Hubby's laptop--need advice!

[Celebration]

He has a four year old HP with a 17 inch screen. Well, it got very unreliable, in that sometimes it would turn on, and sometimes it would not (as in, not even try, as if it had no power).

Anyway, he took it to work for the computer guy there to look at. He said there was nothing to be done with it, that there was some little tiny loose connection inside the laptop, which meant that sometimes the laptop would turn on, and sometimes it wouldn't. His claim was that there was no way for this to be found and repaired.

Then, he got my husband to order a new Dell laptop. This was already a done deal by the time I heard about it. I believe that I would not have recommended a Dell!!

Now the old laptop is still at work and the computer guy wants to use it for parts.

Hmmmm, I am thinking. Can this old laptop be fixed? I remember when my daughter was in college in Houston there was a great laptop repair place that resurrected her laptop after she spilled coffee on the keyboard. Surely a place like that could fix a loose connection. Anyway, I have another daughter that wants a laptop, and I am thinking, can I send this old laptop off somewhere to be repaired? It is kind of heavy, what with it being a 17 inch screen and all, so I guess I could try locally at first.

Does anyone have any ideas about this? The Dell suggestion makes me not too sure about the computer guy at my husband's office.

[Betty88]

1. find a local repair shop

If you can find a local repair shop take it in and ask them to have a look. As long as they are not going to charge you to much its worth a shot. Personally I would not pay over $100 total to repair a 4 year old computer, just not worth it. I don't have a lot of experience with laptop repair but have heard of a similar problem that turned out to be a loose connection on the motherboard that was repairable, don't know what it cost, sorry.

BTW I have two Dell laptops that work great, the one I'm using right now is 4 years old and going strong. Remember you can always return the thing if you don't like it.

[hobbit709]

3. Ditto on the local repair shop.

[CK_John]

2. It sounds like the on/off switch or the close cover switch. Call HP and see what

they can do for you and get a cost estimate. But if you keep it or give it away, remove and keep the hard drive.

This will let up save your data and protect you from passing out your credit card info, bank account #, socsec #, etc.

[Gore1FL]

4. Dell products aren't all that bad. Dell itself is bad

The trick with any computer is knowing what you are buying, and Dell has a lot of crap to sell along with some decent hardware.

[Celebration]

6. Good to know!!

Hopefully the computer person could tell a good laptop from a bad one. My daughter had a bad experience with a Dell laptop. Of course she is the type to spill coffee on it, etc. LOL.

[Duer 157099]

5. It's quite common for the power connector to get loose

and work spuriously. It's a matter of resoldering the component, if that's the problem.

If it were mine, I'd be Googling to diagnose the problem and to find the schematics and do as much as I could and just get someone to do the fine soldering for me, about a 5 minute job after the thing is taken apart.

But that's me.

[Celebration]

7. Thanks, everyone for the advice

I saw an ad for a place in town that gives estimates before they fix computers so I think I'll go that route. Long story, but I'd like to rehabilitate this thing if possible (not too much). At least I am not going to chuck it without trying.

You know, it really could have something to do with the cover, because it seems to me once that moving the cover once either made it go on or off. I forget which.

[Duer 157099]

8. It's certainly possible that it has something to do with the cover

I have a Dell laptop that has an issue, where the power works intermittantly, and after Googling, found there's a known condition on some models where a little plastic retaining clip for one of the case covers on the underside (like, that covers the RAM module slots, or the PCI card slot, or whatever) is positioned directly on top of a certain IC chip, so that when pressure is put on the laptop in a certain area (in this case, the lower left quadrant), the pressure of that plastic clip on the IC eventually causes cracks in the solder joints of the IC to the mainboard. And that IC is involved in the power circuit.

So, if you Google your model you may find something similar is known about your particular make/model - and it may well be an easy fix, and the more info you can supply to the repair shop in advance, the less costly it may be, timewise.

Good luck, let us know what happens.