You're a good person that's why it's unacceptable to you, to run you're business like other businesses do. I'd be doing it the same as you, I'd feel bad if I sent something back as a no fix and STILL taken someone's money for not fixing something!
Yeah, the problem with NF is that he became progressively self absorbed through the years, all his rants he goes on just sound like someone who doesn't really take any constructive criticism because he always takes the stance of knowing best. His videos recently are all mostly infomercials about his online store, where he constantly advertises everything he sells which is fine, until he starts saying to not buy the same things from amazon or ebay because they are "fake", when they are the same items but without his logo or his markup on them, he just dropships stuff from China that is also mass produced and acts like its manufactured to his specification when its just rebranding.
I live about 30 miles north of Northridge Fix. I know for a fact that if I needed repair for any of my GPUs, there would be no hesitation for me to send my business your way. Anything else I would probably trust Alex to do the repair. Your point about specialty work rings true, at least to me.
While northridge fix has his reasons. I am more in line with your philosophy in term of fixing. I will fix things until there is no more possibilities to fix it. It is just the right thing to do for me. To be able to fix things people deemed unsalvageable gives me joy.
As someone who had seen northridge fix first, I really wasn't a huge fan as soon as I seen your videos I immediately enjoyed your videos much more for the fact u went in further depth, I enjoy the music and ballzday even
@@mrhappy8966 I'm talking about taking pride in every single solder joint, not just sticking things together good enough to work. Diagnosing what to replace is a whole different matter, he seems pretty good at that at least.
Hey Tony ... interesting hearing your history. I see similarities with Louis (Rossmann), I'm sure you know his channel. He's obviously moving in different directions lately, but his ethics and biz model are certainly in the same view as you. He's grown it (partially from being in the biggest metropolis in the US), has been at it for about 15 years and was able to find/train other techs. I find you inspiring (not to mention entertaining 😂) and very informative. There's a place for you and we're all thankful for you sharing your obvious knowledge, more on a level of Kris Fix, rather then Northridge (and I enjoy Alex as well). Keep it up, and we'll all keep coming back!!
In terms of actually know-how, I watch your videos. I watch each and every one of them, because I know there's a very good chance I'll learn something. Alex is my go-to when I want some funny and over the top remarks ("better than factory", "amazing anti glare light" and so on). There's some soldering skills to be learned there, for sure, but when it comes to in depth diagnosis, you're the go-to.
We’re a lot alike. I’m in it for the fix and the knowledge. I worked for a company that only gave 1 hr to diagnose, repair, assemble and do paperwork. Needless to say, there was no time to explore into deep troubleshooting. And the only things that you can fix were things you’ve fixed before.
9:54 "(...) he will send back with no fix, but with a fix attempt fee". I watch his videos and the guy is good, but I'm sure what I quoted above is true. I remember in one of his videos he simply looked at a board and decided not to work on it because it was dirty or something. And he explained at some point that he would send items like those back to the customers with a no fix fee because if he doesn't do that there would be lots of other devices coming in with prior repair attempts that the customers themselves messed up, effectively consuming his time on what could've been a simple repair. But man, charging for just looking at a board seems kind of wrong. I also remember another video where he quoted a repair price: 160 USD for fixing a used Nintendo Switch worth 150 USD. We roasted the guy on that and his response was that it was not about the console but rather about the information on it. I think this was in a video where he showed a customer running off with her console after paying only half of that. He told her the price only after the repair was done and effectively held the console hostage, to then sell it to the customer herself for 160. So yeah, I got the joke from your previous video.
There IS a problem with how he do not really spend time on devices. He has a YT channel where he brags about his soldering skills. People see that and trusts that when he says is no fix this device is not fixable, but in reality it probably is. But 1st: they send this to someone that is very confident with his skills, and 2nd: theypaid him lots of money already for no fix, and 3rd: he can't say to customer "sorry its probaby fixable but not worth my time"! So my guess is people won't try to send it for a REAL repair. REAL repair is not something that you will made good money from, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. You will make SOME money, not much though. Certainly enough for a living, not a very rich living. That is why repair centers do the same as what he does - look at the device for no more than 10 minutes, and then swap entire motherboard or replace customer with a new device.Therefore his business model is the only one viable, and used by HP, Canon, Asus, Gigabyte, etc etc. There are some exceptions: data recovery, specialised equipment for rich industries, contract repairs with fixed yearly/monthy fees with many big clients (but is that really still a repair service, or more maintanance?).
@@DIYRepairHour I'm not sure what to say except I completely agree with you. It's wrong to take money without even trying, but at the same time the "no fix no fee" model makes it so that honest shops might not even take the harder jobs to begin with, probably thinking that those harder jobs might be a waste of time. I think there should be a middle ground where the shop worker commits at least 20 minutes actually diagnosing a card before making the decision to either continue or to turn a no fix result. From there they should be on good grounds to decide whether their model will be a "no fix no fee" or a "repair attempt fee" one.
The iPhone motherboar with conectors was a joke against the technician tho, some people just need to be taught not to act like this. I work in a repair center for home appliances like espresso machines, cloth irons etc and it's quite often that customers bring in a device which doesn't work at all and has everything damaged for a «general check-up», like do they think the technician is stupid?
@@formbi yes you are right, but that's making an argument from exceptions, not the rule. 9 of 10 times you are just helping someone that has genuine problem. I would say it's more like 98 out of a 100, at least that's my experience. So IMO you are not wrong, just a bit pessimistic :)
I do like you're work ethic, It is nice to see you spend the time trying to find a fix. I feel the same with spending that extra time for data recovery, there has to be a balance between money and landfills too. Not to mention people wont want to keep sending and paying for items to be sent off and fixed.
What you described is with northridge is exactly the problems I had when I had my own store/shop. The cost to repair devices is high, margins are low and difficult problems are not worth the effort for a small profit compared to getting a bunch of other jobs done. It's a deeper issue of the industry in general imho. Overseas undercutting repair costs, often new rivals the price of repair (i.e. repair for only 50% cheaper, might as well buy new again) etc. We closed at the start of 2020 just because it wasnt profitable enough for the effort it took. I miss break/fix a lot, but there's just no money in it. We were around for 10 years before we closed. Sure we could have kept going, but it was just tiring.
Very good I already knew why you were razzing NF it's OK he's sort of a gateway to repair videos later you realize more can be done. I have learned a lot from you, thank you.
He can do the gravy jobs he doesn't even waste time at his level with disassembly and reassembly which allows him to focus only on repairs. He has a very high overhead and must crank out the volume of repairs his business model is volume and does a great job at diagnosis and repair. As a tech I watch all I can and follow you both, because of your expertise thanks for posting what you do.
I ran a large for my area computer repair shop for over 20 years. We had a $19 Evaluation Fee, this was paid in advance, and covered the cost of intaking the system (my front end help entering the computer into the system, plus we tested ever power supply, every memory, visually inspected caps, etc before any repair). This $19 fee prevented people from dumpster diving and bringing us stuff that was unfixable and if they abandoned the system we got paid something at least. Then after the eval, we'd call the customer with estimate, most of the time it was $65 or $95 depending on complexity (keep in mind this was back in the 90s and 2000s, not today) plus parts. But we had a no fix, no additional fee (more than the $19). Things that were more time intensive we'd bill $114 per hour to work on. We would solder caps, dc power jacks, etc. But we did not do board level repairs, for our volume, it made more sense to swap boards at that point. - - I find fault that Alex only picks "the easy ones", charges a high price and the others he doesn't yet have the knowledge on how to fix, still penalizes the customer by charging a bunch. I don't have a problem charging a $100 for a 5 min job if it's garnered from hours/days of troubleshooting in the past and it's a $1200 card... but just seems he love sticking the most he can to every customer.
job well done i lov it how you are willing to take that extra time to try to get it a fix in my book if this was my card and you got it working i would defo give you some extra dollor for that extra time and pushing though to get a fix just wish we had ppl like u and alex in the uk its so hard to find ppl here to do this well done mate
Great to watch a master craftsman at work 😀👍 PS - I’m sure you know but if you want to remagnetise a screwdriver (normal steel one) just stroke it a few times in the same direction with strong magnet 🧲. If you overdo it and all your tools stick together just heat them up a bit and the effect goes fairly easily.
Aside from your insight on business models, which is admirable, I appreciate your efforts to include how to properly size, fit and pair thermal pads, and heatsink - which is critical to the GPU ability to sustain 3D performance under load. This is especially important where the ambient temperatures are a variable depending on use environment.
Hi Northwest Repair! There may be a business model where you only service higher-end cards that have gone through a generalist repair service. Call it a 2nd chance specialist repair. It might take a partnership and way for them to recommend your service, then ship it straight to you. Might work best if both repair services sit under the same roof. So the generalist takes an hour or two to fix, and only passes it off to you if the customer pays an additional specialist repair AND the card looks like it's expensive enough to warrant and likely to be repairable. In any case. Thanks for the great content!
I appreciate your work and how well or will do well for the GPU you're repairing. you did my GPU a service not another repair shop would do or super charge me for, then a warranty. So I thank you sir I have been gaming well with my super hot AMD GPU 😂 might need a next gen fixer upper from you lol
18:00 A friend of mine is really bad about general electronic :) But he learned how to fix phones, and is very good at it. Much more than I could, even if electronic has been my job in the past.
I remember you stating in one of your videos that you were adjusting your pricing to stem the flow of cards coming to you. His philosophy is that he wants to grow his business. If he spends days on each device then customers will just go elsewhere and his business will never grow, and could potentially die off. That isn't a sustainable business model, so he adopts what every successful repair business that I've worked with over the last 22 years, adopts. work as fast and as hard as you can so you can grow your business. I respect your take on things and in an ideal world your way would be best, but, in the world we live in where things are growing in cost with no end in sight, we must, reluctantly, adopt Alex's business model to survive. I love both of you guys. You're both brilliant and hard-working!
For gpu fixes i find your the best and for overall awsome teachings i love Sorin's videos. Thanks for the videos i love to learn and gpu's are above my head but i am learning everyday a little bit :D
don't be jealous of alex, you guys are in totally different leagues, you care about the customer and have pride in your work, alex just cares about his business model. yeah i know he is in a very high rent district with a lot of overhead but that isn't the customers fault, the problem is the false image he portrays, at no time does he ever say that he won't fix a card if it takes to long, when he declares on video that an item is a no fix he represents it as if the item's failure is catastrophic and unfixable or not worth fixing not that it's just not worth his time to fix it. while is do watch alex's videos for the knowledge, i would never send anything to him to be fixed, you i would, in fact I would do whatever i could to support you just because it is obvious you care.......
"not him personally, it's just his business model. He can't afford it. It's not his fault". That's definitely part of him. That's his choice. Those are all his choices.
41:21 I also preffer when the material of my test leads are not grippy like a rubber band. It usually catches on everything of which I am not working. I am glad i am not alone, lol!
i have a 2080ti FE but with Samsung memory, hope it lasts more than the micron ones. The design is hard to work on as a technician and they tend to be a bit hotter than the 3rd party ones, especially the big hotspot delta by design but the way they look is just so clean and elegant imo. Very good job on that fix !!!
re: screwdrivers and magnetism; sharp impacts to the tips against metals (usually ferrous) can cause it to lose the magnetic property over time, or immediately if the impact is hard enough. its why they actually sell magnetiziers for regular shop purposes.
I ran a mobile mechanics business on the no fix no fee model and found that it made me a far better diagnostics technician than any main dealer, because you find that you'll invest the time into learning. The NRF model I find repulsive, I have watched many of his videos and I do find him arrogant, he's explained why he condemns no fixes, but to my mind quite often in his vids he just pulls the card out and goes no fix, not even testing a single thing, that is why I far prefer your model and persistence, which is like mine, it can be fixed but at what cost.
About a month ago my 2080ti (MSI ventus) decided to die aswell. Well, not completely die, more of a "one leg in the grave" thing. The card works... as long as the VRAM usage is below 4GB. Tiny bit before that 4 is where it very consistently crashes (screen goes black) and just shuts down almost everything running on the PC. Was looking to get a new card anyway, so the timing could have been worse, but it was quite annoying regardless. Yay for expensive electronics longevity!
Your time is worth something. Consider the time you spent learning and perfecting your skills and your toolset, both mental and actual tools. I believe you deserve to be paid to definitively determine a core is terminally broken. I suggest setting a modest charge to evaluate the "job", and then contact the owner with what you think it will require to fix it. Dead cores or unrepairable damage is unfortunate, but nonetheless, I feel you should at least be paid for an "evaluation fee", as long as the damage is not caused by you... What People are saying about you starting a Paypal or even patreon is a good idea. Your content is excellent. I have learned a lot watching your videos, and may even try and fix my own graphics card next time one fails on me, because of your videos, the knowledge and tools you show/explain and actually use, as well as how to use most of them. Keep going, Sir!
worderful words and woderful comparison. I really liked your initial confrontation speech between you and alex. there are infinite possibility of working method. everyone can become what they think best for themselves
I like your videos, and Alex from Northridge. Seeing the previous video i think what the heck, he is a specialist and got too many queue more than he can fix. So makes sense to charge for an attempt fee. But you are a GPU specialist, i saw a lot of your specialized technique for GPU, tools, soft. You're amazingly good, no need tantalizing him for he is a generalist. You're in a good niche, maybe much more needed 2 yrs ago when the GPU prices went crazy, but being said. You are good at what you did Be a good guy no need to troll others. Maybe try some motherboard repairs, preferably the expensive one when they are worth the time and money.
When I had my store fronts open I would charge a minimal "estimate" fee plus applicable taxes. If you went ahead with the work the "estimate" fee gets credited from the labor. I also had a sign "my hourly rates" $40.00/hr, $80.00/hr if you watch and $160/hour if you tried first and couldn't.
My good man, I saw that NorthrigeFix guy trying to fix laptops and as an qualified repair engineer I can tell he IS not competent as it's possible. He literally ruins customers stuff making things even worse than they were before his crooked hands reached 'em and after that he CHARGES those poor fellows who had the imprudence to trust him. Yes, it's nothing but a moneygrab and we both know that, but I'm not a youtuber and don't have to be nice, discreet and overpolite towards a competitor. At the same time I can clearly see you being a real engineer, true professional with a constructive approach who's potentially capable to solve a problem of any complexity. And comparing you both what should I think about Ali with his "business model" which doesn't give an F about customer's interests? Great respect to you, man, а тому рукожопому разводиле желаю утонуть в клиентских исках.
2:11 launching nervously my GPUz of gigabyte 2060 6GB TU104 (off 2080) version... HYNIX GDDR6 & naked no heatsinks yet on! Murphys Jackpot. can you add 2GB to a tu104 2060 gb and flash ie 2080 bios or RTX Quadro 4000 or is this a tricky vram upgrade with extra straps, and other parts?
the problem with Northridge Fix is the state they operate from everything is over inflated, and taxes are way too high. They have to operate the way they do to survive. I hope someday they move to a state where the cost to operate is not so insanely outrageous .Enjoy your videos, you are awesome at what you do!😄
My Greek cousin flew in to see the family. The flight was long, there were screaming children on board. The food was poor quality and the drinks cooler broke down so everything was warm. When he finally landed he was in a terrible state..................It was California.
@@timmienorrieDamn that english... "When he finally landed he was in terrible state" Being in terrible state can mean 2 things and yours would've not been very clear if you hadn't wrote "It was California" after. Also with translation on my language plane is technically a "he", so i also had a bit of a temporary crisis trying to understand if it was plane in terrible state, man in terrible state, plane in California or man in California. 4 different translations from single sentence... 2 of them technically incorrect though. I needed to slowly reread sentence to grasp it's meaning.
The problem with NorthridgeFix is what they do is a typical "monkey see, monkey do" engineering. And what's even worse this problem with their technical approach always ends up becoming their customers problem, which I think is not fair. I believe Louis Rossman would agree with me here.
If you are going to the specialist route, you should invest into specialist tools. An example: That you test memory using the memory diagram at 19:26 . Make a something an adapter that matches the balls and connect it with arduino or raspberry pi and do an automatic tester instead of probing the pads.
I think honestly is as important as skills in this business. I watched a lot of Alex's videos to learn basic stuff, but then i started realizing that he lacks honestly, what you said about not digging into the repairs, selling chinese crap plus 40% price and other things, i dropped my subscription. I understand his business model, but like you said, i don't share it. I live in Spain, and (maybe I'm mistaken) this kind of businesses have to show their success rates publicly. And i think it's the only way to show how honest your business are
Yeah, and his model incentivizes him to actually dont spend much time fixing anything, but still accept it even if it sounds by the description that it wouldn't be fixable, also now his turnaround time is months, which means that a lot of people would be paying for expedited service too, on top on the repair attempt, which would get into the 100$+ alone, before he even touches anything, so if its something easy like a capacitor that he can charge the full price fine, if not "no fix" and still gets payed. He says he has like 6 months backlog or more on GPUs, and he still keeps accepting them for some reason, just so he doesnt miss on the work that he admits he don't even have the time to do, morals i guess.
24:00 Tony, I saw you scraping the surface of the VRAM pads with the needle of the flux syringe obviously trying to apply flux thoroughly and evenly and I was wondering if a flux pen would be a more appropriate tool for this job and why you don't use one.
Like you said your getting work and people that see good work will pay for it when they really need it my self i would pay more than the card cost to get MY card i already paid for fixed or give you a couple 100$ extra for your time just because if all your charging is 150$ plus cost and it takes you 3 days to do it you really didnt make much on the per hour side of things
I just wanted to say I appreciate you brother. I actually found your channel originally from his channel and watched you for awhile (unsubscribed originally sorry😅) But then one day I needed a repair and you were the first person I thought of. You explained the process well and put my expectations in line and ultimately were able to fix my card and get it back to me faster than was quoted. I would do business with you again although hopefully I wont need to. 😂
Great, I just got a RTX 2080ti, I hope it doesn't have the bad ram on it. But if it does. I will send it to this guy for sure. He is doing things exactly like it needs to be done. As I have done in the past. I can't really fault him for methods , and good customer service/experience does pay back in the long run.
Hello sir, I absolutely appreciate your integrity in the profession you do! We need more people like you helping others and explain why you do the things you do.
Brother, don't be jealous of Alex. You make great videos. When I was having issues with my 2080 Ti, I researched who could possibly fix it. I dIdnt find anyone locally in the Phoenix area. Then I found you on UA-cam. Also saw Alex's UA-cam page. I choose you after i saw some of your video's. And when I sent you my GPU, you did your thing and didn't make shit up or take advantage. And you had a reasonable price. I recommended you to sevral people I know who had GPU issues. But maybe you should charge a small fee if you can't repair card for whatever reason. Something for your time.
You guys have taught me so much. Ive dabbled in electronics my whole life. Im only now starting to apply things CoD3r , north ridge Alex, toltecmerc, northwest
"Not good enough, damnit! Not good enough!" "Number 1, have Mr. Crusher focus the photon blaster transphasic torpedo thingies at Micron and their Borg."
I used to watch a lot of alex's videos and you are right he only does quick fixes now for graphics cards and ps5's just finds the short and replaces a cap 5min job. He used to do a lot more and he is very capable but as you say it doesn't fit his business model.
You do the work to the benefit of the people sending it in / saving items, He workes for the Money. Thats the difference and yeah I myself fixed and washed broken video game consoles which took like 3 hours and then I made a profit of 20€ for it
Thanks for adding clarity on another UA-camr content: I’ve only watched one video there on which he got sued for charging a customer for “expedite” service and no fix after a very long wait time. Coincidence?
Interesting stuff! The advice you give is very unselfish! Your main business model is to be honest, yes it's unprofitable but at least you can face the man in the mirror! I like to repair all my stuff myself, it's a bad habit, I should have taken the advice of my father :" generalist have a little foothold in this world, don't be that guy", and I regret it, but it's just who I am!
IMHO if you fix an item in x hours, you should charge "x hours of work" (plus consumables) for each item. Sure, someone might choose to only accept fixing easily fixable items, and by "easily fixable" it means "it takes little time", but it is unfair to charge "per item". In the end, if customers find out some repair shop is charging them 50 or 100 for replacing one electrolytic (example of some trivial repair), and realize what is that repair shop doing, they will get a really bad rep.
Indeed, business is business. However, when customers come to a repair shop seeking help, only to be met with a bill and a statement that their issue isn't worth the shop's time, it might seem reasonable from the shop's perspective, but from the customer's viewpoint, it's simply disheartening to see all their hopes dashed.
Not only that, but it's just plain disrespectful. This is honestly not for those in it for the money unless you want to be hated 😂, more of a passionate trade than lucrative. There's a reason why E-waste is so abundant.
Man ill admit finishing this video after knowing what you are charging is a bit heart breaking. At keast do this, if you are going to continue this biz model double your price, its still well worth it to most customers and at least then when you have a good day it might well average out the bad days and offer this biz an averaged income to begin growing off of.
I would like to know how you do so that the spheres do not stick to the stencil... I can't get them all to remain in the chipset and it's a headache. so i have to use paste tin
This dude deserves the world. He is way undervalueing himself with the time he spends. I hope he can keep doing work like this a make mlney from the videos.
Customer send their broken devices to northridge hoping theirs will be next that showing on that famous channel. Of course they tolerated the no fix attempted repair fee plus the expedient fee
Hi! What about passively cooled Kepler, Maxwerll Turing, Ada accelerator cards? Have you ever got some to fix in your career? Or some other accelerator FPGAs ?
I mean at some point you should start making money on the back end through your videos. That should cushion your pay towards doing those crazy repairs that take so much work that we LOVE to watch you do!
what would happen if you put 8 gigabit gddr5 modules on a card configured for 4 gigabit ones? pinout is the same and memory layout just have one extra adress bit so chinese scamer like to put smallest chips in place of the bigger ones and card would work untill framebuffer overflow actual capacity, while bios still report 4 times the size but if you do the oposite card should technically work just not see half of the chip size, or would it fail to boot? there were rx 470's that could be 4gb 470 or 8gb 580 depending on a bios without changing anything, and some reviewer samples of 580's did just that dual bios and 4/8gb switch i was wondering for a while how much can you push it
Please listen to me. I think you haven't found your true form yet... You sir have level 10 teaching skill. You need to open a school for this. Everyone needs and wants the skillz to fix thier GPU that might not be worth it for one man alone to fix it. Teach them all to fix. You can open the gates and share your vast library of knowledge. I had the idea of asking you to mod 3070 cards with 2 gb memory chips. Maybe that would be a bad idea to try to ask you to take on this idea but maybe you can consult others in the industry to make this a specialized service But you sire are a good wizard when it comss to gpu repairs. Thank you for doing what you do
Quality repairs over quantity - I respect that.
You're a good person that's why it's unacceptable to you, to run you're business like other businesses do. I'd be doing it the same as you, I'd feel bad if I sent something back as a no fix and STILL taken someone's money for not fixing something!
Yeah, the problem with NF is that he became progressively self absorbed through the years, all his rants he goes on just sound like someone who doesn't really take any constructive criticism because he always takes the stance of knowing best.
His videos recently are all mostly infomercials about his online store, where he constantly advertises everything he sells which is fine, until he starts saying to not buy the same things from amazon or ebay because they are "fake", when they are the same items but without his logo or his markup on them, he just dropships stuff from China that is also mass produced and acts like its manufactured to his specification when its just rebranding.
I do that now to keep people from sending me junk.
I live about 30 miles north of Northridge Fix. I know for a fact that if I needed repair for any of my GPUs, there would be no hesitation for me to send my business your way. Anything else I would probably trust Alex to do the repair. Your point about specialty work rings true, at least to me.
While northridge fix has his reasons. I am more in line with your philosophy in term of fixing. I will fix things until there is no more possibilities to fix it. It is just the right thing to do for me. To be able to fix things people deemed unsalvageable gives me joy.
As someone who had seen northridge fix first, I really wasn't a huge fan as soon as I seen your videos I immediately enjoyed your videos much more for the fact u went in further depth, I enjoy the music and ballzday even
Northbridge fix seems to be way more careless while soldering, kinda sloppy work a lot of times, it bugs me, but he seems to get the job done a lot.
@@PineyJustice yeah by no means was i bad mouthing the man but tony is a mad wizard gpu necromancer lmfao.
@@mrhappy8966 I'm talking about taking pride in every single solder joint, not just sticking things together good enough to work. Diagnosing what to replace is a whole different matter, he seems pretty good at that at least.
Hey Tony ... interesting hearing your history. I see similarities with Louis (Rossmann), I'm sure you know his channel. He's obviously moving in different directions lately, but his ethics and biz model are certainly in the same view as you. He's grown it (partially from being in the biggest metropolis in the US), has been at it for about 15 years and was able to find/train other techs. I find you inspiring (not to mention entertaining 😂) and very informative. There's a place for you and we're all thankful for you sharing your obvious knowledge, more on a level of Kris Fix, rather then Northridge (and I enjoy Alex as well). Keep it up, and we'll all keep coming back!!
I think you have one of the most entertainment repair channels on YT xD
In terms of actually know-how, I watch your videos. I watch each and every one of them, because I know there's a very good chance I'll learn something.
Alex is my go-to when I want some funny and over the top remarks ("better than factory", "amazing anti glare light" and so on). There's some soldering skills to be learned there, for sure, but when it comes to in depth diagnosis, you're the go-to.
you forgot about the 7th dimension haha
We’re a lot alike. I’m in it for the fix and the knowledge. I worked for a company that only gave 1 hr to diagnose, repair, assemble and do paperwork. Needless to say, there was no time to explore into deep troubleshooting. And the only things that you can fix were things you’ve fixed before.
9:54 "(...) he will send back with no fix, but with a fix attempt fee".
I watch his videos and the guy is good, but I'm sure what I quoted above is true. I remember in one of his videos he simply looked at a board and decided not to work on it because it was dirty or something. And he explained at some point that he would send items like those back to the customers with a no fix fee because if he doesn't do that there would be lots of other devices coming in with prior repair attempts that the customers themselves messed up, effectively consuming his time on what could've been a simple repair. But man, charging for just looking at a board seems kind of wrong.
I also remember another video where he quoted a repair price: 160 USD for fixing a used Nintendo Switch worth 150 USD. We roasted the guy on that and his response was that it was not about the console but rather about the information on it. I think this was in a video where he showed a customer running off with her console after paying only half of that. He told her the price only after the repair was done and effectively held the console hostage, to then sell it to the customer herself for 160.
So yeah, I got the joke from your previous video.
There IS a problem with how he do not really spend time on devices. He has a YT channel where he brags about his soldering skills. People see that and trusts that when he says is no fix this device is not fixable, but in reality it probably is. But 1st: they send this to someone that is very confident with his skills, and 2nd: theypaid him lots of money already for no fix, and 3rd: he can't say to customer "sorry its probaby fixable but not worth my time"! So my guess is people won't try to send it for a REAL repair.
REAL repair is not something that you will made good money from, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. You will make SOME money, not much though. Certainly enough for a living, not a very rich living. That is why repair centers do the same as what he does - look at the device for no more than 10 minutes, and then swap entire motherboard or replace customer with a new device.Therefore his business model is the only one viable, and used by HP, Canon, Asus, Gigabyte, etc etc.
There are some exceptions: data recovery, specialised equipment for rich industries, contract repairs with fixed yearly/monthy fees with many big clients (but is that really still a repair service, or more maintanance?).
@@DIYRepairHour I'm not sure what to say except I completely agree with you. It's wrong to take money without even trying, but at the same time the "no fix no fee" model makes it so that honest shops might not even take the harder jobs to begin with, probably thinking that those harder jobs might be a waste of time.
I think there should be a middle ground where the shop worker commits at least 20 minutes actually diagnosing a card before making the decision to either continue or to turn a no fix result. From there they should be on good grounds to decide whether their model will be a "no fix no fee" or a "repair attempt fee" one.
The iPhone motherboar with conectors was a joke against the technician tho, some people just need to be taught not to act like this. I work in a repair center for home appliances like espresso machines, cloth irons etc and it's quite often that customers bring in a device which doesn't work at all and has everything damaged for a «general check-up», like do they think the technician is stupid?
@@formbi yes you are right, but that's making an argument from exceptions, not the rule. 9 of 10 times you are just helping someone that has genuine problem. I would say it's more like 98 out of a 100, at least that's my experience.
So IMO you are not wrong, just a bit pessimistic :)
@@DIYRepairHour I mean, usually customers act ok and get a normal repair, but some aren't nice at all
I do like you're work ethic, It is nice to see you spend the time trying to find a fix. I feel the same with spending that extra time for data recovery, there has to be a balance between money and landfills too. Not to mention people wont want to keep sending and paying for items to be sent off and fixed.
What you described is with northridge is exactly the problems I had when I had my own store/shop. The cost to repair devices is high, margins are low and difficult problems are not worth the effort for a small profit compared to getting a bunch of other jobs done. It's a deeper issue of the industry in general imho. Overseas undercutting repair costs, often new rivals the price of repair (i.e. repair for only 50% cheaper, might as well buy new again) etc. We closed at the start of 2020 just because it wasnt profitable enough for the effort it took. I miss break/fix a lot, but there's just no money in it. We were around for 10 years before we closed. Sure we could have kept going, but it was just tiring.
That's sad.
That's why I am doing UA-cam on top of it. It gives me little extra income.
Very good I already knew why you were razzing NF it's OK he's sort of a gateway to repair videos later you realize more can be done. I have learned a lot from you, thank you.
He can do the gravy jobs he doesn't even waste time at his level with disassembly and reassembly which allows him to focus only on repairs.
He has a very high overhead and must crank out the volume of repairs his business model is volume and does a great job at diagnosis and repair.
As a tech I watch all I can and follow you both, because of your expertise thanks for posting what you do.
I ran a large for my area computer repair shop for over 20 years. We had a $19 Evaluation Fee, this was paid in advance, and covered the cost of intaking the system (my front end help entering the computer into the system, plus we tested ever power supply, every memory, visually inspected caps, etc before any repair). This $19 fee prevented people from dumpster diving and bringing us stuff that was unfixable and if they abandoned the system we got paid something at least. Then after the eval, we'd call the customer with estimate, most of the time it was $65 or $95 depending on complexity (keep in mind this was back in the 90s and 2000s, not today) plus parts. But we had a no fix, no additional fee (more than the $19). Things that were more time intensive we'd bill $114 per hour to work on. We would solder caps, dc power jacks, etc. But we did not do board level repairs, for our volume, it made more sense to swap boards at that point. - - I find fault that Alex only picks "the easy ones", charges a high price and the others he doesn't yet have the knowledge on how to fix, still penalizes the customer by charging a bunch. I don't have a problem charging a $100 for a 5 min job if it's garnered from hours/days of troubleshooting in the past and it's a $1200 card... but just seems he love sticking the most he can to every customer.
You one of the best graphic card repair and honest repair shoo I have every seen since Wizard shoo down Atlanta GA. Keep up the good work.
You business model is great, maybe not for money making, but it is great for you reputation. I'm glad you chose this path.
job well done i lov it how you are willing to take that extra time to try to get it a fix in my book if this was my card and you got it working i would defo give you some extra dollor for that extra time and pushing though to get a fix just wish we had ppl like u and alex in the uk its so hard to find ppl here to do this
well done mate
Great to watch a master craftsman at work 😀👍
PS - I’m sure you know but if you want to remagnetise a screwdriver (normal steel one) just stroke it a few times in the same direction with strong magnet 🧲. If you overdo it and all your tools stick together just heat them up a bit and the effect goes fairly easily.
Aside from your insight on business models, which is admirable, I appreciate your efforts to include how to properly size, fit and pair thermal pads, and heatsink - which is critical to the GPU ability to sustain 3D performance under load. This is especially important where the ambient temperatures are a variable depending on use environment.
Use to repair all day electronic equipment and i with you, it’s a skill, you are really good.
Hi Northwest Repair!
There may be a business model where you only service higher-end cards that have gone through a generalist repair service. Call it a 2nd chance specialist repair.
It might take a partnership and way for them to recommend your service, then ship it straight to you. Might work best if both repair services sit under the same roof.
So the generalist takes an hour or two to fix, and only passes it off to you if the customer pays an additional specialist repair AND the card looks like it's expensive enough to warrant and likely to be repairable.
In any case. Thanks for the great content!
Just saw you already came to the same conclusion at 1:09:19!
I appreciate your work and how well or will do well for the GPU you're repairing. you did my GPU a service not another repair shop would do or super charge me for, then a warranty. So I thank you sir I have been gaming well with my super hot AMD GPU 😂 might need a next gen fixer upper from you lol
Quality repair instead of quantity. I apreciate more !
18:00 A friend of mine is really bad about general electronic :)
But he learned how to fix phones, and is very good at it.
Much more than I could, even if electronic has been my job in the past.
I remember you stating in one of your videos that you were adjusting your pricing to stem the flow of cards coming to you. His philosophy is that he wants to grow his business. If he spends days on each device then customers will just go elsewhere and his business will never grow, and could potentially die off. That isn't a sustainable business model, so he adopts what every successful repair business that I've worked with over the last 22 years, adopts. work as fast and as hard as you can so you can grow your business. I respect your take on things and in an ideal world your way would be best, but, in the world we live in where things are growing in cost with no end in sight, we must, reluctantly, adopt Alex's business model to survive. I love both of you guys. You're both brilliant and hard-working!
For gpu fixes i find your the best and for overall awsome teachings i love Sorin's videos. Thanks for the videos i love to learn and gpu's are above my head but i am learning everyday a little bit :D
don't be jealous of alex, you guys are in totally different leagues, you care about the customer and have pride in your work, alex just cares about his business model. yeah i know he is in a very high rent district with a lot of overhead but that isn't the customers fault, the problem is the false image he portrays, at no time does he ever say that he won't fix a card if it takes to long, when he declares on video that an item is a no fix he represents it as if the item's failure is catastrophic and unfixable or not worth fixing not that it's just not worth his time to fix it. while is do watch alex's videos for the knowledge, i would never send anything to him to be fixed, you i would, in fact I would do whatever i could to support you just because it is obvious you care.......
"not him personally, it's just his business model. He can't afford it. It's not his fault".
That's definitely part of him. That's his choice. Those are all his choices.
What is that load of cope? Lol
41:21 I also preffer when the material of my test leads are not grippy like a rubber band. It usually catches on everything of which I am not working. I am glad i am not alone, lol!
i have a 2080ti FE but with Samsung memory, hope it lasts more than the micron ones. The design is hard to work on as a technician and they tend to be a bit hotter than the 3rd party ones, especially the big hotspot delta by design but the way they look is just so clean and elegant imo. Very good job on that fix !!!
re: screwdrivers and magnetism; sharp impacts to the tips against metals (usually ferrous) can cause it to lose the magnetic property over time, or immediately if the impact is hard enough. its why they actually sell magnetiziers for regular shop purposes.
I ran a mobile mechanics business on the no fix no fee model and found that it made me a far better diagnostics technician than any main dealer, because you find that you'll invest the time into learning. The NRF model I find repulsive, I have watched many of his videos and I do find him arrogant, he's explained why he condemns no fixes, but to my mind quite often in his vids he just pulls the card out and goes no fix, not even testing a single thing, that is why I far prefer your model and persistence, which is like mine, it can be fixed but at what cost.
About a month ago my 2080ti (MSI ventus) decided to die aswell. Well, not completely die, more of a "one leg in the grave" thing. The card works... as long as the VRAM usage is below 4GB. Tiny bit before that 4 is where it very consistently crashes (screen goes black) and just shuts down almost everything running on the PC.
Was looking to get a new card anyway, so the timing could have been worse, but it was quite annoying regardless. Yay for expensive electronics longevity!
Your time is worth something. Consider the time you spent learning and perfecting your skills and your toolset, both mental and actual tools. I believe you deserve to be paid to definitively determine a core is terminally broken. I suggest setting a modest charge to evaluate the "job", and then contact the owner with what you think it will require to fix it. Dead cores or unrepairable damage is unfortunate, but nonetheless, I feel you should at least be paid for an "evaluation fee", as long as the damage is not caused by you...
What People are saying about you starting a Paypal or even patreon is a good idea. Your content is excellent. I have learned a lot watching your videos, and may even try and fix my own graphics card next time one fails on me, because of your videos, the knowledge and tools you show/explain and actually use, as well as how to use most of them.
Keep going, Sir!
worderful words and woderful comparison. I really liked your initial confrontation speech between you and alex. there are infinite possibility of working method. everyone can become what they think best for themselves
You had me checking my GPU-Z for my used GPU's vram and fortunately, it's samsung chips in there 😊
The way Alex can get so excited when he fixes something sometimes makes me think that it’s a rare occurrence.
I like your videos, and Alex from Northridge. Seeing the previous video i think what the heck, he is a specialist and got too many queue more than he can fix. So makes sense to charge for an attempt fee.
But you are a GPU specialist, i saw a lot of your specialized technique for GPU, tools, soft. You're amazingly good, no need tantalizing him for he is a generalist.
You're in a good niche, maybe much more needed 2 yrs ago when the GPU prices went crazy, but being said. You are good at what you did
Be a good guy no need to troll others.
Maybe try some motherboard repairs, preferably the expensive one when they are worth the time and money.
More videos like this! Also, please, don't stop with the jokes.
When I had my store fronts open I would charge a minimal "estimate" fee plus applicable taxes. If you went ahead with the work the "estimate" fee gets credited from the labor. I also had a sign "my hourly rates" $40.00/hr, $80.00/hr if you watch and $160/hour if you tried first and couldn't.
Your wisdom on how to find the.most appropriate repair professional was very much appreciated!
You can magnetize your screwdrivers if you want with a magnetize demagnetize tool.
Great work by the way. Greetings from Greece!
My good man, I saw that NorthrigeFix guy trying to fix laptops and as an qualified repair engineer I can tell he IS not competent as it's possible. He literally ruins customers stuff making things even worse than they were before his crooked hands reached 'em and after that he CHARGES those poor fellows who had the imprudence to trust him. Yes, it's nothing but a moneygrab and we both know that, but I'm not a youtuber and don't have to be nice, discreet and overpolite towards a competitor.
At the same time I can clearly see you being a real engineer, true professional with a constructive approach who's potentially capable to solve a problem of any complexity. And comparing you both what should I think about Ali with his "business model" which doesn't give an F about customer's interests? Great respect to you, man, а тому рукожопому разводиле желаю утонуть в клиентских исках.
2:11 launching nervously my GPUz of gigabyte 2060 6GB TU104 (off 2080) version... HYNIX GDDR6 & naked no heatsinks yet on! Murphys Jackpot. can you add 2GB to a tu104 2060 gb and flash ie 2080 bios or RTX Quadro 4000 or is this a tricky vram upgrade with extra straps, and other parts?
the problem with Northridge Fix is the state they operate from everything is over inflated, and taxes are way too high. They have to operate the way they do to survive.
I hope someday they move to a state where the cost to operate is not so insanely outrageous .Enjoy your videos, you are awesome at what you do!😄
My Greek cousin flew in to see the family. The flight was long, there were screaming children on board. The food was poor quality and the drinks cooler broke down so everything was warm. When he finally landed he was in a terrible state..................It was California.
@@timmienorrieDamn that english...
"When he finally landed he was in terrible state"
Being in terrible state can mean 2 things and yours would've not been very clear if you hadn't wrote "It was California" after.
Also with translation on my language plane is technically a "he", so i also had a bit of a temporary crisis trying to understand if it was plane in terrible state, man in terrible state, plane in California or man in California.
4 different translations from single sentence... 2 of them technically incorrect though. I needed to slowly reread sentence to grasp it's meaning.
@@DimkaTsv the double meaning was the joke itself (more precisely it's called a pun)
@@DimkaTsv Idiomatic English is very hard to grasp. Even for native speakers at times. 😃
The problem with NorthridgeFix is what they do is a typical "monkey see, monkey do" engineering. And what's even worse this problem with their technical approach always ends up becoming their customers problem, which I think is not fair. I believe Louis Rossman would agree with me here.
Best Content around👍
If you are going to the specialist route, you should invest into specialist tools. An example: That you test memory using the memory diagram at 19:26 . Make a something an adapter that matches the balls and connect it with arduino or raspberry pi and do an automatic tester instead of probing the pads.
I think honestly is as important as skills in this business. I watched a lot of Alex's videos to learn basic stuff, but then i started realizing that he lacks honestly, what you said about not digging into the repairs, selling chinese crap plus 40% price and other things, i dropped my subscription. I understand his business model, but like you said, i don't share it.
I live in Spain, and (maybe I'm mistaken) this kind of businesses have to show their success rates publicly. And i think it's the only way to show how honest your business are
Yeah, and his model incentivizes him to actually dont spend much time fixing anything, but still accept it even if it sounds by the description that it wouldn't be fixable, also now his turnaround time is months, which means that a lot of people would be paying for expedited service too, on top on the repair attempt, which would get into the 100$+ alone, before he even touches anything, so if its something easy like a capacitor that he can charge the full price fine, if not "no fix" and still gets payed. He says he has like 6 months backlog or more on GPUs, and he still keeps accepting them for some reason, just so he doesnt miss on the work that he admits he don't even have the time to do, morals i guess.
24:00 Tony, I saw you scraping the surface of the VRAM pads with the needle of the flux syringe obviously trying to apply flux thoroughly and evenly and I was wondering if a flux pen would be a more appropriate tool for this job and why you don't use one.
Probes are really important and also need to be sharp. If the tip is dull you sometimes don't get a signal.
Like you said your getting work and people that see good work will pay for it when they really need it my self i would pay more than the card cost to get MY card i already paid for fixed or give you a couple 100$ extra for your time just because if all your charging is 150$ plus cost and it takes you 3 days to do it you really didnt make much on the per hour side of things
I just wanted to say I appreciate you brother. I actually found your channel originally from his channel and watched you for awhile (unsubscribed originally sorry😅) But then one day I needed a repair and you were the first person I thought of. You explained the process well and put my expectations in line and ultimately were able to fix my card and get it back to me faster than was quoted. I would do business with you again although hopefully I wont need to. 😂
Great, I just got a RTX 2080ti, I hope it doesn't have the bad ram on it. But if it does. I will send it to this guy for sure. He is doing things exactly like it needs to be done. As I have done in the past. I can't really fault him for methods , and good customer service/experience does pay back in the long run.
Hello sir,
I absolutely appreciate your integrity in the profession you do! We need more people like you helping others and explain why you do the things you do.
Brother, don't be jealous of Alex. You make great videos. When I was having issues with my 2080 Ti, I researched who could possibly fix it. I dIdnt find anyone locally in the Phoenix area. Then I found you on UA-cam. Also saw Alex's UA-cam page. I choose you after i saw some of your video's. And when I sent you my GPU, you did your thing and didn't make shit up or take advantage. And you had a reasonable price. I recommended you to sevral people I know who had GPU issues.
But maybe you should charge a small fee if you can't repair card for whatever reason. Something for your time.
He isn't jelous lol man you people are delusional
You guys have taught me so much. Ive dabbled in electronics my whole life. Im only now starting to apply things
CoD3r , north ridge Alex, toltecmerc, northwest
"Not good enough, damnit! Not good enough!" "Number 1, have Mr. Crusher focus the photon blaster transphasic torpedo thingies at Micron and their Borg."
You are too humble! Your knowledge and skill are rare indeed!
Love your work. I was thinking and would it be possible to offer a free 'quick check' but charge for a more in-depth check?
free quick check: Let me look at it. Hmm........ It looks fine to me
Anything else: can take hours.
I used to watch a lot of alex's videos and you are right he only does quick fixes now for graphics cards and ps5's just finds the short and replaces a cap 5min job. He used to do a lot more and he is very capable but as you say it doesn't fit his business model.
It seems you do this more as a hobby rather than a business, but if you make a profit then that's a bonus..... I respect you for that
Why was micron not taken to court for this??
Long but good video man... Great work and info
You do the work to the benefit of the people sending it in / saving items, He workes for the Money. Thats the difference and yeah I myself fixed and washed broken video game consoles which took like 3 hours and then I made a profit of 20€ for it
@7:08 OH NO!! My dude's lost his Ball!!
Ever hear of a company called CTDI ? (Speaking of business models)
Thanks for adding clarity on another UA-camr content: I’ve only watched one video there on which he got sued for charging a customer for “expedite” service and no fix after a very long wait time. Coincidence?
Such a gentle sense of black humor this guy has, he could be as well as a standup comedian. Exceptional work btw. Thoughts about KrisFix Germany?
Interesting stuff! The advice you give is very unselfish! Your main business model is to be honest, yes it's unprofitable but at least you can face the man in the mirror! I like to repair all my stuff myself, it's a bad habit, I should have taken the advice of my father :" generalist have a little foothold in this world, don't be that guy", and I regret it, but it's just who I am!
IMHO if you fix an item in x hours, you should charge "x hours of work" (plus consumables) for each item. Sure, someone might choose to only accept fixing easily fixable items, and by "easily fixable" it means "it takes little time", but it is unfair to charge "per item". In the end, if customers find out some repair shop is charging them 50 or 100 for replacing one electrolytic (example of some trivial repair), and realize what is that repair shop doing, they will get a really bad rep.
Always good to see something being revived instead of being thrown in a landfill.
His business model is a fast-food restaurant model
Indeed, business is business. However, when customers come to a repair shop seeking help, only to be met with a bill and a statement that their issue isn't worth the shop's time, it might seem reasonable from the shop's perspective, but from the customer's viewpoint, it's simply disheartening to see all their hopes dashed.
Not only that, but it's just plain disrespectful.
This is honestly not for those in it for the money unless you want to be hated 😂, more of a passionate trade than lucrative.
There's a reason why E-waste is so abundant.
Love that Picard on the thumbnail 😂
Man ill admit finishing this video after knowing what you are charging is a bit heart breaking. At keast do this, if you are going to continue this biz model double your price, its still well worth it to most customers and at least then when you have a good day it might well average out the bad days and offer this biz an averaged income to begin growing off of.
I would like to know how you do so that the spheres do not stick to the stencil... I can't get them all to remain in the chipset and it's a headache. so i have to use paste tin
This dude deserves the world. He is way undervalueing himself with the time he spends. I hope he can keep doing work like this a make mlney from the videos.
I think u doing well with the way u are😊
Customer send their broken devices to northridge hoping theirs will be next that showing on that famous channel. Of course they tolerated the no fix attempted repair fee plus the expedient fee
Hi! What about passively cooled Kepler, Maxwerll Turing, Ada accelerator cards? Have you ever got some to fix in your career? Or some other accelerator FPGAs ?
I mean at some point you should start making money on the back end through your videos. That should cushion your pay towards doing those crazy repairs that take so much work that we LOVE to watch you do!
Haha ok you just said that in the video just now!
a big salute to your skills and will to finish the repair
a subscribe from india
good job, and thats what matter after all.
Babe, wakeup. It's ballzday!
Would be interesting to read your views on undervolting and if this method, in your experience, actually extends GPU lifetime.
Yes, it does. You don't need to go crazy to get huge drops in temp and reliability. I'm a computer engineer.
If you need help developing your business model. I have some ideas I can run by you. I think it would be beneficial considering the backlog you’re in.
Thanks
what would happen if you put 8 gigabit gddr5 modules on a card configured for 4 gigabit ones?
pinout is the same and memory layout just have one extra adress bit so chinese scamer like to put smallest chips in place of the bigger ones and card would work untill framebuffer overflow actual capacity, while bios still report 4 times the size
but if you do the oposite card should technically work just not see half of the chip size, or would it fail to boot?
there were rx 470's that could be 4gb 470 or 8gb 580 depending on a bios without changing anything, and some reviewer samples of 580's did just that dual bios and 4/8gb switch
i was wondering for a while how much can you push it
It is possible sometimes. You can easily up 3070 to 16GB for example. But more often than not you also need to change the BIOS to have it working.
I found it funny that even in 2020 when 30 series was comming out that these 20 series were still near 2000 dollars way to over priced.
That capacitor is missing because the card was previously at Sorins electrinic repair shools shop .LOL
LOOK For proper calibrated fuses
The quantity that what we have become verses the art and skill we have lost. Thank you for the video :-}
You are the Bob Ross to his Gordon Ramsey
man half of the video you talked about Alex and Northridgefix, you sure have a crush on him
Not fixing something because of time just adds to e waste when it could have been fixed. But time is money.
What are the names of the displayed tools in English? The square ones in the center which you use to seat the chips to put balls on them? Thank you.
why do i hear boss music
looking at the sheer size if that 2080Ti die, it really isn't any wonder why they cost so much.
thats was funny about Alex "Hussein"
Please listen to me. I think you haven't found your true form yet... You sir have level 10 teaching skill. You need to open a school for this. Everyone needs and wants the skillz to fix thier GPU that might not be worth it for one man alone to fix it. Teach them all to fix. You can open the gates and share your vast library of knowledge.
I had the idea of asking you to mod 3070 cards with 2 gb memory chips. Maybe that would be a bad idea to try to ask you to take on this idea but maybe you can consult others in the industry to make this a specialized service
But you sire are a good wizard when it comss to gpu repairs. Thank you for doing what you do
You deserve every dollar the customer pays👏👏👏👏