How much is it to get a laptop fixed?

2

2_hotty

Gawd
Joined
May 9, 2002
Messages
610
Quick question. I have an old laptop that I got from work for free. It won't turn on. When it's plugged in, and you hit the power, the lights come on for a second, then just turn off again. On battery power, it does nothing.

I have seen where some of you have said that you work on laptops, and I was wondering if you could give me a ballpark figure on what repairs cost. I know it's hard to do without seeing it, but I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to try and fix it. Not to mention I have no idea where I could take this thing locally to get it looked at. So if any of you know any good places around Detroit that could fix it, let me know. :)

Anyway, thanks.
 
What kind of laptop is it ?

My old Dell did the same thing. Processor wasn't in the the socket all the way and would turn on for a sec and turn off.

5 minutes fixed that for free ;)
 
It's an old C series Dell. :) I don't have it here at the office with me, so I don't know the actual model number. I'll love it if that's the problem.

I'll crack it open tonight and take a look, thanks for the response!
 
With most of my customers I tell them up front laptops are expensive to work on, parts and labor.

I doubt I'll pop open the case of another laptop for less than $100 system scan charge to even look at it.

so many of them are so damn fragile its unreal, not to mention the cramped space, shielding for FCC regulations, etc... royal pain in the...

My official stance is it isn't worth fixing unless you can do it yourself.
 
if it's a latitude, it isn't that much for parts, including motherboards.

Sounds like either a bad battery or a bad mobo.

You can get a replacement mobo for $35, however I would try switching out batteries first.
 
Funny thing is, I opened it up and had no idea what I was looking for. Maybe a shoelace untied or something. Tie it back up, and be all set. Well that wasn't the case, so I poked around a little bit, closed it back up, turned it on, and for the first time ever, the damn thing posted! It's passworded though, and it's so old that my boss didn't remember the password. He actually didn't remember that it had one. The screen had horizontal lines running through it and it was all grainy, so even if I could get the thing to boot, I think it's almost dead anyway. Now when I get it to turn on, it hangs on the Dell post screen.

It's almost personel now, lol, I NEED to get this damn thing to work.
 
It does sound like a loose processor. When you take the keyboard off, the cpu is in the upper right hand corner. There's a silver heatsink on top of it with two screws. You can take this off and check the cpu.

There should be a clip in the lower left hand corner of the cpu that anchors it to the mobo. It might have been removed if it was worked on previously. Anyways just press down on the left side of the cpu (that's where the socket is), and replace the heatsink.

You can also probably reset the bios by unplugging the bios battery. It's right above the system battery on the lower left hand side of the mobo (looks like 4-5 watch batteries in a plastic sheath). Unplugging it and letting it sit for a while should reset the bios password.

As to the LCD, the cpi has a vga out port. Hook an external monitor up to it and see if you get the same lines on the screen. If yes, it's a mobo problem, if no it's an lcd problem. You can try reseating the lcd ribbon to the vid card (which sets above the mobo), and also the vidcard to the mobo which tends to pop off pretty easily.

If you really want to get it working you can replace the lcd pretty easily, and cheaply ($79).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top