[mikepurvis]

I think past a certain point it's reasonable to expect that your repair operation may also involve some scrounging for the parts— for example, the classic frankenstein procedure where a laptop with a dead motherboard is married to another of the same model where the screen is cracked. I think for most electronics, past 5-10 years is pretty reasonable for this kind of thing. I mean, the GameCube came out in 2001-2002, and many circles now consider that to be a vintage/retro machine at this point. Would we really expect Nintendo to still be supplying repair shops with the full BOM of whatever's in there?

Anyway, the real trick with this of course is forbidding the serial number based lockouts.

[teh_klev]

> the real trick with this of course is forbidding the serial number based lockouts.

Yeah, that is just downright spiteful scumbaggery.

[mikepurvis]

I mean, they position it the same way— "we're protecting customers from those unscrupulous overseas ebay vendors who will sell them a half-capacity battery that they install and then forget about, later blaming the device and OEM for poor performance."

But obviously that's super suspect when the end result is still granting themselves a razors-and-blades monopoly over key replacement parts.