their authorized parts dealers who buy them from the product manufacturer, not the component manufacturer, again at huge markup. Most of the chips in a laptop aren't available through components distribution at all because the distys would never be able to sell enough pieces to justify a minimum order from the chip maker.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#43

Post by dexterdog »

jjn2009 wrote: post #22
TeMPOraL wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you ask an enterprise vendor if their software has feature X, the answer is always, "Yes!" You'll find their software is infinitely customizable with just a bit of configuration. Or, like it happens in smaller B2B deals, they'll say "Yes!", and then after the meeting go to the dev team and say: "we just signed a contract in which we promised feature X; you need to implement it in two weeks".

>"we just signed a contract in which we promised feature X; you need to implement it in two weeks". This hits wayyyy to close to home.

You also got two weeks? You guys are both lucky.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#44

Post by userbinator »

liquidcool wrote: post #10
jaredandrews wrote: post #3

I got a full education on washers, including a lot of industry dirty laundry. Please tell us more.

A friend asked me the same, so here's my info. It is dated, and you're best calling a repair shop before buying, but likely still some nuggets of truth here. Big trend is consolidation in the industry. Whirlpool, Maytag, and Kitchenaid are all the same company now. For dishwashers (and I got this info recently), repairman said they all have the same motor and core components, which is the most important. They differ…

but sadly there was nothing he could do for a bent frame and it had to be ditched.

Some carefully applied force might've fixed it. We used to do that with cars too.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#45

Post by inthewoods »

My experience is the opposite. Spoke with two system integrators regarding an implementation of a marketing automation tool. In both cases, the proposed lead on the project made statements that I knew were incorrect regarding the software. We also had a challenging requirement that was not part of any out-of-the-box solution and was told by both that it wasn't possible with one of the vendors we were considering. Simply using Google, I was able to find a solution.

I'd add (and the author mentions this) that most system integrators have a bias (whether financially driven or not) towards particular software. That makes it challenging to assess "is this the best software or what they pushing me to"?

I don't see how this is that much different from buying from the vendors.

For me, I usually take a vendor's customer page and start calling people myself. I also reach out to my network to see if anyone has an opinion. And if I can find a list of companies using the software (vs. who the company says they work with) then I call/reach out to them as well.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#46

Post by arethuza »

richdougherty wrote: post #32

I did this when I was choosing a laptop. I called up a few laptop repair shops. It as so helpful! They could tell me what was junk and what was OK. I also do something like this this when choosing a new ISP. I call the support line instead of the sales line. Somehow ISPs can answer sales enquiries instantly while support calls take 45 minutes to answer. This strategy has led me to use some of the smaller (slightly mo…

We had an excellent shower repair guy who probably saved us £1500 by managing to fix a badly installed shower valve in place rather than requiring the entire show unit to be ripped out.

I did ask him if they recommended particular makes of plumbing fittings but he told me their company policy was never to make recommendations :-(

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#47

Post by kalleboo »

timcederman wrote: post #34
cyphar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Louis's axe grinding is not without justification. But I don't disagree that these days repairing your own devices is much easier than it was 50 years ago. My point was that companies are trying to counteract that by creating devices and instituting (possibly illegal in some countries) policies that are anti-consumer repair.

What's the justification? Yeah, I'd like more easily repairable devices, but I also get the trade-off. Why is he so angry about it all? (from what I can tell - because he knows how to fix stuff, rather than replace parts wholesale, and fundamentally believes this should be the norm, without taking into account the economics)

The justification is its a huge waste to replace a $350 (or more now if SSDs and stuff are soldered in) logic board or throw away a computer over a 10 cent busted resistor or surface mount fuse that can be diagnosed and replaced in an hour.

And he doesn't have any good things to say about the Surface either https://youtu.be/yswp0Bio4Oo

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#49

Post by reitanqild »

w458cmau wrote: post #27
cyphar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that companies (especially Apple) are explicitly trying to make their devices harder to repair -- which is the reason for the whole Right-to-Repair movement[1]. If you want to see how much dodgy stuff repair shops have to go through to figure out how to fix Apple products, check out the channels of Louis Rossman[2] and Jessa Jones[3]. [1]: http://ifixit.org/right [2]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC…

Do you think though that this is Apple actively trying to reduce your ability to repair, or is it that they pursue other goals and the ability to repair is waaay down on the list? I would assume, from experience in large corporations, that it is the latter.

Do you think though that this is Apple actively trying to reduce your ability to repair, or is it that they pursue other goals and the ability to repair is waaay down on the list?

Another vote for intentional.

By the time you 1. add sw to detect repairs as mentioned elsewhere 2. don't use standard screws like posi or torx 3. make the screws similar but make sure one is longer and will short circuit the device if you put it in the wrong place (IIRC)

- then it is intentional.

Re: Ask a Repair Shop

#50

Post by arethuza »

dexterdog wrote: post #43
jjn2009 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"we just signed a contract in which we promised feature X; you need to implement it in two weeks". This hits wayyyy to close to home.

You also got two weeks? You guys are both lucky.

I knew a CEO once who honestly believed that any feature he could conceive of could be implemented in two weeks.

He was quite successful....

Any before anyone asks what the logic was behind this - there wasn't any - he just chose to believe it and ignore any evidence to the contrary.

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