What procedure do you follow in order to determine what's wrong with a laptop?

[Arcadio]

I am just starting to get into real laptop repair, and I need to know the easiest way to test each component to diagnose what the problem might be. It's obviously not as easy as a desktop PC.

Thanks.

 

[tcsenter]

If it won't power on, test a different battery and AC adapter. If it still won't power on, it ain't worth fixing.

The only things that are worth fixing or replacing are battery, AC adapter, memory, hard drives, optical drives, cooling fans, or software. Everything else goes back to the customer with "Sorry, we couldn't figure out the exact cause during your no-charge limited 15-minute diagnostic service, and we know you won't want to pay us for another two full-rate billable hours to pin-point exactly what is wrong, only for you to say its too expensive to repair so why even bother paying our stupid diagnostic charge. Thank you for your business."

You can offer to backup the contents of their hard drive to DVD or install it into an external 2.5" HDD USB2.0 enclosure at a very nominal cost, if it will make you feel any better about not going the extra mile.

Don't say nobody tried to warn you.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

tscenter, replacing the lcd inverted is an easy fix and you save a ton doing it yourself. they cost about $40 for the part and are pretty easy to get to on most laptops that i have tried.

i have had about 5 hp dv**** laptops come thru all with blown inverters.

its what powers the backlight. when it blows its very hard to see anything on the screen.

 

[JackMDS]

The first step of attenting to a Laptop is to search the support site of the Brand/Model and find a manual that describes step by step how to open the laptop and reach the various components.

I would Mot touch a Laptop, unless I am ready to get rid of it, without its mechanical documentation.

If need am example why it is needed look at this 3 pictorial pages, http://www.ezlan.net/vaio.html

 

[Arcadio]

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The first step of attenting to a Laptop is to search the support site of the Brand/Model and find a manual that describes step by step how to open the laptop and reach the various components.

I would Mot touch a Laptop, unless I am ready to get rid of it, without its mechanical documentation.

If need am example why it is needed look at this 3 pictorial pages, http://www.ezlan.net/vaio.html

Ok, but once you open the laptop and disassemble it, how do you know what's causing the problem? It could be the CPU, motherboard, PSU, or any other component. How do you test them? So far, what I've done is what the poster above said: If it's not something obvious, it's not worth doing the repair.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Arcadio

Originally posted by: JackMDS
The first step of attenting to a Laptop is to search the support site of the Brand/Model and find a manual that describes step by step how to open the laptop and reach the various components.

I would Mot touch a Laptop, unless I am ready to get rid of it, without its mechanical documentation.

If need am example why it is needed look at this 3 pictorial pages, http://www.ezlan.net/vaio.html

Ok, but once you open the laptop and disassemble it, how do you know what's causing the problem? It could be the CPU, motherboard, PSU, or any other component. How do you test them? So far, what I've done is what the poster above said: If it's not something obvious, it's not worth doing the repair.

A real repair person would be handy with a multimeter as well as have spares of things to test against.

Its usually going to be battery, screen or HD with a laptop.

Hooking up a spare monitor can rule out a lot if the screen is questionable.

Spare HD or putting the HD on another machine to test.

Battery can be tested...sometimes it's a bad adapter input.

Also on some newer laptops the chargers are chipped so they will not charge the batteries unless a proper OEM one is used.

It's really not much different than a desktop.

Almost all of the repairs are easy. I have had to R&R a few LCD's now here.