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Please find below a list of the 12 most common repairs we do which make up 95% of our jobs. This may help you diagnose your problem, see how likely a successful repair will be & in some cases fix your own system.
No signs of life
Diagnosis: If your laptop comes back to life it was stuck in a battery backed crash no repair necessary – if not then the internal or external power supply is faulty - check the obvious: a) fuse b) power lead c) ac adapter. If you have a volt meter - check the voltage output of any external power supply is correct & constant. If you find the ac working OK then you have an internal PSB (Power Supply Board) or connector block fault – electronic repair is necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. Most repairs of this type are usually carried out at standard fixed price without need for further components & most repairs are successful.
Liquid spillage
Diagnosis: Upon any spillage it is imperative that liquid does not come in contact with the system board. If the spillage has just occurred mop up all visible liquid with a kitchen towel then turn the unit upside down with the keyboard facing the ground and leave in a warm & dry place for a few hours before powering. Powering any earlier may cause damage. If the keyboard or the laptop don't function then book in for repair immediately – leaving a liquid damaged laptop for more than a few weeks often results in component corrosion & write-offs.Repair: Strip-down – chemical clean - diagnostic - component repair – dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. Spillage repairs are carried out at a premium rate as normally a chemical clean & thorough inspection is required. Where necessary we may replace keyboards. Most repairs are successful if brought in early enough – so time is of the essence.
No power
Diagnosis: Remove all removable devices such as: additional memory, battery, hard disk & try powering the system again - should the laptop still not boot then your system probably has a processor or motherboard or RTC fault – electronic repair is necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. If the engineer diagnoses the system board to be faulty then the success of the repair depends which chip has to be replaced. If the processor has died then the engineer will call you with the cost of the part. Most jobs on big brand names are carried out successfully.
Keeps shutting down
Diagnosis: This depends on when this happens – if the laptop boots then always shuts down in the same place, i.e. during the same part of the boot process or during the same activity, then it is likely to be a software/virus fault and you should use last known goods configuration to see if you can rectify the problem. If not successful then a virus repair may be necessary regretfully your antivirus disk is unlikely to rectify the fault - software repair or software reset is necessary. If the laptop shuts down anytime it feels like, it is likely that the processor has been exposed to excess heat probably caused by the air vents being blocked or cooling fan failure (modern laptops have excess temperature safeguards – this fault is more apparent on laptops that use 'full heat' processors which require more cooling) – electronic repair & processor replacement will be necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. If fault is software based our resident software engineer will remove your hard drive & perform a live scan to find & remove the nasties and you will also be advised run a full security sweep to prevent recurrence of fault. If fault is hardware then it is likely that the engineer will call you with the additional cost of the processor. We are usually able to fix most of these faults – but it is a fine balance on costs.
Dead battery
Diagnosis: Make sure you have used a new battery to prove fault is not battery related. Should you find the new battery is still not charging or your laptop is not operating from a charged battery (some batteries have a meter that shows charge capacity) then it is likely that you have a power management controller or motherboard fault.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. On the provision our engineer is working with a new battery our success rate for repairs of this type is usually between 90 and 100%.
Dim screen
Diagnosis: If you have recently changed the power supply ensure that it is of correct amperes. This is normally printed on the base of your laptop & on your power supply. If all correct then it is most likely that you have an inverter board or a backlight fault – electronic repair is necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair – re-assembly – burn-in testing. Normally this is a component repair to backlight inverter board, sometimes can be screen ribbon, sometimes this could be a faulty light tube & on rare occasion it could be the screen. Our typical success rate is 90-95% - usually with no extra parts required.
Won't boot up
Diagnosis: Use a Win98 startup floppy and run the 'fdisk' command to check if your hard disk is responding – (or with Win XP CD chkdsk utility in repair console - although any bootable diagnostic utility will do) - if utility shows up bad sectors then change your hard disk & reinstall your operating system using the recovery disks provided to you at the time of sale. If your hard disk is OK on those tests then you may have lost your master boot record – possibly caused by bad media or a virus – electronic/software repair may be necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair –- re-assembly – burn-in testing. Depending on the result of the tests a new hard disk may or may not be required. The cost would normally be fixed repair price + HDD cost if required. Our success rate is almost 100% on these kind of repairs.
Screen has lines or bands
Diagnosis: Press firmly along the edge of the screen and close/open the screen to see if the screen returns to normal – this could be a ribbon cable or screen terminal fault - an electronic repair is usually possible. If you don't see any change, the presence of permanent lines/bands on the screen means small fracture to the screen. These can be usually seen under magnifying glass when screen framework is removed and in these cases a new screen is required – electronic repair is not possible.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair – re-assembly – burn-in testing. Where the fault is not 'hard' engineers have to use needlepoint soldering irons to bond fine connectors onto glass - these jobs carry a small risk making things worse – repair success rate is an average 50% sorry! If a screen has to be replaced then costs often exceed £400. If screen ribbon is faulty then repair cost may rise.
Blue screen on start-up
Diagnosis: Boot the system with a bootable operating system such as Mandrake. If this operating system seems to work OK then your fault is either: software, virus or hard drive. If not then the fault is likely to be memory or system board. We advise customers change memory prior to booking laptop in for repair – if still not working then electronic repair will be necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. Either a software/hardware repair may be necessary – in some cases both – where new hardware & engineering is required there is usually a premium on our fixed rate. Most repairs of this nature are successful.
Continuously tries to boot
Diagnosis: Almost certainly this is some kind of memory/socket or cache fault. We recommend testing/replacing all memory modules – if the fault still persists the an electronic repair will be necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. This is a tricky repair and needs a steady hand by our engineers. We often need the unit in for longer for testing to ensure that flux used in repair process does not contaminate terminals. Most repairs of this nature are successful.
System crashes
Diagnosis: This could be a memory/memory socket/video controller/video memory fault. We recommend testing/replacing all memory modules – if the fault still persists them an electronics repair will be necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. This is a tricky electronic repair and needs a steady hand by our engineers – we often need the unit in for a longer period post repair to ensure that flux used in repair process does not contaminate terminals. Most repairs of this nature are successful.
Faulty connectors
Diagnosis: If the port is still attached/in one piece then it must be checked through diagnostic programs such as PC-CHECK. Testing must take place outside of windows – i.e. system must be booted into diagnostics. If port is still showing as faulty then electronic repair is necessary.Repair: Strip-down – diagnostic - component repair - dust – 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly – burn-in testing. This is a common type of repair and generally highly successful. The most common repair we do is replacement of internal power input jack – when repairing these we often bond the repair to give it more strength.