If you can't - then stop

G.Beard

New member
Please, please, if you can't repair even a simple backlight circuit STOP FUCKING WITH OTHER PEOPLES LOGIC BOARDS!.... until you can do it properly!!


This was sent in by a customer with no backlight. WTF.
So many boards come through here already fucked up. If you know you are one of these people that fuck shit up, please learn to solder properly before you try and sell your service.
 

Attachments

  • photo1910.png
    photo1910.png
    3.8 MB · Views: 7
  • photo1911.png
    photo1911.png
    3.2 MB · Views: 7
  • photo1912.png
    photo1912.png
    3.2 MB · Views: 7
Last edited:

SMMRepair

Member
You have to start somewhere, and a lot of people get very eager to "make money" once they perform one successful repair. It's just the nature of the business; it's much more appealing to a shop/board owner to save $100.00-300.00 on board repair costs and attempt to do it themselves (knowing that if they can't fix it, they can still then send it in for repair). With the thousands of videos on YouTube now, people have more confidence than ever. People want to learn, and the only way to learn is by doing. :)

Of course, selling repair service and still being terrible at repair is another thing...and I agree with you 100%. Don't offer repair services if you can't properly replace an LCD connector. I'd say the vast majority of "oh no...what happened to this board?" definitely come from "other repair shops", so a ton of people are in over their collective heads, for sure. I've seen MUCH worse than those photos. That work actually isn't horrendous, but of course isn't quite good enough yet. That's not really that bad on the LCD connector; certainly not the cleanest work ever, but far from the worst. I'd say 90% of the boards we see now have been tampered with or had attempted repairs. Also the nature of the business now, unfortunately.

Edit: I saw a board just last week where, get this: a shop had attempted to solder the lcd cable connector itself to the board! Who needs a connector anyway? Just permanently glue and solder the connector of the LCD assembly to the board itself. Jesus christ.
 
Last edited:

Paul Daniels

Super Moderator
Good luck with that. Rossmann has stood tall on a mountain of easy money waving his "You can do it!" flag for so many to see. It's always the inevitable outcome, who can resist easy money?
 

Paul Daniels

Super Moderator
You have to start somewhere. Did you replace an LCD connector perfectly the first time you did it? How about any QFN package? Have you *ever* ripped a pad on the board?

For sure, we all started out doing dodgy work, though there's a certain level of competence that typically needs to be achieved before we go "Okay, time to start offering this as a paid service", and that's the qualifier that's missing with too many businesses, especially when you see "Professional work by expert service technicians". There's a difference also between competency of rework skills vs experience with the fault finding, at least you're only costing yourself time with the latter, but with the former you're providing a disservice to the client and the reputability of the industry (yes, that's a bit dramatic ;) )
 

SMMRepair

Member
Oh I agree 100%, definitely, no doubt about it; I edited my last post since the point the OP is making is very clearly about not selling repair service if you can't do it properly (for a second, I thought this was another "look how fucked up this is" thread, and wasn't quite impressed, lol).

I think, like you said, it's VERY hard for people to resist "easy money" (potentially) when they're seeing videos of people fix these things in 10 minutes. I think too many people underestimate the important of actual, physical skill (fine motor movements, etc) when it comes to this work. I can't tell you how many SHOPS, actual businesses (brick and mortar chains) have talked to me and said something along the lines of: "Yeah, we just ordered X thousands of dollars of equipment to start offering board repairs...", thinking they can just invest the money and start going! I really think some of these videos give people a bit too much confidence, and don't emphasize the difficulty in actually using the equipment. This is all aside from learning/reading schematics, diagnosing failures, and testing components OTHER than the logic board. Obviously Louis makes it all look very easy. ;)
 
Last edited:

Paul Daniels

Super Moderator
"Yeah, we just ordered X thousands of dollars of equipment to start offering board repairs...", thinking they can just invest the money and start going! I really think some of these videos give people a bit too much confidence, and don't emphasize the difficulty in actually using the equipment. This is all aside from learning/reading schematics, diagnosing failures, and testing components OTHER than the logic board. Obviously Louis makes it all look very easy. ;)

"We just bought MS VisualStudio 2017 --- we're going to write apps and be riiiiich [how hard can it be?]!". Indeed, having tools is no good without the skills.
 

G.Beard

New member
No, indeed not the worst but not the best either. I have seen so much worse. My point is, learn on your own shit or donor boards before you go fucking up other peoples boards. Even if you do a few tries on your own boards just before you start on a customer board... It comes down to respect for other people's stuff, not money!
 

G.Beard

New member
Oh I agree 100%, definitely, no doubt about it; I edited my last post since the point the OP is making is very clearly about not selling repair service if you can't do it properly (for a second, I thought this was another "look how fucked up this is" thread, and wasn't quite impressed, lol).

I think, like you said, it's VERY hard for people to resist "easy money" (potentially) when they're seeing videos of people fix these things in 10 minutes. I think too many people underestimate the important of actual, physical skill (fine motor movements, etc) when it comes to this work. I can't tell you how many SHOPS, actual businesses (brick and mortar chains) have talked to me and said something along the lines of: "Yeah, we just ordered X thousands of dollars of equipment to start offering board repairs...", thinking they can just invest the money and start going! I really think some of these videos give people a bit too much confidence, and don't emphasize the difficulty in actually using the equipment. This is all aside from learning/reading schematics, diagnosing failures, and testing components OTHER than the logic board. Obviously Louis makes it all look very easy. ;)

"We just bought MS VisualStudio 2017 --- we're going to write apps and be riiiiich [how hard can it be?]!". Indeed, having tools is no good without the skills.

I own an FX888D with a T-18 and a 951 with a T-30 and I use the T-18 for everything. Equipment be fucked, it's about just a little skill.

The fact is, if you have more respect for another persons board, then you make more money by not fucking it up.

Click image for larger version  Name:	36961300_232897874200431_8720062068025196544_n.jpg Views:	1 Size:	79.3 KB ID:	38068Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_0584.jpg Views:	1 Size:	843.3 KB ID:	38069
 
Last edited:

SMMRepair

Member
Same here. It's funny, because not only do people think that having expensive tools will make the work "easy", but they also try to haggle on repair costs because they also think it's easy, even though they have the expensive equipment! Hilarious.

Do you guys charge more for tampered boards, or boards with previous repair attempts? Or does it depend on the damage? How about your warranty--do you warranty a board that has had previous repairs?
 

G.Beard

New member
Do you guys charge more for tampered boards, or boards with previous repair attempts? Or does it depend on the damage? How about your warranty--do you warranty a board that has had previous repairs?

No extra cost for a board that has been tampered with but I often refuse them completely.
Sometimes warranty and sometimes no warranty. Depends on how bad the tampering and if it's trade or end user.
The general rule is, if I'm not happy to risk a warranty / bad review / unhappy customer, then I don't touch it.... £150 along with a bad review just isn't a good deal.
 
Last edited:

shanenin

Member
Oh I agree 100%, definitely, no doubt about it; I edited my last post since the point the OP is making is very clearly about not selling repair service if you can't do it properly (for a second, I thought this was another "look how fucked up this is" thread, and wasn't quite impressed, lol).

I think, like you said, it's VERY hard for people to resist "easy money" (potentially) when they're seeing videos of people fix these things in 10 minutes. I think too many people underestimate the important of actual, physical skill (fine motor movements, etc) when it comes to this work. I can't tell you how many SHOPS, actual businesses (brick and mortar chains) have talked to me and said something along the lines of: "Yeah, we just ordered X thousands of dollars of equipment to start offering board repairs...", thinking they can just invest the money and start going! I really think some of these videos give people a bit too much confidence, and don't emphasize the difficulty in actually using the equipment. This is all aside from learning/reading schematics, diagnosing failures, and testing components OTHER than the logic board. Obviously Louis makes it all look very easy. ;)

That is what we did. We saw some rossman videos and got excited, then ordered a bunch of equipment to learn. After a year we are getting the hang of it
 
Top