A friend of mine brought me a laptop motherboard for repairs. He said it doesn't charge, and maybe I should take a look at it. He didn't know anything more.

So I take a look at it. I see it has components removed in the charging part. REMOVED. And really cleanly too, so that it would seem it was like that since the beginning. The charger port was also replaced, but that was done well.

I told my findings to my friend, he said he'll look into it. Sometime later I figured out what the components were and put them back, and the mobo came back to life like it was new.

At that time my friend told me what had happened. The laptop was sent for repairs to some repairshop and they told the owner this machine is fucked permanently, but we'll sell you a new machine. wth. WTH !
He was just as much in shock as I was, especially since he also worked with computer repairs and was my coworker at one point.

This is complete insanity !