New Hampshire Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellphones Are Throwaways'

Re:New Hampshire Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellpho... by gnode on Friday October 25, 2019 @12:45PM (#21356789)

I'm not sure the repairability of many types of electronic devices will be able to meaningfully survive into the future. The general trend in computing is to bring all the components together into a single module, as this improves power efficiency, latency, and bandwidth (e.g. going from DDR memory chips to stacked HBM chiplets connected to the processor by an interposer). Portability, and the aesthetics of thinner / lighter devices also creates a push towards more extensive integration. Repair increasingly means replacement.

Maybe the legislative solution we should be pursuing is longer mandatory warranties.

That said, in many cases a device fails due to a low value discrete component -- a resistor; a capacitor. This repair legislation would help here.

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Re:New Hampshire Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellpho... by novok on Friday October 25, 2019 @01:46PM (#21357417)

Most failures I've seen are either mechanical wear on a port, button or cable of some sort, glass panel damage or a power supply system not being built fully to spec because of cost cutting or stupidity. Also batteries wearing out due to use or more rarely, ssd storage drives wearing out due to usage. There is also 'glue & waterproofing wear' as the glue & rubber goes through multiple heat / cooling cycles and unsets, then water damage occurs.

Those issues will never be going away on some level. The chips themselves are usually the most reliable components, unless they are power management chips.

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Re:New Hampshire Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellpho... by gnode on Friday October 25, 2019 @02:19PM (#21357746)

> Most failures I've seen are either mechanical wear on a port, button or cable of some sort

Eliminating ports seems to be some manufacturers' solution to this. There's no wear if it doesn't exist.

> There is also 'glue & waterproofing wear' as the glue & rubber goes through multiple heat / cooling cycles and unsets, then water damage occurs.

I wonder if in the future, the glass will just be hermetically welded to the case (glass-to-metal seal). No moving parts; no external adhesives; no possibly of getting into the device without cutting through it.

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