3 ms·

Back in these days I worked at a small electronics shop run by an electrical engineer. People would come in saying their PC didn't work. He would pop it open,

Back in these days I worked at a small electronics shop run by an electrical engineer. People would come in saying their PC didn't work. He would pop it open, take out the motherboard, go "ah yes, puffy caps. See right there", then open a drawer full of recycled capacitors, and desolder the bad ones and resolder correct ones back on. And it worked! The shop ultimately closed but I still think back to that and a few other tricks as especially impressive.

notatoad 4y ago
>the shop ultimately closed yeah, sounds about right. i was also working in a repair shop around the same time, and we knew that we could repair the boards for our customers. but we also knew that we couldn't get away with charging enough to cover the cost of parts and labour unless we offered a warranty, and we couldn't reasonably offer a warranty on old motherboards. we did make pretty good money selling upgraded new computers to the people whose capacitors had failed. it always felt a bit dirty to sell somebody a new $800 laptop when their old computer was repairable, and i'm sure dell was doing even better than we were on that racket.
- danuker 4y ago
  Profit could not be there without value provided. The fact that you "get away with it" is only possible if you offer such a needed service, that people are willing to pay. If you want to be charitable, leave some money on the table for customers who look in dire straits. But you should not feel bad for making a profit (at least until you find yourself buying politicians).
- digitallyfree 4y ago
  I do board-level repairs on my own stuff (most recently replaced a shorted IC on a laptop motherboard) as it saves them from landfill and is an interesting debugging exercise. It can take a lot of time and effort and complex repairs may not be worth it due to the chance for failure (I've destroyed PCB traces and chips) as well as the fact that some parts simply aren't cost-effective to replace. In the laptop example the many evenings spent reading datasheets and probing circuits definitely cost more than a replacement unit if I billed the hours per my engineer's salary. When I was a student friends and relatives would give me (nice) broken electronics that they were going to throw out anyways, and if I liked the item (e.g. an expensive camera that I couldn't afford) I would put a lot of effort into fixing it.
- Sakos 4y ago
  I'm close with one of the last repair shops I know of in Germany that still does it. There still seems to be a market for it, but definitely not enough to keep an industry alive. > but we also knew that we couldn't get away with charging enough to cover the cost of parts and labour unless we offered a warranty I'm not sure about that. The store charges more than enough to cover it and still gets more business than it can handle while still providing a free warranty for 6-12 months.
CoastalCoder 4y ago
Almost makes me wonder of caps should be attached for easy replacement. I.e., broadly speaking, like lightbulbs.

notatoad 4y ago

>the shop ultimately closed yeah, sounds about right. i was also working in a repair shop around the same time, and we knew that we could repair the boards for our customers. but we also knew that we couldn't get away with charging enough to cover the cost of parts and labour unless we offered a warranty, and we couldn't reasonably offer a warranty on old motherboards. we did make pretty good money selling upgraded new computers to the people whose capacitors had failed. it always felt a bit dirty to sell somebody a new $800 laptop when their old computer was repairable, and i'm sure dell was doing even better than we were on that racket.

danuker 4y ago
Profit could not be there without value provided. The fact that you "get away with it" is only possible if you offer such a needed service, that people are willing to pay. If you want to be charitable, leave some money on the table for customers who look in dire straits. But you should not feel bad for making a profit (at least until you find yourself buying politicians).
digitallyfree 4y ago
I do board-level repairs on my own stuff (most recently replaced a shorted IC on a laptop motherboard) as it saves them from landfill and is an interesting debugging exercise. It can take a lot of time and effort and complex repairs may not be worth it due to the chance for failure (I've destroyed PCB traces and chips) as well as the fact that some parts simply aren't cost-effective to replace. In the laptop example the many evenings spent reading datasheets and probing circuits definitely cost more than a replacement unit if I billed the hours per my engineer's salary. When I was a student friends and relatives would give me (nice) broken electronics that they were going to throw out anyways, and if I liked the item (e.g. an expensive camera that I couldn't afford) I would put a lot of effort into fixing it.
Sakos 4y ago
I'm close with one of the last repair shops I know of in Germany that still does it. There still seems to be a market for it, but definitely not enough to keep an industry alive. > but we also knew that we couldn't get away with charging enough to cover the cost of parts and labour unless we offered a warranty I'm not sure about that. The store charges more than enough to cover it and still gets more business than it can handle while still providing a free warranty for 6-12 months.

CoastalCoder 4y ago

Almost makes me wonder of caps should be attached for easy replacement. I.e., broadly speaking, like lightbulbs.