My girlfriend has an iPad. I have an ASUS notebook. Both stopped working. We did the right thing and took them to the Apple and ASUS service centres. Both these big/huge multinationals said forget it, they're too old, buy new ones. Then we took them to one of the 121 street repair shops and in two days both were fixed for a total of less than 100 dollars. Score one for the expertise in these tiny chaotic looking shops. And take ten points from the big brands who told us to dump perfectly good equipment.

Similar story with my iPhone 6. Apple service said beyond economic repair, buy a new one. In fairness the engineer suggested buy Huawei.

Took it to a backstreet guy. It took 20 mins to switch out a circuit board (total 1 hr including waiting in the queue) and cost 300rmb. They even gave a 30 day warantee.

I've experienced the same thing just getting a very old Nokia cellphone to work again. 'Buy new' is not necessarily a good idea, nor is the recycling of things that don't actually need to be recycled.

We're often mesmerized by big brands, glossy finishes and hero entrepreneurs when it comes to tech products. It's nice occasionally to give credit to those who do the nuts and bolts (or chips and wires?) work.