For many years I have been using Lenovo laptops – previously these were called IBM ThinkPad. They were always an option at the workplace and after a brief excursion into alternative providers I returned to them. So, my first private personal computer after retiring was logically also a machine from them. It is a Lenovo E15 Gen2. The first observation of using it had nothing to do with the laptop at all, but with the realization that all off a sudden I was my own IT person! Getting all the software installed, backups arranged, and respective cloud connections established took many hours. Certainly, it does not help to work with Microsoft software, a Yahoo email setup and an Apple iCloud service. A lot of handwashing happens on service calls when you bump into compatibility issues between the different providers yet after all it was working out. Fast forward one year and out of the blue I was having charging issues. The first round turned out to be a known software bug that required a Bios update and a software update which I barely scraped by on a half-charged battery. The second one was more complicated. After a trip the battery showed a 1% charge while I had thought it was at least half full and quickly I found myself in shut down mode/restart mode. The strange thing this time was that the external charging light showed some unusual light pattern -basically flickering erratically. As usual I took to the internet to read about such failures and to seek advice from other people on how to remedy. The recommended reset and startup procedures did not help, neither did removing the battery. I did not mention yet that of course the warranty expired a month ago! Lenovo services require you to send in the machine and foot the bill for a diagnosis excercise. So, I decided to follow my own track and the online recommendations and ordered initially replacement batteries for the main and the Bios batteries. Amazon has them at your doorstep within a few days and I was hopeful initially and disappointed quickly! The next step recommended was more intrusive and entailed replacing the motherboard. Not only is this more involved but also more costly. I searched for a YouTube video to learn how to take it out. Two things came out during that search. First, the problem I encountered is apparently very common – including among commercial users that for sure have support plans. They confirmed that hardware fixes were needed – basically swapping the mother board – but it was also revealed that the failure can reoccur. That did not look very promising! And this is when in a second search I found this video by what I believe was a Russian gentleman (He did speak English – it could also have been a person from another Eastern European country), He was sitting in what looked like a home technical lab and explaining the very issue that I was dealing with. He removed a protective foil from the backside of the mother board and showed that a small IC had unsoldered. He attributed that to a faulty control chip that manages the charging ultimately leading to local overheating so much so that the device unsolders itself. He then went on lamenting that Lenovo knew about the issue but was not offering a fix. With reference to the fact that the ICs that are falling off were apparently not needed since the computer has only a single USB-C port, he suggested removing them all together and shortening the connection with a crude piece of solder. That sure looked unusual! After having done so he booted up his machine and Voila – it worked. I looked at my motherboard and indeed one of the ICs he had pointed out had already fallen off. In hindsight this would jive with my prior observation that I did not act on, namely that the laptop felt at times very hot on the backside, especially when I had it in my backpack. Because the motherboard was shot anyways, I decided to go for this fix. I don’t have the equipment for precision soldering and probably also no longer the eyesight for that. Turns out that it is hard to find a computer repair shop willing to perform what was characterized by them as a strange fix. The third place was finally willing to try – also only after an attempt to reattach the fallen-off chip, an attempt that ultimately failed. As we were wrapping up with the technician, I wondered loudly how come the Russian gentleman figured out this rather simple fix while the manufacturer witnessing a string of failures did not offer or consider it. His response was the following: Here in the US, we have easy access to spare parts and supplies while in Russia people are more so forced to work on a shoestring and are getting creative to make things work again. He did not think that such fix would come up or become necessary in our country. My background certainly gives me an appreciation for working and managing with limited means. I went home and tried our fix and sure enough it worked – and one month later still does! $150 saved and likely also future troubles. Yet I kept coming back to our conversation. If I put my economic hat on, I would reason the following way: the effort to diagnose and finally disassemble the laptop requires all the same steps to remove the motherboard – perhaps less even since the CPU, memory and cooling unit do not have to be removed. I postulate that for a knowledgeable person with proper equipment and direction the fix suggested by the Russian gentleman takes 15 min. In total this is way less than a $150-$190 replacement motherboard. So why would that not be considered by Lenovo? During the warranty period the cost falls on them. The motherboard is 15-20% of the total cost of the laptop by my judgement. If of course the failure occurs after the warranty has expired as was in my case, then the customer will bear the cost. It is hard to judge the overall frequency of the failure but judging by the postings I read, some customers cited 50+ machines failing. The question then would be – why are we not given the creative and simple solution? The discard-and-replace mode is certainly easy, but I seriously doubt it is economical and sure not ecologically sound to proceed that way. This is surely not the place for a larger philosophical argument but perhaps a reminder that sometimes it is hardship, resource limitation or simple curiosity that drives creativity and poise for a better outcome, and the Russian fellow may just be an example. Resourcefulness may actually require less resources! How can we incentivize that?