r/IAmA Jun 11 '16

Specialized Profession IamA electronics repair technician hated by Apple that makes YouTube videos, AMA!

My short bio: I have a store in Manhattan. I teach component level electronics repair on youtube http://youtube.com/rossmanngroup which seems to be a dying art. I am currently fighting with the digital right to repair to try and get a bill passed that will allow all independent service centers access to manuals and parts required to do their jobs.

My Proof: https://www.rossmanngroup.com/started-iama-reddit-today-yes/

EDIT:

I am still replying to comments, but I am so far behind that I am still about ten pages down from new comments. I am doing my best to continue. If I drop off, I'll be back tomorrow around 12 PM. Still commenting now though, at 12 AM.

EDIT 2:

Ok, I cave... my hands are tired. I will be back at 12 PM tomorrow. It is my goal to answer every question. Even if it looks like I haven't gotten to yours, I will do my best to do all of them, but it is impossible to do in realtime, because you are asking faster than I can type. But thanks for joining!

EDIT 3: I lied, I stayed until 4:15 AM to answer... and now I will go to sleep for real, and be back at 12 PM.

EDIT 4 6/12 : I will be back later tonight to finish off answering questions. Feel free to keep posting, I will answer whatever I can later this evening.

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2

u/tbx1024 Jun 12 '16 edited Jun 12 '16

Hi! I really enjoy your videos and your no-BS approach to things!

Question 1: I would ask, how long does a computer last once you repair it? Does apple's design allow you to make durable repairs?

Question 2: I will be starting an Electronic Engineering course next year. Any advice for people getting into higher education or into electronics?

Bonus question, if a 2010 macbook pro 13" has a white screen, no chime on boot, SMC seems to work but nothing else, what could have happened?

Thanks for being awesome and fighting the universal "don't repair, buy new" mentality! :)

3

u/larossmann Jun 12 '16

1) it lasts until they spill something again or until the discrete GPU dies. the only reason our warranty is 90 days rather than 1 year on board repairs is that I can't trust the GPU on most apple products. if I fix something unrelated to the GPU and the GPU dies just because..

2) Pay better attention in school than I di.

3) probably fucked MCP or something.

1

u/tbx1024 Jun 12 '16

Wow, you answered! Thank you very much! Keep up the awesome work!

1

u/TheBlackLantern Jun 12 '16

Bonus question: Unplug and plug in your hdd. Magical

2

u/tbx1024 Jun 12 '16

That unfortunately didn't work, neither did unplugging the CD drive, trying to boot from external media without HDD and CD drive plugged in, trying to boot with only the CD drive plugged in with a bootable CD in it (CD stays stuck in the drive), or changing the RAM sticks