Just did my first tech repair!
A while ago some of the keys on my Dell XPS laptop started working poorly, they were only registering the presses half of the time or if I pushed them really hard. I tried removing the keycaps and cleaning the keys on the inside, but to no avail. Well, I thought, that means it's time to get a new laptop. So I was choosing the next laptop to get. One of the options I considered was the Framework laptop, which is supposed to be super repairable - I mean, if only I could just replace my laptop keyboard, I wouldn't have to buy a whole new laptop just because of a few broken keys!
Then I thought about it again. I realized that a repairable laptop is only useful if you actually try to repair your laptop, which I've never done. So, I looked it up, and turns out Dell, while obviously not as easily repairable as Framework, has very well-detailed official service manuals as well!
Two weeks of waiting for a Chinese copycat keyboard from AliExpress and three hours of work later, I finally have a fully working laptop! Turns out it isn't hard at all to replace a broken keyboard - but I'm still very proud of myself for doing it, mostly for even deciding to do it instead of just turning a fully functional laptop into e-waste as I would've done otherwise. I was also really surprised that Dell laptops are that easy to fix (though they don't officially sell replacement parts to consumers), since it's known to be a company that makes a ton of money on expensive support offerings.
I don't really know what the lesson of this post is, I just wanted to share this small achievement with y'all.
Every time I tried to repair an electronic I ended up taking a bunch of parts and a bag of screws to my repair guy. So contratz to you ;)
Well as I said, I probably couldn't have done this without Dell being really helpful (they even color code different types of screws so you don't use the wrong one!)
I did accidentally break the tiny connector on the wifi antenna though, but I just used electric tape to hold it on place and it seems to work well lol
Did you end up with a random screw left over? I feel like anytime I've worked on a laptop, I've always ended up with one or two screws after I put it back together. Over the years, I had a nice collection of various laptop screws. Everything worked though!
My dad's advice for this was always "if you put something back together and have a screw left over but it works, you didn't need that screw in the first place"
Of course, now I do know in a lot of cases you DO need said screw, but in some cases it really is fairly unnecessary
Don't give up! I had to learn the hard way on some devices too, but now I can do basic tech repair tasks without having to go to a repair shop.
Congrats! But yeah, Dell goes a good job with their manuals. I think the first time I worked on a Dell laptop, it was to replace a screen. The laptop had developed a weird pink or green line down the middle of the screen.
I had worked on desktop PCs before, had even built my own. But a laptop? That was a little scary. Especially since it was a work laptop and my then boss was super cheap. If I ended up breaking it even more, to the point where I'd have to I'd probably catch some flack. I went the repair and replace path because I knew asking to buy a new laptop would be a huge hassle.
It was involved, but the Dell manuals did a great job of guiding me. Since then, I've replaced keyboards, USB ports, barrel-plug power ports, and others. Provided the parts are modular and not soldered, of course.
Anyway, be careful who you tell your new skills to. If your family and friends hear about this, you're gonna be their new laptop repair guy! You already got @lou as your newest customer!
That's exactly how I would describe it, it's a very arduous process but the manual is really helpful so I didn't get confused about what to do
The keyboard is actually not supposed to be replaced outside of the entire keyboard-palmrest assembly, so there's no guide for that and on my laptop model it's even held in place by little pieces of plastic instead of screws that you can remove, so I had to break those off with a screwdriver. But the chinese manufacturers did a very good job with their knockoff, so it was really easy to install as well.
Another issue I had is that one of the fans is screwed into a slot that is located on the back of the keyboard, and it wasn't there on the replacement one. But I solved that one by just breaking it off from the keyboard and superglueing it directly to the mainboard.
So overall, Dell replacement parts aren't easy to get, and repair does require a few makeshift solutions, but it's otherwise a good experience.
Almost everyone in my family exclusively uses Apple products, and I definitely wouldn't dare to try and repair those.
I've largely stayed away from Mac repairs, too. The only "repair" I've done on Macbooks is replacing a dead/dying battery on the older Intel-based MBPs. It was surprisingly easy and quick. At least on those models. It look like it's still possible to replace the battery in the new M-series MBPs without having to take it in, but it definitely looks like it's way more involved than it used to be.
I've upgraded RAM and HDD/SSD on those older Macs, as well, since it's not very different from Windows-based laptops. But that can't (easily) be done anymore since storage and RAM have been soldered onto the main board for awhile now. I'm sure someone with some serious, serious skills could do it. That ain't me, lol.
If you ever do want to be a little adventurous with Macs, iFixit is a pretty good resource. There's actually a lot more that can be replaced than I thought!
iFixit is actually where I learned that my laptop keyboard is replaceable! I also have their screwdriver set and it's awesome
Its addicting isn’t it??
The first time I saved a laptop it was my old ASUS from 2012ish that was overheating under my research lab workload during college some time in 2017ish.
I actually managed to find a youtube video that walked me through taking it apart all the way to the cpu so that I could replace the cpu paste. I couldn’t believe it. The internet is amazing.
Both the controllers stopped working for my SNES a couple months ago. I was so bummed. I figured it had to be an issue with the console itself because the controllers stopped working at the same time and didn't work in either controller port. Waited a week for a special screwdriver to arrive in the mail, cracked it open yesterday, and cleared some plastic debris that had broken off the backside seating around the controller ports. Now it works as well as ever! The plastic pieces were causing it to short, and they were purely cosmetic anyway.
A lot of the time, cleaning is the repair.
Absolutely! I regularly spray my machines and peripherals with compressed air, have microfiber cloths, and use a low-pressure handheld vacuum (like the size of a small hair dryer) to get any dust. Haven't had any hardware failures in 12 years of managing a home server. Hell, this was the first hardware issue I've had with a gaming console since disc read errors with my original PS2 like 15 years ago.
You're lucky, for my thinkpad the keyboard is literally the hardest thing to replace. Even replacing the screen is substantially easier. I had to take out literally every single part of the computer to access the keyboard, including the trackpad which had very fragile ribbon cables/zif connectors. Then, the keyboard itself was held tight against the case by something like 60 individual tiny screws. I somehow managed to get the new keyboard positioned a fraction of a mm too far to the side causing some of the keys to stick. Thankfully it mostly resolved itself after breaking in 'cause I sure as hell wasn't taking it all apart again to try and fix that!
I had to take out every single part of the computer as well, so Dell's manual was super helpful.
Weird, I always thought of ThinkPads as being well repairable laptops. Or does that only apply to those old ones?
Repairing/tinkering with electronics is so fun! I just replaced the fan in my ebike charger with a quieter Noctua one, now I can't hear it when it's charging overnight :D
Congratulations on your first repair!
It's a great feeling isn't it? Kind of opens a new world to you of 'hey, I can do that myself!'