Not sure if this qualifies as planned obsolescence but Acer stopped supporting a tablet I bought in less than two years. I have been avoiding Acer products ever since.
Dishwashers, the 3 most recent dishwashers that I have had experience using across 3 very different households and use levels, from 3 different manufacturers, have all had minor to major faults in the 4-5 years since installation, just after the warranty period ended.
Mostly drawer and roller related, but also a pump failure.
New appliances. A matter of time until the fridge chokes itself since the coils are covered in dust and impossible to reach without tipping the whole fridge over. Also sorely regret replacing the old electromechanical washer instead of repairing it. New one fills with too little water at random and apparently it’s a controller board issue with no easy fix in sight.
Also Apple mobile devices, I understand they can’t keep supporting them forever, but the bootloader’s locked so I can’t even put something less demanding on it.
Wow you totally reminded me of this building I managed several years back now, and they all had washing machines with that only filled a few inches, maybe 8 at most.
It was explained to me by my appliance tech, perhaps he’s not entirely correct on somebody may inform me better… But he said they were built to some water savings standard from california, and rather than making different models for different markets, they just foisted the low water ones on people.
I remember endless grieving from residents. I also remember a very common complaint of the person above them using their washing machine for 9 hours a day. Well fucking yeah, try having two working parents and three kids and seeing how much laundry you can get done in those pieces of shit!
Windows 11 refusing to install on hardware it can absolutely run on.
IP rating on smartphones so there’s seals and glue everywhere and opening them up is a fucking nightmare.
Dumbest thing about those IP ratings is that they don‘t even provide any warranty rights for water damage.
“IP rating only describes the sealing properties at the time of assembly and may deteriorate with time.” my ass!
My desktop won’t run Windows 11 according to Windows 11. But if I make a VM with fake TPM on it, it will run perfectly well inside a VM on a machine that won’t run it lol
It wouldn’t install on an all-in-one PC I was selling, until I clicked the bypass options (RAM, TPM, etc) in Rufus
the worst part is that there are plenty of examples of older phones that achieved high IP ratings while also being more repairable. they just gaslight us into accepting it.
(also obligatory 🐧)
Windows 11 refusing to install on hardware it can absolutely run on.
RUFUS is not only a great tool with which to build your USB installer (it has an option to download the correct and latest ISO directly from Microsoft), but in the subsequent steps it also asks if you want to modify the installer in some pretty useful ways. Such as bypassing a Microsoft account in favour of a local account, and neutering some of the more recent requirements. IIRC the TPM 2.0 requirement can still be nerfed.
U can still force an install on older hardware, I did it on my old Lenovo laptop and have t had an issue! Just takes a command to make it install despite “not officially being supported”
I know, but many people barely know what “supported hardware even mean”, they will see the message " this computer won’t receive any more updates" and simply buy a new one.
@innermachine @bobo1900 As of recently, you can officially install Win11 on unsupported hardware, you just have to click a prompt acknowledging that you’re on your own when you do it.
However, there’s nothing saying MS won’t rugpull that and start blocking Win11 on unsupported hardware again.
Washing machines. In the stores, you see a shiny stainless steel drum, but holding up the drum is a raw aluminum spindle. Those spindles corrode with typically caustic laundry detergents to last about 6 years. Replacement was possible, with a day of work. Now, manufacturers seal the drum unit with welded plastic so replacement is impossible.
Probably doesn’t count as I didn’t buy it, so I’m technically not dealing with it. But let’s talk about electric riding lawnmowers. Last year I was looking to replace my 20+ year old riding lawnmower with an electric one. Could not find a single manufacturer who would also provide the parts lists. Digging deeper, seems like they simply do not sell parts, like at all. The mowers just aren’t repairable - straight up, if it breaks, buy a new one. That’s irresponsible when talking about an electric drill, but a full riding mower? WTF?
To be fair, this might be a chicken & egg problem. Low adoption rates means there’s a very small market for parts, so there’s no aftermarket support. And that aftermarket is where I get parts for my current mower. So maybe it’s not fair to blame the manufacturer? But I think that’s a stretch. From where I’m standing, it sure looks like intentional planned obsolescence.
John Deere ztracks have replacement part lists I managed to find on a retailer website. Most of the parts for mowers are off the shelf anyway, I would imagine the power supply stuff is off the shelf too.
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eh, they are already making the parts anyway. just make them available on order or something, not ideal but acceptable. beats forcing consumers to take a leap of faith for a product that looks pretty clearly to be disposable.
Win11… The amount of perfectly good hardware that became ewaste in October is insane to me
Samsung Galaxy S8 Pro. It’s one of these curved phones with glass on the back.
The front glass is hardened Gorilla Glass. The back glass breaks when you’re looking at it wrong. Because of the curved soapbar style, the phone easily slips out of your hand, shattering the back glass.
I am very delicate with my phones and never broke one in all of my life. The S8 was the final boss for me, though. I had to have the back glass repaired two times, one time it just fell off of my bed which is only 15cm above the floor. Fuck you, Samsung.
I work in an operating room, and have been around long enough to see multiple pieces of perfectly good equipment get replaced just because it hit the manufacturer’s end-of-life date.
I’m talking things like a several-hundred-thousand dollar microscope for microsurgery.
Basically that date means if the microscope fucks up somehow, the vendor takes zero liability, and any legal expenses fall onto the hospital… so we trash it and buy another one. Rinse and repeat after another few years.
That end-of-life date is always crazy early, and is like that 100% because the manufacturer knows hospitals would rather just treat a quarter million dollar microscope as disposable than accept liability for an equipment fault.
The waste is unreal.
The
wasteprofit is unreal.Zeiss famously ended support of a popular microscope, then destroyed all parts stored worldwide.
Does this make hospitals good for dumpster diving? I’m only half kidding, but really, how would you dispose of this stuff? Would you just donate something like that to something less immediately critical to life like a research or education facility?
One of my old jobs had a pallet full of perfectly good PSUs, o-scopes, H bridges, and a bunch of miscellaneous data cables. They were all gonna be trashed either because their projects were cancelled or had a minor flaw they didn’t want to fix. My buddies and I rescued a bunch of equipment before the company padlocked it. My advice is be discreet. Companies hate it when people recover shit they throw out whether it be perfectly good equipment or food.
That makes me really sad. Our town dump has a pay-to-dispose system for electronics like that. It’s $15 to dump anything from laptops and monitors, to ancient hulking mainframes, industrial equipment, stage lighting, and all manner of other unwanted electronic things which doubtless spent time rotting in someone’s attic or basement before finally being considered as trash and hauled off for disposal. The disposal container has always had a “no scavenging” sign that I would ignore, and I’ve found some pretty sweet loot in there. Stuff like whole gaming PCs whose only problem is a single bad component, vintage analog turntables I’ve cleaned up and repaired, etc.
Recently, the shipping container in which these items are placed by their former owners was moved to a new spot under an existing security camera, and a sticker system was implemented. I’m starting to think they might be profiting on both ends from it (the disposal fee from residents and money from a recycler/salvage?) but I’m not quite sure. More likely they’re just overly worried about liability from someone doing something dumb or unexpected, and someone getting hurt, and/or simply maintaining the appearance of accountability. The camera only sees who and what is going in and out of the container though, not what happens inside there.
My latest strategy to defeat these measures has been to buy a sticker to gain access but bring two pieces of unwanted junk: one is the paid item - my “ticket”, so to speak - giving me the legitimacy of access to the shipping container, and another secret “replacement” item. I usually find some way to make these look like a single unit, which is easy, as what constitutes a single item is defined very loosely. As long as everything seems ok with that transaction, I drive over to the spot, back up to the shipping container entrance and open up the lift gate of my little hatchback, which partially blocks the camera’s view. Then I drop my legitimate “decoy” item, quickly try to find something good in there (I make sure it’s busy when I go, so there usually is) and then do a cheeky, sneaky sticker swap onto my secret item and whisk my quarry into the back of the car. If I don’t find something worth taking I just leave the whole bundle of both items as-is.
I assume they check and count stickers sold from the front office vs. actual items stickered at the end of each day or week, but they can’t feasibly keep track of what things are or who brought what. Any items you’ve brought can remain in your vehicle while you’re paying your dues at the fee station near the main entrance, and they don’t ever ask to check it if you seem halfway competent with their system and setup. I’m a known quantity (as far as they’re aware) so the most they ever do is glance at my vehicle and make sure it still has an unexpired sticker (these are issued by the town annually) which allows me to enter the facility in the first place. Then, after payment, you have to drive all the way across the facility to an area in the back, where the disposal container is. While you may encounter another worker there, it’s unlikely for them to connect the dots or even see the actual items at all until after you’ve left. Plus they’re perennially understaffed – usually just 2 or 3 overworked guys are handling everything that happens at a dump for a town of over 40,000. They’re usually doing something far more important than trying to bust petty rule breakers, like handling the mountain of human trash generated daily by all the wonderful consumer denizens of our middle-class suburb.
If there was an incident detected - signs of malfeasance or any other cause for concern - I assume it would be a reactive choice that cameras would be more closely scrutinized, your identifying details would be collected, and an investigation would ensue if deemed necessary. Otherwise, they simply don’t have the resources to track what’s what, and just kinda wing it with a process that seems tight at first glance, but is really still partially on an honor system. I also get the vibe they’re happy to be bringing any revenue at all for the town, and don’t necessarily care much unless flagrant violations occur or someone gets hurt or a suspicious pattern is noticed. Unless you’re really unlucky, simply the appearance of innocently following the established systems of dump bureaucracy and not being a jerk is enough to avoid arousing any suspicion at all.
It’s slightly unethical, objectively, according to some, sure, and I might get caught doing this eventually – but it’s hard to emphasize just how little I care about that. I’m willing to play dumb, act sorry, promise to behave in the future, take whatever minor slap on the wrist that follows, then eventually move onto whatever other weird game I end up playing with society next which tickles me in this specific way. It’s not like I’m selling any of this stuff; I fix it up and keep it for myself unless and until I find someone else who needs it more. You could call it a rationalization for petty theft concocted by an autistic mind, maybe that’s right, but in my estimation I’m not really doing any harm, since they end up with the same net number of items in the end, plus I bought a sticker with actual money, I’m disposing of items which are actually dead and useless, and I’m rescuing something else by extending its useful life. If the new thing I’ve acquired can’t be used or repurposed, and is indeed trash, that’s my new “ticket” for next time! Everything described above fits into quite nicely into my personal framework of morality, so fuck it. Plus it’s fun!
No idea how they dispose of it. I’ve asked my immediate management chain if I can take damaged/pitted instruments that need to be replaced to donate to the local colleges - Anatomy & Physiology classes all have a lab component to dissect something, and the school I went to had instruments that were absolute garbage.
The answer was no… We just put instruments that need to be replaced in a red bin with other sharps like needles, and the bins are shipped off somewhere, probably to be incinerated.
Bigger stuff like equipment, we send to the biomedical engineering department for outprocessing. From there, no idea. Probably land fill.
I wouldn’t dumpster dive at a hospital though. It’ll be a sea of ruptured catheter bags, linens saturated with poop, and just all manner of pathogens. And probably sharps - that stuff is supposed to go in sealed red bins, but all it takes is one lazy employee and you’ve got yourself an HIV+ needle stick.
Not sure where you’re at, but the hospitals around here are pretty meticulous with sorting waste, especially segregating biowaste. I am near to Boston though, so they’re admittedly some of the best.
US deep south. The only sorting of trash I see in the hospital is sharps vs non-sharps. Outside the hospital, sorting is vitually nonexistent… there’s no recycling here, everything just goes in a landfill. It’s fucking stupid, but this is what we get for putting Nazis in charge of everything.
Having to replace perfectly functional Pixel phones because GOS stopped making updates for them. I don’t blame GOS as they’re a FOSS project and their end of support coincides with Google’s end of support, but it still feels bad replacing perfectly functional hardware. Wish release cycles were much slower so support for existing devices could be focused on, instead of having to spend time porting to every new phone dropped like every year or whatever.
I put crDroid on my pixel 5 and I’m never looking back at graphene again.
But I would have replaced it even if it was still supported. Too apple " we know what’s good for you and you don’t " for me.
I’ve never personally dealt with them and don’t ever intend to get a Switch 2 so I probably won’t deal with them, although I can imagine them being catastrophic when Nintendo eventually sunsets the console in question, but Switch 2 Game-Key Cards.
I can not understand why GKC specifically are getting targeted with the hate when the whole “Physical, but actually it’s a download key” bullshit is rampant on all systems.
Do they suck? Absolutely. But at least you can resell them, and they’re labeled. Better than “Download key in a box”
I’m targeting them specifically because although Nintendo says they’re portable and will last, what if Nintendo decides to revoke all those download keys when they sunset the Switch 2 instead of allowing them to be redeemed on the Switch 3, if there even will be a Switch 3 and the entire gaming industry doesn’t collapse before such a console has a chance to even go into conception?
You’ll have larger amounts of now-useless plastic littering landfills than with the optical discs that are glorified license keys on the PS and Xbox consoles.
Windows 11’s TPM requirements.
I recently built a brand new computer for my uncle. He was running a 3rd gen Core i7 machine running Windows 7. I get a call that it won’t boot. I do manage to get it booted, the SMART data shows the hard drive is on its last eyebrows, and anyway he’s running an OS that’s three generations out of date.
I’m a big Linux user, I’ve got my aunt running Linux Mint. My uncle is such a dunce at computers I don’t think I can do that, because he lacks the vocabulary to tell me what he wants his computer to do. “I might use it for business.” In his line of work that could mean anything from going to quickbooks.com to needing some piece of Windows-only shitware. So “Get a .exe from somewhere” had to remain intact.
For everything he actually does with that computer, that old 3rd gen i7 was fine. Replace the hard disk with a SATA SSD, maybe replace the weird 2-4-2-4 some but not all of it is dual channel 12GB of RAM with two 8 GB sticks of DDR3 and let it roll…except no currently supported version of WIndows runs on this computer.
For a large number of people, computers became objectively fast enough in 2015. That’s about when SSDs became standard equipment, fixing any hardware reason for “damn this thing is slow” even out of midrange consumer hardware. Gamers, home labbers and AI startups need more power, the rest of the world doesn’t. And that was a problem for Microsoft.
I actually see the TPM requirement as a good thing bc it will help kill Windows as a gaming platform. Once the AI Bubble bursts, gaming will be cheaper again and with a destroyed economy, many kids will start gaming as it‘s a relatively cheap hobby and their family might nit afford expensive holidays anymore. Mobile PCs like the SteamDeck need to become mainstream as sitting for long periods is extremely unhealthy, especially for children.
I’m hoping the steam frame gets more people into vr. Just standing up to play video games is so much better for you.
VR is even better, didn’t think of that. It is honestly quite annoying having to sit in a dark room at a desk to game. I‘m definitely getting a Steam Frame just so I can play normal games from my bean bag or the living room.
I hope it’s not too heavy or at least well balanced. I can only last an hour or two with the meta quest 2 and 3 until it starts giving me a headache. But I’m solidly middle aged pretty much any repetitive action is painful
And Gaben is taking more gamers to Linux each year 🥳
AI startups need more power
The only point I disagree with. Apart from a few special usecases, the AI BS can go to hell.
Got to be Apple slowing down older iPhones to mask battery degradation, and hoping no one would notice.
I’ve refused to buy another Apple product after the slow down basically disabled my iPhone 4. I was even looking at a new iPhone, but it left such a bad taste in my mouth I’ve been android ever since.
Android does this by just bloating the software out and reinstalling games I uninstalled. It’s gotten to the point that I’m not sure if its actually dialing out or not when I make a call.
This is one of the worst companies. They are about saving the planet with recycling their products. They don’t. Its all ends in landfills. Its all a grift.
Not only that, but also silently removing contacts when you didn’t update and connected it up to iTunes. That same day I bought my first android.
Not come across that one, maybe it didn’t affect iOS 16, so us iPhone X users are safe?
It is funny that all the responses so far have been about phones.
This was around ios 6 or 7. The Iphone 4 was my last iPhone.
Apple pisses me off. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that could have continued to be supported, Apple just decided it wasn’t in their best interest to continue supporting it and if I want to continue I’ll just have to buy a new one!
My MacBook is on MacOS 13 thanks to open core legacy.
Mine is on Debian 13; I love my little 13" 2012 MBP!
My 15” 2012 is on Debian 13 also.
Linux learning experience of a lifetime trying to fully get the graphics working properly, but got there in the end!
It’s funny, because if they just made this a “battery preserve” option, it would probably be hailed as genius and put in every single phone on the planet by now.
It is an option though.
I love to shit on companies for doing evil shit (like Apple removing Targeted Display Mode from their iMacs), but Apple did the right thing here, but communicated it in the worst way possible.
I had an old iPhone that would randomly shut down when it drew too much power for the old battery to provide. If they hadn’t done the fix, I would have had to get a new phone; it just wasn’t reliable anymore. With the fix, things were slow, but they worked. Honestly, this is the opposite of planned obsolescence.
I’m going to respectfully disagree; had the phone kept shutting down you would have gone to Apple or a 3rd party repairer and got a new battery for 30-80£€$.
By masking the real issue and just giving you a poor experience, you wonder if it was always like that, or if there is something wrong at all, maybe you compare it with a snappy new phone and decide to upgrade for 1000£€$
$30 to $80 is half the price of a new (used) phone.
Where are you getting an iPhone for less than $160 that still gets security updates??
I can replace my iPX for about $200 for a refurbished one, but not get an 11 which will only have 9 more months of updates. I can probably get a used 11 with an already trashed (<70%) battery for $160.
I don’t know. I usually buy used pixel devices, but that’s a good point. If you are trying to plan the replacement costs for an iPhone and you can repair the battery for $30-80, that’s a steal.
Half the price isn’t bad to get more longevity out of a phone. And a different used phone will probably have to have its battery replaced fairly soon enough, too
At that point my phone is usually cracked and worth upgrading, but with each phone I go through I try to take better care of it. But so far I’ve never liked a phone so much that it was worth replacing the battery. But I have bought the exact same model of phone 2-3 times as replacements (esp when I broke one by dropping it)
This may be the difference here, I have never broken a phone, my iPhone 6 became my dads and is still going, and my current phone is the iPX I bought over 8 years ago.
You probably need to take better care of your stuff. 😀
Story of my life lol. I have butterfingers, and am distractable in ways that end up with not taking good care of things :(
Sealed in batteries on smartphones and Surface tablets.
The device will eventually reach a point where it won’t even boot (or shuts down randomly) when plugged in because the charger connection isn’t actually wired to power the main board without going through the battery first (most smartphones) or the device consumes more power than the port is designed to deliver (Surface).
Dealing with this right now. Battery is 4 years old and going weak, decided to no longer recognize any charger below a certain battery percentage (like 72%) unless it’s wireless. Thought it bricked itself when it first happened until seeing it’s an issue with the batteries used for this model just straight up rejecting to charge for many heavy users. Getting a new phone soon since its so inconvenient while working outside.
I’ve been successful in replacing built-in batteries in 2 different phones. Granted my families phones are all > 4 years old so maybe it’s gotten much harder lately.
I had an LG phone for a few years until one night it literally just died on me. I was messing around on it one night, just scrolling randomly, then I set it down for a few minutes to play a game. When I went to check my phone again, it wouldn’t turn on or anything.
65" Hisense TV. Bought it new and 1.5 years later the motherboard died. Scoured the Internet for the part and it turned out Hisense didn’t even sell it, you had to buy secondhand used boards.
But it must have been a common problem b/c over ~6 months even the resellers were permanently sold out. Recycled it in the original packaging.
IMO companies like that should be forced to recycle every scrap of their e-waste themselves.
Should have still been under warranty?
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Yeah, just out of warranty unfortunately
This is long in the past so I’m not coming at you but for others reading this, most credit cards give you an extra year warranty on top of manufacturers.
Oh damn, probably I could have claimed that then. Thanks for the tip!
Yeah but it the scheme of life you’re not out much.
I used to repair/rebuild TVs as part of my side hustle and I can absolutely confirm Hisense are the worst for parts, and no they don’t sell them! But also think about it… they’re shit products and the capacitors on the inverters burst constantly. You’d get another year before the replacement went byebye so really? Some products you just want out of your life. If it helps you feel better.
Hisense are just disposable TVs. It’s hard for me to accept that’s how ridiculous it’s gotten with the churn of tech and gadgets.
Holy moly the stories I could tell you about how repair un-friendly they purposely make TVs… but I don’t want to get myself all wound up lol
Oof, I’m used to two as a minimum. (Looked it up, it’s by law)
it’s by law
Where?
Probably only got the 1 year manufacturer warranty
Oof, I’m used to two as a minimum. (Looked it up, it’s by law)
