Do your own repairs on a laptop?

[RayLopez99]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop. Is there a
lively aftermarket? Or do people just send them in to be repaired in
shops? Or just trash them after the 7 to 12 years it takes before a
well-built laptop will begin to show problems?

RL

 

[RayLopez99]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop.  Is there a
lively aftermarket?  Or do people just send them in to be repaired in
shops?  Or just trash them after the 7 to 12 years it takes before a
well-built laptop will begin to show problems?

RL

BTW, by repairs I mean other than: (1) installing more RAM, and, (2)
installing a second HD in those laptops that have easy "plug and play"
type slots for a second HD.

By repairs I mean stuff like replacing a noisy or inoperative CPU fan,
or case fan, or keyboard repair (though I'd hate to mess with that,
better to send it to a shop), or defective DVD/CD unit, or maybe
adding a new USBxx slot. The more I think of it, the more daunting it
sounds...maybe sending it to a professional in some aftermarket shop
is best.

RL

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

BTW, by repairs I mean other than: (1) installing more RAM, and, (2)
installing a second HD in those laptops that have easy "plug and play"
type slots for a second HD.

By repairs I mean stuff like replacing a noisy or inoperative CPU fan,
or case fan, or keyboard repair (though I'd hate to mess with that,
better to send it to a shop), or defective DVD/CD unit, or maybe
adding a new USBxx slot. The more I think of it, the more daunting it
sounds...maybe sending it to a professional in some aftermarket shop
is best.

RL

Judging by the number of "spare parts" available on Ebay I would say
that many are working on their own machine.

From what I've seen, the hardest part is finding a repair manual for a
specific model. Identifying how to take one apart correctly can be a
daunting task as there is no "standard" way manufacturers use to hold
everything together.

As the laptop ages the support provided by most manufacturers tends to
dwindle. With your new laptop you might want to begin the search in
locating the repair manual for yours. Now a days they are usually in
PDF or word format but can be quite difficult to locate, especially for
free. It makes the laptop much easier to work on and normally includes
things like the manufacturers part numbers and such in the various diagrams.

 

[RayLopez99]

Judging by the number of "spare parts" available on Ebay I would say
that many are working on their own machine.

 From what I've seen, the hardest part is finding a repair manual for a
specific model.  Identifying how to take one apart correctly can be a
daunting task as there is no "standard" way manufacturers use to hold
everything together.

As the laptop ages the support provided by most manufacturers tends to
dwindle.  With your new laptop you might want to begin the search in
locating the repair manual for yours.  Now a days they are usually in
PDF or word format but can be quite difficult to locate, especially for
free.  It makes the laptop much easier to work on and normally includes
things like the manufacturers part numbers and such in the various diagrams.

Thank you, that is sound advice. Will do that.

Glowing blue... you realize that this is slow death by charged
particle poisoning. Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherenkov_radiation

You die a slow agonizing death as the cells within your body slowly
die, within I think two weeks with mathematical certainty, and there's
no medical cure. Has happened to many people in the nuclear industry
from accidents.

RL

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop. Is there a
lively aftermarket? Or do people just send them in to be repaired in
shops? Or just trash them after the 7 to 12 years it takes before a
well-built laptop will begin to show problems?

I'd never risk my computer to an incompetent shop or one that wants to
charge 75% of its original price, and repair parts are now fairly
cheap, sometimes even whole motherboards.

I think Lenovo has fairly detailed repair information at its website.
Gateway and HP/Compaq used to, but i don't know their current
situations. Toshiba is awful (tech support once asked me to e-mail
them the exploded diagram I had -- their tech support needed tech
support from a customer), but at least there's an independent site,
IrisVista.com, that has lots of repair info. There's also
NotebookReview.com, and for service manuals and diagrams, try
Reepair.net/en and ElektroTanya.com. Also some YouTube videos explain
how to do repairs.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

BTW, by repairs I mean other than: (1) installing more RAM, and, (2)
installing a second HD in those laptops that have easy "plug and play"
type slots for a second HD.

By repairs I mean stuff like replacing a noisy or inoperative CPU fan,
or case fan, or keyboard repair (though I'd hate to mess with that,
better to send it to a shop), or defective DVD/CD unit, or maybe
adding a new USBxx slot. The more I think of it, the more daunting it
sounds...maybe sending it to a professional in some aftermarket shop
is best.

I have replaced a CPU fan before. A royal pain but it did work. I
have replaced a DVD before, not as much of a pain, it worked.

 

[Flasherly]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop. Is there a
lively aftermarket? Or do people just send them in to be repaired in
shops? Or just trash them after the 7 to 12 years it takes before a
well-built laptop will begin to show problems?

RL

Don't know about lively, but there's definitely repair shops and
somebody in there who had to learn where to get parts and how to fix
gear. But that's where I'd say most people send them if
troubleshooting turns daunting or the problem isn't as obvious as the
tip of their nose. The techniques are different and more involved
than repairing a PC. I knew someone who works in such a shop, and the
way I heard him, repair is a matter of understanding the media
construction and assembly. Bright lights, some tools for prying apart
plastic and dealing with miniature screws and fittings, and a steady
hand for set sequences over delicate work. A general competence
level. Unless I needed the laptop, which I don't, so I stick to PCs
and available part pricing miles behind laptop parts. Nor a realistic
timeframe to consider for researching often reasonable priced new
units within $500 on sale for reasonable crunching power. After a two
or three years, might pick up $100 for it or give it away and buy a
replacement twice as powerful for something again less. The saying
about computers, they're a hole to throw money in, at least for me, at
some point tends become irrelevant.

 

[Arthur Shapiro]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop.

You want the appropriate HMM (Hardware Maintenance Manual) from the Lenovo
website. A normal, reasonably-handy person can take a Lenovo / IBM laptop
down to the motherboard within an hour. And there's a pretty fair chance of
actually getting it back together again.

This is a real plus for the Lenovo brand.

Art

 

[LSMFT]

Just bought a Lenovo laptop, and though it's new, I'm wondering if
years from now I can do my own repairs on the laptop. Is there a
lively aftermarket? Or do people just send them in to be repaired in
shops? Or just trash them after the 7 to 12 years it takes before a
well-built laptop will begin to show problems?

RL

Other than upgrading ram, hard drive and blowing it out if it gets
dusty, there is not much you can buy that will fit. There are no
universal parts suppliers because there are no universal parts, they
keep changing designs.

 

[Susan Miller]

BTW, by repairs I mean other than: (1) installing more RAM, and, (2)
installing a second HD in those laptops that have easy "plug and play"
type slots for a second HD.

By repairs I mean stuff like replacing a noisy or inoperative CPU fan,
or case fan, or keyboard repair (though I'd hate to mess with that,
better to send it to a shop), or defective DVD/CD unit, or maybe
adding a new USBxx slot. The more I think of it, the more daunting it
sounds...maybe sending it to a professional in some aftermarket shop
is best.

RL

I've done my own repairs on my previous laptops. I still have a Dell
Inspiron designed to take multiple types of CPU/GPU and I've upgraded
both. Additionally, I've replaced the fan unit at least 6 times since
it came out of warranty (it's a slightly faulty design and the
bearings wear out quickly). I've also replaced the keyboard at least
once (broke off a key). The Dell is coming up on 10 years old and
still going strong. I have Windows XP and an older version of Fedora
linux on it, it still keeps up with everything I throw at it except
games.

My husband has a Toshiba. We got it free with a cracked screen. I was
able to buy one on ebay and replace it (that was one of the harder
jobs) and now it runs like new. The person we got it from bought it
for 2k, new, without an extended warranty. Their loss is our gain!

For my newest laptop, I bought a refurbished Gateway P-series, and
there's a million of these systems out in the world. Gateway built
some fanatastic laptops and then flooded the market with them.This
means there will be repair parts available for a while to come.

We own a horse farm and have to make do for ourselves. I haven't taken
any computer classes. I've learned by reading and then doing. The nice
thing about laptops is, if you shop right, they're fairly modular. The
trick is finding a base model with lots of "options" in the CPU and
GPU.

Finding the repair manuals or disassembly guides people put together
and post on the internet are incredibly important. If you go to
http://www.notebookreview.com/ and post in the forum for your laptop
maker, you can usually find someone with a guide, as well as reputable
part sellers. etc.