Laptop Repair - I never want to do that again

[faulkner132]

We had a Dell D510 (Celeron M 1.4) laptop fail at work here due to a faulty motherboard. Instead of purchasing a replacement, a decision (not mine) was made to repair it.

The quick and dirty to this story is I thought the cheap, paper thin plastic parts were going to break about 50 times while I was trying to get the thing apart. The hard part wasn't disassembling or reassembling the unit, but making sure not to break the pieces.

Considering the price of the motherboard was approaching more than the value of the laptop, I would just offer advice to anyone who is thinking about trying to fix one to consider a replacement instead. Just get a warranty on the machine and if it breaks outside the warranty, replace it.

[nocturnx]

I've had to repair laptops at work here also. Definatley not worth it. Its also a pain to figure out which screws went where when your trying to piece it back together lol.

[mairving]

Bunch of wusses. It isn't that bad generally with Dells at least. They have the complete diagram online. I've replaced a couple of motherboards without much problem. It does seem though that every time I end up dropping one of the tiny screws and not be able to find it.

[Lespaul20]

I replaced a IBM A22m motherboard to fix a suspected problem and it didn't' fix it. I had such bad time replacing I just sold it with the replacement motherboard in it and included the old one with it. I hear where you are coming from.

[thefultonhow]

I've repaired my share of laptops. I kind of enjoy it, actually -- it's a fun challenge to get everything apart and then back together. It does annoy me when companies make a repair harder than it needs to be though (as with hard drives in Sonys and most Apples).

[jer888]

I wish someone would make a form factor for laptops so it wouldn't be a problem.