Buy Framework laptops, these have amazing repairability and upgradability, as well as good Linux compatibility. They even offer ChromeOS options, if you ever need a Chromebook.
Yup - as someone else pointed out I wasn’t clear in what I said. If you buy a new mobo to upgrade your laptop, you wind up with an older mobo that sits there. You can then actually use the old mobo as a desktop computer as long as it has ram and an SSD. The form factor and IO were designed with this functionality in mind.
I think I could justify Chromebooks to a degree when it comes to hardware. The goal is clearly to produce cheapest hardware possible, which inevitably means soldered components and mass production with features disabled in software. I can’t excuse software locking and bad practices, though. However what Apple is doing is just sinister.
I can only go by people like Luis Rossman on Mac stuff, but I’ve done my fair amount of Chromebook repairs. Granted it’s been a few years, and most were dell and splash of HP/Lenovo. Hardware wise there’s not much to them, physically. Pretty easy with simple tools. However, the shimming/reloading the OS is a whole different monster. Dell was the easiest, but was still involved.
I worked on mostly Chromebook repairs for 6 months last year, and I found it to be pretty straightforward as well from a hardware standpoint…especially when there was no point in doing most repairs because it would cost more than just getting a new one.
For any OS issues, we’d simply take a flash drive and reinstall it from scratch. It’s definitely gotten easier, but holy crap could it be slow as hell lol
From what I remember, even the dell process was a testament to following instructions to the T. Having to do some steps with the battery connected, then more with it disconnected, then connected again. HP used some special screw for board locking. Lol what a wild time.
I’m using external keyboard on my macbook because the letter i is not working and replacing the keyboard means completely gutting the thing and ripping the old one out by force as it’s locked in place with plastic rivets.
Having worked in a repair shop, I can give you instructions, but that would be assuming you have the resources and the tools to follow said directions and nothing should designed like that…
Where do I get the keyboard as a part from? I bought a keyboard from a seemingly branded seller on Aliexpress and the keyboard was really shit. The spacebar didn’t balance at the edges and all the key felt mushy.
I also bought a battery from iFixit and got two warranty replacements and not a single one lasted more than a few hours before bricking itself. As in the battery still measured a voltage and it could keep the ram contents in sleep but the controller/battery info no longer showed up in macOS.
I can do these repairs as difficult as they are but where do I actually get the parts from?
In that case, first place I’d look is on EBay to find ‘Books being sold for parts. You’re not going to have a lot of luck getting an OEM keyboard.
As far as where we got most of our parts from, we usually went to MobileSentrix or MobileDefenders. They stock parts for a lot of phones, even replacement displays for iPhones, Surfaces, and Switch. However, I don’t recall if they require some sort of business account.
that they have to replace each member of their family’s $1,000 phone every other year because it’s not designed to last
What do they do? I’m on my third phone since they came to be and the one inbetween only because it became infeasible to repair a broken screen. While my Galaxy S3 just retired from being an alarm clock, because the battery can’t be charged anymore (and replacement batteries were bad-as-new in 2016 already).
You can get much more reliable and sturdy phones for like $300-$400 and they last longer than the flimsy fancy flagship phones. They just don’t have the best features.
Chromebooks are straight up hostile towards attempts at repairs, maintenance, or upgrades. It’s wild, they really went the extra mile towards rampant consumerism.
Ohh yeah, I literally work as a field technician fixing computers for some of the big companies. Literally the only computers that make me & my competitors go insane are Chromebooks. Hardware is ok at best. Software is absolutely HELL though.
I’m curious what about the software is hell as a technician? I was under the impression that the ChromeOS part being normally unmodifiable by the user would lead to fewer problems. Is there something about it that makes it worse than a comparable Windows or Mac computer?
What’s wrong with the software? They are client web devices and with crostini you can develop at a pinch. But they aren’t meant to be laptop/desktop replacement.
There is no scenario where a company doing this would not be paid for by customers in a roundabout way. So if we want to require that every company to do this, that means every company is going to balance their finances to make it happen and if it costs them money, it costs us money.
Well, even so it should probably be don’t just to make sure electronics can be recycled.
Like paying a $5 disposal fee when you buy your new tires so you can dispose of them for free when they’re done. Or a $20 disposal fee for a new mattress.
Pay a $5 disposal fee for your new electronics and then all electronic retailers should be required to take the old ones and have a way to recycle them.
Yeah I agree the fee should be up front, otherwise customers aren't gonna do it. And it should be mandatory that companies participate. There's way too much consumer waste.
amazon's local showrooms.. err, i mean bestbuy locations across the u.s., accepts many things for recycling--at no charge. including cell phones, desktops, laptops, all-in-ones, and printers. details here
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