[dba-Tech] Repairing the Surface Pro

Hi Hans:

This is all in theory of course as I have never had to repair a cell phone.
Being that they have always been under contract, the provider owns the phone
until the end of the contract, parts are not easily available to the general
public, there are no moving parts so your phone is unlikely to break and the
only things that can be exchanged (or repaired) are as you say the SIM card
and battery.

Laptops are different though but the bottom end ones are so cheap that the
parts are as expensive as a new unit.

It is that I have a fundamental dislike for just throwing things out that
are still working fine or need simple repairs and are capable of doing just
what you need. 

I am in the process of upgrading an old server (also an old PC), probably in
two to three weeks, that in less than twelve months, will be 15 years old.
Considering that it has basically ran 24x7 for the entire duration, its not
bad (It wasn't even running Linux only an early edition of Win2000 (1998)
first and is now currently running Server2003 enterprise edition). Then
there is a very old PC, running with junk parts from the 90s and can still
run as a server if necessary... Debian Linux I believe. ;-) I have also kept
many client computers running for as long as ten years and then there is the
record, last year, when a client brought in a running Dell (from the time
when they still made real computers), with all the original parts and the
label on the back that read 1990. I have asked the fellow to give the box to
me instead of chucking it out as I would love to try and stuff an
over-clocked server into that box...a friend has access to a two year old
ASUS G74SX laptop mother board with a i7-Intel CPU (6 core), 8GB of RAM...
;-) 

Jim  

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian
Andersen
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 12:46 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Repairing the Surface Pro

By serviceable, are you referring to a hypothetical situation or reality?

How much ability do you have to fix something on your Samsung, should it
break? Would you know the first thing on how to fix it or have the necessary
tools and ability to replace it? Is it trivial? I strongly doubt it. The
most you can possibly do is replace the battery or your SIM card. Well,
that's pretty much been the extent of what you can do on cell phones since
as far as I'm aware.

Then there is the ability to upgrade. Obviously, it is not possible for any
of us to upgrade ram or CPU etc on our phones.

Cell phones just aren't serviceable. Never have been. You are better off
just buying a new one. It will probably work out cheaper than any effort you
might put in hypothetically.

Or you can buy your phone off a company, which has a great,
no-questions-asked policy on product returns that can be taken care of
within an hour or 2.

- Hans