Remember when you could just swap a board and be done?

Had a guy bring in a 2012 laptop last week, the kind where you could actually get a service manual and the parts weren't glued down. I found a cracked solder joint on the DC jack in maybe 20 minutes, fixed it for $60, and he was thrilled. Now everything is sealed up and needs a whole motherboard, which costs more than the thing is worth. What's the oldest piece of gear you still enjoy working on because it's actually fixable?

2 comments

2 Comments

wright.rowan4h ago

Man, I miss those days too. I still love fixing old CRT monitors, you can actually get in there and replace the flyback transformer without a fight. What's your favorite fixable piece of gear?

andrewh953h ago

You ever read about those old ThinkPads from the early 2000s? I saw a forum post where a guy had a T42 with a dead hard drive. He popped off the keyboard, swapped in a cheap SSD, and it booted right up. No special tools, just a screwdriver. That kind of simple fix feels like a lost art now.