Re: [tlug] Cost of Solutions

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

Lyle H Saxon wrote:

> > > So... if manufacture[r]s don't do it, then you could wonder if
> > > it's a good idea to spend your own time on it.
> >
> > Ahhh, the price of ignorance.
> 
> No - the price of time!  Why get dirty fixing faulty circuit boards
> when you can just buy a whole new (used) computer for cheap?  

One strong reason is the price of time. 

One would definitely consider fixing the old motherboard when it 
would be _quicker_ to do so than buying a new motherboard or a 
whole computer. The price of ignorance is the price of not 
knowing the ways of quickly fixing a dead motherboard and 
not knowing when to judge which solution is quicker. 

Migrating applications, settings and data from a computer 
that is in use can be very time consuming. You've seen the 
other thread on this list about Ubuntu not behaving nicely 
when some of the hardware was changed. That was only for a 
new installation of Linux. Migrating existing installations 
can run into more snafus. Is something keyed off of the MAC of 
a builtin ethernet port? Which kind of AGP does the old video 
board need? Does the new builtin video have good driver support? 
Sometimes, there are legal issues with licenses, especially 
with proprietary software, whether of an app for Linux, 
or the entirety of another OS. 

There are a number of situations where finding the right 
motherboard can take _much_ time. Someone has a server for 
which we have been looking on and off for four months for the 
right new motherboard. It has to be the right size. It has to 
have exactly the right builtin I/O in exactly the right places 
to match a back plate. It has to have a Socket A socket in the 
right place with the right orientation so that the right CPU 
heat sink can blow the air out into a duct at a particular 
place. In the mean time, I repaired the old motherboard and 
it is working while we continue to shop. 

By the way, I would be wary of buying a new motherboard with 
known bad cap issues. 

> Back in
> high school I tried stuff like that - but once you start losing parts
> on a circuit board, there's always the possibility of other damaged
> parts - a ripple effect.  

There's risk in everything. The caps are easy to replace without 
damaging other things, _if_ you know how to. If you don't 
understand the principles, especially of triboelectric effects 
and how to mitigate them, then you can easily cause much more 
damage. If you don't know what you are doing, you can cause much 
more damage. Ahhh, the price of ignorance. 

> > Which is quicker, repairing a dead motherboard or buying and
> > installing a new one?
> 
> Neither!  It's quicker to get an entirely new (used) computer!!

It depends on the situation. 

There is no pat answer. There are times when it is quicker to 
get different hardware, but it is often _quicker_ to replace 
bad caps than to get another computer. That doesn't even 
include extra time wasted on migrating things over to the new computer.