FOAK: Laptop repairs

My bird's laptop has packed up. It won't charge, so it seems the charger
connector has probably broken off the PCB. Does anyone know of a decent
repairer? I'm probably up to the soldering, but dismantling things like this
is always an absolute PITA.

 

Likely as not it will need a new motherboard if the connector has snapped
off the pcb (almost certainly if it's a Dell). Motherboards are often up to
12-layer pcbs and a bitch to solder. Ask over on uk.adverts.computer for a
chap called Paul Durkin (used to run ITDealers.co.uk). He's now got a *very*
reputable laptop repair business.

JB

 

It's an Acer that's a couple of years old. TBH it's tempting to bin the
piece of shit and get something half decent like a Toshiba. The connector
outwardly looks fine, but there's obviously *something* wrong with it.

 

Not the power pack or the battery?

 

Greybeard just fixed a very similar fault on my mother's. Good service,
very reasonably priced. HTH



--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

If you want to send it to me, I'll have a look and let you know the likely
cost.
If it's not viable or too pricey all you'll have to pay is the return
courier, about 8.90 UKP IIRC.

email in sig works if repaired.

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy2!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200-03
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

Where are you? I'll have a hunt for a laptop shaped box. It's got work for
the bird's disseration on it so it could do with fixing...

 

I may have a IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X32 for sale very soon for a reasonable
price.

 

Might be worth whipping the drive out and backing it up using an
external caddy before you send it anywhere, then.

 

Specs and age?

 

From memory, 'cos I can't get Solaris to display a decent dmesg on it
atm:
1.8 GiggleHurtz Centrino w/ 40GB HD, 1.5GB RAM. Wifi, wired ethernet
and all the usual Centrino-spec stuff. It's the 12.2" ultraportable in
case you were wondering (JFGI).

Comes with the "bottom half" docking station with integral DVD and all
that bollox as well. Battery is in good nick - I use it on the train
quite often (well, I use it when I take the train) and it does hold
enough to get me to London and back. So it's good for at least two
hours if not longer.

Age? Hmm. I bought it used and I think I found that it was about six
months old back then, so that'll make it roughly two years old by now.
No idea of the warranty status but I think it may well be just out of
warranty. It's still in very good nick as I don't use it that much.

It does come with a valid Windows license but the git I bought it from
reinstalled Windows manually instead of using the restore partion so
the latter went tits up. IBM will flog you a set of restore disks which
I haven't bothered to get, but I think that would be a jolly good idea
as most of the special IBM software is missing. Not that you can't
download most of it.

AFAIR it's in the books for around 275 but as it's my company laptop
I'd have to charge VAT on top of that. That's still a rather good price
- they tend to sell on ebay for ~300 without the baseplate which means
that this would be without an optical drive, and the cheapest
baseplate/docking station is around 70 quid...

 

emailed;

Newmarket, Suffolk.

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy2!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200-03
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

_Very_ good suggestion.

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy2!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200-03
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

You might want to check the drive for photos too before you send it
away. You just can't be too careful with these laptop repair folk.

 

Hey!
Don't spoil _all_ the fun ;o)

--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy2!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200-03
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

You should see what he puts *on* it.......

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

A bit more examination (a bit more than being told it's not working)
suggests the charger is at fault. The LED on it's not lighting up. It
appears to be a standard liteon item so hopefully it won't be too hard to
find another (strange cable with a plugthat looks similar to an IEC "kettle"
lead but is like three bits of macaroni stuck together, going into a little
switched mode looking box that goes to a normal laptop style plug at the
other end).

 

If it helps, Compaqs, some IBMs and pretty much all Dells use this kind
of cable. Won't help the guy at PC Woe, but it's proper useless info
anyway .

 

That's not too serious.
PSU bricks are not to hard to find, and prolly around the 30 quid mark.


--
Greybeard

FLHR -03 UK (95 cu-in Stg 2. Big Boy2!)
Trumpet Trophy 1200-03
Garmin Zumo 550, To get me home!

ukrm@foxtails[dot]co[dot]uk

 

That's a standard 'cloverleaf' plug.