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Notebook PC Manufacturer Who Will Sell Parts?

Posted by Cliff on from the three-screws-doesn't-make-it-non-user-replaceable dept.

gp310ad asks: "Fujitsu refused to sell me a basic part for my P2120 notebook PC. The part is the small daughter board which bridges the external charger to the internal circuitry. It is approximately two square cm with two connectors mounted. There are no passive or active electronic components on the board. I was told that I would have to complete Fujitsu technical training before I would be allowed to purchase this or any other part that requires removing more than two screws. According to Fujitsu, the hard drive (three screws) is 'not a user replaceable part'. Which brings me to my question — I am in the market for a new notebook PC and would like to know which manufacturers are 'end user friendly' when it comes to out of warranty repair parts. The model and features will be determined by what is available within my budget. However, I do not want to be stuck with an out of warranty machine from a manufacturer who will not sell parts."

21 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Dell by linkedlinked · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's pretty hard to believe, but Dell may be just what you're looking for. I own an E1505, and they're actually sending me the Bluetooth module that goes inside the laptop, presumably in some socket on the motherboard, to add myself (and I purchased from Dell Home). At work, they just sent me three new motherboards and heat sinks, plus a bottle of thermal paste, to fix some OHCI issues I was having. They're brilliant, very trusting in the end-user installation department.

    1. Re:Dell by linkedlinked · · Score: 2, Informative

      I hate to reply to my own post, but I should have mentioned: The rep I talk to indicated that installing the part myself *would not void* my 4 year, complete care, you-can-pee-on-the-keyboard-and-send-us-pictures warranty.
      Again, if that's not trusting, then I don't know what is.

    2. Re:Dell by fimbulvetr · · Score: 4, Informative

      I did this exact same thing with my D800 bluetooth module. I didn't purchase it new because I had no need for it, and it was quite expensive. Recently, I picked it up for $30 and did it myself. They also sell things like video card upgrades and cdrom upgrades (to dvd-r, etc).

      Despite all the bad things people say about dell, my next laptop will most certainly be dell. The D/dock I purchased for the D800 will even work for a new D820 or D620. That's $150 I don't need to spend.

    3. Re:Dell by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 2, Informative

      New systems are staring to come with mxm slots
      The 24-inch I-mac uses one.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXM
      http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/
      http://www.nvidia.com/page/mxm.html

    4. Re:Dell by rlk · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Inspiron 8000-8200 don't have integrated video. They're a little dated, but I'm quite happy with my 8200 which I built from parts (I wanted to reuse the very nice 1600x1200 screen that I had upgraded my previous 8000 to). The 8200 is reasonably easy to service as these things can go, and it's easy to get parts on eBay.

      Styling seems to be very in for laptops these days. However, I think the current trend of 17" WXGA screens is absurd. My processor is slow by today's rather excessive standards (P4-1.8, although I could apparently go up to 2.6), but 1.5 GB of RAM really helps.

    5. Re:Dell by afidel · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually a lot of the decent laptops have the video card on a daughtercard connected by an electrically compatible, but not pin compatible standard interface (now usually MXM for PCIe).

      --
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  2. IBM/Lenovo by darkwhite · · Score: 5, Informative

    IBM.

    The Thinkpad division apparently takes serviceability VERY seriously. They sell every single sub-assembly down to individual types of screws. I personally have ordered several tiny parts to replace in my Thinkpads.

    I'm not sure what the contact points are for IBM Parts now that it's Lenovo. Previously you could call a number and order nearly anything that had an FRU number.

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    1. Re:IBM/Lenovo by ThisNukes4u · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have an IBM thinkpad made between the switch from IBM->Lenovo and have had no problem ordering parts straight through Lenovo using FRUs using the web interface. I would assume that they still sell the parts from old IBM thinkpads as well as the new ones.

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      thisnukes4u.net
    2. Re:IBM/Lenovo by mrbcs · · Score: 3, Informative
      I'll second or third this. IBM are awesome. A couple years ago I was looking for this dumb little card to snap on to a server board. I have a PC 704 server. Thing is monstrous. Fun to learn on but a power pig. I wanted to put in the other 2 cpu's. I needed this little card to make them work. Went to IBM site, found the manuals, found the part number, thought "What the hell?" and called their parts dept. Not only did they have the thing in stock (this computer was made before 1999) they would gladly ship it to me asap. The part cost $5 and they were laughing as they told me shipping was about $14.

      I simply love their laptops. I've had about 8 or 9 (kept selling my personal machine and would have to replace it with something faster)of them and have been very happy with all of them. Easy to work on and lots of documentation on their website.

      --
      I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
  3. IBM/Lenovo by binaryspiral · · Score: 3, Informative

    I second the opinion that IBM/Lenovo treats in warranty and out of warranty users very well. Sure they'll sell you every part for your expired laptop, but in warranty treatment is equally good for those first few years of new laptop goodness.

  4. HP works. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    HP is fairly effecient and willing to sell you just about any part from a laptop. Some of the prices might be high for some things, but they'll sell you just about anything, from an upgrade part (buying a DVD burner if your laptop came with only a CD burner) to buying something as simple as a replacement power-button bezel like I recently did.

  5. Re:Graphics Cards by Artana+Niveus+Corvum · · Score: 2, Informative

    For the models which don't have the video chips integrated into the motherboard, Dell sells the video cards for their laptops. There's no universal standard for how to "do" laptop internal components (unfortunately), but I have personally replaced the video card with an updated one from Dell twice now. =) (then I got a notebook that you couldn't do that with, but that had good enough video that I didn't care. XPS M1210... tasty =))

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  6. IBM / Lenovo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was happy to see IBM / Lenovo getting the support they deserve in this thread. I'm typing this on my IBM T42 which is currently running on several user-replaced parts (by me). Breakage was due to droppage twice, (this is my travel laptop and takes a beating daily) but it did survive a 17" monitor falling on it from ~8" above. I'm an engineer but I support all the laptops in our (small) company and all I order nowadays for new employees is Lenovo laptops. (note: I don't have any more issues with Lenovo than the older IBM thinkpads)

    IBM / Lenovo provides detailed disassembly guides which are easy to find on the web. They detail (with pictures/illustrations) how to strip any of their laptops down to bare plastic.

    I also like how they label the screws on the bottom so you immediately know which to remove first. For instance, 3 screws have a little pic of a keyboard next to them. Remove these and the keyboard comes out. Also each screw hole in the bottom has a '1' '2' or '3' next to it. A sticker on the bottom has full-size images of each screw with a '1' '2' or '3', so you can immediately find what length screw belongs in each hole. If you have ever had a pile of screws you need to put back in your laptop this feature should be immediately attractive.

    This is my 3rd Thinkpad and I have torn all 3 apart multiple times. I have also torn apart Toshiba, Dell, HP and find the Thinkpads to have been the cleanest looking inside and easiest to work on. Also, if you get a chance, pull the HD out of a Thinkpad and notice how thin, light, and well-designed the carrier sleeve is that holds the drive and protects (insulates) the exposed PC board which is attached to the bottom of the actual drive. Clean and precise! The whole inside of Thinkpads are clean like that.

    No doubt I like working on Thinkpads the best, and have probably fixed (torn apart with the hope of figuring out what is wrong) > 50 laptops over the last 10 years.

    Btw I don't work for IBM/Lenovo nor even in the computer/electronics industry.

    1. Re:IBM / Lenovo by almost+entirely+lega · · Score: 5, Informative

      One can only hope that Lenovo will keep up the unbelievably excellent support IBM had - and on that there is some cause for concern. Thinkpad warranties that used to be three years are now only one, upgradeable to three if you pay an additional fee. And the best part of IBM's service, EasyServ, the program under which you could Fedex your Thinkpad to IBM, and have them repair it and return it in the next morning's Fedex, is an additional fee atop the additional fee. My favorite old IBM Thinkpad story: I was in Oklahoma City, and dropped my 701C - the old Butterfly, from a height of about eight feet, onto concrete. Parts were hanging out of the cracked case...but the machine kept working, allowing me to backup as I called IBM. I explained what had happened to the customer service rep, who looked up the serial number, and advised me, "Oh...that machine's still under warranty. Fedex it to us...and we'll get it back to you." What, I asked, would it cost? "Nothing," he said, "it's under warranty, and the case is cracked." In a moment of looking the gift horse in the mouth, I reminded him that it was cracked because I'd dropped it. He said, "So? It's under warranty and the case is cracked. Put it in a box and Fedex it to us, and you'll have it back tomorrow morning." They'd put their repair facility next door to Fedex in Memphis, got the broken machines off planes and fixed them, putting them back on outbound Fedex flights whenever possible. While they had it, they also upgraded the BIOS. How great did I think it was? It's more than ten years later, and I still tell the story. And I've purchased seven additional Thinkpads since, four of which are still functional - because when a part goes down, not only do they (as others have mentioned) sell parts, they make sure you can do the repair yourself. On their website, they have decent written instructions, paired with videos of more complex repairs. And to this day, their parts service is fast and not overpriced.

  7. Re:IBM/Lenovo: Confirmed: Lenovo sells IBM parts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I can confirm that Lenovo still sells older Thinkpad parts. I have placed 2 orders (for older Thinkpad parts) from Lenovo in the last month. Both times they estimated 2 weeks to ship, but actually shipped the parts within a few days.

  8. Asus by Flikkeh · · Score: 2, Informative

    Asus sells replacement parts for many of their notebook models online at http://estore.asus.com/shop/category.asp?catid=363 . They also sell barebone laptops under the 'Built on Asus' name, where you supply your own CPU/RAM/HDD/DVD/WiFi.

  9. Re:Apple by jtorkbob · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, over the years I've done a lot of mac repair work, and I will tell you that while the community will cover you, Apple will not deal with you at all. One time I needed to replace the DC in board on my 18-month-old iBook - due to my own mangling of the adapter. This is a major labor part, requiring about 90% disassembly. Apple refused to let me do the work myself, despite the fact that I'd already disassembled the thing and my living room was covered in little labeled tupperware. The various dealers were afraid that I'd get them in trouble with Apple somehow. I suspect that Apple does sting operations, much like your local police might send a minor in to a liquor store to buy booze. Anyhow, I ended up finding a cooperative service manager at a dealer 100 miles away.

    Since then, you can get pretty much anything on the net, at least for second-generation stuff. Not that I can afford any first generation Apple stuff.

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  10. Avoid Acer by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not only will they usually refuse to sell parts, but they don't provide driver updates to things like the onboard ATi video (and you can't get them straight from ATi because Acer modify the parts). As far as they're concerned if the old drivers passed QA at hardware release time they're perfect and any updates for any reason are unnecessary.

    *gag*

    Same with the other hardware on their machines, but most of that can be found on the chipset mfgr's sites with enough work.

  11. I hate to say it, but when it comes to parts... by Myself · · Score: 2, Informative

    Avoid Panasonic. I absolutely adore the Toughbook sitting in my lap, but the pinouts for the internal connectors are apparently lost in Amelia Earhart's logbook or something. eBay is the best place to find parts, because Panasonic doesn't sell jack shit direct to anybody. It's depressing.

    My dad broke the USB jack on his old Thinkpad, and I recently tore it down to the bare motherboard. The construction was nowhere near as elegant as the Toughbook (like 5 different types/lengths of screws, as opposed to 2), but the whole teardown process is documented in drooling-idiot detail in a PDF on IBM's site. Of course, when I got inside, I found that the USB jack does not in fact match any of the ones I can get from Digi-Key, so it was all pointless anyway. I got to marvel at some absurd IBM engineering though, like the rotary heatpipe fitting to send CPU heat up behind the screen. A cast metal chassis would be so much simpler...

  12. Dell and Lenovo by W2k · · Score: 2, Informative

    From what experience I have, neither HP nor Fujitsu-Siemens are worth shit as far as their laptops or support for the same go. They do not ship individual parts, take ages to do simple maintenance, and the boxes don't hold up very well. I recently worked in technical support for a major university who sold/loaned students laptops. By far, the Fujitsu-Siemens models caused the most problems, HP in a close second, then Lenovo, then Dell. And Lenovo/IBM and Dell were by far the easiest to get support for.

    --
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  13. Re:IBM / Lenovo: lilo/grub advice on official site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This thread got me thinking about upgrading my Thinkpad and I ended up finding some LILO/GRUB advice for configuring the 2nd HD adapter that fits in the expansion bay to work under the 2.4 kernel.

    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen t.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-50366

    Regardless of the utility of this specific information, I'd like to see more ~mainstream hardware companies standing behind Linux like this. In the meantime, I'll be ordering up a Thinkpad X60s tonight :)