My classic Sony CRT TV won’t turn on. It’s icy in my living room because my Mitsubishi heat pump isn’t producing enough warm air. I want my Japanese N64 to play American games too, but I was too busy to open the hood. What if I had an AI companion that could talk to me?
iFixit has just released a voice and text chatbot for this, which can supposedly assist you find a repair by simply talking to it – FixBot will ask questions, and you can also share photos. iFixit claims to “think aloud with you, just like a lead technician would, until the diagnosis is in place.”
After trying it out, I definitely wouldn’t trust iFixit’s FixBot to guide amateurs like me through an costly or risky repair, and the app needs work too!
You can talk to it live and it’s usually a good listen, but there’s so little visual feedback that I can’t tell if the AI is busy thinking or if it’s completely wrong. I can’t just point the camera and expect the bot to see what needs fixing: it requires a clear photo, and sometimes the capture button doesn’t work. Initially, I was also only able to transfer these photos while talking and not typing, due to a bug in Samsung phones that the company has already fixed. (If you’re curious, the iFixit attachment button told me it only accepts PDF files.)
Let’s start with the easiest repair, the Nintendo 64, because it illustrates FixBot’s strengths and weaknesses. In this case, iFixit already has a detailed guide on how to unlock the N64 regionand I just wanted to be sure how to open and close the console. I started text chatting and basically just read the existing iFixit guide: Slide out the memory expansion module (or jumper) and remove the six GameBit screws.
When activating FixBot’s voice mode, it was nice to just talk to the phone and hear reassuring voice prompts such as: “You’re halfway there – you need to remove three more screws from the bottom before you can remove the top cover. Keep it up!”
What wasn’t so reassuring: a sudden clatter as the N64’s two front legs popped out and hit the ground. Even though iFixit’s written guide says to remove them before flipping the console over and removing the top cover, FixBot didn’t offer the same warning. iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens tells me that won’t always be the case: He says that in a few months, FixBot’s voice mode will display full iFixit guides and allow you to browse them by voice, rather than highlighting spoken directions.
How tight should I tighten the screws when reassembling? “There is no specific torque value; just tighten the screws until they fit snugly and you feel resistance. Don’t overtighten to avoid stripping the plastic threads,” FixBot told me when I asked about it, and that sounds like good advice.
However, when it came time to shut down the N64 again, it didn’t shut down properly and FixBot was barking up the wrong tree for a while. This suggested that I should make sure the novel adapter was seated securely (it was) and that the N64’s legs weren’t stuck inside. Before I could protest or show a photo of the problem, the app informed me that I only had 15 minutes of free FixBot Voice per day and that my time was up. (Wiens tells me he will escalate the limits immediately, at least until he gets a paid plan for $4.99 per month).
After talking to EdgeWiens says: “We are going to add an Alpha label to Voice Mode. This is an early feature and we should label it as such in our announcement.” The label is available from Wednesday afternoon.
Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge
Instead, he texted the bot and suggested that the N64’s power or reset buttons, or their springs, may have fallen out of place or moved off track (they didn’t). I quickly found the actual reason, but it took me a few more times before FixBot finally suggested what even Google Gemini told me when I first asked: you need to line up plastic power button guide with power switch on the motherboard when lowering the cover.
It was basic fix where iFixit already has a guide. What about the more arduous and risky one? I recently got lucky and inherited one of the most sought after classic gaming TVs, the Sony PVM, from a local retro gaming club. When I brought it home, I found that it wouldn’t turn on unless I poked the power cord. What did FixBot say about it?
Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge
Initially, FixBot seemed to be asking the right questions and giving the right warnings. “CRT monitors pose particular risks, so before opening them, we need the exact model number, which is usually found on a sticker on the back. While you are checking this, can you tell me if the power light is completely off or is it flashing?” – it asked. “We have to be especially careful here,” it was later explained.
But then it was suggested that I should “discharge the anode before opening the case”, which is impossible because the anode is inside thing. It was also suggested that I should slide the discharge tool “under the lip of the rubber anode cap”, which is a bad idea for an amateur, partly because this procedure is risky and partly because this type of PVM glues the plugs in place. They can be easily broken, CRT database founder Andy King tells me; instead, it’s better to unplug these monitors and let them self-discharge for a longer period of time.
To be fair, my second conversation with FixBot was after the company sent me the TV’s factory service manual, and this time it suggested self-discharge. “Since it is a high voltage device, Before opening the case, make sure the monitor is unplugged and waited for a while” – it was written, warning that cathode ray tubes could carry a deadly load.
But then FixBot suggested that I should remove the TV’s main circuit board and reconnect the solder joints to the TV’s power circuits – even though the main board of this device not included this power circuit and even though the reason why my screen won’t turn on is because the power cord itself is damaged.
FixBot didn’t even ask me to check the power cord until I suggested the cord was problematic; it assumed that I should immediately start disassembling huge pieces of the TV to remove the wrong circuit board. Even after I agreed to replace the cable, the “Recommended Action” was to find the board, check the power connector solder joints, and re-melt the solder in hopes that this would make them safer.
“I thought you wanted me to replace the cord,” I asked. FixBot’s response: “It looks like the cable may be the problem, but cracked solder joints are often the cause.” The bot suggested that I might as well re-solder the perfectly good solder joints at the same time, since I had already opened the TV.
While this may sound like a trying experience, I got something out of it: I had never heard of adhesive-coated heat shrink before, so I ordered some to help me fix my TV wire. FixBot also helped me with my Mitsubishi heat pump by reminding me that I really need to clean its filters more often. She provided a long list of ideas, including this one.
But so did other chatbots that don’t pretend to be repair experts when I asked them the same question. Before I told FixBot that cleaning the filters had seemingly restored my heat, I instead followed another piece of advice: I provided the exact model name of my heat pump and truthfully said 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-repairable parts,” without checking to see if I had actually cleaned the filters.
When I ask iFixit’s CEO about the difficult experience and whether FixBot should really let users think they can fix unsafe TVs while turning off the HVAC, he explains that LLMs can only analyze what they see. In this case, they likely saw the TV’s factory service manual written for qualified technicians, who would already diagnose something as simple as a faulty power cord, and the HVAC manual, which likely suggested calling a technician. In each case, the LLM played an appropriate role.
“When we write troubleshooting procedures in iFixit, we start with the power cable and work our way up,” 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 older technology.”
I agree, but then why should I try this fix? Should it really rely on role-playing when iFixit guides aren’t available? We spend a while debating without seeing eye to eye. “The overall goal is that everything can be fixed,” he says, suggesting that FixBot will be the solution. But: “I think we have an obligation to do better with FixBot when it comes to certain dangerous technologies like cathode ray tubes and microwaves.”
I appreciate iFixit’s repair efforts, guides, and high-quality tools, but FixBot doesn’t strike me as one of them yet. I hope things get better for you! Wiens says FixBot has already helped with 15,000 successful repairs in its beta version and plans to continue improving it.
After our conversation, Wiens started by adding a general warning to FixBot’s voice mode: “Warning! Voice mode is an alpha feature. We think it’s nippy, but it’s experimental. We’d love to hear from you!”
Update, December 10: iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens contacted us to let us know that the company will be adding an “alpha” tag to FixBot’s voice mode by the end of the day, and the tag is now available. He also explained how a future version will enable viewing of iFixit guides.