PC world wanted £249.99 just to look at my laptop, I repaired it for.....

no.1swimmum

I am so proud of my son and myself, we have just finished our own laptop repair, all for nothing other than our time and PC world wanted £249.99 just to look at it - no parts etc included.

I noticed late yesterday that my laptop was no longer charging, even thought the power cable was plugged in, I removed the cable and noticed that the power socker inside the laptop had moved and a connection was no longer being made, although I could move the socket carefully with a needle (:eek:) I couldnot get the two to marry up. So paid a visit this morning to the local pc world, only to be told how much they wanted and there was no other way of repairing it.

So when I got home I decided that it was no good to me if I could not charge it, nothing ventured nothing gained I would have a go myself, so eldesto son looked up on his laptop a website that advised on how to take apart our specific laptop. So working slowly and carefully on a cream sheet we followed the step by step guide, I now know where my hard drive is and what it looks like, how to remove my dvd drive etc and got to the piece we needed. It was a bit like a brick with the socket in the middle that slotted into two pieces of plastic, one of which had partially broken, so using some electrical tape and the padded sticky fixer we have held the piece in place and then worked backwards to put everything back. I really did not think that it would come on but as I am typing this thread on it, this speaks for itself, I am so proud that we managed to do it, but not too sure if my son had not helped, whether I would have tried it on my own. I just hope my repair lasts.

Lil306

no.1swimmum wrote: »

I am so proud of my son and myself, we have just finished our own laptop repair, all for nothing other than our time and PC world wanted £249.99 just to look at it - no parts etc included.

I noticed late yesterday that my laptop was no longer charging, even thought the power cable was plugged in, I removed the cable and noticed that the power socker inside the laptop had moved and a connection was no longer being made, although I could move the socket carefully with a needle (:eek:) I couldnot get the two to marry up. So paid a visit this morning to the local pc world, only to be told how much they wanted and there was no other way of repairing it.

So when I got home I decided that it was no good to me if I could not charge it, nothing ventured nothing gained I would have a go myself, so eldesto son looked up on his laptop a website that advised on how to take apart our specific laptop. So working slowly and carefully on a cream sheet we followed the step by step guide, I now know where my hard drive is and what it looks like, how to remove my dvd drive etc and got to the piece we needed. It was a bit like a brick with the socket in the middle that slotted into two pieces of plastic, one of which had partially broken, so using some electrical tape and the padded sticky fixer we have held the piece in place and then worked backwards to put everything back. I really did not think that it would come on but as I am typing this thread on it, this speaks for itself, I am so proud that we managed to do it, but not too sure if my son had not helped, whether I would have tried it on my own. I just hope my repair lasts.

Good work, from reading your description it sounds like the DC power socket broke away from the motherboard and so it was shorting out or not getting power

I need to do that myself with my laptop, although I'm going to solder it back together. My laptop is fubar

BLT_2

no.1swimmum wrote: »

I am so proud of my son and myself, we have just finished our own laptop repair, all for nothing other than our time and PC world wanted £249.99 just to look at it - no parts etc included.

I noticed late yesterday that my laptop was no longer charging, even thought the power cable was plugged in, I removed the cable and noticed that the power socker inside the laptop had moved and a connection was no longer being made, although I could move the socket carefully with a needle (:eek:) I couldnot get the two to marry up. So paid a visit this morning to the local pc world, only to be told how much they wanted and there was no other way of repairing it.

So when I got home I decided that it was no good to me if I could not charge it, nothing ventured nothing gained I would have a go myself, so eldesto son looked up on his laptop a website that advised on how to take apart our specific laptop. So working slowly and carefully on a cream sheet we followed the step by step guide, I now know where my hard drive is and what it looks like, how to remove my dvd drive etc and got to the piece we needed. It was a bit like a brick with the socket in the middle that slotted into two pieces of plastic, one of which had partially broken, so using some electrical tape and the padded sticky fixer we have held the piece in place and then worked backwards to put everything back. I really did not think that it would come on but as I am typing this thread on it, this speaks for itself, I am so proud that we managed to do it, but not too sure if my son had not helped, whether I would have tried it on my own. I just hope my repair lasts.

PMSL, using sticky tape you have probably done a better job than PC World would have done. I wouldn't trust that lot to clean the keyboard on my laptop let alone take it apart.

My favourite memory is going in one day and asking whether the portable drive case would take a SATA or a PATA drive. The 'advisors' response was 'what is a SATA drive'

I promptly walked out and bought one on ebay

aliEnRIK

I wish everyone thats been 'duped' by PCWorld would get together and sue the ar*e off them

HO87

BLT wrote: »

My favourite memory is going in one day and asking whether the portable drive case would take a SATA or a PATA drive. The 'advisors' response was 'what is a SATA drive'

I promptly walked out and bought one on ebay

Mmmm. Yes. Two PCW horror stories.

In the middle of setting up a new switch a couple of years I dashed into the local PCW one afternoon and asked an eager, young assistant for a 1m patch cable that had not been included with the switch. We walked over to the cable display and he handed me the only version they appeared to have - a branded 5m length - which, IIRC, they wanted to rush me £29 for (it was certainly well over £20).

I asked if they had any shorter lengths as I only needed to connect two units which sat one on top of the other to which he replied (with not the vaguest hint of shame) "No its only available in one length, Sir. They need to be that long in order to develop the signal". Spluttering in astonishment at his unadulterated bull I hastily left, drove for another 10 minutes and picked 2 unbranded 1m cables in a pack for £4 at a local independant computer shop.

About the same time a neighbour gave us a PC he'd got from PCW asking us to try to rescue their family photos from the hard drive. It had died and on taking it to the PCW repair desk they'd rushed him some ridiculous amount to tell him that the MoBo had failed and advised him it would be cheaper to buy a new model (It was only 2-3 years old). Some 90 minutes later, having fitted a spare 330w PSU, it was returned, in full working order just in time, fortunately, to prevent them going to buy a new one.

totalsolutions

Well done good fix.

Next time resolder the parts together. Computer parts ARE available cheaply (46p)

PS Two posters there is no need to quote the OP message, this is threaded to the original, just a waste of internet bandwidth not necessary.

aliEnRIK

HO87 wrote: »

About the same time a neighbour gave us a PC he'd got from PCW asking us to try to rescue their family photos from the hard drive. It had died and on taking it to the PCW repair desk they'd rushed him some ridiculous amount to tell him that the MoBo had failed and advised him it would be cheaper to buy a new model (It was only 2-3 years old). Some 90 minutes later, having fitted a spare 330w PSU, it was returned, in full working order just in time, fortunately, to prevent them going to buy a new one.

PCWorld absolutely LOVE to tell people they need a new motherboard when theres nothing actually wrong with it. They must make a [STRIKE]fraudulent[/STRIKE] killing on it

firbyfred

my son had a really noisy fan on his laptop, i found a website that I could download various laptop's step by step manuals, the ebook cost about £2.80 to download, it was really easy to dismantle the back off the laptop and remove the fan and clean and oil it.
I saved a small fortune.

Esqui

Can I just point out that the laptop repair is £229, not £249 and does include parts.

That said, I have yet to speak to anyone who it's actually a good idea for

BLT_2

totalsolutions wrote: »

Well done good fix.

Next time resolder the parts together. Computer parts ARE available cheaply (46p)

PS Two posters there is no need to quote the OP message, this is threaded to the original, just a waste of internet bandwidth not necessary.

Damn, if I had known the bandwidth police were in the house I wouldn't have used those additional kb's :-)

Dollardog

firbyfred wrote: »

my son had a really noisy fan on his laptop, i found a website that I could download various laptop's step by step manuals, the ebook cost about £2.80 to download, it was really easy to dismantle the back off the laptop and remove the fan and clean and oil it.
I saved a small fortune.

Would you mind telling me the name of the website please?
I am getting a laptop soon that has a few problems - sticky keys on the keyboard - I know I can use another keyboard, but it wouldn't be so portable, and a problem getting on to the internet. Might need to take it to bits to find out if there is anything I can fix, but not well up on the insides of laptops.
TIA