Repair strategy (was Re: eBay strikes again...)

From: Allison J Parent <allisonp_at_world.std.com>
Date: Sun Nov 1 12:13:10 1998

< repairshop trick to get more money, really. Companies help out a lot
< too. I'm sure schematics for a NSX Penitum-II 933 Turbo motherboard

You havent the first understanding of repair costs.

Lets assume that the chips and prints are available. there are only a
few chips and fairly easy to zero in on the failed one. Problem if it
takes an hour to do this (including remove and replaceing the bad chip)
thats easily 30-50$. Now that does not include getting the board out,
putting it back in assuring nothing else was wrong and running it for a
few hours (burnin). When a mother board costs between 49-499$ the
simple economics arent there. Also repairs are very hard to do on
multilayer boards (requires skilled people) and it's very easy to
compromise reliablity. Now if the failure was from lightining or a
power supply failure the whole board is likely cooked anyway.

This also side steps the problem of keeping special tools to desolder
the parts, keeping spares on hand, testing and all. All of these things
cost and if you have to keep a stock of parts (that can be come
antiquated) so you can turn equipment around fast (would you wait a
week for reapirs?) is expensive.
Received on Sun Nov 01 1998 - 12:13:10 GMT