I’m glad. I hate the fact that TV’s are so cheap now that fixing them literally isn’t worth it. Same with a lot of laptops and tablets and stuff. I’d much rather have a chunkier phone than one I won’t ever be able to fix.
I think that the worst part is the ones that make repairable tech are so much smaller than you are paying top end prices for rather middle of the road performance. This is not true of them all of course but it is hard to look at the fairphone 5 and think it is worth it over a cheap secondhand/refurbished flagship from the previous generation.
In the last few years I’ve fixed about a dozen TVs, they can definitely suck to fix at times (especially the really new ones) but in general the fixes have been simple. And all of them were snagged out of the dumpster at my apartment complex.
And that’s just the TVs I’ve fixed. I like to fix things.
In terms of phones they’re a nightmare though. I’m keeping an eye on HMD phones and Fairphone though as both of them are a LOT easier to fix than other brands.
In the event of my current phone breaking I’d love to get either one of those brands.
NGL when it comes to that kind of fault I usually just replace the mainboard, they’re usually dirt cheap and it’s a hell of a lot easier to swap that whole board than it is to poke and prod for an hour just to find out it’s some 40 pin monster with micro-soldiered pins.
The power board is usually what I do component level replacements on. The t-con board and the main board I usually just swap.
For TVs it’s usually really simple, like internal fuses or blown caps. And a few with bad backlights or mainboards that are dead.
For 2 of them it’s been shorts in the LCD itself which meant I had to block the clock pin from the TCON board for the specific part of the screen with the short. Basically killing a line of pixels to get the TV working again. In general if the TV is 4k and smaller than like 45 inches you’ll never see it unless you look for it.
That’s a super involved fix (involving A LOT of trial and error to find the right pin) but it keeps it out of a landfill.
In general fixing a TV is always cost effective unless the actual LCD has physical damage.
Any tips on finding someone who does component level repair? I have an old-ish laptop (7 years?) and the only issue is the USB C charger seems to be losing connection. If I flip the charger it works fine, so I think the solder just needs to be reflowed.
I think it would take an experienced person <30 min to fix. It’s almost not worth it though since it’s so old, but I’d be willing to pay $50-100 if it makes charging work better.
hey, I’m getting into this kind of repair. I have good soldering skills and am great at taking things apart, but do you have any tips on how to find the fault? even it’s just a blow capacitor, what am I looking for?
I’m glad. I hate the fact that TV’s are so cheap now that fixing them literally isn’t worth it. Same with a lot of laptops and tablets and stuff. I’d much rather have a chunkier phone than one I won’t ever be able to fix.
I think that the worst part is the ones that make repairable tech are so much smaller than you are paying top end prices for rather middle of the road performance. This is not true of them all of course but it is hard to look at the fairphone 5 and think it is worth it over a cheap secondhand/refurbished flagship from the previous generation.
In the last few years I’ve fixed about a dozen TVs, they can definitely suck to fix at times (especially the really new ones) but in general the fixes have been simple. And all of them were snagged out of the dumpster at my apartment complex.
And that’s just the TVs I’ve fixed. I like to fix things.
In terms of phones they’re a nightmare though. I’m keeping an eye on HMD phones and Fairphone though as both of them are a LOT easier to fix than other brands.
In the event of my current phone breaking I’d love to get either one of those brands.
Reminds me that I have to fix mine. Just shows the LG logo and does nothing
Probably not much more I can do besides replace caps
NGL when it comes to that kind of fault I usually just replace the mainboard, they’re usually dirt cheap and it’s a hell of a lot easier to swap that whole board than it is to poke and prod for an hour just to find out it’s some 40 pin monster with micro-soldiered pins.
The power board is usually what I do component level replacements on. The t-con board and the main board I usually just swap.
What’s the typical fixable issue you are finding?
For TVs it’s usually really simple, like internal fuses or blown caps. And a few with bad backlights or mainboards that are dead.
For 2 of them it’s been shorts in the LCD itself which meant I had to block the clock pin from the TCON board for the specific part of the screen with the short. Basically killing a line of pixels to get the TV working again. In general if the TV is 4k and smaller than like 45 inches you’ll never see it unless you look for it.
That’s a super involved fix (involving A LOT of trial and error to find the right pin) but it keeps it out of a landfill.
In general fixing a TV is always cost effective unless the actual LCD has physical damage.
Any tips on finding someone who does component level repair? I have an old-ish laptop (7 years?) and the only issue is the USB C charger seems to be losing connection. If I flip the charger it works fine, so I think the solder just needs to be reflowed.
I think it would take an experienced person <30 min to fix. It’s almost not worth it though since it’s so old, but I’d be willing to pay $50-100 if it makes charging work better.
Usually if it’s a charging port, it’s pretty common that there’s like dirt in there or something.
But soldering a type C connector is pretty tough due to the size. Especially for my (lack of) experience level.
It could be a learning opportunity for you though.
hey, I’m getting into this kind of repair. I have good soldering skills and am great at taking things apart, but do you have any tips on how to find the fault? even it’s just a blow capacitor, what am I looking for?
Probably bad caps in the power circuit