User:C3/The maintenance and repair page
About
Since March 2024 I started learning more things connected to maintenance and repair, I've been reading about these topics over the past years but I started to practice these skills only recently.
I am using this page to log my experiences and notes of my learning journey.
Logs
ASUS eeePC 1215B
category: repair
date: March 2024
status: done
This was my first ever repair! I managed thanks to the person that introduced me this practice, Massimiliano De Cinque.
I found this computer in my basement in Italy, it was used by my grandma mostly to send emails. I remember that it stopped working when I was around 14. At the time I found this old device I was experiencing some failures and errors with a computer I just bought, so while dealing with that frustration I became interested in the idea of fixing the old one, even though I did not know where to start.
Under Massimiliano's guidance we did some basic troubleshooting and found out that everything was working exept the so called CMOS battery (a small coin-shaped battery that powers a chip, which stores the date, time, and hardware settings in the CMOS memory.)
We replaced it with one he had and the computer was working again. Before closing the pc we cleaned it and replaced the thermal past on the CPU.
After that the computer was back to normal, but someone installed Windows 10 on it and it was definitely not the best fit for the hardware capabilities of this computer.
I swapped the old HDD disk with an SSD and together with my friend Ramin we installed Debian, this was also the first time installed Linux.
TOSHIBA satellite
category: maintenance
date: April 2024
status: failed
I think this computer was my aunt's, another basement find. I think this is the only computer I truly messed up until now. After I did my first repair first hand, I got more curious and eager to practice.
MSI katana
category: unrepair
date: June 2024
status: done?
I really regret buying this computer. When I was about to finish my BA program I was building my final project with Touchdesigner, at some point I started experiencing some software failures
Phone screen repair
category: repair
date: December 2024
status: done
I attended an event in Amsterdam called THE VOID Tactical Video #4: Infrastructures of Solidarity A Discussion on Permacomputing and Self-hosting. Part of the evening was dedicated to discuss some permacomputing principles and after that part of the talk there was a moment where one of the presenters took out a phone with a broken screen, some tools and a replacement to repair the screen live. I took part in the repair table, where we followed an online guide to do the jon. This phone's screen was comically hard to remove, we were three people and I think we took half an hour, it was pretty funny to do this while the rest of the event was going on.
THINKPAD lenovo L512
category: repair
date: December 2024
status: pending
This was not really a repair at the beginning, but later on the wi-fi card stopped working.
At the beginning of xpub Riviera heard I was looking around for computers to practice some hardware and software skills, one day she reached out to tell me that she had this computer that she did not have a use for and she gifted it to me. She explained to me how she set up the new pc she got, challenging me to try on this one as an exercise/experience (Arch Linux on a LVM).
I for sure did not understand what any of that meant at first, but then, as always, I looked up some guides online to understand how to do that. The process was something... the Arch linux wiki has its own page on how to read the wiki itself, pretty meta. I spent two days trying to install everything manually and I failed a couple of times, at this point usually the easiest is to blank the disk and restart from scratch. In the end I found out that I did everything correctly and I was just missing a couple of manual service activation steps, which Riviera helped me to solve (thanks).
I brought this computer around for a while and I even brought it to Paris for the PrePostPrint event, but during those days the wi-fi stopped working and the button to connect to a wireless network even disappeared from the interface. When looking for the wi-fi card from the terminal it does not come up, so it is either disconnected or broken.
I still did not find the time to open up this computer to clean it and to check this problem.
SONY VAIO PCG-C1X
category: repair
date: January 2025
status: pending?
During the first year I went to Klankschool frequently, either for what later became the unrepair cafes or for sound performances. One day I remember we discovered a room that was not really known before, which had some computers in it. I found this one and I will not lie, I thought it was pretty cool. The battery is dead but it works if you use its charger. When you turn it on though it just says "Operating system not found", so you cannot do much with it.
I was thinking to take out the disk and get an adapter to installl another os on it, but 2 of the screws inside of the computer are pretty destroyed. There are a few ways to remove a stripped screw, but the most obvious ones did not work. I did not really go back to that computer since everytime you go to Klankschool there's always some new puzzle to solve for the night, but I wonder if it is still there or if someone fixed it.
POCO phone
category: maintenance
date: February 2025
status: done
Eleni had some issues with her phone battery not lasting long, so she got a new one and we swapped it. It is interesting how brands make a big deal out of simple things like opening a device, using low quality glue instead of simple screws and even absurdly specific adhesive for the battery. We wasted a lot of time understanding the way we could "lift the battery correctly", a process that apparently has three phases...
ASUS X509F
category: maintenance
date: February 2025
status: done
Eleni's computer fan was making really weird noises, it sounded like it was about to take off at any moment during classes. She checked how much would a replacement fan cost and in the end she got one for 5$. We swapped it and kept the old one as a replacement. It was a pretty simple job as the fan was not placed under any other component.
BOSE soundsport earbuds
category: repair
date: March 2025
status: pending
These bluetooth earphones work but the battery is very unreliable, it does not hold the charge and the battery reading both internally and on the paired device always gives a wrong percentage. I've found a replacement battery but I did not get it yet as it is kind of expensive. This one is on hold for now.
DELL Chromebook 11
category: unrepair
date: March 2025
status: done
I took part in a station skill organized at the interaction station by Boris that focused on repurposing discarded chromebooks (which were thrown away from various elementary/middle schools). We got together for 4 meetings where we tried to install a new operating systems on these old machines using some of Boris' notes, some of Aymeric's together with the official guide from mr chromebox. Most of the work was removing both hardware and software locks from the computer in order to download a script from the mr. chromebox website to flash the firmware. Some of these computers have a hardware lock in the form of a physical screw into the mother board, if you don't remove it, you will never get the job done. After the last meeting of this station skill we got to keep the computers we worked on, I started using the one I repaired as my main one during my studies to confront myself with some thoughts related to my thesis.
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HP ProBook 440 G5
category: repair
date: March 2025
status: pending
This computer is "kapot". I found it at the electronics bin down at the interaction station with a couple of postits on it that said that the keyboard was not working. It does not really help that the person who threw it (or someone else) removed the keyboard, the RAM, and the disk, but I picked it up anyways.
I used it a couple of times to sit down with others to simply take a look around without any elements of fear or anxiety. Together with Kim we even took the time to disassemble it and inspect it with a microscope camera during SI27 :).
Now it is reassembled, But I need to find put inside some compatible RAM and a disk and find a charger that connects to it to see if it is working or not.
Sonic toys from outer space
category: unrepair
date: April 2025
status: done
Not really a repair, more of an upgrade :). Apparently Joseph had been collecting toy instruments for some months, one day we took some of them and to drill new holes to be able to connect them to various amplifiers.
We used them to play a sonic cry for educational rights, and afterwards one of them broke down. To this day this is the best repair I've ever done, I opened the piano, I poked around while pressing the keys and found out that one part was not making contact with another anymore. The greatest fix was to take some paper tape, make a small ball with it, and insert it in the piano to keep the two parts that did not make contact together. And just like that, the piano started working again.
LENOVO ideapad s130-11lgm
category: ?
date: April 2025
status: pending?
A computer that I got from the streets during King's day. I have to admit that the electronic things we got that day were all a roll of the dice. For example I got this computer but I don't know if it works really (of course everyone says that what they are selling is working) because it has a very specific charger that costs more than 30 euro in the Netherlands, so I did not try anything yet, I have to check if maybe the interaction station has an adapter or something.
DELL Chromebook 11 again
category: unrepair
date: April 2025
status: done
We were walking around Rotterdam West during kingsday with Eleni when we spotted two dell chromebooks that were the same as the one I repaired with Boris at the repurposing station skill. We bargained a bit with the guy that was selling them and we got them for 12 euro each. I was pretty confident we could do the steps I did during the station skill and it actually went pretty smoothly, we had no errors in the process.
ASUS TUF gaming
category: maintenance
date: April 2025
status: done
On the same day we worked on Eleni's chromebook we took some time together with Kiara to do a maintenance session and clean her computer top to bottom. During the previous months Kiara's laptop was taking off frequently during classes towards unknown galaxies. Since everything was pretty dusty we took this one outside.
Important reminder: whenever you are done doing any type of hardware work (from the silliest to the most hardcore of things) remember to always check if the computer turns on before you put it back together, this should save some time and a few minutes of complete panic and self-doubt
You might experience a couple of these thoughts if you happen to close back a computer, turn it on and see that nothing is happening:
"What did I do? I did not change anything. I am pretty sure I put everything back into place. Did I break something? It is not possible. What am I gonna do??"
This happened to me only 2 times (nothing was broken I just forgot to plug some things back). I freaked out during both of them, but surprisingly the owners of the computers we were working on were not stressed even for one second.
SONY PSP 3000
category: repair
date: May 2025
status: done
I had this psp for more than 10 years, the battery does not hold the charge too well, but it is still very usable. I did not play with it for a long time because the buttons were punched in and did not click anymore, I've thought of doing a full host swap but, to be fair, there was no need for that. I've found a broken psp at a street market during king's day for 3 euro! No battery, no battery cover but very clickable buttons!
I opened up both, did a superficial cleaning as the pieces inside looked more fragile than what I am used to, and then swapped the keys, I wonder if I can figure out why is the other one broken, but for now, it's ok, I am satisfied with having recovered some functioning keys (but to be fair, I don't really have any time to play videogames lately...).
DELL Chromebook 11 again?!
category: unrepair
date: November 2025
status: pending/failed?
Remember when I said that we got two chromebooks. with Eleni from the streets during King's day? Well in november I finally found the time to try to install another operating system on it only to find out that this one is still managed by the school that threw it out. This means that developer mode is lock, which means I cannot follow the same guide I used for the other two chromebooks.
I went down at the interaction station to ask for a ch341a programmer, since there is a manual way to flash the physical chip on the motherboard, but in the end the ch341a had some damanged pin, so the process stopped halfway and... I think the motherboard is kaput. I am not really sure, I would need to try again in the future with another ch341a. That day I was doing this together with Kiara, and well, we failed at doing the mr chromebox guide 3 times in a row...
HUAWEI Y6 (2018)
category: repair
date: December 2025
status: pending
I found this phone in a random box in my house. It is way lighter than most of the regular phones you can find today and it is also a bit smaller. I did a factory reset and got a new screen for it. I still need to do the swapping.
SAMSUNG galaxy A71
category: repair
date: December 2025
status: failed?
Notes
- Most contemporary tech devices are basically glass crackers, you have to surpass a feeling of anxiety or fear about damaging them as they look very fragile. Some of the first phones I had were looking pretty easy to open (having a removable cover and a couple of screws) the latest I opened for other people have the most overly complex way to fix both the screen and the battery (these are usually fixed with different types of adhesive).
- Older devices use a wide variety of screws. Compared with newer devices, which might have 3/4 types of them, I opened a couple of computers from the 2000's that had 13 different types of them, which makes it harder to put things back together when you are done doing what you need to do.
- I feel like when I started touching computer components with my hands I experienced a sort of spell break. It felt like something I shouldn't do in the beginning, but it quickly lost importance and in time it also made things feel less mystical. What does it mean to keep into your hands 4 year worth of data? Turns out, not much, you are holding a fragile object as any other, it seems a bit crazy to rely on it for storing anything really. Since I started my repair/maintenance journey I even started reconsidering backups a bit. Making copies of data you don't even know about, which you will never look back at, in another fallable device... it all sounds pretty useless sometimes.
- Sometimes, when you open devices, you might notice some warnings in the forms of stickers. These usually say that your warrant will be voided if you remove/peel/break/damage the said sticker. Well this is actually not true, and even if this practice is against the law, manufacturares of consumer tech still use it as a tactic to discourage indipendent repair. Read more here.