Shop fixed laptop last week, now broken again!

norangeduck

Hi Guys,
Just wondered if anyone can offer advice...

I took my laptop into an independent shop as my laptop would not power on - anyway they wiped and reloaded it, costing me £70

I have had it back just one week, using it a few times, no issues, then I try and turn it on and the same problem occurs. I take it back, and they now tell me its a different problem (it's over heating) which they say now its not worth repairing (laptop is nearly 5 years old). They said that the original problem was solved, and now this is a different problem.

Now, where do I stand with this - I understand that of course they have worked on the laptop, spent time on it - but 1 week later I have a dead laptop again - They have offered £70 off a new laptop (Acer V5) which I can have for £300 - the thing is I can buy this in argos for £300 anyway, so I'm not gaining this £70.

I did mention about getting half of my money back - which I feel is reasonable - I haven't pushed this as yet, as I wanted to check out this acer v5.

What do you think??? Am I being unreasonable to ask for some money back??

Thanks for the help!!

closed

make and model

you switch it on, what happens, any lights, anything on screen, any beeps, does the power lead wobble

how did they wipe it if it wouldn't power on?

norangeduck

yep the lights come on - no ones home - you can hear the laptop working, but then nothing on the screen - I can sit there and turn it on and off for about 40 mins- then it will eventually work like nothing was wrong.

it was an acer, dont know the model, its in the shop now!!

They say its overheated and appears to have cause permanent damage

closed

difficult to diagnose if it's in the shop, but £70 is on the steep side for a factory restore/reinstall, which you could have done yourself with about 5 keypresses/clicks as mentioned in your previous thread. If the machine was powering on, and they didn't backup your data, then their input/time/effort would be miniscule.

norangeduck

Well they backed up my photos and documents - but I lost my microsoft programs which I now discover is costly to buy!!

But I'm just wondering if I should push the refund aspect... could be co-incidence that there were 2 problems with my laptop in the same week - or did they just overlook the over heating in the first place.

closed

They couldn't have reinstalled windows if it wouldn't power on, so what state was it in when you took it in, and what did you say the problem was?

I'd be pushing for a refund, but you may not get anywhere.

diy next time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TUz1oDNN10

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=57850511&postcount=3

and backup properly then you won't lose programs or data

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCGQJmQqQuI

norangeduck

I mean I lost word - they told me they couldn't back that up - only documents and files. and it would be restored to factory settings.

The state I left it in was that it would take ages to turn the computer on, which needed to be turned off and on several times before it would work - once it was on it was fine -

And now apparently its really had it - though they are still telling me they can transfer my stuff on to the new laptop (should I buy it) so, surely it can still turn on for them to be able to do that.

bod1467

If they'd already backed up your data then it doesn't matter if it can't turn on now - the data is ALREADY backed up.

g33kb0y

When it comes to rebuilding machines they can take a bit of time.
Factory restore, apply patches, backup files etc.
I dont think the price was too unreasonable which would have taken some time. Remember they are running a business to make a profit. I know you will all disagree with me, sorry.

Back to the problem.

Its quite common for one problem to show up as a different problem. This may be whats happened in your case.

If it was my laptop I would probably check the following. (I understand not everyone is comfortable with messing with laptops).

If its overheating, can you check the vents on the laptop? quite often I find thick pieces of 'felt' that have built up over time on the inside of laptops. Once removed this can often cure the overheating problem. This does mean doing a bit of dismantling.

If its a bit temperamental booting up, could it be the RAM that is bad? Again I have seen this kind of behavior with laptops in the past. Does it have more than 1 stick of ram?

Sorry to hear about loosing Word. Unfortunately there isn't much more you can do unless you have the original install media.
If you cant find the install media there are 2 choices left, Buy again or use something like 'open office'. Its adequate for most purposes and free.

A test that I like to try on a laptop is to run UBUNTU from a dvd. I dont install it, I just run it from the dvd. This lets me see if the hardware is ok. Again this test may not be for everyone but it does normally prove to people that their screen, hard disk etc isn't broken.

If you want my advice, probably not having read my notes above, I would consider buying a new laptop. I would also invest in an external hard drive so that I backed up my important data (Its heartbreaking to tell someone that they have lost all the pictures of their children).
Then I would investigate the old laptop again. using some of the tests above. If its broken... then you cant do any more damage

but then its easy for me to spend other peoples money..

hope you have some luck with the laptop. and sorry if everyone else disagrees with my points.

tomfun

I`d ask them what work did they carry out on your laptop first time.

If they say it`s overheating then why haven`t they cleaned the heatsink/fan and changed the thermal paste ?

It sounds like the gpu could need reflowing ,have you tried an external monitor ?

jaydeeuk1

Will cost you another £70 at least for them to dismantle and clean up. Might not even fix it, GPU could be at fault if its an nvidia, capacitors might have leaked.... They could have done it at the same time and charged £140, but you would have been demanding a refund if their work didn't fix the problem. And if it did fix it, would you have been happy paying that?

Its like car mechanics, you try the most likely culprits - usually the cheapest and easiest to check first, and then work your way down.

£140 on a 5 year old acer isn't worth it imo. PC repair place done nowt wrong, its the price you pay when you haven't any techie mates.