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-the redhead-
theredhead
30 November 2005 @ 11:27 am
Is it really worth...  
...several hundred dollars to have the laptop 'looked at'? That's before any repairs *glares at stupid ThinkPad*

Man, I wish I knew enough about these things to be able to figure out what's wrong with it. I'd have no problem buying a new motherboard or whatever. It sometimes works for a little bit, then just stops. Black screen, no drive access. It's not the drive - at least I know that much now, having paid the nice people to pull my email files off. I have no clue how to diagnose it (esp. when it won't boot all the time) and know I should not go swimming in the 'opening up laptop to mess around with things' end of the pool without a lifejacket and a boat and a rescue diver. Or at the very least one of those cute Australian lifeguards ;) Most computery things I can bumble through - this is not one of them 'cause if I mess it up beyond repair then I'm totally screwed.

At least I have one that someone was kind enough to loan me for a few days.

-the redhead-
 
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Brown Eyed Girlbrowneyedgirl65 on November 30th, 2005 08:35 pm (UTC)
Hm...it's hard to guess from way over here, but when you describe things like random failure to boot, random black screen, etc. (but drive is OK -- thank goodness), well that's got to be involving the power supply or the motherboard. Both of which can be kind of pricey to track down and fix. And when it comes to computers, both the parts and the labor are $$.

Oh. hey, battery. Have you tried getting another battery for it and seeing if that was any better?

It's a thinkpad? How old? No warranty, I"m assuming (you might check; I was convinced mine didn't, but it did, and so I was out a grand total of $47 and four freaking days for shipping costs). It might be more cost effective and less frustrating to replace. As before ,ebay might have some good deals. When I go there and search on thinkpad I'm seeing stuff between $500 and $800, which is why paying a couple hundred to juat have it looked at may not make much sense.
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-the redhead-theredhead on December 1st, 2005 04:48 pm (UTC)
No, definitely no warranty. It did seem kind of crazy they wanted several hundred dollars just to look at it, but then I'm not very familiar with the whole computer repair scene at any rate. The problem with the whole issue comes down to being between jobs. With funds being tight, spending more than oh say $50 hurts.

The ThinkPad is several years old at this point. I do agree with you and think when it took that bump something went wonky with the motherboard or power supply - dislodged or cracked or some such. The way it acted seemed to lean towards something getting unhappy once the machine heats up. From what I understand *if* those were the problem then it's not so outrageous to buy new ones - the trick lies in figuring it out in the first place.

The more I stare at it the more I'm tempted to open it up and poke around, but not knowing what I'm looking at in the first place is an issue. When they put instructions on the internet about stuff like this, it's with the expectation that you already have a basic clue *smile* - therein lies the rub.

So today I will just be pleased with the fact that I haven't thrown it out the window. Yet...

-the redhead-

PS - do you have any idea how I get to the BIOS on a Dell to turn the crazy-making touchpad thing off?
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