Re: Laptop hinge repair

Arfa Daily wrote:
" Why go to all that bother if a bit of epoxy and some Al
mesh/
minimal hardware/drilling is all that's required. The hinge mount failed in
quite normal use , so direct replacement likely to do the same.


Because, when you are doing work for people who are good enough to entrust their repairs to you, it's about both appearing to be, and *actually being* professional about the way you tackle the job. I wonder how you would feel about a garage that fixed your clutch cable by joining it with an electrical junction block, rather than replacing it, because the bodge was cheaper and easier to do ?

Honestly, I don't know how you manage to make a living judging by some of the threads you post on here. Yes, you are right that the title of this group includes the word "repair", but I can't believe how literally you seem to take that. Repairing often involves fitting new genuine replacement parts, and especially it does when you are doing the work commercially ...

Arfa

I have often thought the same Arfa - perhaps Mr Cook really would be more suited to a group called sci.electronics.remanufacture. The efforts that he goes to to "repair" stuff is jaw-dropping! I can understand the satisfaction gained in getting something up and running that is deemed commercially "unrepairable", but he does seem to go to extremes and I doubt that he has ever really costed his time into the jobs he does. In my past experience of such jobs when I have carried them out in order to do the customer a favour they are rarely appreciative - whats worse, if a "bodge" subsequently fails, no matter how far down the line, your reputation will suffer. As for "improvements" to the original spec......nuff said.

Roy

I have no problem - like you I suspect - with the art of the "technical bodge". After all, we were taught to "mend" stuff when I was an apprentice many many years ago. But there's a time and place in today's commercial world. A good example was the interesting thread last week about the card drive rubber in the HP unit. Finding and fitting, with success, an alternative to the original part which is no longer available, is fine for something you own yourself, and may be ok for a customer if there is genuinely no alternative, and they are prepared to specifically authorise you to carry out the repair in that way.

Sometimes, it's even ok to use the doctors' method of attacking the symptoms of a fault, rather than the cause, when a problem is particularly obscure, and lack of information or parts, renders the repair otherwise commercially unviable. However, again, when the job was for a customer, I would not go down this route without first explaining carefully, all of the alternatives, and then getting a specific approval to carry out the work in that way.

In all other cases, as a commercial repairer, with a reputation and standards to maintain, and with a desire to use my time to generate the maximum revenue for my business, I cannot entertain carrying out repairs by any method other than replacement of defective parts, with new ones, either of genuine manufacturer supply, or suitable third party ones with equivalent or superior specification.

I am also loathe to start modifying the mechanical or electrical design or construction of an item, because I feel that it wasn't done right in the first place. Certainly, the addition of the odd cable tie, or adding a shakeproof washer to a screw head, is something I would do. Such 'missing' items are often as a result of a cost cutting exercise by the manufacturer, and do not alter the electrical or mechanical safety specs in any detrimental way. However, I am absolutely against making any major mechanical or electrical changes to a piece of equipment, that are not specified as required changes in a manufacturer bulletin. I am not a designer, and what I see as a 'design issue', may well have been done that way in order to make the equipment comply with some safety regulation, that I know nothing about. If I see a number of a 'young' product with a specific design or manufacturing flaw, I will probably contact the manufacturer to let them know, but if I see a twenty year old amplifier with an issue, then I am not going to start questioning the designer's philosophy, and working up mods to make it like I would want to see it.

I actually find a lot of what Mr Cook posts about, quite interesting, and I admire his tenacity and ingenuity at finding fixes for some problems, but as a fellow professional, I do have a lot of difficulty with the way he apparently tackles some customer jobs, and whilst I'm sure that most if not all of the professional repairers on here understand where he's coming from, I'm not sure that it is right that amateurs learning from repair threads on here, should see some of his fixes as the 'proper' way to do the job, and the way that a commercial repairer would go about it ...

Still, as you say, 'nuff said. Perhaps I'm wrong in all this, and just being a boring old pedant ... d;~}

Arfa



What gets to me is when well meaning people start modifying customers equipment without a thought to the damage they might be doing to the value or safety.

If I took my treasured vintage 1960`s Marshall amp to a repair shop for a simple input socket replacement, and the 'engineer' proudly told me that he'd improved it by boring holes through the circuit board and modifying the sockets with shoelaces, soldered in a few extra fuses, or rewired the preamp valves in teflon coated silver plated superwire, glued the valves in with bath sealer and added a few extra ventilation holes in the case, I might start thinking about suing for compensation.

Even a non standard fuse holder or voltage selector can reduce the value of some collectable amps by quite a lot, and tinkering with the lay of internal wiring can destroy that vintage sound.

On commercial gear like that, there should be no reason why a proper lasting repair can`t be carried out using professional methods and the proper parts. Anyone not prepared to do the job properly shouldn`t be doing the job at all. (IMO)

Ron

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