laptop repairs

Kimberley

Is it true that if a fault in a Laptop is internal it would costs hundreds to repair, therefore you may as well buy a brand new one?

Nile

Hello Kimberley

I'll move your thread to the 'Techie Stuff' board.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Nile

finbow

I had my laptop looked at by a local shop recently and they quoted 300-400 repair costs. PC world wanted me to pay over £200 towards the repairs before even giving me a quote.

I'd advise finding someone local (yellow pages or such) and seeing if they'll give you a cheap quote (a lot of places charge 40-60 for a quote), I was told that the power socket going is common in laptops and that costs a few pounds to repair, but as in my case its often cheaper to get a new laptop. :rolleyes:

5bellies_2

Kimberley wrote: »

Is it true that if a fault in a Laptop is internal it would costs hundreds to repair, therefore you may as well buy a brand new one?

How long is a piece of string?

There are two major components financially to a laptop - the screen and the motherboard.

Thesedays, thanks to the general rise in the number of TFT screens in common use, the screens have plummeted in price. However the motherboards can, in most cases, still be expensive to replace - especially on a model that has a high failure rate.

It very much depends on the make/model but a motherboard for a 2 year old laptop can be as little as £70 secondhand - or as much as £250 new.

Given that you can sell a 2 year old laptop on Ebay for spares for £70-£100, and that a new machine can be only £300 then repairing a two year old machine with a £250 motherboard is excessive, but repairing it with a £70 board is not.

5bellies_2

finbow wrote: »

I had my laptop looked at by a local shop recently and they quoted 300-400 repair costs. PC world wanted me to pay over £200 towards the repairs before even giving me a quote.

I'd advise finding someone local (yellow pages or such) and seeing if they'll give you a cheap quote (a lot of places charge 40-60 for a quote), I was told that the power socket going is common in laptops and that costs a few pounds to repair, but as in my case its often cheaper to get a new laptop. :rolleyes:

I still find it disgusting that so-called repair companies charge for quotes.

I set up in business nine years ago fixing computers, and have always done no-fix no-fee and free quotes. I charge for written quotes but they're only needed for insurance purposes, are added to the claim, and cover the fact that the insurance company will grill me at times for an hour about the claim.

I could put an advert in the Yellow Pages offering repair services, charge £40 a pop for a quote to make a living and never repair a thing. I'm sure some people do.