You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it? -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Catherine, I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years. I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables. I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly. It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it? -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Catherine, I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years. I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables. I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well. Here are some generic tips: Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion. Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go. For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this. It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit. Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing. I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT Toshiba had an interesting life, and I think that part of the screw issue was because a friend of mine had it, before I realized how careless and idiotic he was. Let's just suffice it to say, he's no longer a friend of mine. So by the time I went to fix it, it had been damaged by the previous possessor, so therefore, it was dead to begin with when I got it back. I mean, burning smells certainly aren't good, though nothing was visibly damaged at all, so I think honestly that the motherboard was just disconnected, but due to two screws being damaged, there was no reconnecting it properly, is what I think. God only knows what the smell was, but it was bad, it was nasty, and I think that is what killed the computer in the end, not necessarily us at all. I mean, something had to be burning inside it. Not to mention, the thing was as cheap as hell, given to me by my town, in an era where Toshiba purposely made laptops not last very long so that you'd keep buying from them. I've noticed a great improvement on their newer laptops, and every newer one I've seen, is beautiful. I used one for an internship I was in, and I'll never forget it, I don't think; the top of it was midnight gray with black shiny stuff all around the keyboard, and if need be, I definitely wasn't afraid of killing that one, had the need arose for me to replace something on it. Though I used it for such a short time, that I bearly got to know it before I had to give it back. That was a Toshiba Satellite S875-7370, and I'll tel you, everything in me wanted that computer! LOL. So I think this first experience really showed me what technicians mean when they say that fixing eight-year-old computers really isn't worth the risk since there could be more wrong than you initially are able to diagnose, which is what happened. So I'm starting to think that it was just time for that old laptop to die since it was pretty much burning internally, and our trying to fix it just essentially finished it off. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 4:15 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hi, I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well. Here are some generic tips: Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion. Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go. For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this. It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit. Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing. I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

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Wait ... what? We removed the heatsink? Um? I don't think so? If we did, then we most certainly didn't mean to; we weren't trying to touch that. That's crazy. And no, I didn't think about buying thurmal paste since I wasn't attempting to replace the CPU at all. So the answer to the question of whether my friend reapplied some, no, unfortunately she didn't. And the wrong screws being used? I'm not surprised; my ex-friend really did a number on that thing when he had it, so if that was the case, then it was his fault. And how can a ribbon cable be turned the wrong way? Aren't they keyed to only go in one way and one way only? Again, it didn't start smelling like that till after he gave it back to me; again, must have been his fault. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 7:03 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hi, It's hard to pinpoint what might have gone wrong. One possibility is that the wrong screws were used in places,or a ribbon was inserted the wrong way round (possible with some ribbons) which would explain the electrical smoke smell. I just watched a few of your videos. When you reinstalled the heatsync, did your friend put some new thermal paste on the CPU? Laptops *generally* use pretty low quality compound so you really should replace this if you're removing the heatsync. You should do this anyway regardless of the compounds quality but especially on laptops. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT Toshiba had an interesting life, and I think that part of the screw issue was because a friend of mine had it, before I realized how careless and idiotic he was. Let's just suffice it to say, he's no longer a friend of mine. So by the time I went to fix it, it had been damaged by the previous possessor, so therefore, it was dead to begin with when I got it back. I mean, burning smells certainly aren't good, though nothing was visibly damaged at all, so I think honestly that the motherboard was just disconnected, but due to two screws being damaged, there was no reconnecting it properly, is what I think. God only knows what the smell was, but it was bad, it was nasty, and I think that is what killed the computer in the end, not necessarily us at all. I mean, something had to be burning inside it. Not to mention, the thing was as cheap as hell, given to me by my town, in an era where Toshiba purposely made laptops not last very long so that you'd keep buying from them. I've noticed a great improvement on their newer laptops, and every newer one I've seen, is beautiful. I used one for an internship I was in, and I'll never forget it, I don't think; the top of it was midnight gray with black shiny stuff all around the keyboard, and if need be, I definitely wasn't afraid of killing that one, had the need arose for me to replace something on it. Though I used it for such a short time, that I bearly got to know it before I had to give it back. That was a Toshiba Satellite S875-7370, and I'll tel you, everything in me wanted that computer! LOL. So I think this first experience really showed me what technicians mean when they say that fixing eight-year-old computers really isn't worth the risk since there could be more wrong than you initially are able to diagnose, which is what happened. So I'm starting to think that it was just time for that old laptop to die since it was pretty much burning internally, and our trying to fix it just essentially finished it off.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 4:15 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well.

Here are some generic tips:

Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion.

Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go.

For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this.

It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit.

Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing.

I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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Hi, No, if it's just a ribbon it usually won't be keyed unfortunately. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

Wait ... what? We removed the heatsink? Um? I don't think so? If we did, then we most certainly didn't mean to; we weren't trying to touch that. That's crazy. And no, I didn't think about buying thurmal paste since I wasn't attempting to replace the CPU at all. So the answer to the question of whether my friend reapplied some, no, unfortunately she didn't. And the wrong screws being used? I'm not surprised; my ex-friend really did a number on that thing when he had it, so if that was the case, then it was his fault. And how can a ribbon cable be turned the wrong way? Aren't they keyed to only go in one way and one way only? Again, it didn't start smelling like that till after he gave it back to me; again, must have been his fault.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 7:03 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

It's hard to pinpoint what might have gone wrong. One possibility is that the wrong screws were used in places,or a ribbon was inserted the wrong way round (possible with some ribbons) which would explain the electrical smoke smell. I just watched a few of your videos. When you reinstalled the heatsync, did your friend put some new thermal paste on the CPU? Laptops *generally* use pretty low quality compound so you really should replace this if you're removing the heatsync. You should do this anyway regardless of the compounds quality but especially on laptops.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT Toshiba had an interesting life, and I think that part of the screw issue was because a friend of mine had it, before I realized how careless and idiotic he was. Let's just suffice it to say, he's no longer a friend of mine. So by the time I went to fix it, it had been damaged by the previous possessor, so therefore, it was dead to begin with when I got it back. I mean, burning smells certainly aren't good, though nothing was visibly damaged at all, so I think honestly that the motherboard was just disconnected, but due to two screws being damaged, there was no reconnecting it properly, is what I think. God only knows what the smell was, but it was bad, it was nasty, and I think that is what killed the computer in the end, not necessarily us at all. I mean, something had to be burning inside it. Not to mention, the thing was as cheap as hell, given to me by my town, in an era where Toshiba purposely made laptops not last very long so that you'd keep buying from them. I've noticed a great improvement on their newer laptops, and every newer one I've seen, is beautiful. I used one for an internship I was in, and I'll never forget it, I don't think; the top of it was midnight gray with black shiny stuff all around the keyboard, and if need be, I definitely wasn't afraid of killing that one, had the need arose for me to replace something on it. Though I used it for such a short time, that I bearly got to know it before I had to give it back. That was a Toshiba Satellite S875-7370, and I'll tel you, everything in me wanted that computer! LOL. So I think this first experience really showed me what technicians mean when they say that fixing eight-year-old computers really isn't worth the risk since there could be more wrong than you initially are able to diagnose, which is what happened. So I'm starting to think that it was just time for that old laptop to die since it was pretty much burning internally, and our trying to fix it just essentially finished it off.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 4:15 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well.

Here are some generic tips:

Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion.

Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go.

For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this.

It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit.

Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing.

I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

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Well dang. That's not very helpful, that's for sure. I'll have to watch out the next time I have to fix a laptop computer; I know how fragile those cables can be. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 9:31 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hi, No, if it's just a ribbon it usually won't be keyed unfortunately. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

Wait ... what? We removed the heatsink? Um? I don't think so? If we did, then we most certainly didn't mean to; we weren't trying to touch that. That's crazy. And no, I didn't think about buying thurmal paste since I wasn't attempting to replace the CPU at all. So the answer to the question of whether my friend reapplied some, no, unfortunately she didn't. And the wrong screws being used? I'm not surprised; my ex-friend really did a number on that thing when he had it, so if that was the case, then it was his fault. And how can a ribbon cable be turned the wrong way? Aren't they keyed to only go in one way and one way only? Again, it didn't start smelling like that till after he gave it back to me; again, must have been his fault.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 7:03 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

It's hard to pinpoint what might have gone wrong. One possibility is that the wrong screws were used in places,or a ribbon was inserted the wrong way round (possible with some ribbons) which would explain the electrical smoke smell. I just watched a few of your videos. When you reinstalled the heatsync, did your friend put some new thermal paste on the CPU? Laptops *generally* use pretty low quality compound so you really should replace this if you're removing the heatsync. You should do this anyway regardless of the compounds quality but especially on laptops.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT Toshiba had an interesting life, and I think that part of the screw issue was because a friend of mine had it, before I realized how careless and idiotic he was. Let's just suffice it to say, he's no longer a friend of mine. So by the time I went to fix it, it had been damaged by the previous possessor, so therefore, it was dead to begin with when I got it back. I mean, burning smells certainly aren't good, though nothing was visibly damaged at all, so I think honestly that the motherboard was just disconnected, but due to two screws being damaged, there was no reconnecting it properly, is what I think. God only knows what the smell was, but it was bad, it was nasty, and I think that is what killed the computer in the end, not necessarily us at all. I mean, something had to be burning inside it. Not to mention, the thing was as cheap as hell, given to me by my town, in an era where Toshiba purposely made laptops not last very long so that you'd keep buying from them. I've noticed a great improvement on their newer laptops, and every newer one I've seen, is beautiful. I used one for an internship I was in, and I'll never forget it, I don't think; the top of it was midnight gray with black shiny stuff all around the keyboard, and if need be, I definitely wasn't afraid of killing that one, had the need arose for me to replace something on it. Though I used it for such a short time, that I bearly got to know it before I had to give it back. That was a Toshiba Satellite S875-7370, and I'll tel you, everything in me wanted that computer! LOL. So I think this first experience really showed me what technicians mean when they say that fixing eight-year-old computers really isn't worth the risk since there could be more wrong than you initially are able to diagnose, which is what happened. So I'm starting to think that it was just time for that old laptop to die since it was pretty much burning internally, and our trying to fix it just essentially finished it off.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 4:15 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well.

Here are some generic tips:

Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion.

Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go.

For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this.

It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit.

Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing.

I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

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Hi, It's hard to pinpoint what might have gone wrong. One possibility is that the wrong screws were used in places,or a ribbon was inserted the wrong way round (possible with some ribbons) which would explain the electrical smoke smell. I just watched a few of your videos. When you reinstalled the heatsync, did your friend put some new thermal paste on the CPU? Laptops *generally* use pretty low quality compound so you really should replace this if you're removing the heatsync. You should do this anyway regardless of the compounds quality but especially on laptops. Cheers, Ben. On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT Toshiba had an interesting life, and I think that part of the screw issue was because a friend of mine had it, before I realized how careless and idiotic he was. Let's just suffice it to say, he's no longer a friend of mine. So by the time I went to fix it, it had been damaged by the previous possessor, so therefore, it was dead to begin with when I got it back. I mean, burning smells certainly aren't good, though nothing was visibly damaged at all, so I think honestly that the motherboard was just disconnected, but due to two screws being damaged, there was no reconnecting it properly, is what I think. God only knows what the smell was, but it was bad, it was nasty, and I think that is what killed the computer in the end, not necessarily us at all. I mean, something had to be burning inside it. Not to mention, the thing was as cheap as hell, given to me by my town, in an era where Toshiba purposely made laptops not last very long so that you'd keep buying from them. I've noticed a great improvement on their newer laptops, and every newer one I've seen, is beautiful. I used one for an internship I was in, and I'll never forget it, I don't think; the top of it was midnight gray with black shiny stuff all around the keyboard, and if need be, I definitely wasn't afraid of killing that one, had the need arose for me to replace something on it. Though I used it for such a short time, that I bearly got to know it before I had to give it back. That was a Toshiba Satellite S875-7370, and I'll tel you, everything in me wanted that computer! LOL. So I think this first experience really showed me what technicians mean when they say that fixing eight-year-old computers really isn't worth the risk since there could be more wrong than you initially are able to diagnose, which is what happened. So I'm starting to think that it was just time for that old laptop to die since it was pretty much burning internally, and our trying to fix it just essentially finished it off.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ben Mustill-Rose Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 4:15 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hi,

I quite enjoy reparing laptops. In terms of the money it's nothing great although doing a quick 20/30 minute screen repair for someone is worth while for me. Unfortunately it's one of those things where as you've experienced, your first complicated repair might not go overly well, but this is quite often the case for sighted techs as well.

Here are some generic tips:

Make sure you have a place where you can store your screws. I use shot glasses or for less complex jobs in all honesty I tend to just put them in my pockets; other people use pill boxes. If you're good at judging the size of screws then you can put multiple screws in one location - E.G. one glass for the bottom casing screws - see the next suggestion.

Keep notes about what you're doing. For example: Bottom casing = glass 1; 2x longer screws are for hinges. Motherboard: screws near mini pcie slot, top left corner, top right corner, touchpad connector etc etc. Stuff like the above should help you when you reassemble; you will most likely forget something along the way (I know I do) and notes can make the difference between a successful keyboard replacement and you breaking the motherboard due to you trying to second guess where something should go.

For complicated repairs like motherboard replacements I like to get the display off as soon as I can. You can usually just unscrew the entire assembley without having to worry about things like removing the bezel; I find that this makes the laptop much easier to move about if this is needed. Note that you will usually have to disconnect the wireless antennae from the wireless card before you do this.

It used to be the case that blind people couldn't do things like replace power jacks and USB ports because they were soldered to the motherboard. However, the trend now is to put the ports on a daughter board and to make the jack socketed, so this is one area where things have improved a bit.

Lastly, when you're taking a laptop (or desktop) apart, you should try to make decisions based on previous experiences that you've had, regardless of the make of computer. For example, from memory, the first laptop that I was successful in replacing the screen on was a toshiba satellite a100. The keyboard which had to be removed in the process was held in by 3 screws, evenly spaced along the top of the keyboard. I now know This to be the case for very roughly around 60% of laptops, excluding modern ultrabook type ones. Based on this experience, I now know to look along the top of a keyboard for screws before I look anyware else. NB: this assumes that you have exposed the screws by removing some form of strip or casing.

I'm happy to go into how to approach specific problems if people would like. Just remember to stick at it and don't loos motivitation because as I said above, even sighted people struggle with this sort of thing.

Cheers, Ben.

On 11/23/13, Katherine Moss wrote:

...

Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly.

It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it?

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Catherine,

I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years.

I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables.

I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more.

-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops

Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that.

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Well, I guess you do it for a living while I do it for pure enjoyment, so for me, having someone else do it doesn't help me learn any. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 2:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Catherine, I should clarify. It's not a case of I can't do this because I can't see. It's more that I can't do this because, firstly, I couldn't be bothered, secondly, it doesn't pay very well and most importantly, I have much more interesting things to do than fiddle around with laptop hardware. It's always so small and complicated. Getting a simple screw into place even for my wife who is fully sighted is a pain. She usually gives these things to me because I don't need to worry about lighting and line of sight to get a screw into a really stupid part in a laptop. The most recent was a HP ultra-book. They tried to be smart about it by letting the screen become a tablet but of course. After about six months the whole thing became strained. HP washed their hands of the whole thing. It was the most fiddly laptop I had ever come across. Pull that, push this, snap that out, don't snap this, slide it. Push this while moving that. Absolutely stupid. I understand that they have a very small space to work in but these things are becoming very hard to maintain. Not just for people who are blind. But for everyone. I almost think the manufacturors are trying to do this deliberitly. It's one of the reasons I purchased an extended warranty from Dell plus extra ensurance for my XPS11. I know that if something goes wrong, I'd rather pay for a new machine than start opening it up. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 18:50 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops You don't have to hand the problem off to someone else; there are plenty of folks willing to describe the procedure to you on the internet; (join and use Bleepingcomputer.com) replacing a motherboard does take a long time, though if it's going to take us a few hours, then it may take a sighted person the same amount of time; it all depends on how complicated the vender made the procedure in the first place. Even sighted folks take a while with motherboards and processors in laptops depending on the model and vender; Toshibas are hell, though I like the brand and think that they and Dell are the best laptops you'll ever find anywhere. After all, try looking in the manual to figure out how to replace the fuser board, and if it's a soldering job, ask a sighted friend to help you. You don't need to be technical to be a good solderer. After all, what even is the fuser board, and how did you diagnose the problem,while we're at it? -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh Ó Héiligh Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 12:43 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Catherine, I've had to do a few laptop repairs over the years. I find that a magnetic screw driver is the most important tool. The screws in laptops now are tiny! Especially in the ultra portables. I've never replaced a mother board or a processor in a laptop but I've done the rest. Mouse pads, screens, keyboards, RAM, disks are of course simple, wireless network modules, Bluetooth modules, card readers. There's a fuser board gone in a laptop a few feet away from me at the moment and I haven't the first clue how I'm going to handle that. I think I'm just going to suggest that the person brings it to someone else. I'm comfortable enough at this stage to just be straight with people when I cant do something when it's a private transaction. Especially if it's going to take a few hours. I just don't have the itme or patients with it any more. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Katherine Moss Sent: 23 November 2013 17:37 To: 'blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org' Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Recommendations for blind people to repair laptops Hey guys, I'm big on the hardware side of the equation as well as the software side of it, so I'm wondering if you can provide some pointers on how visually impaired folks repair laptops with as little sighted assistance as possible? Desktops and servers I can usually do just fine with, though laptops are harder since every manufacturer is different, and I never want to just start taking screws out willy nilly, for I don't want to end up destroying something in the process. What do you guys usually do when a laptop has a hardware problem? Have any of you devised a method to be able to take apart laptops? I mean, sometimes it's easy to do without the diagrams by using common sense, though for example, take this Dell Latitude E6530 I have. Getting to the back of it is easily done; there is only a singular panel that needs to come off; gosh, I changed the ram out on this one without any help at all. But getting to the keyboard? I couldn't figure out that without sighted assistance if you paid me to. The manual instructs you to pry up on the medal framing around it (the entire keyboard is surrounded by aluminum), but they don't specify in a very good description where, and my CompTIA A+ certified friend can't even figure it out. And when he tried to, he had a sighted tutor with him, and the tutor couldn't figure it out without the manual. Another example is my CA. 2005 Toshiba laptop, and that thing had supposedly a dead clock battery and a dead hard drive. I'm not sure what happened, but the thing clearly died. I just had to throw it in the garbage today since it was giving off a burned electronics smell before I managed to figure out what else was wrong with it, and after replacing the clock battery and hard drive, the motherboard basically died of me and my sighted, though more hands-on than technical herself, friend and I handling it. Every sign was there, and I stopped worrying about a disconnection; since it was smelling, it had to be DOA when my friend returned it to me four years ago when it had been in his possession. But the point is, every laptop is different, and since those little wires in there are tiny, so how do we keep track of them? Those tiny slots and connectors; even my sighted friend was struggling with the Toshiba, probably part of the reason why the board fully died (before we had attempted to fix it, it was smelling bad, though the laptop was basically working, though the time was wrong and there was, of course, no OS installed). I mean, replacing a CMOS battery is of course a bigger deal on a laptop than it is on a desktop or server, so how do you go about it? Do you just leave the deep repairs to the sighted? If so, then we should change that. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins