£300 to replace laptop motherboard..

Donnie

poppy10 wrote: »

Forget that, if the laptop is only two years old it's definitely a SATA drive.

But you've linked to an IDE caddy.

Donnie

SATA caddy £2.97

Richie-from-the-Boro

schoolrunmum wrote: »

Does this sound about right or are they taking the pi55??? £300 to replace mainboard in a 2 year old Packard-Bell lappy....

They are taking the pi55 and both of your eyeballs.

- not for the cost of the MOBO & the replacement of the MOBO £300 is near [ high price ] right for the job

- but because they should have advised you :

- - not to replace the MOBO
- - keep the HDD
- - buy a caddy
- - buy a different puter / laptop if its really the MOBO

Why ?

Its two years old, the HDD has been replaced, the MOBO needs replacing, what next ?

Was it the same rip~off~merchants that charged you £200 for a HDD replacement ?

Your first job is to get someone to help get your photo's etc off if they are really important to you. Its a 15 minute job to pull the HDD stick it on the end of a cable and drink coffee.

HO87

Certain High St/Retail Park outlets rely entirely on the ignorance of the run-of-the-mill buyer to allow them to go for the "easiest" fix i.e the most profitable and predictable in terms of technicians time. Charging this amount allows them to replace not only the MoBo but the DC connector (a frequent cause of apparent laptop death) and maybe a fan or two while they're at it. You will probably get a repaired machine but its rather like replacing the whole engine in a car when all that was needed was a new battery strap. More importantly who's to say whether you actually got the new MoBo you paid for?

As has been suggested, find a local independent repairer and get him to look at it. I'd eat my hat (that would make two this year!) if it costs anything like £300.

Moral: Don't rush back to the High St / Retail Park to replace it. Their shops may be convenient and might look bright and sparkly but, IMHO, their prices for machines are not that competitive (regardless of all the so-called value-added services they claim to offer) when you look elsewhere and certainly aren't competitive by any stretch of the imagination for parts and accessories. As for the quality of their apparently "knowledgeable" staff one wonders quite what planet the numptie came from who assured me that the minimum length of a patch cable was 5m (it happened to be the only length they had left in stock - and I was in dire need of one to resolve a problem at home) because "it has to be that length, Sir, to develop the signal"

schoolrunmum

Thanks for all the advice guys-I'll throw it away after doing the thing with the HD..just so as you know, both times I took it in to local independant computer repair places...didn't go near PC World etc, so looks like I was just ripped off over the HD!! You live and learn hey??

Certainly wouldn't buy another PB-man in shop recommended Acer or Toshiba...any dissenters??

schoolrunmum

Donnie wrote: »

Symptoms? Is there no response/lights at all? Have you tried removing and replacing the battery?

Correct, on both counts...it did power up with the battery out, on mains power, before I took it to repair shop-doesn't even do that now!

Donnie

schoolrunmum wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice guys-I'll throw it away after doing the thing with the HD..just so as you know, both times I took it in to local independant computer repair places...didn't go near PC World etc, so looks like I was just ripped off over the HD!! You live and learn hey??

Certainly wouldn't buy another PB-man in shop recommended Acer or Toshiba...any dissenters??

Almost certainly. Raw materials, maybe £50.

You might get more for your money with an ACER, but I would get a Toshiba and get their extended warranty with Data Protection for another £50 or so....since you seem to be a bit unlucky with computers.

As to "needing a new motherboard", did they describe the problem exactly?

Hammyman

closed wrote: »

A new hard drive costs around £40.

Very nice. I assume it fits itself in the machine and installs the OS and all the applications too? If not, the cost of the hard drive isn't the only cost if the OP is paying someone to change it.

schoolrunmum

Donnie wrote: »

Almost certainly. Raw materials, maybe £50.

You might get more for your money with an ACER, but I would get a Toshiba and get their extended warranty with Data Protection for another £50 or so....since you seem to be a bit unlucky with computers.

As to "needing a new motherboard", did they describe the problem exactly?

All they said was,something was shorting out on the MB...

Donnie

Hammyman wrote: »

Very nice. I assume it fits itself in the machine and installs the OS and all the applications too? If not, the cost of the hard drive isn't the only cost if the OP is paying someone to change it.

So you think £160 is a reasonable charge for labour in this case?