I Bought BROKEN Tech from eBay

[00:00] - We have bought a bunch of

[00:03] can I fix it first of all?

[00:05] And if so, was that actually a good deal?

[00:08] If I get myself a cheap

[00:10] easily fix it for 20

[00:12] I'm a gosh darn genius.

[00:14] And if I spend hundreds of

[00:16] that I can't fix, then I'm a dingus.

[00:19] - [Alex] Oh, god.

[00:21] I would consider myself

[00:24] when it comes to my repair skills.

[00:27] I know how to disassemble consoles.

[00:28] I know how to follow an iFixit guide,

[00:31] maybe not too much more than that.

[00:32] I'm certainly no Dosdude.

[00:34] First up, we have a PS5 Slim.

[00:37] So, Alex has purchased all of these items,

[00:40] so this is my first time seeing

[00:42] So, tell me what's the deal with this guy?

[00:45] So, we purchased a presumably

[00:48] What the listing say?

[00:49] - [Alex] This was one of those weird ones

[00:51] where I kind of just took a shot at it.

[00:53] They didn't even show like in photos,

[00:55] like what's wrong with it or anything.

[00:56] - Ooh, okay.

[00:57] - [Alex] But there's a disc error

[00:59] that I can't fix or make go away.

[01:00] - [Austin] Oh, I can fix that.

[01:01] I take off the disc. What? Wait.

[01:03] - [Alex] That is what he said.

[01:04] And I was like, wait a minute.

[01:06] I do know a lot of people-

[01:08] - [Alex] Were very confused

[01:10] at how these disc drives

[01:12] - [Austin] That's true.

[01:13] So, I'm kind of hoping

[01:16] who just didn't know what he had.

[01:18] - That'd be great.

[01:20] How much did we pay for

[01:25] - [Alex] So before shipping

[01:28] we paid it just under $200.

[01:31] - Oh, (bleep). Okay.

[01:33] So, basically, I don't

[01:35] If I fix it, cool, if I don't whatever.

[01:37] If this is a functional

[01:39] we've instantly won.

[01:40] - [Alex] I hope so.

[01:41] - Well, let's just see what happens.

[01:45] - [Alex] Okay, good sign.

[01:47] - [Alex] Okay. Oh, hey, look at that.

[01:48] - Is this the disc drive error they had?

[01:51] - [Alex] That's just

[01:53] - So, if you're unfamiliar

[01:56] they do need to be registered to your PS5.

[01:58] But that registration is literally,

[02:00] you put it on your PS5, you get it online,

[02:02] you push this button once,

[02:04] it like pairs it with

[02:05] So, we'll give it a few

[02:08] but that's exactly what

[02:10] So for context, a brand new PS5 Slim

[02:13] as we're recording this video,

[02:14] who knows what it'll cost

[02:16] is 650 bucks. On the used market

[02:18] what are Slims going

[02:21] It's gonna be like what,

[02:23] - [Alex] Yeah, I would say

[02:26] I think you could probably get

[02:29] - I mean this one is not

[02:31] It's a little bit scuffed,

[02:33] not enough to be upset about at all.

[02:35] We're up to date, register

[02:42] - [Alex] Wow. It was that easy.

[02:44] - All right, so we are

[02:47] I did actually log into my PSN account

[02:49] and it does seem to be functioning,

[02:51] but as long as it actually

[02:55] - [Alex] Aye, aye.

[02:56] - I mean this is all looking great.

[02:57] Look at that, French (beep) let's go.

[03:00] - [Adriana] I was literally just gonna say

[03:01] that's the Frenchest man, I've ever-

[03:02] - He is the Frenchest man of all time.

[03:04] On the score of dingus to genius,

[03:08] Alex, you get all the credit for this one.

[03:10] This is a full on genius territory.

[03:11] - [Alex] Yeah, I think this is proof

[03:12] that if you just do a little

[03:15] - And don't mind taking a risk

[03:16] 'cause obviously this could

[03:19] as some of the other items

[03:21] probably will illustrate.

[03:23] When it comes to making

[03:26] ideas are one of the things

[03:29] So, when Zapier reached

[03:31] it was exactly what I was looking for.

[03:33] An easy way to organize the ideas

[03:35] that y'all gimme from the comments.

[03:36] Last time I showed you the initial setup.

[03:38] Zapier is super simple.

[03:40] They're the glue between

[03:43] They have an MCP server which

[03:45] directly into Claude, ChatGPT, and more.

[03:47] Nothing happens without my permission.

[03:49] I can just open Claude, ask it

[03:52] and it pulls the top few ideas

[03:54] and drops them directly into Notion.

[03:56] A good example is this one.

[03:57] Remember those airline seats

[03:58] from Mystery Tech the other day?

[04:00] Well, a bunch of you asked me

[04:01] to make a BROKE versus PRO with them

[04:02] and that is a great idea.

[04:04] So, thanks to Zapier,

[04:05] it's now an idea that's

[04:07] for the team to start putting together.

[04:09] You can do so much with Zapier,

[04:11] so definitely be sure to check them out,

[04:13] to plug them into your own workflows.

[04:14] And thank you again to Zapier

[04:18] Next up we have a Game Boy Play It Loud.

[04:22] Alex, is this the one we got

[04:24] - [Alex] It is.

[04:25] - So, we're cheating already. I like it.

[04:27] This is technically a

[04:29] However, the screen looks bad,

[04:31] the screen lens is also

[04:33] So, what I think we're

[04:35] is we're not going to fix it,

[04:36] we're gonna actually upgrade it.

[04:38] So, this is a screen and

[04:42] This is purchased from the

[04:45] which no affiliation, we paid full price

[04:48] Normally, I would recommend

[04:51] However, I'm built different,

[04:52] so I'm just gonna figure it out.

[04:53] - [Alex] Oh god. All right, we'll see.

[04:55] - So, with the Game Boy, I

[04:58] if I remember right, to pop it open.

[05:00] So now we've got ourselves the display,

[05:03] the button membranes, which

[05:06] So, I think we're gonna

[05:08] And the speaker, which is all

[05:11] So, this screen lens is the

[05:14] So, that's actually one of the upgrades

[05:15] that you could technically

[05:16] without actually replacing

[05:19] I'll listen to it, just

[05:21] giving up after 30 years.

[05:26] All right,

[05:27] and there we go, my friends

[05:30] the old screen lens,

[05:31] which, as you can probably

[05:34] So, we're gonna line

[05:37] I tried to clear most of the old residue,

[05:38] so it should just line up

[05:42] Beautiful crystal clear

[05:46] So, again, I'm not really

[05:49] but my understanding is

[05:52] is gonna mount up something like this.

[05:54] There we go. That looks correct.

[05:57] Oh yeah, it looks very correct.

[05:58] Would always, always recommend

[06:01] to try to hit a checkpoint

[06:02] where you can actually

[06:04] before you start putting glue

[06:06] and screw a bunch of stuff in and whatnot.

[06:08] Let's see if it wants to work.

[06:13] Behold my friends a very beautiful looking

[06:17] Play It Loud Game Boy

[06:18] with a fresh crispy screen

[06:21] Again, this is like easy mode, right?

[06:23] If you know how to work on

[06:26] this is dead simple.

[06:26] I didn't have to cut the plastic.

[06:28] Everything just dropped right in place,

[06:29] so we have a brand new screen lens

[06:31] we've brand new, quite nice

[06:34] and a much louder speaker. So-

[06:37] - [Alex] And now it really plays it loud.

[06:38] - It plays it louder, right?

[06:43] - [Alex] Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed

[06:45] the two very easy pitches I lobbed to you,

[06:48] you know, to build up your confidence.

[06:50] Let's move on to something

[06:52] shall we?

[06:53] - You mean the whole premise of this video

[06:55] is it's gonna get harder and harder

[06:56] and I'm gonna be more and

[06:58] that we work on this thing

[06:59] - [Alex] I mean, I hope you don't give up.

[07:02] - Is this, oh, no.

[07:03] - Is that a Switch?

[07:04] Oh my god. A very, very (beep)

[07:09] Someone even broke the

[07:12] holy man this thing has

[07:16] - [Alex] I will say

[07:17] it didn't come with Joy-Cons

[07:19] - [Austin] Sure.

[07:21] These are our Joy-Cons.

[07:22] - [Alex] They're fully functional.

[07:25] that you cannot pair Joy-Cons with it.

[07:27] - [Alex] So, basically the listing said

[07:29] this is a functional Switch

[07:32] minus the fact that the left

[07:38] - Oh. Yeah, actually doing

[07:40] - [Alex] So, I thought this was

[07:45] because I don't know if you remember

[07:46] when we did the ultimate Switch.

[07:51] - Yeah, that was fine. There

[07:53] - [Alex] You sure? When you

[07:55] - No. No, no, no. It was totally fine.

[07:57] Edit team won't flashback

[08:01] - I've never done that.

[08:03] - We basically just ruined this Joy-Con.

[08:06] - How much did you pay

[08:10] heavily used Switch?

[08:13] - [Alex] I paid $60.

[08:16] - [Austin] Okay, that's worth it.

[08:16] Yeah, that's pretty good.

[08:17] - [Alex] $60. And, for reference,

[08:19] if you were to buy like a Switch,

[08:21] just the tablet, no Joy-Con whatever,

[08:22] like a fully functional one,

[08:23] it might still be pretty

[08:25] but I mean they're going for like 90,

[08:28] so like this is still cheaper.

[08:30] - How much was this

[08:33] - [Alex] We got it from iFixit,

[08:34] and they use, you know, quality parts.

[08:36] - [Austin] Yeah, yeah.

[08:38] - Okay, so, not cheap,

[08:41] All right.

[08:43] And so we have the just

[08:46] Switch back plate off,

[08:47] and that is our rear shell

[08:50] Yep, there's our glob of thermal paste,

[08:52] and there we go, that is

[08:54] The left rail, for some gosh darn reason,

[08:56] goes underneath the board

[08:59] What that, why?

[09:01] Why would you not just,

[09:02] we're gonna do is we're

[09:04] we're going to line it up roughly

[09:07] with where it's supposed

[09:08] And it should theoretically just work.

[09:12] If not, I'll be real sad, but.

[09:13] To make sure that is actually correct

[09:15] is I'm just gonna fire it up now

[09:16] and see if a Joy-Con will attach.

[09:18] So, right side Joy-Con. Okay, connected.

[09:21] Now here's the real test,

[09:22] does the left side Joy-Con wanna work?

[09:27] Nothing. Okay, that's fine.

[09:30] I think my question would be,

[09:32] 'Cause I was not entirely

[09:34] oh, no, it's not seated

[09:35] 'cause it's been pulled out

[09:38] There we go. All right,

[09:44] Yeah boy.

[09:45] - [Alex] Aye!

[09:48] So, that was $15 and that

[09:52] All in, we're still, I

[09:55] probably like about a hundred bucks?

[09:57] - [Alex] Yeah.

[09:57] - For a fully functional red box Switch.

[09:59] And, realistically, if

[10:01] maybe another $30, you could

[10:05] we could have just swapped out

[10:07] and then this would be

[10:09] Again, I think we're doing good,

[10:14] is every time you buy something

[10:15] for parts, you're taking a gamble.

[10:18] The gambles are coming up our way for now,

[10:21] but if you sit at the roulette

[10:23] you will lose your money.

[10:25] Next up, what in the, oh,

[10:31] Oh, gosh. Well it's, wait,

[10:33] it's not that old, it's got

[10:35] I look at this lid, I'm

[10:38] - [Alex] So, this particular laptop

[10:39] was released in the like 2015 era.

[10:44] - Oh, so this would've been,

[10:44] so the fact that said USB-C,

[10:47] - [Alex] Yeah.

[10:48] one of the first USB-C

[10:49] So, we have a whole little thing here.

[10:51] So, Windows 11, has an

[10:54] 16 gigs of RAM, 120 gig SSD.

[10:57] Palm rest needs replacing,

[10:59] some keys don't work right

[11:02] - [Alex] There is one big

[11:06] that I think is emblematic

[11:11] in this general age range.

[11:13] - I mean the screen

[11:16] - [Alex] Ding, ding, ding, the

[11:20] You'll be replacing that.

[11:21] - That doesn't seem so bad.

[11:23] I'm just gonna just yolo this one.

[11:25] I don't think I need a tutorial,

[11:26] I think I need to figure it out.

[11:28] - [Alex] Okay.

[11:29] I cannot imagine that a 10

[11:34] was that expensive.

[11:36] Especially something that

[11:38] - [Alex] Yes. So, we paid $175.

[11:42] - Whoa, that's, that's a, 175?

[11:45] - [Alex] Yeah.

[11:47] - Brother, maybe 75 bucks.

[11:51] Oh, you look at that

[11:55] And oh my god, Alex,

[11:58] Are you kidding me?

[12:00] This is what the battery looks like?

[12:02] - [Alex] That is what

[12:04] - So, hello dear viewers at home.

[12:06] Take a good look. Where do

[12:09] I'll give you a minute.

[12:12] It is up here. This is the whole battery.

[12:15] - [Alex] Yep.

[12:15] - You wonder why old gaming like,

[12:16] you know, it's like they put a battery in

[12:18] just so it would last between

[12:20] and walking over and

[12:22] The good news is,

[12:23] I'm pretty sure I can just

[12:25] 'cause it's right here and

[12:30] nothing but success.

[12:31] So, drop this one in, make

[12:34] Put those two screws back in.

[12:37] We have a functioning battery,

[12:38] it's literally not even

[12:39] It's also mostly disassembled.

[12:40] So, I need to actually

[12:42] I don't think this particular laptop was,

[12:46] like, if we're doing the genius to dingus,

[12:47] this is a little bit

[12:49] 'cause this is way too much money to spend

[12:51] on a 10 plus year old gaming laptop.

[12:54] Next up we have a package to Matt Ansini.

[12:58] - [Adriana] Matt Ansini's package?

[13:01] - [Alex] No.

[13:03] - A Switch Lite?

[13:04] - I'm afraid to know

[13:06] - [Alex] Mr. I love Switch Lites.

[13:08] - I do love the Switch

[13:11] So, no game in here and then

[13:15] And there's no screws anywhere,

[13:16] which means that I think

[13:18] 'cause no one bothered to use the screws.

[13:20] Yep, it just opens.

[13:21] - [Alex] The thing that's wrong with it

[13:23] is supposedly the screen,

[13:28] - That's really interesting

[13:29] because the screen's

[13:31] The problem with the Switch Lite is

[13:32] because it doesn't have

[13:34] a dead screen and a dead

[13:38] because nothing happens.

[13:40] So, I'm gonna just plug

[13:42] to see if there are any signs of life.

[13:45] Oh, nine watts. Okay, it's on.

[13:46] Okay, so it is on. That's

[13:48] Oh yes.

[13:50] - [Alex] Oh yep, yep, I heard a thing.

[13:51] - Yes.

[13:52] - Okay, cool. We're good. We're good.

[13:53] I thought this thing was dead.

[13:54] So, it actually is just a broken screen,

[13:56] which is crazy to me.

[13:57] For context, a fully functional

[13:59] and maybe like okay condition

[14:02] You know, something like that.

[14:03] It's not, it isn't crazy expensive.

[14:04] - It'll be anywhere between like,

[14:05] I wanna say maybe like 90 to 120, 130.

[14:09] - Okay. Now, with a broken screen,

[14:12] this costs a lot less

[14:15] It cost $60.

[14:20] Gotta ask how much was

[14:22] 'Cause I feel like probably not cheap.

[14:25] - Screens, in general,

[14:26] replacement screens are kind of expensive.

[14:27] This was $70.

[14:31] Now, again, you could-

[14:32] - Alex! You could get the OLED

[14:34] for not that much more than that.

[14:36] Well, we have successfully

[14:39] and we found some new friends.

[14:41] - [Alex] Oh my God.

[14:43] - So, there's a whole family

[14:45] of little buggy bugs living here.

[14:47] - [Alex] Oh my god, I'm outta here.

[14:48] - So, now that we have fully

[14:51] it is time to install

[14:55] I mean that looks fine.

[14:56] I don't understand how it's gonna stick

[14:58] 'cause there's no adhesive

[15:00] I think just for safety,

[15:01] we're probably gonna add

[15:03] of adhesive on the corners,

[15:05] just to make sure it's not gonna fall.

[15:07] All right, now comes the fun part

[15:09] of installing all of this.

[15:16] I think we're ready for a test boot.

[15:18] As you can tell, there's

[15:21] that are not quite installed

[15:24] Most important thing is does it boot?

[15:27] Does the screen function?

[15:30] Let's find out together, my friends.

[15:32] Hmm, that's not great.

[15:35] Let me plug it in and see if

[15:38] - [Adriana] And definitely see

[15:39] if you can still hear the beeps and boops

[15:40] 'cause maybe it's something

[15:44] - Oh, right. So, I could

[15:46] and realize that it was

[15:48] and in fact something much deeper.

[15:52] Oh.

[15:54] - I heard the button.

[15:58] - So, clearly it's booted.

[16:00] Speakers work fine, the

[16:03] So, we just swapped a

[16:06] out of a Switch Lite, spent

[16:11] I spent two hours swapping it in

[16:13] just to find out that

[16:15] that the actual problem is,

[16:15] is that the Switch Lite,

[16:18] the bugs maybe, what

[16:21] and like messed up the

[16:25] I think this is a good example though

[16:27] of what kind of problems you can run into

[16:30] when you're trying to

[16:32] You can get lucky like we

[16:34] But also you can very much get unlucky

[16:36] either with a product

[16:39] than you thought

[16:41] or just a simple fact that

[16:43] I'm pretty sure though

[16:45] just because it is literally

[16:48] with the first screen.

[16:49] Just with a whole bunch

[16:52] and a real sad Austin

[16:56] I've been dingused. I am a

[17:00] An iPhone 12.

[17:03] - This doesn't scare me.

[17:05] I've opened iPhones before.

[17:07] We did a whole video on

[17:09] But, okay, what's the

[17:11] Is it, screen looks okay?

[17:12] - [Alex] One of the

[17:15] it's got a degraded battery.

[17:16] - Now, if you take this

[17:19] you're paying a hundred

[17:22] something like that I think?

[17:22] - [Alex] Yeah, you're basically paying

[17:24] a hundred dollars out of pocket.

[17:25] - Okay, so first question,

[17:27] how much do we pay for

[17:31] - [Alex] So, because we

[17:32] it's a whole like kit, it's $46.

[17:36] - Oh, is it really?

[17:37] - [Alex] Yeah, so, so they do

[17:39] They do give you all that stuff,

[17:40] so it's a battery, all that stuff.

[17:41] - Although they do sell it

[17:44] - [Alex] They do sell

[17:46] So if you wanted to buy it

[17:49] it's 40 bucks.

[17:50] - Okay, so we have ourselves,

[17:53] They also very thankfully

[17:56] The only other thing

[17:57] is having a heat gun.

[17:59] This adhesive is going to

[18:01] require a little bit more

[18:03] - [Alex] You know they

[18:05] to be waterproof.

[18:06] - Which is fine.

[18:07] The thing is though,

[18:07] while I would not really

[18:09] after you do something like this,

[18:11] the adhesive will actually

[18:13] So, at this point, I think,

[18:15] we can start just peeling

[18:18] There we go, look at that.

[18:19] Now that screen is fairly strong,

[18:21] but you don't wanna put

[18:23] And now it is time to remove the battery.

[18:25] So, the way to do this unfortunately

[18:28] is just to twist and pull.

[18:30] The thing is that you wanna

[18:31] and you see I'm just twisting and pulling.

[18:36] Now, unfortunately, there are four tabs.

[18:37] So again, a couple of the tabs get close,

[18:39] so, sometimes you grab 'em both.

[18:41] I got both tabs up, look at that.

[18:44] - [Alex] Wow, look at you.

[18:46] - Is something finally

[18:50] That's frigging dope, dude.

[18:51] I'm actually really happy about that.

[18:52] Well, at this point, all I gotta do,

[18:57] where's my replacement battery?

[18:59] - [Alex] Oh, things were going so well.

[19:00] - Wait.

[19:01] All right, my friends, let

[19:04] Now, I just need to make

[19:06] Yes, it will.

[19:07] And that looks pretty good.

[19:10] So, what I'm gonna do is,

[19:11] I'm just going to push it in place.

[19:13] Battery's installed.

[19:16] Now, how do I put the

[19:19] Uh-oh.

[19:20] Remember the whole thing about

[19:22] these screws were really

[19:23] - [Alex] Oh. Did you strip one?

[19:26] - [Austin] It got absorbed.

[19:27] - [Alex] It got absorbed?

[19:28] - Absorbed by the rest of the phone.

[19:29] Okay, so, at this point,

[19:31] if I am not the world's biggest dingus,

[19:35] it should just turn on.

[19:37] Oh my god, I'm a god damn genius.

[19:41] The only thing is, I

[19:43] they don't give you the

[19:45] Yeah, yeah. So, it says unknown parts.

[19:47] So, it does not tell you

[19:50] Honestly, if you had

[19:53] not seeing the actual percentage

[19:55] All right, well I think

[19:58] Let me go ahead and

[20:00] and we'll see how well I actually did.

[20:02] Behold my friend,

[20:03] a fully functional

[20:08] Don't look too close. It's totally fine.

[20:10] There's nothing to see here.

[20:12] No adhesive escape the

[20:14] Don't worry about it.

[20:15] Anyway, what's the overall verdict here?

[20:17] - [Alex] All totaled

[20:20] - [Austin] Yeah.

[20:24] - Wait, wait, that's it?

[20:25] - [Alex] Well, okay, it

[20:28] - I saved a little bit

[20:29] - [Alex] Yeah, you saved a

[20:30] - [Austin] The DMG actually

[20:32] and I actually properly upgrade it.

[20:33] - [Alex] Yeah.

[20:34] And you saved a little bit

[20:36] - On the Switch.

[20:37] - I think the real takeaway is

[20:39] investing in some parts to fix

[20:43] Buying stuff that's broken on eBay

[20:45] with the hopes of being able to fix it,

[20:47] and sort of save yourself

[20:50] but you gotta really do your research

[20:53] and hope that you're feeling

[20:55] Much like I'm feeling

[20:57] subscribe to the channel

[20:58] and ring-a-ling that ding-a-ling button,

[21:00] so you too can see resident

[21:03] I mean fix some shiny new tech

[21:07] I am a dingus.