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Paul Fenwick
@pjf@cloudisland.nz  ·  activity timestamp last month

Today I fixed a television out of spite.

One of the most common faults with modern TVs is a backlight failing. These are cheap to replace, and the tools to test them are cheap to obtain.

But the effort to get to the backlights? Oh my!

A TV that was made to be repaired would have a separate pane for backlights you could slide out, or some other access mechanism.

But today's consumer TVs require you to disassemble practically everything to get to the backlights. That means getting to them is a huge investment in time (for self-repair) or money (if you go to a repair shop and pay for labour). TV companies know that most people will just buy a whole new TV.

So today I fixed the TV out of spite. Not because it was rewarding, or for environmental or financial concerns (although all of these are valid). I fixed it because the company that made it did not want it to be easily fixed.

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Kevin Carson
@KevinCarson1@kolektiva.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

@pjf This is facilitated by multiple layers of intellectual property and other forms of legally imposed artificial scarcity. Otherwise the normal competitive incentive would be toward interoperable design and ease of repair.

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Kevin Carson
@KevinCarson1@kolektiva.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

@pjf https://www.juliansanchez.com/2008/06/02/dammit-apple/

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Paul Fenwick
@pjf@cloudisland.nz replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

A few people have asked for more details. The TV was my partner's Sony Bravia KDL-65W850C.

The parts I ordered were just from Ali Express. A set of sixteen "LED backlight strip for Sony KDL-65W850C", for AUD $38.50 including shipping.

I also got a "LED Lamp TV Backlight Tester Multipurpose LED Strips Beads Test Tool Measurement Instruments for LED Light LED Strips Test Tool" for AUD $19 including shipping, to verify it was an LED strip problem, and to test the new strips I had installed. Only one strip was dead, but I replaced them all in case any others were about to fail.

Yes, that means a single $2.50 part had failed, causing the TV to refuse to start.

The *real* secret to the repair was this video by BigDog8882, showing a tear-down and fix of a similar model with the same issue. While my TV had a few differences (glue rather than clips in some spots), the overall process was close enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB7domWVTig

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der.hans
@lufthans@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

@pjf I know someone who owns a small TV shop, he says he can always beat the prices of the big box stores ( he has to inflate prices to keep from dealing with complaints from the chains )

His biggest complaints are manufacturers making it difficult to repair TVs and that the chains are using contracts to reduce the variety of models that are built, especially a particular mart

Customer service, repair and model variety were his biggest advantages

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Dr. BauBauS
@BauBauS@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

@pjf
The same experience when I fixed a microwave. It was a blown up fuse.
To reach it I had to unscrew 20 tamper-proof screws (Had to use a dremmel since I had no appropriate screwdrived). The fuse was on a board that was sandwiched between 2 other boards IN THE MIDDLE. It took me over 3 hours total work.
The same device was available at Walmart for 49$.
This is obviously done in purpose, is hostile design.

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Joel Wirāmu, Pauling
@jwp@cloudisland.nz replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

@pjf
this describes about 95% of my internal motivation for most electronics projects

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