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My HP laptop has an official support video on YouTube that shows how to tear down the entire device, with links to HP-blessed replacement components. It's not t

My HP laptop has an official support video on YouTube that shows how to tear down the entire device, with links to HP-blessed replacement components. It's not the most durable laptop, but it's pretty darn repairable. I was even able to swap in an (officially unsupported) Intel wifi card to replace the stock Broadcom card that was having driver issues with my network.

the-grump 3y ago
I have opened basically every laptop I own(ed) to replace memory/SSD and sometimes other components. The easiest to work with besides framework are my beefy thinkpads. The sleek ones are a PITA. My framework is both portable and the absolute easiest to work with. And the fact that the screen, keyboard, touchpad, battery are all readily available and easy to replace feels great. Add to that the innovative configurable ports, and I can't really justify owning anything else. Three things I hope framework addresses in the next generation: more max memory than the current 64GB, ECC RAM, dual USB-C adapters. If they address those, I might turn my workstation into a server and make this my primary machine.
- pdpi 3y ago
  > My framework is both portable and the absolute easiest to work with. It’s hard to overstate this. I bought the 13” DIY edition a few weeks back, and it was almost disappointingly easy to set up. I was expecting a bit of a project, but it took me about 40 minutes from opening the box to having Fedora installed and YouTube playing. And the chassis is as thin as my 14” MacBook Pro (15.95mm vs 15.5mm)
justinclift 3y ago
> with links to HP-blessed replacement components. When Framework first came out, HP launched a "repairable" laptop that was as you said. Lots of useful support stuff on their website, etc. Unfortunately, it turned out that actually ordering any of those replacement parts from HP wasn't really practical. The parts with either permanently out of stock, or some huge wait time (1 year+ maybe?). Maybe things have gotten better...?
felurx 3y ago
Adding to the anecdata: My experience with my current HP laptop was completely different. Two or three months after the warranty ended, the keyboard broke. Sending it to them would have cost 50€ for them to just tell me the repair costs, which might or might not have been credited to the final bill. In the end, my father and I replaced the keyboards by ourselves. You can't get or replace the keyboard as a part by itself, only with the whole plastic that makes up the top surface of the bottom shell, including a new mouse pad. You have to completely disassemble the laptop to do the swap. Two or something years later, and the keyboard broke in exactly the same way again. I think it's just the flex cable, but you can't replace it. They did end up releasing their internal repair guide like four years after the laptop came out, I guess that would have been nice to have for the repair. Also, one of the hinges snapped from the brittle and thin plastic that connected it to the bottom shell, but luckily that doesn't seem to have much of an effect when the laptop is assembled. (Also, another major annoyance, they cheaped out on the WiFi+BT chip and only connected one antenna, which makes the Bluetooth borderline unusable while WiFi is on.) Oh, and I've had two or something charging cables die on me because the way they come out of the charging brick doesn't protect them from strain very well. A replacement (with the standard 65W) is like 70-90$. I always found them cheaper for used, luckily. I'll never buy a laptop (or anything at all, probably) from them again.

the-grump 3y ago

I have opened basically every laptop I own(ed) to replace memory/SSD and sometimes other components. The easiest to work with besides framework are my beefy thinkpads. The sleek ones are a PITA. My framework is both portable and the absolute easiest to work with. And the fact that the screen, keyboard, touchpad, battery are all readily available and easy to replace feels great. Add to that the innovative configurable ports, and I can't really justify owning anything else. Three things I hope framework addresses in the next generation: more max memory than the current 64GB, ECC RAM, dual USB-C adapters. If they address those, I might turn my workstation into a server and make this my primary machine.

pdpi 3y ago
> My framework is both portable and the absolute easiest to work with. It’s hard to overstate this. I bought the 13” DIY edition a few weeks back, and it was almost disappointingly easy to set up. I was expecting a bit of a project, but it took me about 40 minutes from opening the box to having Fedora installed and YouTube playing. And the chassis is as thin as my 14” MacBook Pro (15.95mm vs 15.5mm)

justinclift 3y ago

> with links to HP-blessed replacement components. When Framework first came out, HP launched a "repairable" laptop that was as you said. Lots of useful support stuff on their website, etc. Unfortunately, it turned out that actually ordering any of those replacement parts from HP wasn't really practical. The parts with either permanently out of stock, or some huge wait time (1 year+ maybe?). Maybe things have gotten better...?

felurx 3y ago

Adding to the anecdata: My experience with my current HP laptop was completely different. Two or three months after the warranty ended, the keyboard broke. Sending it to them would have cost 50€ for them to just tell me the repair costs, which might or might not have been credited to the final bill. In the end, my father and I replaced the keyboards by ourselves. You can't get or replace the keyboard as a part by itself, only with the whole plastic that makes up the top surface of the bottom shell, including a new mouse pad. You have to completely disassemble the laptop to do the swap. Two or something years later, and the keyboard broke in exactly the same way again. I think it's just the flex cable, but you can't replace it. They did end up releasing their internal repair guide like four years after the laptop came out, I guess that would have been nice to have for the repair. Also, one of the hinges snapped from the brittle and thin plastic that connected it to the bottom shell, but luckily that doesn't seem to have much of an effect when the laptop is assembled. (Also, another major annoyance, they cheaped out on the WiFi+BT chip and only connected one antenna, which makes the Bluetooth borderline unusable while WiFi is on.) Oh, and I've had two or something charging cables die on me because the way they come out of the charging brick doesn't protect them from strain very well. A replacement (with the standard 65W) is like 70-90$. I always found them cheaper for used, luckily. I'll never buy a laptop (or anything at all, probably) from them again.