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Obtaining Replacement Parts for Your Laptop?
halosfan asks: "I recently broke the LCD bezel (the plastic thing that holds the LCD and related wires together) on a laptop that I bought half a year ago. I checked eBay as well as a few online stores specializing in laptop replacement parts, but still couldn't find the replacement. I contacted the manufacturer, but they were absolutely useless. Local laptop repair shop said they wouldn't replace the bezel without replacing the LCD, which isn't acceptable. It is an extremely frustrating situation, as the bezel is a minor part that I otherwise couldn't care less about, but it is necessary to carry the laptop around. I am wondering what other ways are there to obtain a laptop replacement part? Also, any recommendations for manufacturers that are good about making obscure replacement parts for their laptops available to the general public?" Does your laptop manufacturer make it easy or hard to get the necessary replacement parts?
Last time my Discman broke, they wanted to charge me over 100$ to replace the lil' spinny thingie inside of it because they'd replace the whole bottom part of it.. which includes the lens and pretty much all the electronics.. Laptops are the same, your best bet with a laptop is to take a good extended warranty and pray you don't need to use it..
Duct tape.
My side hobby is auto-repair and restoration. Together, my father and I have restored several vehicles (1970 Pontiac GTO Judge, 1969 Triumph Bonneville T120R, 1968 Chevrolet Corvair convertible, and a 1982 Volvo GL to Mustang 5.0 conversion, if anyone here cares,) and one of the best things we did was to scavenge junkyards for 95%-complete vehicles that were just rusting away. If we got one with a good body, but a blown engine, then that would be our project car, and we would just scavence a rustbucket that was still good under the hood and swap out the drivetrain.
When I took a job in the IT field and began repairing computers, I applied this same logic. If I had a laptop with a cracked case, but the internals were still fine, then I would try and scavenge a laptop with a dead motherboard that still had a good case and was discarded because it just didn't work. You can easily swap out things like that. I've done it on several Dell Inspirons and IBM ThinkPads, you can have a couple "parts" machines going at once and just get replacements from those. Sometimes on eBay you get lucky and find an auction for something like "Pallet of 100 Broken ThinkPads" for $50 and you can get some serious finds. If you want to take a bit of a risk you can even try "dumpster diving" outside of office buildings, schools and libraries. Often times when something breaks or is very obsolete these places will just toss it out. My favorite find so far was an IBM ThinkPad 486, complete, with two working batteries and all the cables in a case, that was just sitting in a dumpster because it was too old to run modern software.
Find out who the case manufacturer is - most cases are made by Taiwanese manufacturers, even brand names. One of the biggest is HyperData Direct - check their web site to see if they carry a generic case part for your laptop.
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This is why I dropped the jack for an extended warrenty. Normal ware and tear has cracked the back hinge on my laptop in less then 6mo. It still works okay but its a crack. Before my 3 years is up, this thing is getting fixed so that it will have some life left it in.
Same goes for the keyboard
The touchpad (which is already honky cause it took a static electricity shock)
And the CD drive
etc etc etc.
If you are just going to buy and sit and never work to get shit replaced, then yes -- the warrenty coverage is worthless. Buy it and use it, and then you have gotten something.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
to make it hard.
Even batteries, that ought to be a commidity, are still expensive. $147 for a 760e ThinkPad battery? The laptop isn't worth that much.
Always been real happy with Dell and its replacement of busted laptop componets. Although this was as a corporate customer and if they need to replace other parts (the LCD in this case) to fix the problem, it was always warrantied work and no extra cost came to me because of it. I'm guessing the author is a home/personal user, which if the laptop was purchased new I'm surprised the replacement isn't warrantied (don't most come with 12 month warranties?).
It's becoming more common these days for 'custom' parts like these to be bundled.
I recently broke a wiring harness on my girlfriend's Pontiac Aztec. I could replace it in about five minutes if I could get Pontiac to sell me the part. But they won't, not without purchasing the entire headlight module, for 300 dollars.
Your best bet is to do what I'm doing for that part - namely, hitting junkyards(in your case, eBay). Another possibility is to find a user's group/forum for these laptops - I know when I had a Sparcbook, there was always a guy or two with broken ones who would send you some weird random part.
I just ran into the same thing. The hinges on my laptop screen can no longer hold me PERFECT LCD screen vertical. ~$600 to replace the LCD/hinges. Jerks.
=====
imagetweak.netWeb-based image t
...idiots. RTFP.
Suits up fireproof jacket...
There's a site called PB Parts that has Apple laptop parts. I replaced my iBook HD there and my brother replaced his PowerBook keyboard with a part from there. Some of their prices are a little high, but still cheaper than getting it repaired by Apple or a reseller if you don't have a warranty.
I work at my college servicing the IBM ThinkPads that the school leases. (There's your background
The manufacturer should have replacement parts as long as the thing is under warranty and possibly a while after.
I've probably replaced about 4,000 LCD bezels by now and I know exactly what you mean.
The place that was trying to replace the ENTIRE assembly on you was doing nothing more than trying to rip you off BIG TIME. LCDs can cost more than the laptop their in, and that piece of plastic probably costs $.50 to make. (Even though IBM charges ~$50 for one)
I recommend just trying harder to contact the original manufacturer.
Question everything
When it comes to plastic parts, like bezels, I usually resort to delicate use of epoxy and super thin reinforcements.
My experience with plastic repair parts is that they are usually not sold separately, and are hard to find unless you can cannabalize.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Try ebay, if you can't find it there you may be in trouble. :)
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
Was this accidental damage, or a manufacturing defect? Given that it's only half a year old, it should still be under warranty (assuming it's not accidental damage, such as you dropping it on the floor). You should be able to just send it in to the manufacturer and have them either repair it for you or ship you a refurb or new one.
I have purchased replacement batteries and a replacement keyboard for my aging Dell Inspiron 3700 from laptopsforless.com. I wasn't terribly impressed with the lifetime of the batteries - they wore out in just over a year, whereas the original Dells had lasted 18 months before dying (I can be hard on batteries). The keyboard was a refurb, but has performed adequately.
You could always buy a sacrificial laptop on eBay and use it for parts. If it's old enough, it won't cost you too much.
How cool would it be to pay $50 bucks to the local woodshop teacher to make a custom bezel?
Reminds me of the little diddy they said in Brave New World, and piped into the heads of children at an early age: "better to spend than to mend". It seems our society is geared more towards the "just buy a new one" mentality nowadays. *cough*iPod*cough* Personally I'd find a way to MacGuyver a new part or fix it so that the device was still (safely) usable until the day I either do find a new part, or break it beyond repair.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Yeah, but did he check Ebay? I found a replacement part there.
... for laptops: A new laptop.
Seriously, though. I used to fix laptops. Typically the LCD and bezel came as one part, and couldn't be purchased separately.
I usually have no problem getting what I want from Compaq as long as the following conditions are met:
:-(
1. Have a lot of money
2. Compaq/HP actually has the part listed
3. Compaq/HP actually has the part in stock
4. Compaq/HP actually ships the order
5. I finally give up and buy a new laptop
Hope this helps
Sorry I almost forgot:
6. ???
7. Profit
My next Slashdot post will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Or, what you do, is you buy from Costco and return the machine every 5 months... that ruse was cooler a while ago when you could have it for a year and then return it...
My neighbour bought appleCare and boy did THAT pay for itself. His screen just up and DIED. First it turned weird colours and then it just died. Luckily he had appleCare, because at the time it was a $1200 repair!
So, extended warranties (the more extended the better) are WORTH every penny on laptops. You hope and pray you never need it, but when you do need it, and you don't have it, yer fucked big time.
good luck,
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I had snapped off the metal hinge that attaches the LCD panel to the base. (And my laptop is out of warantee) I looked up part numbers in dells online manuals, called a Dell representative, and $40 later, they sent me the part, no fuss whatsoever.
I was actually really surprised that the process went so smoothly.
Why aren't you encrypting your e-mail?
Laptops aren't meant to be serviceable. They're meant to be sealed up like a Pharoah's tomb and left alone for eternity, because everything inside is laid out just so, and all those printed wire ribbons are fairly delicate. It's hard to get replacement parts without going through an authorized repair depot. The manufacturer does not have the money to put in a system for ordering parts piecemeal.
If you buy through authorized dealers, you get this thing called a warranty and a service contract. They're pretty good for getting your laptop fixed. I broke the LCD on my Sony Vaio, and they fixed it and the noisy fan which I didn't even ask about. Same with a co-worker and his Dell, he broke the hinge and Dell fixed it.
My best solution for you is to find another dead one on Ebay and scavenge the corpse. The other solution is to make friends with someone at a repair depot so they can backdoor you a piece here and there.
Ebay is a great place to trade notebook parts around and around... unfortunately the prices go up for the small parts as they become seperated from their original computer (buy a used, broken notebook for $50, sell HDD for $40, sell LCD for $60, sell CD-ROM drive for $20, etc).
No, the answer is JB-Weld (www.jbweld.net) or a similar epoxy. It's the modern nerd answer to tape on your glasses.
pbparts.com has come to my rescue so many times, I can't think of buying a tiBook again without having a relationship with these guys ...
... can't do it with a Dell!
Anyway, tiBook. The best 'user-replaceable/serviceable' laptop you can invest in. *tons* of after-market parts.
I've replaced the case on mine 3 times. Not easy, definitely like gutting a fish and expecting it to swim again, but hey
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
I bought a Toshiba 3110CT laptop right when they were getting phased out so I saved some bucks. I sunk $300 for 3-year warranty support.
I dropped the laptop while it had a wifi card sticking out of it. PCMCIA slot now can't register any cards. Brought it in to the Warranty shop, they gave me a new motherboard. 1 day turn-around time.
Dropped again, Harddrive died. Asked for a a new harddrive and they did it while I waited.
Best money I ever spent.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Nope. Mollusk snot.
C|N>K
He said he didn't find anything on eBay....but I wonder if he checked eBay? Maybe he should check eBay.... Yeah, I'm feelin the magic.
Some of PB Parts prices were REALLY high. When the inverter cable running through the hinge to my iBook monitor frayed and shorted (I've had hinge issues with both my Apple laptops - my Wallstreet hinges actually cracked!) they were charging $100 for it. Apple charged even more to repair the whole thing. As it turns out, Small Dog sold the part for around $30, although you have to talk to their techs directly to get the price quoted. I'd familiarize yourself with PB parts prices first, and then go ask Small Dog.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
According to the Ministry of Duct Tape and High Voltage, the tape was a by-product of World War II. In 1942, after numerous cases of ammunition were destroyed by humidity, the United States government turned to wartime supplier Johnson & Johnson, hoping for a fix. J&J promptly responded with a waterproof tape dubbed "duck tape" by the military due to its ability to repel moisture like water off a duck's back. It did the job admirably, and soldiers soon found an assortment of other uses for it as well.
After the war ended, the resultant housing boom inspired yet more uses for the material. Homeowners soon realized how effective the tape was at sealing off ducts -- leading to a change in name (from "duck" to "duct") and color (from army green to silver).
Duct Tape. =)
#6495ED - cornflower blue
Before you laugh, you can make your own parts in plastic.
Plenty of books out there to teach you how to create a mould and cast your own out of scrap plastic.
All it takes is a bit of patience.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
IBM is just great with Thinkpads. The service manual for all Thinkpad models is available online as a PDF file. It has incredibly detailed instructions for assembling the laptop from several hundred FRUs. You can order the FRUs from IBM or cheaper from a number of resellers. They seem to keep good stock on parts for older models.
A few years ago a friend of mine dropped her T20 Thinkpad onto asphalt from about 4 feet. It made quite a mess. I thought that it was going to be a total write-off, but I found the IBM info, ordered about $150 of little broken bits and restored the thing to perfect working order in about a week. It was great.
I've been a devoted Thinkpad fan ever since. I bought a new keyboard for my T23 recently, it took about 5 minutes to order the right part and another 5 minutes to install it. IBM really does do service manuals and parts the way you think a big company should do it.
jeff
He is in the sweet spot -- the time where his new-ish machine is obsolete, but not enough have died yet for their parts to become available on ebay. If he waits a couple of months, the parts should start to become available.
The problem with ebay is that all the electronics sellers have decided that $10 is the minimum shipping charge, even on a small part. I had a guy charge me that for an LCD inverter (weight: less than 1 ounce) and mail it to me unprotected in an envelope 1st class ($0.37 stamp).
If the part prices are truly a problem, he can desktopify the laptop and get another, they are cheap these days. I did that with a Thinkpad T23 with broken LCD -- it is now a firewall/spam filter left on 24/7.
I've owned a bunch of IBM Thinkpads, and have done various things to them (replaced keyboards, etc.). As far as I'm concerned, their support has been really, really, good.
You can download full service documentation (with exploded parts diagrams) from their public web site, and the parts organization does a good job of (a) helping you figure out the right part number and (b) actually selling it to you.
The prices for what I've needed seemed generally reasonable (~$50 for a keyboard). In one instance, though, I discovered that to fix an intermittent DC power input jack they wanted me to replace the DC converter module for $150. Since I only paid $450 for the machine in the first place, I wasn't about to do that, but I was able to use the on-line manual to disassemble the thing far enough to resolder the DC jack myself.
Compare this to my Sony Vaio, where they won't even tell you how to replace the hard disk.
So, at least until something changes I'm sold on Thinkpads for serviceability.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it.
We have the technology.
We have the capability to build the world's first aluminum laptop.
This computer will be that laptop.
We can make it better than it was before.
Better. Stronger. Faster.
You can get it repaired with CA glue (Check hobby strores) or take it to a place that does motorcycle body panel repair, and have any missing parts re-melted and formed.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
I needed a "new" notebook, so I bought an eBay'd Compaq Armada M300 - under 3 pounds, under $400. Great stuff, runs any operating system like charm, has 2-hourish battery life. It has a slow proc and only 800x600 graphics, but it is cheap, disposable, light, etc.
Then I dropped it, and it landed on the inserted wireless card. The machine seemed fine, but the PCMCIA guts inside got sheared off the daughterboard. Compaq's durability was not at fault, IMO, just my stooopidity.
I went to the HP partsfinder, and _every_ little piece was available, most of them at good prices. The daughtercard was $35, and the instructions to replace it were online. Strangely, the only expensive things were the commodity parts - memory, cpu, hard drive, etc. And the LCD, of course - they always are.
However, not satisified with that, I went to ebay and searched for the part number - and got a new daughercard for $15.
Moral: stick to models that the big corps are buying, if possible. Their IT shops don't suffer the higher prices and foolishness that consumers buying consumer models do. Corollary: see if there's a corporate version of your consumer notebook, and then look for parts again - Compaq/HP use the same guts in their presarios as they do in their corporate line, for example.
Jonathan
For something that is supposed to be portable, laptops sure are fragile.
My school required us to buy a certain laptop, and I carried that laptop with me every day for four years, in a backpack full of books, in all kinds of weather, subjected to all kinds of impacts.
The service center on campus was certified to repair all the student laptops, therefore they had all kinds of replacement parts. In addition, the mass purchase included a four-year warranty on each laptop, in case you did something like subject it to a direct lightning strike and it had to be sent back. But they had all the case parts. I had two front bezels replaced, a back bezel, top and bottom of the case, hard drive, motherboard, power control board, and floppy drive as well. I did not think I overly abused my laptop, it's the wear and tear you get from running it 24/7 and packing and unpacking it every hour between classes.
Virtually everyone I knew at school had to get their laptop serviced at one time or another. I have to say that for a laptop, the best accessory you can add to it is a warranty for however long you plan to use the laptop. If it's impossible to get individual parts six months out, how about two years?
Of course you need to realize why they won't just sell you little plastic parts cheaply: the parts are being kept on reserve, based on statistical analysis, to service the laptops coming in on extended warranty. When you buy a warranty, you are basically reserving all those esoteric little parts you won't find anywhere else.
If you don't want to shell out a hundred or so dollars more for a warranty on your laptop, you don't need that laptop bad enough to begin with.
...
To use an analogy from a car. Say you need to replace a spark plug -- it's not just like an expensive spark plug -- this is like a manufacturer refusing to sell you a spark plug without the entire replacement motor.
Now I hear what you're saying about laptops just being "that way"...but it doesn't make it OK. I don't have much intention of buying a laptop until they're user servicable and suitable replacement parts are available (it's probably clear by now that I have no specific need for a laptop and when there is, my job will probably provide one). Point is, it's about as lame as Apple's iPod battery debacule, except it's an accepted industry-standard parctice.
-Turkey
Also, any recommendations for manufacturers that are good about making obscure replacement parts for their laptops available to the general public?
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, the bezel started cracking about 18 months after I purchased it, and there were also cracks in the case. Dell replaced both free of charge. They also carry the bezel in the online store for a pretty reasonable amount.
Not everything about Dell is right, but replacing the plastic parts for free or reasonable cost? They were wonderful.
Just one experience, of course.
Sailing over the event horizon
Upon examination, the left hinge was broken, the front bezel, and the screen didn't light up.
Boy was I upset. I had to sit in a jury room all day with no laptop.
Once home, I took the laptop apart and discovered that I'd broken the FL inverter board(what causes the screen backlight to illuminate). Now, this is a Toshiba Laptop, and I had taken the thing into be serviced - so I called up the service center and asked them to order in some parts for me. They did, and I replaced everything myself - becoming intimately familiar with my laptop in the process.
Once I got the FL inverter board replaced, the screen still didn't light.
I called the Toshiba Service Center (Compar in Minneapolis, great guys) and they said, "It's gotta be the fluorescent bulb..."
Huh? Fluorescent bulb?
They explained to me that the way the screen illuminates is there is a tiny fluorescent bulb that runs along the bottom of the screen. You have to remove the LCD panel, take off the tape and some screws and you'll be able to access a tiny fluorescent bulb that is the thickness of a #2 pencil lead (about 1mm dia) and it is the length(width) of the screen. Turns out the FL inverter board is nothing but a high-tech ballast. They told me that they weren't sure if they could replace the bulb without replacing the screen - but just about any bulb from any screen, provided it was the same length, would work.
Now, my friend had a DELL laptop that he'd stepped on and cracked the LCD, but the backlight still worked. It too was a 15" screen, so I took out his old bulb and put it in my screen, but his bulb was about 3mm to long! SO, I pulled out my Dremmel and cut away the metal & plastic so the fluorescent bulb could extend beyond the side of the LCD Panel. It only extended about 1mm out from the edge of the panel. When I put the screen back into its mounting, it barely fit. I had to cut the wires to the bulb, and solder on the ones for my old broken bulb, but when I powered it up, I had my laptop back.
It was only then that I noticed that the piece of glass that runs behind the LCD was cracked (NOT the LCD panel itself) but the glass that distributes the light emitted from the bulb. All that means is that the upper left corner of the screen has a wavy shadow. I can live with that.
All told? The drop cost me just under $200 to repair, and the income earned from jury duty wasn't even enough to cover half of it.
Oh, and the trial I heard? Some guy that was charged with being a male prostitute (ouch!). We found him guilty. I dunno why he even fought the charges - he could make a killing on the inside. The entire time I was in trial, I was thinking of Goatse. Damn you Slashdot.
Silly faggot, dicks are for chicks!
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
No not in the store. Call 1888Bestbuy and select the option for Best Buy PartSearch. You tell them the model of the notebook and what you need, give them a while to look and they will probably find it. I have ordered several off items from there and they have come through every time.
There are two alternative strategies.
1) plastic welding is a viable repair - you will find that if you contact your local panel banger (autobody repair shop) that they will be able to offer advise how to proceed.
The laptops are injection moulded plastics - possibly a TPE same as is used in the auto industy so the same techniques may apply.
2) glue it yourself. Call up your local 3M representative and ask them what structural glues they have for the plastic your lap top is made of. One product that MIGHT work is DP8005.
Another option is to contact polyurathane supply company. Those people have a nice website with good technical information.
------------
The type of equipment you need to plastic weld is generally an injection hot melt gun - they typically sell for about $5000 bux and are not too difficult to learn how to use. These guns force plastic under pressure into the crack and form a seam that is over 80% as strong as the original. The plastic comes in rods and is available in ABS, TPE, TFE,
You may want to check your Yellow Pages - look under PLASTIC WELDING equipment - call a supplier of the equipment and ask for a referal to who has the gun. Try to get to know the guy a bit and pay him well - broken plastic parts are a fact of life and these guys can do magic!!!
I used to work in a motorcycles-only body shop. We'd do custom jobs to harley's and bullet bikes. The work on the bullet-bikes ('crotch-rockets' as they are sometimes known) largely involved prepping the fairings and repairing small cracks.
Since fairings are made out of PVC, it was a simple matter to repair cracks in them with a soldering iron and a strip of raw pvc (or some old bits of fairing laying around). The welds would come out as strong or stronger than the original PVC. The only side effect would be an awful scarring effect, which we would then sand out, fill with bondo and apply primer. Good as new.
Your laptop bezel is made out of PVC or a similar polymer. It would probably be a simple matter to weld the crack back together, or whatever (hinges, clips &etc).
The most important part of this technique, however, is to work in a place with good ventilation and *WEAR A GODDAM FACE MASK*. The fumes and smoke of the process are toxic, carcinogenic and easilly filtered by a cheap paper mask over you mouth and nose. You know, like Michael Jackson would wear on the streets of Hong Kong. Eye protection is a good idea, too. This is why I still have lungs and vision.
I would always do the plastic welding in the paint booth, with the painter's mask and the fans on high. Since you'd only need to do a small amount, the face mask and a kitchen or bathroom fan would probably suffice.
And remember: this is slashdot. think before you take any advice.
I have a Toshiba laptop from Circuit City, sent it to be have something fixed in it (turned out to be a loose wire I think.). They claimed to of found liquid within the laptop and terminated my warrenty or something I think. I later took it apart and saw no signs of liquid. The repair person who located the fault said that they had heard of the company doing this to many people I think.
My personal choice is Ebay. I had an old Gateway Solo 2500 I bought for $150. Catch? Bad keyboard, and bad touchpad. I scope out google, prices are like US$70-80 each! So then I hit up Ebay, got the touchpad for about US$16, and the keyboard for about US$10. On another occasion, I had some guy drop an old Compaq Armada E500, broke off all the plastic on the corner and ripped open the screwholes holding the hinge together. Estimates ran like US$800 for a new screen, which would not even address the dead plastic! So I hit up Ebay yet again, got an "as-is" unit that was only missing a cd-rom drive, floppy drive, battery, and hard drive, all of which were good on my unit with the dead plastic. I buy it for US$160, open it up, swap the good floppy, hdd, cd drive, and battery, works splendidly. So I guess I am 2/2. It honestly depends on what sort of part you are looking for. If it is a relatively simple part like a keyboard or a touchpad, do not expect to get reamed, but if it is like a screen, or processor, seriously consider getting a new laptop. It may just be too much hassle to justify the expense. My advice is to keep checking Ebay, try changing up your search terms, look for "as-is" or "for parts" units. Also, check if your laptop manufacturer sells a "plastics kit" for you particular unit, I have had luck with those before, they have all sorts of plastic doodads that tend to break off. Good luck man!
I hate sigs.
I was a laptop technician for a few years awhile back. I worked at CompUSA, and they had about 30-40 broken laptops at a time, they would "field destroy" them about once a month (talk about a waste). You *might* try talking to their laptop technician (if they have one) and see if they have a broken laptop that is to be field destroyed with the bezel you need. Don't be surprised if they treat you like shit, CompUSA is notorius for that. Anyway, I helped a customer out when I could.
When I went to work for a smaller shop, I stockpiled any laptops that the customer didn't want repaired because of prohibitive costs, and would use them as spare parts to fix laptops that came in. Unfortunately, getting parts is a pain, they are way overpriced. Sony is the worst. I don't care how slim their notebooks are, wait until you have to replace the stupid keyboard and it costs you $400. Your best bet is EBay, after that there is a website called laptopparts or laptopking or something (or there was about 2 years ago). Still priced kinda high, but usually you can find small plastic parts/cables for relatively cheap. Also, don't necessarily blame the guy who had to order the whole part and wanted to charge $$$, sometimes the part supplier will ONLY sell the screen as an entire unit. I'm not saying that's what happened, but I've run across that before.
Going forward, your best bet in buying a new laptop is to buy a model that looks similiar to others by the same mfg. If you buy that crazy small, weird shaped thingy, with all the nifty gadgets and crap, make sure you buy an extended warranty for 3 years, because the first time you have anything fixed you will have paid for the cost of the warranty, hell they'll probably have to replace the thing because parts will be so hard to get. If you don't have a warranty, guess what? You're screwed.
Oh, and even though I was a laptop technician for 4 years, I never owned one. After seeing how many came in broken, costs of repairs, and quality of components... I probably never will. Cept for Apple, Apple always had some seriously kick ass hardware in their machines.
Forgive me, I just started doing a little research when I read your story. Of course I started with 'open notebook' and related searches, but I didn't find anything. Anyone know of any industry group trying to create and open standard there?
Anyhow, I'm interested in your problem for selfish reasons, family and friends have been asking me about building/upgrading existing/fixing their notebooks for years. I've dodged them this whole time because I couldn't afford one myself, but this is finally starting to change.
So, anyhow, if I where going to buy a computer today I'd look seriously at building a 'barebones' notebooks. A few familiar companies seem to be building barebones notebooks, which is basically a motherboard and graphics card wrapped up with a keyboard, LCD screen and a case. ASUS, ECS, AOpen, Arima (??) and FIC seem to sell them. I couldn't guarantee it, but I bet you'd have much better luck getting a replacement part from someone like ECS or ASUS, plus you get to pick out or upgrade things like your CPU, hard/cd/dvd drive and memory.
Here are a couple of quick links to product pages for a few of the manufacturers:
Aopen
ECS
ASUS
Arima
FIC
Most of these links came from this site, which seems to specialize in mobile computing bare bone systems and hardware. Man, is it lunch time yet?
Quack, quack.
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
While this isn't something everyone can do, it's good to know some hardware repair geeks. This is exactly why.
;-)
Repairing laptops is getting harder and harder these days, because the manufacturers, in general, are getting very picky about what is in and out of warranty. It used to be that you could get by with everything under the sun short of a cracked screen. That's all changed with all the big manufacturers.
And more than that, often you have to mail your laptop in, rather than take it to someplace local. When you do that, the manufacturer cuts you off from your equipment, and the tech off from your plea as to why this wasn't a case of "misuse."
It's been my experience that what you need to do is to just plain know someone who does warranty repairs on the type of laptop you own. I mean know the technician by his first name. This is the part where you need a friend, badly.
Those horror stories about the $75 hinges and $56 for four hinge screws...they're true, because there's markup in there! A company has to make money at repairing things, and service is where companies get margin. Usually that margin on 'little' stuff like this is in the neighborhood of 100% or more. Cut that $75 and $56 in half, and isn't that more reasonable?
The trouble is, the company has to make a profit on the item, plus they likely had a 'shipping and handling and administrative fee' for having their folks order the parts for you, recieve them, etc.
If you're in a big company, surely you have in-house folks, or people on-staff from then manufacturer (or who come around on a regular basis.) Get to know them, they can be your best of friends right now. Ply them with a lunch, and a soda now and again! You'd be surprised how far a good Tech will go if you feed him once in a while.
And the average tech isn't deaf to your pleas. They understand how badly it sucks to have a broken laptop that you depend on day in and day out, at home and at work. Usually if you treat them well, they'll work to take care of you when you really need it.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
This site offers a pretty good kit. A mid to late 80's Volvo 240 wagon with a V8 is the ultimate sleeper car. No one expects it to be able to move that fast.
Also, I have a personal theory that old station wagons appear to be moving 5-10 MPH slower than they actually are. This comes from years of driving one and having people pass me and then slow back down in front of me.
what part of "well-regulated militia" do you not understand?
There is a company called Small Dog Electronics (http://www.smalldog.com) based in Waitsfield, USA. My physics prof broke a part on his laptop (I'm not sure if he called it the bezel or not, but it did have something to do with holding the LCD in place). He took it to Smalldog because the manufacturer's parts were hard to find, and they fixed it. Probably saved him a lot of money over what the manufacturer would have charged him. The lesson here: these guys deal in factory refurbished goods, so they are likely to have some spare parts lying around, even from slightly older models.
10 Bits= $.25
100 Bits= $.50
110 Bits= $.75
1000 Bits= 1 byte
You got the letters wrong again! It's gnu/duc[tk]tape!
>cutting edge 1950s technology of a Ford iron-
:) Bullet proof reliable none the less. 5 main bearings on the crank for a 4 banger.
>block pushrod tractor engine shoved in its throat
The 140 and 1975 240's had Volvo B20 engines. These engines are as much tractor engines as anything Ford ever made.
Speaking of tractor engines though.. ever read the story of the origin of Lamborghini?
A quick find for duct tape over this thread yielded 20 results.
I think we have a winner!
How could I say to men: "Speak louder, shout! For I am deaf!"? -Ludwig van Beethoven
Most parts we deal with are ABS.
Plastic Welder is designed to glue ABS.
Wal Mart, True Value Hardware stores, and lots of other places sell it.
If they call it "Plastic Welder" its the Duro stuff under licence.
I'm glad this was brought up, because I thought about sending in an "ask slashdot" on how slashdot viewers feel about extended service plans. I work for a major retailer (one which is mentioned on this site a lot) and sell these myself, and I get lot of people saying like, "My brother says to never get this, etc. etc.," and I'd like to know what people have against them.
In all honesty, I could go either way on an extended service plan on a desktop. Never use past experiences with PCs as a benchmark for what your new PC will operate like, cause it could be completely different. It could fail after 6 months. I've seen people with failed screens and failed harddrives who back after a few weeks. This is why we offer the service plans, because you never know what could happen. To someone like me, who can do all the work himself, it's nice to cover the parts. If the monitor and system were covered (which, depending on the price range, is sometimes the case), I'd probably get it. Otherwise, it depends on the cost and who's dealing with it (Circuit City sends out *all* their systems regardless, whereas CompUSA and Best Buy do most of their work in-house, unless it requires a specific part to be ordered in).
Laptops, on the other hand, are a different story. I wish I could tell a customer outright, but you would be stupid not to buy the service plan on a notebook. This is the perfect example. Notebook parts are so expensive and hard to come by...you can't just walk in to a store, buy a new laptop harddrive (usually), and install it yourself...you gotta have a deathwish to do something like that. Factor in the costs of labor, you're in over your head. I know our service plans cover the battery up to 2 times a year...you're talking a $100 to $250 battery. That in itself covers the cost of the plan, for a single battery which is guaranteed to fail. Plus, if we can't fix it, we replace it...if we mess something up, we replace it.
Unfortunately, people do buy laptops and don't get the extended service plan. It's unfortunate because they're literally up the creek if it fails. They don't seem to understand, regardless of what I tell them, how risky it is to deal with a notebook. I'd give my left leg before I'd have to deal with over the phone tech support or customer service on an issue like this. Granted, people might get gyped or get bad service from an extended service plan; that's the way the world works. But you know, you have options. You can usually complain to the higher ups in the company to have something done about it. You have the facts with you there in black and white in the pamphlet...it's almost a contract...if the company breaches it, you're entitled to fight it. So please, before you tell your friends that "extended service plans are crap, don't buy them," make sure you explain to them the costs and risks they'd be incurring by not going with one, and how much money they'll be wasting in the end. I'd love to hear what others think on this subject matter.
I bought a screwed up laptop from a guy for 25 bucks, because I wanted the external floppy (was 50 on ebay) and found a Best Buy extended warranty in the case, with two months left on the 3 year warranty.
:)
I went down and told them I wanted an exact replacement of the laptop (166 I think). They told me that they can't get me a 166, but they will give me a new 800Mhz, which was about the same price when both were new. I told them no, that I wanted either this one fixed or an exact replacement, and nothing else would do. I kept talking to "supervisors" getting louder (but very polite) each time.
To make a long story short, I walked out with a $1500 store credit and they got the $25 laptop. I think they had changed their warranty policies after that warranty had been bought, but before the claim, so it was grand fathered
While its always great to hit on home run on a deal like this, its extra sweet when you can legitimately put the screws to Best Buy.
Wait...I take that back...it feels great to screw Best Buy, legitimate or not.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
these guys have tons of strange laptop parts. batteries and chargers for everything from ipod to vaio. they alos have panels, drives, and other parts. If they don't have it, you're not going to get it.
http://www.laptopsforless.com/
JON
What's the matter, do you think Best Buy's prices are too high? Could their prices be reasonably explained by the fact that if you ask a salesperson a question he/she responds immediately rather than a couple days later as at Internet stores? That you can walk in and out with your purchase in a matter of minutes? That you can try everything out before buying? That you can take back anything except software it turns out you didn't like it for some reason
No I think Best Buy is misleading in their advertising, inept in their support, and their salespersons lie. This is my experience. Their prices are usually somewhat reasonable. My experience with Internet stores has been better service, primarily since I don't buy from internet only stores, and only from those that have physical stores. And I have yet to be able to try much before I buy at Best Buy. Usually, the salesperson will explain that he doesn't have the key, batteries, it requires a supervisor, etc. I have tried many times, and frankly, I just don't buy from them anymore. I did use my instore credit to buy what was then a new Nikon 990, but I didn't get to try it before I bought it, either.
If none of those reasons fly with you, consider that maybe their prices are higher because of dishonest, predatory behavior by people like you.
Not only was my behavior NOT predatory, but the extended warranty was transferable, and the terms of the warranty said exact replacement or store credit, which I recieved.
Seems to me that I demanded they honor their own warranty, and for once, they did, except I had to talk to several people and talk loud to get them to do it. If there were as honorable as you seem to think they are, they would have given me store credit immediately instead of giving me the run around hoping I would just give in.
So pardon me if I knock you off your high horse, since I did nothing dishonest. The problem is that Best Buy is the one usually dishonest, and its rare that someone can actually get them to honor their own warranties, to the letter.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I work as a technician for a huge canadian eletronic store and we often have to do repairs on laptops under our extended warranty (I don't want to go into the "extended warranties aren't worth crap" thing please). Most of our parts are coming from Computer Parts Unlimited (www.cpumart.com) and I think that they do sell to individuals too.
as far as I know, if your laptop is a compaq presario you are out of luck though since they are only selling the whole lcd panel with bezel, mask, hinges and inverter. Other than that you should be able to find the part you need.
Hi, I work in a hock shop/ second hand shop in Sydney Aus. Throughout the years a huge amount of cudos has been given for repairing items (mostly electronic). It sounds hugely geeky but when you have finished repairing on a restaurant table (dinner party with friends) a cute womans nokia with a toothpic and you get her number, you get a rush of blood to the.... head. Then the woman at the table next to yours says "I have a problem of *object name* that needs your attention at my home . can you come tonight?" And all for just doing my job and learning some of the most frequent ways things can stop working.
I think [I say this so the manufactures wont send out secret agents to silence me] that some (read 'all') companies make their products to fail. There is the rumour of the "salt circuit" that fails exactly on 1 year after the plastic is opened exposing internal circuits to air. If you dont think the inside of a phone gets air then look at your screen and see how much dust is inside. I'm sure there are lots of things like this to make a product break on time.This is obviously to keep the part and labour repair industry going. Dont tell me a manufacturer spends $20 mil designing a product to be sueproof and not know that it will fail on the 14600 to 14700th opening of the lid. They want 95% of the item to JUST pass the 1 year warantee and the consumer to be happy to pay the bloated price for the privilage, then tell their friends to buy it as well. Then when it breaks not complain just buy a new one. All the while yelling from the top of our lungs what a good product it is, well I'm not going to take it any more * I scream from my window*
I agree with previous contestant that HP lazerjets are great. they are the only printer we touch that is not in a box, new. Also, old CRTs are good if they are from a good mftr German or japanese. Some 20 year old Sonys still come in to my shop and they work better than any 20 year old plasm. prove me wrong. You can tell the diference the good stuff weighs more, try lifting it. In the shop we have an old wooden tv set up as a joke. It has a sign on the screen saying "broken , do not turn on" inside conected to the mains are some cracker spark squibs and a smoke machine. what do they do? They turn it on! and the look on their faces is a reason to keep living. just to let you know if your in a shop and theres a sign.....
Nicad and NiMh batteris love to be used, the more the better, and used up till there is no more juice. Then recharged till they are full, not half full, or recharged all the time. Thats what causes them to fail. All the time we get cordless phones with dead batteries . LiIon is diferent. It loves to be recharged all the time and hates to be run down. I found out why recently from an electrical engineer. There is a circiut in them that measures how much charge is left If it goes less than 60% of full capacity the circuit kills itself thus rendering the batery useless. This act of hari kiri is designed so that you cant repac the battery case and you have to buy a whole new one from the manufacturer. Ever notice why they keep changing the shape of the bat from year to year? so you cant put old ones into new machines. Self terminating laptops will be next when they figure out that chips will be soo much fast and the programs will be sooo much better that we wont want our old laptops any more, WILL WE!
On the question of Glues I've found a combination of plastic meltind and Aroldite is the best for strength and for how it looks. I use the melting glue to smuge the 2 surfaces together and blur the lines between edges, you get a sort of glug as the clear glue turns the same colour as the plastic. Then as that is semidry aply some 2 part apoxy (I use Loctite 3801 as it is fast, he said while cheesily holding up product to camera) and hold in place till cured. If you want a flat finish put flat sticky tape over the top and rub slighty. when cured peel off the tape and sand down if necesary. The ability to fix a customers (tv case usualy) thing w
"Persistance is Fertile" - Me. I can quote myself if I want to.