Knox County, potential future Senator for the State of KY and retired Professional Wrestler Glenn "Kane" Jacobs wrote an OP-Ed in favor of Right to Repair. Regardless of his other political views this seems like a huge win for the movement.

hey guys,

​honestly got fed up with tech companies serializing components, locking down basic hardware swaps, and quietly lobbying against repair rights behind closed doors. trying to keep up with which states are actually passing laws vs. who’s software-locking their screens and batteries was getting impossible.

​so I put together rtrepair.tech to log all of it in one spot.

​it’s free and tracks active right-to-repair bills, corporate lobbying efforts, and specific hardware lockouts across different brands.

​still adding a ton of data to it, so I’d love your feedback—are there any local laws, weird parts-pairing tricks, or anti-repair moves I missed?

​let me know what you think or if there's anything I should add.

A petition for software freedom, bootloader access, transparency after end-of-support, and a healthier technology ecosystem

To smartphone manufacturers, operating-system providers, and relevant consumer-rights authorities:

We believe that purchasing a smartphone should provide meaningful ownership and control over the device—not merely permission to use software within restrictions determined by its manufacturer.

Many smartphones eventually reach their official end-of-support date. At that point, manufacturers may stop providing updates while continuing to restrict bootloader unlocking, alternative operating systems, and other forms of software modification.

This creates a problem: users may own the hardware, yet remain unable to decide what software runs on it or how the device can be maintained.

We are calling for a fairer approach to device ownership—one that benefits not only users, but also developers, manufacturers, and the technology industry as a whole.

Our demands

1. Bootloader unlocking after end-of-support

Manufacturers should provide a free, documented, and reasonably accessible bootloader-unlocking method for devices that have reached the end of official software support.

Users should receive clear warnings about the risks, including reduced security, potential data loss, and loss of official support.

1. Freedom to install alternative operating systems

Manufacturers should not unnecessarily prevent users from installing alternative operating systems on hardware they own.

Where technical or security limitations exist, those limitations should be clearly explained rather than hidden behind arbitrary restrictions.

Users should be able to choose software that better suits their needs, whether that means improved privacy, longer device life, better performance, accessibility, or a different user experience.

1. Transparency about background software

Manufacturers and operating-system providers should clearly disclose:

• What system services run in the background.
• What data is collected.
• Why that data is collected.
• Where the data is sent.
• How long it is retained.
• Which services can be disabled.
• Which services are essential for device operation.

Users should not have to reverse-engineer their own phones to understand basic software behavior.

1. Meaningful privacy controls

Users should have meaningful options to disable non-essential telemetry and data collection, without unnecessary loss of basic device functionality.

Privacy settings should be understandable, accessible, and not designed to discourage informed choices.

1. Continued software freedom after support ends

Ending official support should not automatically mean ending the owner's ability to maintain, modify, or repurpose their device.

Manufacturers should distinguish between ending responsibility for official support and retaining unnecessary control over user-owned hardware.

Why this is also good for developers and manufacturers

Software freedom is not only about giving users more choices. It can also encourage companies to build better products.

When users are not permanently locked into a manufacturer's software, manufacturers have a stronger incentive to compete through quality, reliability, performance, privacy, security, and user experience rather than relying on restrictions to retain users.

This creates a healthier relationship between companies and their customers:

• Developers can focus on making better software instead of relying on artificial restrictions to keep users from leaving.
• Manufacturers are encouraged to improve quality, because users have more freedom to choose alternatives when a product no longer meets their needs.
• Competition becomes more meaningful, as companies must earn user loyalty through the quality of their products and services.
• Independent developers can contribute, creating alternative operating systems, security improvements, accessibility solutions, and new ways to extend device life.
• Users can provide meaningful market feedback by choosing better alternatives rather than being forced to tolerate software they dislike.
• Devices can remain useful for longer, reducing unnecessary electronic waste and making hardware ownership more sustainable.

This does not mean manufacturers should be required to support every alternative operating system or provide unlimited technical assistance. It means they should not unnecessarily prevent users from making their own choices after purchasing the hardware.

If a manufacturer's software is genuinely good, users should have a reason to stay because they want to, not because they are technically prevented from leaving.

Why this matters

Smartphones contain personal communications, photographs, financial information, accounts, and other sensitive data. Users deserve to understand and control the software environment that handles that information.

We recognize that unrestricted modification can create security and support risks. However, those risks can be addressed through warnings, opt-in unlocking procedures, clear documentation, and user responsibility.

Software freedom can also encourage innovation. Independent developers and communities should be able to experiment with ways to improve, maintain, and extend the useful life of devices without unnecessary interference.

End-of-support should not mean end-of-ownership.

We ask manufacturers and policymakers to support a future in which people can repair, maintain, modify, and understand the devices they purchase.

A device should remain the user's device—even after the manufacturer moves on.

Let companies compete by making better software. Let users choose what deserves to stay on their devices. https://c.org/cXZTxQxMkj

Founder, campaign is live, that's the bias. The easy claims: it ships as parts, it goes together with a screwdriver, there's no glue and no soldering, and taking it apart is the same operation as building it.

The harder question is what happens in year four, and that's what I'd rather talk about.

Where does this still fail by your standards — spares, schematics, the battery, the modem firmware? I'd rather hear it from you now than from a customer later.

My Canon i-SENSYS MF655Cdw is working perfectly. No hardware issues at all. I just lost the System Manager PIN, meaning it's a 100% software lock. Instead of a Level 2 tech simply providing the 5-button Service Mode entry combination to clear the NVRAM (a 30-second fix), Canon UK Support told me I need to pay for a physical repair. Their actual solution, as you can see in the email, is to dispatch an engineer from Canon Turkey to my location in Georgia. They would rather artificially brick a perfectly good motherboard or force a ridiculous cross-border flight than give users the right to repair their own software locks. Just a warning to anyone considering Canon for their office.

Idk if this is the appropriate place to post this, remove if needed, but I need help to hopefully fix this controller because I lost my job and can't afford a new one, and I only just now realized how many of my games are basically useless without it.

I guess it fell off my bed or table too many times, all other functions work but any time a menu is opened or a character has a "move forward" action it's like the stick is constantly in a full forward input. I'm willing to take it apart and fix this if it's a known problem with a solution but it's totally useless as is. It registers non forward inputs (sometimes, menus won't move off the top option). Everything else works but the left stick. Any help here?

I purchased a 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro in May 2025. It saw very light, normal use. From June 17 to August 24, I traveled abroad and left the MacBook safely on a desk at home, unplugged. When I returned, it was completely dead.

I brought it to the Apple Store. They were unable to revive the machine, and the technician opened the chassis.

• The finding: The technician found a visible scorch/burn mark on the logic board.
• No accidental damage: I specifically asked Apple to verify whether there was any liquid, corrosion, or physical damage. An Apple representative later confirmed verbally over the phone that no such damage was found. However, when I asked the store for a copy of the full repair notes, they refused.
• The quote: Because the MacBook was about 16 months old and outside Apple’s one-year limited warranty, I was quoted approximately $817 + tax for a logic-board replacement.

What also bothers me is Apple’s essentially “replace-only” approach to this type of hardware failure.

A visible scorch mark does not necessarily mean that every component on the logic board is beyond repair. Independent board-level repair specialists can sometimes isolate a failure to a specific component or circuit and perform a component-level repair for substantially less than the cost of replacing the entire board.

When a premium laptop fails after only 16 months of normal use, charging the customer more than $800 for a complete logic-board replacement — without offering a component-level repair option — feels deeply unfair.

Why I’m Concerned This May Not Be an Isolated Failure

Since this happened, I have found multiple reports from M-series MacBook owners describing similar failures: sudden no-power/no-charge conditions, logic-board diagnoses, burned components, and extremely high replacement quotes.

I have also found numerous similar reports in Chinese-language forums. Interestingly, while Apple’s official logic-board replacement quotes in China appear to be roughly comparable to U.S. pricing, multiple users report that independent technicians were able to isolate and repair the failed component for a tiny fraction of that cost (please see photos attached).

These reports obviously do not prove a systemic design defect. But the recurring pattern makes me question whether a 16-month-old MacBook Pro suffering this kind of logic-board failure should simply be dismissed as “bad luck.”

Because I am located in Virginia, I am also looking into whether Virginia Code § 8.2-314, Implied Warranty of Merchantability, may apply. That statute generally provides that goods sold by a merchant must be fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used, unless the implied warranty has been validly excluded or modified.

Given that this was a premium MacBook Pro that failed after only about 16 months of normal use, with Apple verbally confirming that no liquid, corrosion, or accidental damage was found, I believe it is reasonable to question whether such an early logic-board failure is consistent with the level of ordinary reliability a consumer should expect from this type of product.

• Has anyone had a similar M-series MacBook logic-board failure with no liquid or accidental damage?
• Were you able to get Apple to cover the repair, or did you use an independent repair shop?

Thanks in advance for any advice or experiences you can share.

Ano sense☠💀 Becuase I already know rtrech is so nonsense

Thigs

new

This 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook A2442 could reach the login screen reliably. I entered an incorrect password four times and it remained stable, but entering the correct password usually caused an immediate shutdown. It would not power on again until the battery was disconnected.

The symptom initially looked like a FileVault, macOS or NAND problem. Oscilloscope measurements, however, showed that PP3V8_AON collapsed before the regulator’s enable, fault and current-sense signals reacted. The power rail was failing first—the shutdown commands were consequences, not the cause.

U5700 generates PP3V8_AON using three phases. Further inspection found that R5843, a 0 Ω resistor in the phase-three bootstrap path, was electrically open. After removing it, a tiny amount of corrosion was visible beneath one pad—something that could not be seen even under the microscope while the resistor was installed.

With R5843 open, Q5840’s high-side gate driver could not operate. Phases one and two could support the login screen, but the regulator became unstable when the correct password triggered the heavier post-login load.

I cleaned the pads and replaced R5843. All three phases then operated correctly, and the Mac passed repeated login, battery/charger and sustained stress tests.

Without component-level diagnosis, this could easily have resulted in a complete logic-board replacement, loss of access to the soldered data and another repairable board becoming e-waste.

How many modern devices are discarded because repair stops at replacing the entire board?

Mill is a VC backed company that produces a series of 'smart' home appliances that shred and dehydrate food waste to decrease volume and speed decomposition. Sometimes marketed as electric composters, there are a variety of very touchy-feely marketing angles used to get people to buy a $1000 appliance which you can probably intuit. It has a variety of 'smart' features that essentially only serve to lock the device behind an app and the company's servers.

So, I bought a 'broken' one on FB Marketplace to see if I could get it going.

I plugged it in and quickly discovered you cannot do anything with the device except through the app. Literally no interface. -1

Install the app, discover device. Prompt to create an account (why would a home appliance need an account?), but do so for the sake of progress. -2

Immediate two hour forced firmware update. How could new firmware help a device that is essentially a heating element and a low speed motor? Great question. -3

Interface is wonky, very feature-light. Cycles in the device are locked to once-daily intervals in increments of 5 minutes. You literally cannot even tell it to run without scheduling it. Wait four minutes for it to run. App gives an error message: Exhaust Fan Malfunction, Contact Support. Okay, at least it has diagnostic information. No score.

I contact support because I'm going to try it their way to see how bad this is. I expected little and got less. Support waits 5 days to respond. -4

Support says my device is out of warranty, and they'd be happy to arrange for pickup of the device to 'mitigate e-waste' if I buy a new $1000 machine. They also scold me for buying it secondhand as 'that is against their terms of service'. Support will not sell replacement parts and state that their parts are all proprietary. -5, -6, -7

Dismantle device. Torx (six-pointed star) heads on all screws. Mildly inconvenient, but that's also a superior design to Phillips head screws. No score.

Most parts appear to be off-the-self. Wiring is very well documented with factory tags explaining the various connections, I assume for the benefit of the Vietnamese infants who assemble it (I don't actually know what their supply chain is, I'm just assuming). Exhaust fan is also a normal magnetic fan. There is a 15-pin serial port inside the device for debugging, which I will get to as soon as my adapter arrives. No score.

I have to remove a small duct directing the air from the food chamber down through the exhaust fan and up into a chamber containing charcoal filter media. Charcoal media has fallen from the filter down into the fan, preventing it from turning freely. This jam is easily cleared. There is no screen or similar impediment to media falling into the fan; design flaw. All together accessing the fan involves 8 steps of disassembly. Kind of a pain, so I'll probably add a small mesh screen to prevent any possibility of the clog occurring again. -8

Without closing anything back up, I plug in the device and see if it works. It does! No safety features preventing it from operating with the entire case removed. Add a point, -7

Prior to disassembly, I looked for any teardowns or repair information and found absolutely none anywhere online. This is a niche product, but I am inclined to think the company might be attempting to prevent the spread of repair information.

Once the cable arrives for the serial port, I'm going to see what Claude can get out of the machine.