What's the most difficult computer repair you've done?
ipad air display panel
so much glue and loose parts
>>53555186
>>53555208
Is there any kind of money in this? I mean, could you get so good that contracted with larger electronics vendors? Like medical device supply companies or something...?
>>53555244
>Like medical device supply companies or something...?
No, definitely not. Medical devices cost LOTS of money, and mostly being used in public companies/buildings etc. they need warranties and such
>Border PC Virus Removal and physical cleaning
Repairing monitors and broken electronics is not part of the IT repairmens toolset.
>>53555310
So electronics repair in the US, even microsoldering, is more of a hobby and not a way to achieve financial success you'd say?
>>53555576
For any consumer device, the cost of labor to repair it makes them uneconomical to repair, even if you could get minimum-wage workers to do this sort of thing, which you can't.
For specialist devices like medical equipment, it might be viable, but the market is small and the buyers of that equipment have service contracts, so really it's only the manufacturer who can do it.
>>53555636
Wow. What a terrific answer, man. Hope for 4chan yet.
>>53555186
on a PC? recapping motherboards.
anything else? Replacing the fuel pump on my old '97 Dodge caravan without any of the proper tools to pull it off.
... well... replacing the head gasket and lower intake manifold gasket on my old '98 Grand Am GT's 3100 V6 is probably the hardest.
installed gentoo
Been fixing servers, managing Oracle SQL for CRM and HCM, but the worst is when a server running Linux in this kind of mission critical stuff fucks up, and you have to reinstall everything.
There's no support, just autists discussing your choices and avoiding the question by explaining how they would have done it, then goes mad when they know you want to install something proprietary.
They've been using this software since you were not even born! And you want me now to install some beta shit just because they would donate for your project that is not adapted for a 8500 employee company! Now I would just want to know how to configure that new firewall since the new version of [distro] comes with some new shit that blocks everything.
computers are not the most difficult thing to deal with. it's the people you have to communicate with.
Fixed a couple bad solder joints on a laptop motherboard.
The dumbass owner tried to fix it himself and didn't reassemble it with all the screws. Stress from the AC adapter caused the solder joints for a couple surface-mount capacitors to fail, and it was a pain to diagnose.
Dude was a brony and had some erotic fanfic open in his browser too.
>>53555186
I accidentally cleared my bios chip. Was not funny. Made it out ok though.
>>53555186
Unsoldering blasted capacitors from my GPU board and soldering new ones. It didn't look pretty, but works ok to this day.
>>53555927
I hope it wasn't your very first time soldering something.
Not actually repairing but an old GPU I had only worked properly at specific under-clocked values that I had to discover by myself. It took me months of testing values and bios settings since RAM values and other settings also affected it as well.
>failing for the AMD meme
never again
>>53555763
>Oracle
You (or rather, your company's IT management) asked for it.
>>53555897
Did you reflash it in another PC or have you found a way to load it directly onto it?
Cracking the IBM T42 BIOS password. Had to build a circuit, connect it to the serial on another machine and solder to the security chip. The password was CH33S3Y
>>53555949
Nah, I have been doing electronics/robotics hobby for years.
The only problem with soldering GPUs and motherboards is that they use alloys that are hard to solder by hand.
>>53555186
Probably the one in your picture. I was working at an independent repair shop and had to change a charging port on a laptop.They weren't equipped for that kind of repair. All they had was a 15 watt radioshack iron, I don't think they even had any flux. Took forever and a day to remove the old solder, maybe a full hour of fucking with it.
It's exceedingly rare in computer repair to work with people who know how to do much more than reinstall windows.
>>53556035
You mean lead-free bullshit? Git gud.
As the first guy said, iPad displays are a bit difficult to fix. The glue is the worst part. I been repairing iPhones for extra money since the 3GS was out. The iPhone 4/4s was the worst, since there are a billion screws and you have to take the whole thing apart to get the display off (opens from the back). Thanks to the aluminum unibody design of the 5-6s, the screen can be removed with a screwdriver and razor blade in about 2 minutes.
Removing iCloud locks is pretty difficult. It's possible to do it, but requires a lot of work. I've not yet found a way to do so on the new 6s and 6s plus because of hardware revisions. It gets harder and harder with every iOS update as well. The downside to removing iCloud locks illegitimately is that if it's a cellular device, it can't be activated. You basically have an iPod touch. They still sell for about 250USD, which is pretty good considering I buy them for about 50 each.
>>53556105
>Probably the one in your picture
Winrar, by far the most painful repair in this thread. Have you recovered from the third degree burns on your right hand?
- replaced caps on a dead motherboard, it worked until scrapped as obsolete
- heatgunned the gpu in a laptop twice (not a proper repair but it brought the laptop back to life for significant amounts of time)
- fixed the charging plug on a netbook
- repaired several crt's when they were still current tech
- replaced caps on a couple tft panels
Right, the most difficult. That was probably the crt repair, it required more than replacing capacitors
Most nigger-rigged repair right here.
Soldering my laptops lcd backlight fuse with a 25w iron with completely worn chisel tip, which I had to sand down to a small conic tip. I couldnt find the actual fuse which is small as fuck anyway, so I improvised with some cable and a car microfuse of the same specs. This was 2 years ago and since then I got a proper soldering station that makes working on shit like this a breeze.
Also one time I broke my ipod video battery pins, the ones soldering on the motherboard and thin as fuck, I cant even remember how I managed to put all back.
I had to resolder all the CPUs in a mobo cluster
Proped up a borde in a CRT with a wood dowl.
>>53555244
>Like medical device supply companies or something...?
I have done freelance work for just what you are talking about and charged 100dollars an hour
however the deal is their equipment uses proprietary boards they design themselves, you fix most high end medical equipment the same way you fix your home PC, by replacing the board with a new one. You would never solder anything because all other reasons aside if you did then you just made that single machine special it's "the one that guy soldered that one time" and they don't want that, they want all their million dollar machines to be exactly the same with all factory parts made at the factory under specific conditions.
it's harder than working on your home PC but really all that shit is just really really complex PCs and they work the same way at heart, but they have weird protocols and parts and boards you have to learn how to use and install and diagnose
>>53555636
>For any consumer device, the cost of labor to repair it makes them uneconomical to repair,
there are literally 5 stores like this in my town and they are always busy
I once had to solder my 10 gb of ram into the mother board slots. ( There were 5 pieces of ram in total)
>>53556665
Please explain
Baked my laptop's mobo in an oven, if that counts.
2 years later, it still works. Temps are beyond horrible though.
>>53555186
re installed windows
My brother claimed to be cleaning out his pc and SOMEHOW his processor dropped out (bull shit I know he took it out) and a couple of the pins got bent. Well I took a mechanical pencil and bent them right back. Works to this day
>>53555186
Soldering a replacement DC jack into my laptops motherboard.
>>53556376
>replacing the inverter/psu in a monitor
Do that all the time. its amazing how often the inverter fails.
>>53555636
maybe you don't get out much but guys are raking in money hand over fist repairing phones like the pic here: >>53556592
There's two Walmart superstores 15 minutes east and 15 minuts south of my house, both of them have phone/tablet/PC repair shops in them and I've never been in either store and not seen a line leading to both shops.
There's an electronics repair shop across the street from my old job. They do your typical receiver, tv, etc repairs and even they had good business.
People still take their stuff to repair shops all the time.
>>53555186
To hack the Gibson.
swapping the optical drive for a second HDD in my 12.1" PowerBook G4. The optical drive is the last piece that comes out of the chassis, this include the motherboard.
>>53556006
>Not just guessing CH33S3Y
>>53556946
Those phone repair shops are pretty much all money laundering places.
They are all over the UK, run by darkies for this exact reason.
I've repaired a broken solder joint as a mechanic on an electronic module. The alternative was to wait a week out for the replacement unit and charge the customer $1000(overpriced dealer part) for the module plus the labor. I ended up just fixing the module and charging the customer a couple hundred for diagnostic and repair. Had the vehicle repaired on the same day it came in on top of that.
I don't see this happening often in an IT environment though. Most of the parts are standardized and can be replaced cheaply and quickly.
>>53556592
So this is where iPhone addicts get their fix?
When you see shops like this operating out in the open without fear it says a lot about ...
>>53557123
changing the graphics card on a 2011 imac 21.5
the i broke the IR sensor but no one will ever find out.
>>53555186
Where did you find such an awful picture op? I hope that iron is plugged in
>>53557165
She has safety glasses on though. :^)
Added a Sata port to a motherboard that didn't had one on an AOA110 mini laptop.
>>53557214
what the fuck is this monstrosity?
>>53557374
A sata port. Can't you read?
>>53557214
Why didn't you just clip off the plastic parts at the corners and put the port directly on the board?
>>53557214
This >>53557396
Added an SSD to this bad boy, run like a charm even today.
>>53557374
A motherboard that had an unpopulated SATA connection, anon soldered a SATA port to it.
>>53557414
I didn't had a surface mounting workstation or hot air gun
>>53557449
>I didn't had a surface mounting workstation
It's not a surface mounted component. You can solder it normally.
>>53555186
How could this image be improved?
I'm thinking her idle hand should be holding an ice cream cone and she's casually licking it or mouthifying the end.
Fixed my friends bent CPU pins, he bent two them twice two separate times! But It works fine now.
>>53557816
I swear working on unbending CPU pins for too long fucks with your head
>>53555186
2.5 TB of data recovery. Most frustrating thing I have ever done.
>>53555186
Re installed windows
>>53557046
>Those phone repair shops are pretty much all money laundering places.
except for the fact people drop and break their iphone screens all the fucking time and are afraid to open up something they don't understand, and the shops provide the service of fixing thousands of broken screens
but other than the fact they do real, tangible work that benefits consumers
total sham
>>53555244
>>53555576
>>53555636
>>53556592
>>53556946
I've been in the mobile repair industry for a little over a year and a half now and I can tell you right now it's a definite money maker.
Most local stores get their business from convenience. For example, Apple devices can be repaired at Apple stores but usually at a much higher (or lower, depending on device) cost and at the expense of a lengthy drive for most locations. The nearest one to me is a 30 minute drive coupled with the necessity of making an appointment and waiting around for hours all so some jerk hipster can fumble with your phone for a few minutes then tell you to buy a new one.
Most local shops I've been to when getting a lay of the land for competition all get their customer base from convenience and good warranties. Why drive to the Apple store and waste a quarter of your life when you can go to a local shop, and spend a little more money, and still get an equally good return?
The problem with the mobile repair industry is the absolute lack of quality components. They are difficult to come by. No phone part is truly OEM, and if you find one that is, it is going to have an insane price tag (for reference, OEM Galaxy S5 displays are around $250 something, a refurbished one with high copy glass is around $120).
It doesn't make any sense. If you are trying to repair a refrigerator, or a car, or whatever the fuck else, shit even maybe a god damn ham radio, you can just contact the manufacturer and get instant access to manuals, schematics, and quality factory direct parts. Phones? Haha, FUCK YOU. That's what every manufacturer does with them. Want a manual? Fuck off. Want an OEM part? Suck my dick. Want a board schematic? Keep asking and I'll sue you.
>>53555186
Replacing a CPU fan on an old HP notebook. It wasn't technically difficult. It was just a royal pain in the ass because you literally had to disassemble the entire fucking thing to get the motherboard out and get access to the CPU fan. You could look at my kitchen table and every part was separated, every screw removed.
It was probably Carly Fiorina's fault. About that time period. Fucking bitch.
Figuring out some idiot installed a motherboard without standoffs.
Fixing a bricked PS3 (bad flash), the solder points were pretty small and I hadn't soldered much before that.
Not sure it counts as repair anymore, but I made this monstrosity.
>Dead keyboard and touchpad
>Broken power button cable. Repaired it with the touchpad one.
>Dead fan, sounds like a jet engine dying of tuberculosis, but barely moves air anymore, needs help to start spinning. Made a hole in the case and attached a bigger fan with a shitty PWM circuit.
>Dead SATA controller. Put hard drive on an USB adapter, hid it in the optical disk bay.
>Charger eaten by rabbit. Used tape.
>Screen broken. Can't access bios or see boot error messages, no display until OS starts and tells it it doesn't have a lvds output anymore.
Repairing a 2011 iMac.
Have to suction-cup the fucking screen off, and then carefully undo three incredibly difficult to reach ribbon cables with about 2 inches of clearance so you don't just rip the connectors off the board.
Running the ribbons back through those stupid fold-over clamp connectors was even worse.
The hoops you have to jump through to just get to the HDD (Which was held in by fucking TAPE) are ridiculous. Terrible design.
Renovation project on my HP DV6500 a few years ago:
>new fan
>new thermal pads
>new thermal paste
>a new part of the case
in addition to cleaning literally everything that was accessible.
>>53556266
le extra literal dad joke!
>>>/reddit/
straightening the pins on my cpu. It was both painful and humiliating
>>53559050
Honestly the suction cup ones are easier than the ones that clip into the frame with the jaws of life.
One time I was working on one and Apples design is so top notch that they actually leave the internals of the power supply unit completely exposed. After all, no room for some kind of an enclosure to prevent shock hazards on a high voltage, high wattage piece of equipment when keeping the computer as thin as possible is a higher priority than basic safety.
So I reached under the display like usual to unplug the connectors and my hand grazed the power supply. Felt quite a jolt from that damn thing. Fucking garbage design.
>>53555186
not quite a computer but recently my htc m8 stopped reading my sim card, sim works in other phones so i new it was the m8 so i bought a replacement sim reader board on amazon and dismantled my m8, i needed to watch a video as its something ive never done before, was a hell of a fuck about, had to also buy some very tiny specific screw drivers and torque (?) drivers, managed to dismantle, take out the old board, had to use a hair dryer to soften some glue in a few places, put in the new one and reassemble it as before, its a little scuffed around the edges now where i had to pry the metal case off but other than that it works exactly as before....ie no problems other than it still wont read a fucking sim. I consider this a partial success as even though i didnt repair the fault i also didnt cause any new ones, not bad considering the closest ive come to doing something like this before is replacing teh fascia on a 3210.
sorry for wall of text, fuck grammar.
>>53558896
You really need to get in industry. I have vacuum pump of edwards if i need to repair it i need to call the repair guy and he will call edwards and they will send one guy from the main house with the manual and the manual is just for him. I also need to provide a separated room for them to work. So in the end i will need to pay for 2 people for reparing my pump and travel expenses. Something that i could done myself but they dont have almost no spares
I had a clinic once as a client at my old consulting job whose environment was fucked up. I swear they hired some teenager to set it up for them. They had a tower HP server running desktop Ubuntu as a "virtual host". They then had oracle virtual box running thin provisioned luns and two pirated Windows SBS servers that were configured to be thick provisioned. From what I remember all of the hard drives were setup as ext4 so I'm not sure how windows was even working.
The Ubuntu install started corrupting. It wasn't a good time.
Repairing LGA 2011 mobo pins.
God damn it's annoying as fuck.
straightening out cpu pins on a fx 4350, took a long time
>>53559800
Forget to say it was making mra hack on xbox drive
Pic related but this i not mine my has ugly but worked
>>53559853
This.
>buy x79 board
>other one that I wanted goes on sale
>return the one I bought which I literally hadn't taken out of the box to nigger-egg
>they send it back to me saying their inspector/tester whatever reports that I damaged the board so they wouldn't take it back
>wtf
>get the board, big thumb print size area of bent pins
>they won't believe me that it was their guys fuck up and not me
>bend the pins back myself with a razer blade
>file BBB complaint and refund it with paypal
>keep my free board, get $50 gift card from the BBB complaint
>never use nigger-egg again
Seriously, fuck newegg, just buy shit from amazon and don't support their bullshit.
>>53559800
Regardless of the hoops they make you jump through, they still provide the stuff. I would be more than willing to shell out the cost for good quality original phone parts if it meant less defective components and less problems for my customers. It's embarrassing and unprofessional when I have to tell a guy to come back three times over to change a part out because it kept going bad.
I've probably already spent just as much on acquiring new parts for a phone as I would have on a quality component direct from manufacturer or a middle man supplier.
>>53560016
Similar to my issue.
I bought a dual CPU mobo, CPU 2 had some bent pins. Used a mechanical pencil to bend them back, works like a charm and I got a refund.
Keyboard swap, upgraded from stock to mechanical
Hey guys, can you recommend me any precision screwdriver bits set? I need a good set to tinker on all my shit
copied a sysprepped w7 image onto a laptop with a locked bios via pxe server.
removing the hdd was not an option
getting a Molex connector out
re-formatting my disk with data on it after a micro-soft style partition allowed my machine to loop back around and wipe out a bunch of data that wasn't backed up due to the volume of it. If you're talking hardware, I re-work that shit all the time, so it really isn't hard anymore.
>>53555186
i soldered microusb connector in tablet, i guess
modern "computer repair" is all about finding problem and replacing entire part. No one have to solder anything unless it's broken headphone jack or usb port, it's always safer cheaper to just order a new part.
>>53555310
there is medical maintenance but they are smart enough to actually repair or solder anything so they usually just lube chair seats and replace broken stuff with new stuff
