Is it worth fixing

Thenig

Hi All

I have a Acer Aspire 5050 Laptop which i have been told the motherboard has shorted, and i need a new motherboard. I have been quoted £150 for the board and the fitting etc. My question is it worth it, or if i could source a board, is it a difficult job to replace it myself?

Thanks for reading

Nig

motorguy

Its usually very time consuming to fit a motherboard as it underlies everything in the laptop.

Personally, i would sell the laptop on ebay as 'spares or repair' - describe the symptoms of what its doing, but dont say 'it needs a new motherboard' otherwise if thats not the problem you could be hit with a 'not as described' claim.

You could well find what it makes plus your £150 would buy you a brand new laptop.

Thenig

Thank you!

wacko911

Who told you it was the mainboard and are they trying it on?

What does the laptop do when you turn it on?

Screen - does it light up but stay black, is anything dispayed or does it stay black?
If it stays black try the laptop connected to external monitor.

Lights - Charging light, HDD, Power light etc, any of these come on or flash

Beeps - Any bleeping or other sounds eg windows sounds?

fan - does it spin (feel for moving air at the vent or listen for it) Does the vents look dusty or blocked. Very common to have the fan blockup totally with dust.

What was the last thing you were doing when it broke? E.g. Did you attempt to flash the BIOS or apply an ACER update of some kind?

Does it have any liquid damage?

Was it dropped?

Have you tested the charger with a multimeter or swapped the charger with another? (only the the event of no power/no charging)

Is the charging Jack on the laptop loose or broken?

Just to give us an idea of how broken it is. I've bought other broken laptops before of ebay (£50-60) to fix a broken m/b but like someone said its really tedious, takes hours and you could end up wasting good money for a scrapper on ebay and be no better off.

If you do go down the selling for spares route, in the past I've got more money selling it in bits than as a whole. Obviously more effort, but I got £180 for parts, as opposed to £50-80 as a whole unit. (The buyer will only want one component e.g. the screen).

Thenig

Hi

The laptop wasnt dropped or any liquid over it. it was on charging and it died. No lights at all, wont ever switch on. The light on the power pack dims and flashes. have tried a different power supply and the same thing happens. I thought it might be the jack, so i got a electronics guy to look at it and he diagnosed the short ( said it clicked when the power was put on it).

Sorry im not really techniqually minded.

Thanks

Nig

wacko911

Yep sounds like a short alright, did he disassemble it and test if the short is across the jack? Worth a shot as a spare jack is only a coupe of quid if ur anyway handy with a soldeing iron.

rob_green

Hi,

I would use one of the guy's that advertise no fix no fee. I used one on gumtree and had a laptop and netbook, both sorted for £20

x12yhp

At that sort of money and at the value of the machine.... I would just not bother. For not a whole lot more, you could get a new machine...

chunter

House insurance? Spill a cup of tea over it.

If the motherboard's shorted and is fixed, who's to say it won't do the same again a month down the line.

There are some decent reusable components in your laptop - eg RAM, hard drive, screen, keyboard. It's worth a reasonable amount of money. Don't let someone walk off with it for nothing. The screen is worth 50 quid for a start.

It's the big gamble with buying a laptop. If the hardware breaks, you're into big money...

Laptop motherboard replacement is not to be attempted by a man with a screwdriver.
The thing has to be almost completely disassembled (with the proper service manual), and leaves you with a 100 piece 3-dimensional electronic jigsaw.

Thenig

Thanks everyone for replying.

seatzie

pmsl @rob_green......why does this sound familiar?