Is Break/Fix Hardware repair business at end of life?

[britechguy]

Break-fix isn't dead here, either, although it's been "feast or famine" for some time now.

It seems like I get strings of calls (and, lately, tons for game stations, which I don't fix) that just won't quit, followed by equal or longer periods of dead silence.

 

[symbatech]

Dead silence is a good term for what I'm experiencing right now. I've gotten one call all week. Trying to think of what to do, whether I should shutter the business and look for something else, or hang on for a while and see if it picks back up. At 60 years old, it's not a great time to start a whole new career. Break/fix had been my bread and butter for over 30 years. Now I'm not sure how much longer I can hold on.

 

[britechguy]

I agree that at 60 (I will be 64 quite soon) it's a terrible time to start anything "radically different" as far as career goes.

I'm actually surprised, given where you live, that there is not a large, built-in, senior citizen demographic in constant need of break-fix and/or setup new work.

This economy is not good for job hunters of any age, for that matter. I came into the job market in 1985, and the way things are now, compared to then, makes it no surprise to me that those in their 20s just starting out are very discouraged.

 

[symbatech]

I agree that at 60 (I will be 64 quite soon) it's a terrible time to start anything "radically different" as far as career goes.

I'm actually surprised, given where you live, that there is not a large, built-in, senior citizen demographic in constant need of break-fix and/or setup new work.

This economy is not good for job hunters of any age, for that matter. I came into the job market in 1985, and the way things are now, compared to then, makes it no surprise to me that those in their 20s just starting out are very discouraged.

Senior citizens have always been a good portion of my clientele, along with small businesses. Many seniors live on a fixed income and therefore aren't spending the way they used to, especially with the cost of everything soaring. The calls are very few and far between now. Sadly, many have passed away over the years as well. I've had a steady client for over 25 years that I do regular work for. She's a real estate developer, and I help her with a lot of other administrative stuff in addition to keeping her computers running smoothly. She is now 72 and her final property is on the market. Once that sells, that income stream will dry up too.

Most of my small business customers have closed up shop. In the beginning, I came from a real estate background and therefore had built up a good circle of influence to launch my business from. I lost a significant portion of my Realtor clients during the 2008 downturn. Many went out of business or left the industry. The same holds true for the other clients that I once had in the title, insurance, and appraisal arms. Most of what Realtors do now can be done on a tablet or phone, so the demand isn't what it once was.

This area is oversaturated in pretty much every category, so seeking out new business is a tough slog. I am going to reach out to one of my customers who manages a housing development to see if I might be able to eke out a few referrals there.

Overall, everything is tight right now with the mess the economy is in. Not sure I can survive long enough for a regime change.

 

[lan101]

Now though, I struggle with what I want to do.

I only mention all this because I really see break fix coming back in a way. I especially see component level diagnosis and repair breaking out even more. With the insane cost of components, I think people are going to be motivated to fix and keep what they have more now than they have been in a very long time.

I was just looking back through amazon at my SSD purchase history. I found a 480GB Kingston I picked up for $23.99 in 2023. That same drive is listed now for like $100.

I believe in my market it'll be just the opposite in my opinion. I don't think anyone will repair or fix anything much at these insane ram and ssd prices now.

Unless even entry level junk laptops become $1000 then maybe...but if these junk clunkers remain $400-$500 no one will fix them unless you practically give your services away for nothing I suppose lol.

Guess it all depends on your market and what people are willing to spend. I bought a samsung nvme 990 2TB back in 2023 for $160...now it's over $600. If mine fails I'm not replacing it. I'll just live without it and get something else. If the price got back down to $300 something maybe but at over $600 it's not worth that to me.

I bought a couple of the same kingston's I think for around that same price. Now they are like a luxury item buy lol.

 

[sapphirescales]

Guess it all depends on your market and what people are willing to spend. I bought a samsung nvme 990 2TB back in 2023 for $160...now it's over $600.

People are just going to have to learn to live with less RAM and storage capacity or pay these new prices. It wasn't too long ago that a 1TB SSD was $400 and I survived just fine. I just had a client come in with a failing 2TB SSD. Quoted them $900 to replace it and image the old one, or they could pay me $400 to have me transfer all their data to an external drive and reinstall Windows onto a 500GB SSD. Three guesses which one they chose. The day before I quoted someone $600 to upgrade their laptop from 16GB of RAM to 32GB and another $500 to upgrade their storage from 500GB to 1TB and they didn't flinch at the cost. It depends on the client.

That being said I massively stocked up on RAM and SSDs when I saw the prices going up. I got boatloads of 2TB SSDs that I bought for $129, 1TB's that I got for $65, 500GB's that I got for around $45, and 250GB that I got for $27. I barely bought any 4TB drives because I sell them so rarely but I wish I'd stocked up on more of them seeing the prices right now. I bought mostly DDR4 32GB kits for around $45 though I have some 32GB and 64GB DDR5 kits as well. I'm still a mostly AM4 shop and will be for the next few years. The price to performance is just so much better than with AM5/DDR5.

 

[HCHTech]

I especially see component level diagnosis and repair breaking out even more.

There are so few places that do this, I'd think you could easily make a business out of it. That's where Louis Rossman got his audience, as I recall.

 

[britechguy]

There are so few places that do this, I'd think you could easily make a business out of it. That's where Louis Rossman got his audience, as I recall.

Yep. This is an ultra niche market and there will always be work because:
a) There are so few places that do it.
b) There are things that absolutely, positively can't be replaced easily.

I've also been predicting the breakout of a similar industry for automotive electronics in what are now classified as antique cars (think about it, a year 2000 car is classed as antique in most states now). There's never been a time where there is not a contingent trying to keep cars they love on the road, and we're entering a period where replacement electronics "as a unit" are made of unobtainium and someone's got to diagnose and fix malfunctioning units.

 

[brandonkick]

My son does this, as well, and calls those "a speck of dust", so tiny they have to be under a microscope to be seen and worked on.

Yes absolutely. I had to use a scope to put that component back in place and even then it wasn't easy.

Without magnification, really you can't even see it. With my lasik I have slightly better than 20/20 vision and I could barely tell something was there.

I think officially that package size is 0.6mm by 0.3mm

 

[brandonkick]

There are so few places that do this, I'd think you could easily make a business out of it. That's where Louis Rossman got his audience, as I recall.

I've been learning more and more about component level diagnosis and circuits in general. I'm probably better than half way towards a minor in EE at this point (not actually taking classes... it would be a youtube degree lol).

MasterCard was generous with the severance so I'll be fine for quite a while. While I am very actively pursing to finish my career in software engineering (I'll be 40 this year and was intending to "retire" at around 55).... I am watching for deals on used IR rework stations and other gear to do more advanced BGA rework and a better trinocular scope than the one I have.

Even just banging out HDMI ports on a PS5 is very profitable. I can get about $100 for one and I can have that job done start to finish in less than 30 minutes. 10 if I'm brought just the board.

The main faults on most laptops are pretty similar hardware wise. A $2000 Dell precision laptop with a shorted capacitor or blown mosfet can be $200 in your pocket for 15 minutes worth of work. Of course, they aren't paying for the 15 minutes. They are paying for thousands of dollars of tools that you have, and the decades of learning and experience.

 

[lan101]

People are just going to have to learn to live with less RAM and storage capacity or pay these new prices. It wasn't too long ago that a 1TB SSD was $400 and I survived just fine. I just had a client come in with a failing 2TB SSD. Quoted them $900 to replace it and image the old one, or they could pay me $400 to have me transfer all their data to an external drive and reinstall Windows onto a 500GB SSD. Three guesses which one they chose. The day before I quoted someone $600 to upgrade their laptop from 16GB of RAM to 32GB and another $500 to upgrade their storage from 500GB to 1TB and they didn't flinch at the cost. It depends on the client.

That being said I massively stocked up on RAM and SSDs when I saw the prices going up. I got boatloads of 2TB SSDs that I bought for $129, 1TB's that I got for $65, 500GB's that I got for around $45, and 250GB that I got for $27. I barely bought any 4TB drives because I sell them so rarely but I wish I'd stocked up on more of them seeing the prices right now. I bought mostly DDR4 32GB kits for around $45 though I have some 32GB and 64GB DDR5 kits as well. I'm still a mostly AM4 shop and will be for the next few years. The price to performance is just so much better than with AM5/DDR5.

Yeah I don't think we will ever see prices where they were again or if so it won't be any time soon.

Recently I've had more clients just opt for a new computer and I do data transfer or image over old computer etc.

But the majority of these are under $1000 dollar computers. Many are old dell/hp/lenevo budget business class units.

I just literally quote the hardware costs right off Amazon and tell them how expensive parts are lol. So for many of them it makes more sense to upgrade now before prices go any higher. But yeah I gotta feeling many are just gonna have to opt for the 250gb or 500gb drives and call it a day since 1TB and above are so much more now. I wish I would've bought more stock when things were cheap lol.

 

[lan101]

MasterCard was generous with the severance so I'll be fine for quite a while. While I am very actively pursing to finish my career in software engineering (I'll be 40 this year and was intending to "retire" at around 55).... I am watching for deals on used IR rework stations and other gear to do more advanced BGA rework and a better trinocular scope than the one I have.

Hopefully you got some mastercard stock. That's been a helluva good one over the last 5-10 years lol.

 

[trevm999]

You aren't too far from me!

I'd agree. Break fix isn't dead really. I honestly do think it'll come back around some.

I've been a professional senior software engineer for the past 12 years. Recently I was working on customer loyalty software / ecosystem for MasterCard. It was really interesting stuff. Some of the largest, most high throughput franchises in the world were using them. I got to build some really advanced stuff and solve a lot of complex problems but as it were... that's a huge corporation mostly interested in the bottom line.

So they sold that section of the business off and I wasn't one of the 30% "ish" percent of the staff that got retained.

I mention all that because prior to that I was doing break / fix on the side and I did arcade repair work for almost 10 years. Love to troubleshoot (hardware and software), love to solder and I'm quite good at it. Been doing HDMI port replacements on PS5's and recently found and fix a bad cap keeping a PS5 from working. 0201 package size, nasty small. Nearly invisible on the tip of my thumb. Just love to fix things. Programming is interesting to me too, and the pay was great so I adopted that full time.


Now though, I struggle with what I want to do.

I only mention all this because I really see break fix coming back in a way. I especially see component level diagnosis and repair breaking out even more. With the insane cost of components, I think people are going to be motivated to fix and keep what they have more now than they have been in a very long time.

I was just looking back through amazon at my SSD purchase history. I found a 480GB Kingston I picked up for $23.99 in 2023. That same drive is listed now for like $100.

I'm also a software developer now, and have started thinking about getting into development more closely tied to hardware. Higher ups are not seeing enough risk associated with shipping shitty stuff, and I'm wondering if companies that create devices work differently than SaaS.

 

[sapphirescales]

I dunno guys. I'm still dealing with nightmares like this. $600 for the repair, $170 my cost for parts. You can't buy the entire assembly so I have to buy every part individually and rebuild it from scratch (LCD, webcam, cable, wifi antennas, hinges, etc.):

 

[lan101]

I dunno guys. I'm still dealing with nightmares like this. $600 for the repair, $170 my cost for parts. You can't buy the entire assembly so I have to buy every part individually and rebuild it from scratch (LCD, webcam, cable, wifi antennas, hinges, etc.):

View attachment 18171

How the deuce did that even happen lol. Holy hell. Is that a high specced model?

Just for a market comparison not many people in my area would probably opt to fix that...but at that profit margin on your end and the customer is happy with a repaired computer it's a win win.

 

[ThatPlace928]

I dunno guys. I'm still dealing with nightmares like this. $600 for the repair, $170 my cost for parts. You can't buy the entire assembly so I have to buy every part individually and rebuild it from scratch (LCD, webcam, cable, wifi antennas, hinges, etc.):

View attachment 18171

Looks like a keeper to me....... lol Seriously, though, it looks like a heat issue. I live in one of the hottest places in Arizona and people foolishly leave their devices in their vehicles in the middle of Summer. They've come in with swollen batteries and broken displays but never bent like that. Did you find out how the customer managed to do that?

 

[sapphirescales]

How the deuce did that even happen lol. Holy hell.

Did you find out how the customer managed to do that?

He said he tripped and fell. I didn't ask for details.

Is that a high specced model?

I think so. When I quoted him $600 he said "well that's a lot less than I paid for it so go ahead." I haven't actually looked at the specs yet. Still waiting on the parts.

not many people in my area would probably opt to fix that

I get people willing to fix stuff that cost more to fix than it's worth all the time. For a lot of people, it's just easier to say "here's a pile of money" than to try to research and find a new computer, transfer their data, and possibly get a laptop they don't like and are stuck with for years. Of course, you have to be of a certain income bracket to be willing to do this and run the risk of having another problem. I mean, this guy could have the screen replaced for $600 then have the motherboard die 6 months later. If he didn't have money, that could be devastating to a person's finances.

 

[lan101]

I get people willing to fix stuff that cost more to fix than it's worth all the time. For a lot of people, it's just easier to say "here's a pile of money" than to try to research and find a new computer, transfer their data, and possibly get a laptop they don't like and are stuck with for years. Of course, you have to be of a certain income bracket to be willing to do this and run the risk of having another problem. I mean, this guy could have the screen replaced for $600 then have the motherboard die 6 months later. If he didn't have money, that could be devastating to a person's finances.

Yeah definitely makes sense to me. Majority of my market only spend I'd say $500-$800 range on laptops. Maybe 5-10% would actually spend over $1000. So that pretty much eliminates the majority of laptops that are decently made now brand new. Sometimes I can talk them into getting a solid business class refurbished.

I'm not a mac fan really but the macbook neo is kicking the crap out of anything in the pc market for the money I think based off what I've seen on the reviews. I was almost tempted to buy 1 but I figured I'd use it a few months and then it would just end up collecting dust lol.

 

[sapphirescales]

I'm not a mac fan really but the macbook neo is kicking the crap out of anything in the pc market for the money I think based off what I've seen on the reviews. I was almost tempted to buy 1 but I figured I'd use it a few months and then it would just end up collecting dust lol.

It's seriously limited with no Thunderbolt port. Only a USB 3.0 and 2.0 port. The MacBook Air isn't that much more expensive and it's a much better machine. The MacBook Neo is great for Grandma who only uses the computer to check email and browse the internet, but a Chromebook would serve her just as well and is 1/3 the price. I'm also concerned for the longevity of the Neo, as it reaches over 100c under load. The Neo is simply Apple's way to break back into the education market. They never should have let that market slip away. That was a major mistake and Apple is finally realizing that. They might abandon the Neo though with the new CEO. I'm looking forward to the Neo battery replacements though. There hasn't been an easily replaceable battery in a MacBook since the 2017 MacBook Air. I'm doing a battery replacement on a 2013 MacBook Air right now. Easy $250. It'll be nice to get those in again. Here's hoping the EU will force Apple to make all their batteries easily replaceable like the Neo is.

Yeah definitely makes sense to me. Majority of my market only spend I'd say $500-$800 range on laptops. Maybe 5-10% would actually spend over $1000.

Yeah but a lot of my clients are still willing to spend as much as the computer was new to get it fixed. It's just easier than having to find a new computer, set it up, and then find out they hate the trackpad or the screen isn't bright enough for them or whatever and then they're stuck with it. I recommend trading these computers in for business class machines but not everyone goes for it. They're rather have their old computer.

 

[lan101]

It's seriously limited with no Thunderbolt port. Only a USB 3.0 and 2.0 port. The MacBook Air isn't that much more expensive and it's a much better machine. The MacBook Neo is great for Grandma who only uses the computer to check email and browse the internet, but a Chromebook would serve her just as well and is 1/3 the price. I'm also concerned for the longevity of the Neo, as it reaches over 100c under load. The Neo is simply Apple's way to break back into the education market. They never should have let that market slip away. That was a major mistake and Apple is finally realizing that. They might abandon the Neo though with the new CEO. I'm looking forward to the Neo battery replacements though. There hasn't been an easily replaceable battery in a MacBook since the 2017 MacBook Air. I'm doing a battery replacement on a 2013 MacBook Air right now. Easy $250. It'll be nice to get those in again. Here's hoping the EU will force Apple to make all their batteries easily replaceable like the Neo is.


Yeah but a lot of my clients are still willing to spend as much as the computer was new to get it fixed. It's just easier than having to find a new computer, set it up, and then find out they hate the trackpad or the screen isn't bright enough for them or whatever and then they're stuck with it. I recommend trading these computers in for business class machines but not everyone goes for it. They're rather have their old computer.

Yeah neo great for just the web browsing only crowd. It'll probably be like the ipad if they keep it in the lineup...just replace every 4 to 5 years. For anyone that cares about the battery life it should be solid for. Ironically most of my boomer clients sit there and leave the laptop plugged in 24/7 lol...then on the rare case they use the battery they wonder why it doesn't last long at all.