[GTALUG] Repair & Replace

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Peter King via talk <talk at gtalug.org>

| I have a Lenovo Legion T5 desktop (tower configuration) with Ryzen 9 cpu,

Which processor?  That gives me an idea of its age.

Which model of T5?  Lenovo type or model number or whatever they call it 
is fairly precise.

| which has given me all sorts of trouble over the past year and a half; it's
| already been sent back to Lenovo once after the power supply / motherboard
| went completely dead, and in the months since it intermittently locks up when
| I fire up X.

Is it still under warranty?

Is this a model that officially supports Linux?  Nevermind, I was thinking 
ThinkCentre.  I don't imagine Lenovo supports Linux on Legion.

Lenovo usually makes available a "Hardware Maintenance Manual" that 
explains a lot of things.

But then if you are reading Reddit, you are probably a few steps ahead.

|  Well, just a few days ago with no warning it froze at boot with
| the message 000135 that *all* of its internal fans had failed (!); a reboot
| got that down to only the CPU fan failed; when I told it to ignore that the
| computer finally booted up and runs sort of okay.

If the CPU cooler fails, I imagine that the CPU will shut down.  I don't 
think modern desktop processors can run without a fan.

|  By "sort of" I mean that
| the CMOS memory seems wonky: it won't keep track of the date or time.

That might be a matter of replacing the CMOS battery (normally a coin 
cell).  But they usually last longer than a warranty.

|  Plus it
| still sometimes locks up when I start X.

Are you still using X?  What distro are you using?

Perhaps you have an NVidia GPU and are running the proprietary driver.  
I'm the unhappy state of using X on my desktop for that reason.

|  Google -- mostly Reddit -- tells me
| that the fan problem is probably a BIOS/motherboard issue, apparently common
| in this model after about a year.  Some people claim a BIOS update fixes it,
| most people say it doesn't,

My superstition is to update firmware.

| and BIOS update for Lenovo products under Linux
| are a pain.

I don't know about Legion.  You probably have a Windows license.  Did you 
wipe it to install Linux?  (I always make my systems dual-boot.)

It is often easier to get hardware support if you can run Windows for the 
duration of the support call.

| I could send it back to Lenovo.  Again.

That's what I would do if it is still under warranty.

|  But I am inclined to just replace the
| motherboard instead, to swap out the proprietary Lenovo 3716 MB for something
| else.  According to Reddit again, the Gigabyte B550M is pretty much a drop-in
| replacement, though you need to add a CPU fan.  I don't know how to verify
| that it will work, though.

I'm pretty sure that it is simpler to buy a complete new box, with a 
warranty.

Skilled human time is fairly expensive (yours or a technician's).

There are a lot of ways that this could go wrong.  For example: a 
proprietary Lenovo power supply might not power a different board.  A new 
power supply might not fit in the case.  Those are true of Lenovos that I 
have (I don't have Legions).

| But more importantly: I am way too busy right now to do the replacement
| myself.  So, does anyone have any recommendations for good reliable computer
| repair work, someone or some company I can just take this to and tell them to
| do it?  I am located in the Junction.  I used to use A2Z Computers, which was
| great, but that business didn't make it through the pandemic.  I suppose I
| could take it to Canada Computers or someplace like that, but I though their
| work was only just adequate and priced high at that.
| 
| Any common wisdom about who might be good for this job? Thanks!

Random people on the list might be.

People with store-fronts should be too expensive but they might not be.