I agree with Walt though. For most SMD boards replace is cheaper then repair from a pure time/effort perspective (cost to Garmin to make a new board is cheaper then time/effort to fix a broken). The problem is that Garmin and others seem to have a healthy margin in their price which would allow an independent shop to come in cheaper if they could repair ... .
Oliver
Oliver,
Don't forget that many of the electrical components needed to make PC boards for most products go out of production at a very rapid rate, so it is very unlikely that Garmin can still make the PC board(s) used in the SL 40.
It is more likely that at the end of the production run, Garmin invested heavily in a sizeable group of spare parts to insure that the SL 40 would have a decent service life.
Anyone that designs/sells electronic devices knows that the expensive parts obsolescence battle starts when the product is released (or before), and only ends when the product is taken out of production.
Steve
It’s the idea that you need to pay a substantial fraction of the new price when the fault might be trivial to repair, that makes owners very unhappy.
Bob,Steve, I agree with everything you wrote. And if, in fact, Garmin has the only source of some parts, then they will get that business. But by refusing to sell the latest service manuals, they take away the small jobs that a repair shop might be willing to take on. It’s the idea that you need to pay a substantial fraction of the new price when the fault might be trivial to repair, that makes owners very unhappy.