Microsoft wrote off a laptop because it can’t repair the webcam

Can you please ask Microsoft how it can possibly quote £427 to fix the webcam in my Surface laptop?

My only option to get it working is to pay this for a service that, in this case, means replacing the entire laptop. This seems like madness, and hardly in the spirit of the founder’s work to combat climate change. It seems to me that Microsoft needs to greatly improve its products’ repairability.

CM, by email

I, too, thought this must be a mistake but the company has confirmed that what you say is correct, which I agree looks crazy. “Microsoft does not yet have repair capability available for this component and country, therefore repairing only a webcam for this model is not possible,” it says.

However, there is a tutorial on the excellent iFixit website that shows you how to install a new webcam, so try this if you are feeling brave or know someone technically up to it. As an alternative, you could use a USB plug-in model.

The UK badly needs the kind of “right to repair” legislation that France is moving towards.

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