Computer runs faster because it is soldered.. haha..

Cute. It's also wrong in another way. If you cut a board in half you double the cost to manufacture. That includes everything involved in building the board such as procurement, inventory control, handling, packaging, mounting, interconnect, inspection, etc. This is why single board computers are more popular than plug-in conglomerations.

The choice solder also makes a minor difference. RoHS Sn/Ag/Cu/Sb solder has a resistivity of 1.21E^-7 ohm.m while Sn/Pb eutectic solder has a resistivity of 1.45E^-7 ohm.m. While a 17% change in conductivity may not seem like much, it makes a hell of difference dealing with ground bounce problems when the 1.4V i7 CPU might draw 65 amps on peaks. Most of the traces are copper, so that had to be beefed up, but the typically crappy soldering also needed thickening.

Aw, you're no fun... I might as well throw in some flame bait.

In Dec 2009, I threw together a spreadsheet comparing as near identical offerings from Apple and Dell. See:

Except for the 13" MacBook, the price of the Apple products is about twice that of the Dell offerings. Obviously, things have changed since 2009, but since it took me all day to throw that together, I'll wait until I catch a cold or have some time to bring the spreadsheet up to date.

Since this is a repair newsgroup, I might mention that many Apple products are impossible to repair. Tearing apart the latest mice and aluminum keyboards will guarantee its destruction. Disassembly of many computers are also difficult and require much prying and swearing. I now carry a putty knife for the Mac Mini, and a roll of mylar tape to reassemble the iBook. The ancient Mac Cube is full of proprietary and nearly unobtainable screws. Opening an iPod, iPhone or iPad is rather tricky, until the tricks are learned. Basically, Apple products are designed to be non-repairable.

Gone to find out what stinks in the shop. Probably a dead mouse.

On 2/12/2011 3:01 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:

Maybe it's one of those unrepairable Mac mice, moldering in the corner underneath your bench ...

-- Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.

Time to switch to a trackball? ;-)

Youse guys are doing irreparable harm to this group's reputation for linguistic punctiliousness.

Nope. The only mice around here are PC mice. See trophy collection hanging on the closet door in the background. Unlike Apple mice, PC mice don't stink.

(Wait for the photo to load. Move mouse around photo).

It's definitely a dead mouse (Mus musculus). I think I found the general area, but haven't found the dead mouse yet. Dinner tastes like dead mouse. Retch.

Well I didnt say where their places were. The PC being on my desk.. The Mac proping the door open.

Hardly noticeable, but maybe what he means is that by designing more inclusive circuit boards and thus reducing the need for cabling you do gain some advantage.

I don't know about Apple computers, because I don't work on them, but I have to say that I find iPods very easy to get into, and all of the major parts are available from multiple sources at what I think are remarkably sensible prices. Just last week, I bought a replacement LCD assembly for a Classic, and it was £10.20 (say $15) including tax and delivery. I got it from my usual supplier here in the UK, and it looked as though it was a factory-original part.

Arfa

Your good fortune might simply be that there are so many iPods around that

I might also dump on Palm. After seven years, I had to replace the lithium-ion battery in my Tungsten T3. Palm has illegally abandoned this and other PDAs, so I had to go elsewhere. Prices were all over the place, as high as $30. (You used to be able to get the battery and its installation for $50 to $60, but no one seems to be doing it any more.)

I settled on an HQRP ("high-quality, reasonable price") battery for less than $7, shipping included. It was surprisingly easy to replace (I expected tsuris), and appears to be better (or at least have higher capacity) than the original. Time will tell.

T3 batteries are all over eBay for about $6 including shipping.

As I understand it, manufacturers can designate parts vendors as their official supply of spare parts and service. There are also no restrictions beyond the vague "reasonably priced" requirements that spare parts be available.

Palm E series PDA's are easy to disassemble and replace the battery. Previous incantations (i.e. Palm III, V, etc) are nightmares from hell. The Palm V has to be disassembled with a heat gun.

Incidentally, I have a spare T3 that I'm not using. Also, some E, E2 and E3 units but in not so wonderful condition. Make me rich and you'll have a spare T3. Contact me via email.

In order to get into a iPhone 3G, you remove 2 small screws, place a suction cup on the glass front, and pull. The battery is soldered in place. Furthur disassembly involves removing glued components (including the battery). It's not impossible, but it's certainly not easy. The previous iPhone 2G required using a plastic "spudger" to pry the off the front.

Various teardown instructions:

However, for real entertainment value, try replacing a broken power connector on an old iBook G3. I have one of these and was not thrilled with the approx 50 step procedure.

We can debate whether such inconvenient disassembly is justified by the allegedly improved cosmetics. My position is that it's not, as demonstrated by other cell phones and PC laptops, most of which have user accessible batteries.

Good price. It probably came directly from China from the same factory that supplies the displays to Apple. I get quite a few parts that way through Hong Kong. However, there are some parts which are simply unobtainable new and/or at reasonable prices. Cosmetic parts, custom chips, and wear parts (i.e. power jacks, controls, keyboards, touchpads, hinges, rubber feet, etc) tend to be difficult to find. Most of these I buy from eBay vendors that cannibalize machines and sell the parts. Without used parts, many of the repairs that I'm doing would be either uneconomical or impossible. I could not build the business on purchasing new parts from the original manufacturer.

The American law used to be "three years" for cosmetic and trim parts. I used to buy trim parts for my favorite electronic "toys" to make sure I had them.

The company I use is

Not much use to you as a leftpondian, but as you can see, they do a lot of Apple parts, including some cosmetics and touch screens.

Arfa

Hey how do I get my 30 GB Video Ipod apart? It has a .5mm streak going from right to left in the middle of the screen but stops just short of the left side. But it is in the backlighting because the streak does not appear in bright light. So it doesn't seem to be the LCD just the lighting. Does this sound right? I don't want to mess with trying to pry it apart and bend it all up but I would like to see if there is something that can be done first without buying a replacement panel.

I'm not sure which model you have. How to identify your model:

No. Backlighting failures usually affect the entire screen, or large areas of the screen, not single horizontal lines. That's the LCD. It's too difficult to see the line with a reflected light. My guess is either a blown LCD display, or a bad connection. It might also be mechanical damage (broken glass) of some sort as I've never seen a line go only partially across the display.

Burnt offerings, human sacrifice, secret incantations, and exhortations to various deities has worked for the last few thousand years. Threats of violence has ocassionally convinved various devices to cooperate and repair themselves. I don't recall if the ISO has standardized any of these methods yet, so some experimentation on your part might be needed. If you do succeed by any of these methods, I would be very interested.

I agree with Jeff. The problem is most likely the display itself or a connection to it. They come apart quite easily, once you have got one side started. there are lots of videos on You Tube. The English on this one is crap, but the actual video shows it all quite well, except that they don't show any screws down the sides once you have the case off. There have been tiny screws in all the ones I've seen, but they are obvious.

Trickiest bit I've found is when you come to put it back together, and you have to get the centre button in the control ring to stay correctly in place, as you try to get the ring to locate in the case front. Not ultimately hard exactly, just fiddly, and a bit frustrating the first ten times that it falls back out ... :-)

Arfa

Sorry, the streak is not there when viewing by reflected light. Only with back light. And the glass is not broken nor has it been dropped or bumped or abused.

Well I'm on my own.

How is it backlit? is it ccfl ? I don't understand when viewed in bright light after the backlight turns off the streak goes away. I can take a pic of it and put it on photobucket:

This is with backlight:

This is with reflected light only:

As you can easily see the reflected light picture shows no anomaly on the screen. It's not just a case of the anomaly being too hard to see with reflected light.

Hmmm. As you say, the display error does not appear to be there in the second picture, and I'm not sure just what to make of that. As to how the things are backlit, to be honest, I'm not sure. I don't think that it's a ccfl, so possibly LED, but I don't recall the display assembly being thick enough to accommodate sufficiently powerful LEDs. Unless someone else knows, I'll see if I can dig the one I replaced a couple of weeks ago, back out of the workshop bin (un-emptied, and overflowing, as always !!) and see if I can see what lights it

Arfa