I was an aviation electronics technician in the Navy, and I can say from experience that it is very easy to underestimate the time and effort that can go into a component-level repair job.

I once troubleshot a faulty RF power meter down to a single transistor, and it was incredibly gratifying to see it working after replacing a sub-$1 part but if I was paid by the hour it would’ve been an unprofitable job for sure.

>2) Modularity keeps the cost of individual components so low that board-level repair is hardly worth it. What would Louis charge me? $350 for shipping and time?

I don't know where you get your numbers, and Louis isn't the only person in the world with the ability to repair this stuff; you can make up a number so that it seems anti-competitive against the idea of modularity and buying a whole new replacement module -- but let it be said that these repairs can be done fairly cheap with some research and a bit of parts gathering. Cheaper than 350 cheap, in most cases.

> Logic board repair – $250-$425 (depending on model)

From https://www.rossmanngroup.com/liquid-damage/. Their pricing is fairly competitive, you won't find many places that are significantly cheaper for good quality work.

> but let it be said that these repairs can be done fairly cheap with some research and a bit of parts gathering. Cheaper than 350 cheap, in most cases.

I don't know about that for component level repairs. Sure you can replace a hard drive, memory, a wifi card or a fan but those can all be done already with the Framework laptop without the detailed schematics. Most people are not knowledgeable enough and even if they were they likely wouldn't feel comfortable doing component level repairs on a motherboard, especially if they have to do any soldering. There's a reason that the vast majority of places computer repair places don't do component level repairs. You need a lot of expertise to do so, and that expertise doesn't come cheap.

> There's a reason that the vast majority of places computer repair places don't do component level repairs. You need a lot of expertise to do so, and that expertise doesn't come cheap.

you also need tooling. $20 radio shack soldering iron from dad won’t do it for anything that’s worth the labor costs.

if you don’t have any of that you’ll be spending $350 to get the bare minimum to practice the job.

$350 is basically free in terms of skilled technician time to solve a problem that requires any non-trivial amount of investigation. You're devaluing the labor and thinking only in terms of the raw materials.

> You're devaluing the labor and thinking only in terms of the raw materials.

very common for folks to compare the cost of having something assembled for the first time in a low-wage country, to having it disassembled, diagnosed, repaired, and reassembled in a high-wage country.

Which is sadly the norm on HN, only Web Development is difficult and complex. Everything else in the world is suppose to be simple.

> board-level repair is hardly worth it

Not worth the time and money? or the reduced environmental impact?

You seem awfully sure that board level repair isn't worth it, what did you base that opinion on?

See my above comments - I've had board level repairs done before and they aren't cheap. Best case scenario with the framework modular design, you save $50 and get back an old part that is prone to additional failures. With modularity you can buy and replace just the part you need and maybe even upgrade while you're at it.

Having both would be ideal but isn't always practical due to agreements with chip suppliers etc. Framework is a huge step in the right direction and I don't think being puristic about things is helpful for the right to repair movement.