laptop died - repair or replace?

da_murphster

My trusty Asus F3Jp has given up the ghost.

It was tightly backed in the boot of my car - fine before it went in - utterly dead when it came out. The car is pretty shaky and the boot gets pretty hot (rear engined car) - it was in there for hours as I drove back from holiday.

I have:
-tested the charger with an ammeter - its fine.
-Cleaned all the contacts,
-taken off the back (not taking it apart but the back for acess to the fan, memory etc) and checked everything I can see,
-tried to use it without the batt in place

I am getting nothing, no charging light, no noise, no fan, utterly nothing.

I have just rung a local computer shop who said they would send it away and expect a bill of £70+ for diagnosis...which could obviously be that its dead.

Do I give up and spend £500ish replacing it (need something that can edit photos) or is there a cheper way of getting it diagnosed?

Laptop spec.....

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2006/11/09/Asus-F3JP-Core-2-Duo-Notebook/p4

TIA!

Hammyman

The annoying part is that its probably just a fuse thats blown or a dodgy connection. Sadly because they're now SMD devices a couple of mm long, finding them is a right mare. I just bridge them with suitably rated fuse wire but it involves stripping the laptop right down and there's a good hour doing that and putting it back together plus the fault finding. Take out the battery and measure the voltages on the pins. If there's nowt there, it could be a dodgy charge socket or blown fuse. If there's voltage there, check the corresponding pins in the laptop slot. Next the memory - try taking it out and refitting it.

Second hand value for a runner in reasonable condition would be in the £250 mark. It may be worth taking the HDD out, shoving it in a desktop to retrieve your files and wipe it then punt it on Ebay either as individual spares (if you're OK taking it to bits) or as a non-runner. There's a good £150 in parts - memory, HDD, keyboard, screen, screen hinges, wifi card, plastics, charger, battery. Hell, I'd buy the HDD off you if its a SATA one as I've got a laptop I'm prepping which could do with a bigger one in

Donnie

Someone pointed this Acer Aspire 5542 for £299 out to me earlier.
Not recommending it, just letting you know.

Personally, I prefer this Toshiba Satellite A500-1GL for £434.

Specs here