Guidelines

Welcome!
You found your way to the Repair Wiki! A wiki where we collect everyone's findings on repairing electronic devices, so it's all in one place.

{{#tag:tabber|Layout & Navigation=

Page Structure
Pages are generally structured by section headers, and a table of contents that lets the user quickly find the section they're looking for. When you create new pages or edit existing ones, try keeping the general layout the same, namely:
 * Product / Guide Introduction
 * Main Problem Table for the product
 * Links to references / other guides on the wiki.

New Page
To write a new article; enter the article title in the box below (or on the homepage) to create a page with a preselected boilerplate. Make sure to include the full device name & model number in the title when appropriate. (Example: A2159 2019 13" MacBook Pro) If you don't finish it, insert  at the top of the page to signify it's a work in progress.

Move
If a page has an incorrect title, you can move it:


 * 1) Mouseover the   tab in the top right and click.
 * 2) Give the page a   and click.
 * 3) For normal pages, don't change the default namespace (Main).
 * 4) Note that if you move a category page, pages belonging to it will need to be recategorized manually.

Delete
Ask one of the [ wiki admins] in the Discord.

Other options:

 * If you don't want to have it truly deleted (to come back later to work on or archive it), or can't wait, then give the page a title that's not in use nor will be found. Just be sure to add the link of the page in the  tab of the place it got moved from, so people know it's still there if it was decided on being moved.
 * You can also add it to the Stub category by inserting  at the top of the page too for the off-chance someone else can grow it. Visit Stub Pages to help out those with the most need of contribution.

Minor changes
Once on a page, click  or   (recommended) in the top right of it to begin editing.

Everyone starts small! If you want to add some information, fix typos or add a few links, go ahead.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents (TOC) is inserted automatically on articles with more than three section headers.

You can move the TOC somewhere else by inserting  on the page in the source editor.

To align the TOC to the right, insert the Template  instead at the top of the page, right underneath the first header.

To disable the TOC on the page, insert

From the tab:
Section headers are added by using equal signs. Each indentation to a new level gets an extra equals sign surrounding the name (i.e. Level 2 gets 2 equals signs on each side, Level 3 gets 3, etc.). Level 1 headers are reserved for the title and should not be used (i.e. =Example=).

Level 3 header
Text

From the tab:
First, highlight the word you want to become a section. Then click on the  dropdown menu. There you can see the hierarchy of section levels and select the one you want. It's also possible to make use of the shortcuts listed after highlighting. Section order (from highest to lowest):  ->   ->   ->

Major Changes
While you can make as many contributions and changes to different articles as you'd like, major changes to the general layout of the website need to be discussed first. If you're hesitant about a change you would like to implement, explain your ideas in the Discord, so that others can comment on it beforehand.

All edits are publically viewable and reversible through the  tab, so don't be afraid you to make mistakes. For larger edits it's advised that you state what's changed so others can stay informed. You may also want to share the information in the Discord to bring further attention to it and inspire participation.

If you're changing other's work substantially, giving the author a heads up preemptively would also be wise to avoid conflict.

Source Editor
The source editor is recommended in general, but especially for adding categories. Simply add  at the bottom for your product page.

If you're using the page creation box, you will see  preloaded in the editor. Replace "Name" with your own category.

Visual Editor
To categorize a page using the visual editor, go to, then the triple stacked bars (i.e. page options) and click on. Under, start typing in the category you would like to see this page under. If the category already exists, select that one. If not, you can create a new category (which will have its own, unique URL for this). If you want it in a subcategory, type in the category that is a subcategory.

When you're finished, click on the name of the category. To add another category, type another one in and repeat. There's no limit to the number of categories a page can be under. To delete a category created, click on the category name. There will be a trash can icon to click on. Click  once done. To see the page under the category, go to the category URL and it will be seen under. This will be separated from the subcategories (as pages aren't categories, only categories are).

Hierarchy
The standard category format is  .

Only add one or two categories per page, and make sure a relevant category doesn't already exist before you create new ones.

All product type categories should be a subcategory of Category:Product Repair Guides.

Say you're making a repair guide for the new MacBook Pro, you'll want to add the article to the   category.

But since Apple has many lines / series of laptops, you'll want to specify further by adding the   category as well.

If a brand does not have a wide product stack, further categorization is not necessary.

If your article applies to more than one or few products, it likely belongs in Category:Board Repair Guides.

If it's even more general than that, it belongs in Category:General Repair Guides.

Notes:
Formatting=
 * Once you save a category, changing it becomes cumbersome, so make sure you get it right. New subcategories can be added however.
 * Often a category will have a separate gateway article with links to specific products. Check the URL to make sure you're on the right page.
 * If a link to your page doesn't show up, try clearing the cache: Firefox / Safari: Ctrl-R (⌘-R on a Mac) Google Chrome: Ctrl-Shift-R (⌘-Shift-R on a Mac)

MediaWiki
This wiki uses MediaWiki Formatting, which is also used on Wikipedia. (Also known as Wikitext - there's a link to general help about MediaWiki / Formatting in the sidebar.).

Internal Links (Repair Wiki)
Main Page

Standards page

Result:
Main Page

Standards page

If the link is red, either the link is wrong, or the page doesn't exist yet.

However if you want a page to redirect to another page, you can use the following:
 * 1) REDIRECT Target Page

External Links (other websites)
Consider archiving your links to avoid link rot.

From the tab:
Right to Repair fundraiser

Result:
Right to Repair fundraiser

From the tab:
After highlighting the text to use, use the hyperlink symbol or CTRL + K to add a link.

Result:
Donate to the GoFundMe

Put line breaks on a new line, so people know they're there.

Use  for line breaking all elements, including images.

Tables
To add a classic Problem & Solution table, fill in the template named "ProblemTable" or copy / paste the following into the source editor:

Result:
To add a new row, simply define as many  and   parameters as needed.

In-line Tabs
, for 3 tabs:

Uploading & Embedding Files
Click Upload File in the sidebar to upload files.

Once uploaded, insert either of the following at the top of the page:

or

Example:


Make sure to reference the image in the solution text, ie. "See Fig. 1".

You can search for images in the public domain here.

Templates
You can create your own template or find what's already created here Category:Formatting templates. Boilerplate templates are portions of information that get copied/pasted. If you edit the original, all the copies will change accordingly.

Transclusion
You can include a page inside another page with.

Make sure to use  to not duplicate too much content (search engines don't like it).

Note:
Make sure the page or Template you're transcluding has its categories inside noinclude tags:

if you want to link to a category instead, colon symbol in front of it:

Code text:
A highlighted blue box around text that's inside it.

Source editor: type in

Result:
Visual editor: copy/paste from text that already has it.

Warning:
Watch out for writing before and after the box, because they might get mixed into the box itself, when it shouldn't. Suggestions & Discussion=

Suggestions
If you have suggestions for how to improve the wiki, you can leave them on Talk:Repair Wiki

Talk Pages / Discussion
Every page has a Talk Page associated with it.

Click on  in the top left to leave a comment on it, then add   to insert a user signature, like so:

It is probably easier to just use the Discord, but it's a good use for leaving notice board-like notes.

Responses
When responding to someone in the talk pages, do it on a new line and prefix your message with  to give it indentation.

This is the OP speaking. Patrolin (talk) 02:43, 5 May 2021 (PDT)
 * This is a response to OP. Karar (talk) 02:57, 5 May 2021 (PDT)
 * Here I've used double colon punctuation  to respond to the message above. Patrolin (talk) 03:00, 5 May 2021 (PDT)
 * Another response to OP. Karar (talk) 02:57, 5 May 2021 (PDT)

Video Project=

Louis Rossmann's Repair Video Project
A project is underway to transfer information from all of Louis Rossmann's repair videos onto this wiki.

To avoid duplicating effort, we are using Google Sheets. Please mark videos as 'Done' when you have added their contents to the wiki, or confirmed that they are already on the wiki.

Searching through captions
You can find captions by video URL here

Ctrl+F and paste the part of the URL after. For example: QnowcxcO2-0

Viewing schematics and boardviews
Copyright=
 * Search for schematic and download a .pdf file
 * Search for boardview and download a .brd file
 * Open the .brd file in a Schematic viewer

Copyrighted Materials
Your articles may not contain or link to copyrighted materials as this puts the Wiki at risk of being litigated against and taken down.

This includes, but is not limited to, patented schematics, instruction manual PDFs, other people's images, plagiarized problems/solutions from online articles etc.

Only original material or material for which you own the copyright and are consenting to release under the appropriate open-source licence may be posted to Repair Wiki.

If you make a new page, you don't need to ask for permission, but make sure to list your sources and ask them for permission as-needed. You can even give yourself or someone else credit by inserting }}