I'm looking into getting into gaming console repairs for a hobby business. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: bigfoot22
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2023, 10:13:49 am
content: deleted

author: bidrohini
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 06, 2023, 12:22:44 pm
content: I am not experienced in gaming console repair works. But I'd like to share some links that may benefit you.Here is a video with a detailed discussion:Here is an online course:https://lp.cellularrepairschool.com/gaming-console-repair-course/Here is also a website that you may find helpful:https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Game_Console

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2023, 01:57:31 am
content: I'd be interested to know, are the kinds of failures games consoles suffer the sort which are feasible to repair with typical electronic engineering kit? I had imagined most of the failures would be things like the internal death of some specialised proprietary chip for which no equivalent replacement is on sale anywhere. Or things like bootloading EEPROMs becoming corrupted, for which there's no clear idea what information should have eben stored in them and would be needed in any replacement. Are mechanical-type failures actually common?

author: Nusa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2023, 03:15:32 am
content: Hobbies are stuff you do for fun when you want to, you spend what you can afford. Business is about making money and working even when you don't feel like it. The two concepts generally don't mesh very well. Many hobbies have been ruined by turning them into a business.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2023, 08:51:52 am
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on January 06, 2023, 10:13:49 amRed flag there.Doing anything as a business means you're taking people's money, and that means you'realreadyin a position to provide a reliable, high quality service. If I pay you to fix my faulty console, I expect to get it back working, with a correct diagnosis having been carried out, and any necessary rework performed to a high standard using the proper tools and equipment. Or I expect it back unrepaired, but at least no worse than it was when I gave it to you.Console repair requires three key skills...The first you've already identified - the practical ability to carry out rework to a high standard, using the proper tools and equipment.Most people with an interest in electronics, who are thinking of going into business, jump on this, and start by making a shopping list. It's only natural; new tools are cool and fun.My advice here is always the same... you're already in a strong position to be able to make your own decisions, so get whichever tools you want. You'll be using them regularly, so just go for whatever will make your working day enjoyable and productive. Just don't buy anything expensive or specialised until you actually need it.The second skill is the ability to diagnose what's wrong with a console, given the symptoms presented and the evidence you can see. This requires a great deal of specific knowledge and experience with each individual product type, and that's difficult and takes time because manufacturers don't release service manuals or schematics.Make a plan for how you're going to learn about each product type,withouthaving to take jobs from paying customers.The third, and most important, is the ability to make a commercial decision about what to charge for what level of work, and to assess what's worth repairing and what isn't.Most repair videos on Youtube that start with "I bought <product> on Ebay for <amount>" end up with the repair tech making a loss, or at best recouping what they've spent. That's not a way to make a living, unless the video itself brings in revenue.Have a look at this guy's channel. He's very knowledgeable about the products he's working on, carries out diagnostics in a sensible way, and shows the practical rework he's doing clearly.https://www.youtube.com/@TheCod3r/videosQuoteConsole parts are a law unto themselves, you won't be buying most of them through the normal channels, and their availability will be governed by the simple fact that they've been designed into a super high volume consumer product.Some components will be very readily available - if only from Aliexpres - while others will come only from donor boards because they're custom made for that product alone. Some will be completely irreplaceable because they're individually programmed up and serialised, which means they're paired up with other parts in the console.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 20, 2023, 09:01:51 am
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on January 20, 2023, 08:51:52 amThis.If you are going to do this as a business you need to already be an experienced expert. If you want to learn, work on old junk or stuff for friends that don't want to spend the money to have it properly repaired and know there's a chance that you'll break it worse. You are virtually certain to screw up and destroy a significant portion of the equipment you try to repair while learning.

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2023, 01:52:35 am
content: "Make a plan for how you're going to learn about each product type, without having to take jobs from paying customers"How might the OP do if he offered, initially a service where he expects payment only if he can get a console repaired? Customers would come to him with dodgy ones, no upfront fee, he tries to diagnose them, hands them back free if he can't fix it, if he gets it working again then demands payment before returning it. A clearly pre-explained no-fix - no-fee service?I suspect the risk of "problem made worse by repairs" isn't so likely here, simply because for most people the console is as good as completely dead unless his fix works, so they wouldn't really have lost anything, unless there are competing repair businesses around who would have been able to fix it something the OP couldn't. One good point???, I think (I don't use games consoles), is that unlike computers where people might have vital files in the HDD, games consoles aren't such "personal" items, that is to say personal things about them are either stored on the discs games come on, or in cloud accounts, not in the console's hardware itself???

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2023, 01:56:44 am
content: It depends on what it is. The issue is not that there is data, but that the hardware itself is no longer made and getting rarer all the time. A failed repair means one less of them to work with. It's like accidentally destroying a valuable baseball card or other collectible, you can't just go out and buy a new one.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 21, 2023, 11:23:14 am
content: It's worth watching some of the repair videos made by competent technicians; as a general rule, those which have never been opened before are fairly straightforward to diagnose and either fix, or return as unfixable because it's not economic or parts are unobtainable.Those which have been opened before, where someone ("professional" or otherwise) has tried to fix it and failed, more often than not require more work than if they hadn't tried.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 11:42:04 am
content: Quote from: bigfoot22 on January 23, 2023, 11:33:49 amStrip it down, re-ball it and see if it stays working.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2023, 11:45:04 am
content: Use it for practice.Practice removing and replacing parts, and after each operation, boot it up and check it still works.If it does, that's great, you've replaced a part correctly, and you can move on to the next one. If not, at least you know exactly where the fault lies. Examine the part you've just replaced, figure out what went wrong, and fix it.Keep doing this until the PCB simply won't take any more reflow cycles, find out where the weaknesses are, and adapt your technique accordingly.