I was unable to fix it using iFixit’s AI FixBot

My classic Sony CRT TV won’t turn on. My living room is cold because my Mitsubishi heat pump is not releasing enough hot air. I want my Japanese N64 to play American games too, but I was too busy to open the lid. What if I had an AI companion to talk to me?

iFixit has just released a voice and text chat software To do this, it should help you figure out fixes just by talking to it – FixBot will ask you questions, and you can share photos too. iFixit claims to “think out loud with you, in the same way a lead technician would, until the diagnosis is put in place.”

Having tried it, I definitely wouldn’t trust iFixit’s FixBot to guide hobbyists like me through an expensive or dangerous repair, and the app needs to work too!

You can chat with him directly, and he usually listens well, but there’s so little visual feedback that I can’t tell if the AI ​​is busy thinking or just plain wrong. I can’t just point the camera and expect the robot to see what needs to be fixed: that requires a distinct photo, and sometimes the photo button fails. I was also only able to upload those photos while speaking, not typing, due to a bug with Samsung phones. (There, iFixit’s Attachments button told me it would only accept PDF files.)

Let’s start with the easiest fix, the Nintendo 64, because it demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of FixBot. In this case, iFixit It already has a specific guide to unlocking the N64 regionAnd I just wanted to build confidence in how the console opens and closes. I started chatting using text messages, and just got a reading of the current iFixit manual: Remove the memory Expansion Pak (or jumper), and remove six GameBit screws.

With FixBot’s voice mode activated, I found it pleasant to just talk into my phone, and get reassuring voice prompts like, “You’re halfway there—you have three more screws to remove from the bottom before the top cover can come off. Keep it up!”

What wasn’t so reassuring: the sudden clunk when the N64’s front feet popped out and hit the ground. Although iFixit’s written manual says to remove them before flipping the console over and removing the top cover, FixBot did not provide the same warning. It won’t always be this way, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens told me: Within a few months, FixBot will walk you step-by-step through iFixit’s complete guides.

How tight should I tighten the screws when reassembling? “There’s no set torque; just tighten the screws until they’re tight, and you’ll feel resistance. Don’t overtighten them to avoid stripping the plastic threads,” FixBot told me when I asked, and that seems like good advice.

But when it came time to shut down the N64 again, it didn’t shut down properly, and FixBot stuck around in the wrong tree for a while. He suggested I make sure the new adapter was fully in place (it was), and that the N64’s feet didn’t somehow get trapped inside. Before I could protest or show a photo of the problem, the app told me that I only had 15 minutes of free FixBot Voice per day and that my time was up. (Wins told me he would lift the limits immediately, at least until his $4.99-a-month paid plan hits.)

Instead, text messages with the bot indicated that the N64’s power or reset buttons or springs may have fallen out of place or gotten out of the way (it didn’t). I found the actual reason quickly, but it took another second before FixBot finally suggested what Google Gemini told me the first time I asked: You need to… Line up Guide the plastic power button with the power switch on the motherboard while lowering the cover.

That was it easy Fix where iFixit already has a directory. What about the more difficult and dangerous matter? I recently had the good fortune of inheriting one of the most sought-after classic gaming TVs, a Sony PVM, from a local vintage gaming club. When I brought it home, I found that it would not work unless I pushed the power cord. What did FixBot say about it?

At first, FixBot seemed to be asking the right questions and giving the right warnings. “CRT monitors have certain risks, so before we open them, we need the exact model number, which is usually on a sticker on the back. While we’re checking this, can you tell me if the power light is completely off, or is it blinking?” he asked. “We have to be very careful here,” he later explained.

But then he suggested that I “discharge the anode before opening the case”, which is impossible because the anode is like that inside The case. He also suggested that I place my vacuum tool “under the edge of the rubber anode cap”, which is a bad idea for an amateur, partly because this procedure is dangerous and partly because this style of PVM glues the caps in place. You can break it easily, one CRT expert tells me; It is better to unplug these monitors and allow them to self-discharge for an extended period instead.

To be fair, I had a second conversation with FixBot after the company downloaded the TV’s factory service manual for me, and this time it suggested self-unloading. “Because this is a high-voltage device, Please make sure the screen is disconnected and left on for a while before opening the caseShe wrote, warning that CRT tubes could carry a lethal amount of charge.

But then, FixBot suggested that I should remove the TV’s main circuit board and reflow the solder connections to the TV’s power circuit – even though the main board on this unit Does not contain That power circuit, though, is why my monitor won’t turn on Because the power cord itself is broken.

FixBot didn’t even ask me to check the power cord until I suggested the cord had a problem; I was supposed to jump right in disassembling huge parts of the TV to pull out the faulty circuit board. Even after I agreed to replace the wire, the “recommended action” was to find the board, check the solder connections for the power connector, and re-melt the solder to hopefully make it safer.

“I thought you wanted me to replace the wire,” she asked. FixBot replied: “It looks like the wire may be part of the problem, but cracked solder joints are often the root cause.” The robot suggested that I might as well re-solder perfectly good solder joints while I was there, since I had already opened up the TV.

Although this may seem like a difficult experience, I got something out of it: I had never heard of adhesive-lined heat shrink, and I ordered some from them to help me fix a TV cord. FixBot has also helped me with my Mitsubishi heat pump, reminding me that I really need to clean its filters more often. I came up with a long list of ideas including this one.

But so did other chatbots, the ones not masquerading as a repair expert, when I asked them the same question. Before I told FixBot that cleaning the filters had apparently restored my heat, I followed her other advice instead: I provided the exact model name of my heat pump and told him truthfully that the heat pump’s main status light was green.

FixBot jumped down a rabbit hole of potential problems before concluding that I should call an HVAC technician instead because the problem “went beyond user serviceable parts,” without checking whether I’d actually cleaned my filters.

When I asked iFixit’s CEO about the difficult experience, and whether FixBot should let users believe they can fix dangerous TVs while keeping HVAC systems off limits, he explained that LLMs can only analyze what they see. In this case, they’ve likely seen the TV factory service manual written for skilled technicians who have already diagnosed something as simple as a broken power cord, and an HVAC manual that might suggest calling a technician. In each case, the LLM course played a role accordingly.

“When we write iFixit troubleshooting procedures, we start with the power cable and work our way up to the end,” Wiens says. “But we don’t write service manuals for CRTs,” he says, later adding: “I don’t know if it’s reasonable for us to expect that for 30-year-old legacy technology.”

I agree, but why let me try this fix? Should you really rely on role-playing when iFixit guides are not available? We spend time discussing without seeing eye to eye. “The overall goal is to be able to fix everything out there,” he says, suggesting that FixBot is the solution. But: “I think we have a responsibility to do a better job of using FixBot in some serious technologies like CRTs and microwaves.”

I appreciate iFixit’s right-to-repair efforts, guides, and quality tools, but FixBot doesn’t seem to be one of those tools yet. Hope it works better for you! Wiens says FixBot has already helped with 15,000 successful repairs in the beta, and he plans to continue improving it.