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Trained repair professionals at hospitals are regularly unable to fix medical devices because of manufacturer lockout codes or the inability to obtain repair parts. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, broken ventilators sat unrepaired for weeks or months as manufacturers were overwhelmed with repair requests and independent repair professionals were locked out of them. At the time, I reported that independent repair techs had resorted to creating DIY dongles loaded with jailbroken Ukrainian firmware to fix ventilators without manufacturer permission. Medical device manufacturers also threatened iFixit because it posted ventilator repair manuals on its website. I have also written about people with sleep apnea who have hacked their CPAP machines to improve their basic functionality and to repair them.
PS: he got it repaired.
And put grapheneOS on it.
Btw I’ve never been charged to look at a phone and I have two pixels, assuming their claim is accurate either the other poster was being scammed or they were buying it online and the online store wanted a deposit to prevent theft or cover damages before shipping it so they could “see it” (which isn’t something I’ve ever heard of but I suppose it is possible.) Either way I doubt it has much to do with the pixel itself, but I could be wrong I suppose, it has happened before.