who am i?
who am i?
My passion for repairing electronics started when I was just a kid, years before the internet was invented and when we only had 4 Tv channels ( I remember sitting as a boy with my grandad watching the snooker on a black and white Tv ) as a boy I was always on the hunt for discarded electrical items so that I could take them apart to see how they worked and sometimes even took apart things I shouldn’t have! (Sorry mum). I got my first soldering Iron before I was a teenager and my love for taking electrical goods apart and fixing them is as strong today as it was when I was 10 years old.
My first computer was the ZX Sinclair 48k and I suppose that’s where this all started! My love for computers CB radio and anything with a PCB ( even when doing my other passion of playing guitars I would pull apart the guitar pedals and customize them, and play with internal components) continued through my teenage years always opening them to see what’s inside and how they work and this is where I first learnt about components, resistors, capacitors and power rails.
Fast forward to my early 20’s and I was given the opportunity to own and run my own PC repair shop in Acocks Green, Birmingham where I did Pc and laptop repair for several years and expanding the business to also be a console repair company, at our peak we were doing console repairs on a B2B level for shops all over the country repairing the Xbox red ring of death and the PS3 yellow light of death but actually fixing the issue by rebelling the GPU with leaded solder not just heating it up with a paint stripper gun like other shops!
The shop consumed me, after a chat with my other half and close friends it was apparent that working 7 days a week and living and breathing laptop repairs wasn’t good for the soul or those around me so I sold the business and got myself and 9 to 5 to give me more free time and time to start my own family.
Although the shop was gone, I never stopped repairing PCB boards and broken laptops, but it was now just a hobby and for helping family and friends who would always bring me broken or faulty items from toasters to Tv’s I think I have had just about every electrical device that exists on my workbench!
Since lockdown I became obsessed with the Macbook and Apples greed and the lengths they go to stop us from repairing these devices, engineering a device to prevent it from being repaired is just mind bending to me and supporting the “Right to repair” movement and spending my time getting these Macbooks that apple have deemed beyond repair or needing a NEW logicboard and HUGE cost is now my new passion!
I am lucky to have friends in this industry and it’s a great community we share our findings, solutions, and work arounds and between us all fix thousands of Laptops that Apple would have like to see go in a bin!
I still watch the snooker but sadly without my Grandad but at least I can see what colour the balls are now and while doing so you can guarantee i’ll have a dead Macbook and a soldering iron in front of me.
