Fried laptop - repair or replace?

[DisneyFirefly]

I've had my laptop for about a year and a half now, and about three months ago, the AC adapter died. I bought a new one, a knock-off from eBay (if anyone ever has their adapter die, DO NOT buy a knock-off; just get the stupid part from your manufacturer). Two months later, I was using my laptop to show a friend a post here on the Dis and there was a little *POP* and my screen went blank and the computer shut down. I'm a writer, a college student, and an internet addict, so I freaked out and ran it over to Staples for diagnostics.

Basically, I fried my computer by using a knock-off adapter. The motherboard and video card are fried, so right now I have a $700 paperweight and am stuck using my parents' desktop, which is a battle to get onto since my father is also taking classes. The guy at Staples told me that the repair would be $370+tax, and I'd also have to get a new adapter from the manufacturer to the tune of ~$60+tax+shipping. My laptop's a Dell Inspiron 1526, so I can only get the Dell parts through their website. The total repair would be well over $550 when you factor in the fact that I also need a new battery (~$150), but would be putting that off for a while, until I could afford it. The battery I currently have won't hold a charge, so it was running on the AC adapter.

I'm also having overheating issues with this laptop (it's been sent in for repair once before), the screen has scratches in it, and the case itself is cracking (I think that's Dell's fault, though, because it's poorly constructed).

I know I could get a whole new computer for cheaper than it would cost to repair my current one and deal with the battery issue, and the guy at Staples told me that they could do a DVD backup of all my data from my laptop. Right now, that seems like the best option, when you add everything together. Either way, I'm not getting it for at least a month due to another financial situation I have going on. If I buy a new one, I'm going to lose all my bookmarks since I doubt those would come off in a data backup, but I might be wrong.

What do you guys think? Repair the old one for ~$580 and just deal with the overheating issue, or buy a brand new one for $450 and get a $100 data backup from Staples, for a total of $550?

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Buy a new one and treat it better than the one that died...

 

[feezle]

I'm a tech and I have worked at several computer repair shops. I also freelance now part time. Please trust me when I say that repairing it is not worth it. First off, diagnosis/repair at the big box stores is ridiculously expensive. Secondly, the motherboard is pretty much the computer itself. By the time you replace it, you may as well have bought a newer, faster, minty fresh computer anyway.

Also, please do not pay them $100 to back up your system. Nothing is wrong with your harddrive, so your data is safe. Remove the harddrive from the laptop and put it in one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817334014

You will then have an external harddrive with all of your data on it that plugs in via USB. Pull your stuff off of the harddrive and then use the drive as backup, extra storage, etc... You can pull your bookmarks from the backup as well. Depending on the browser you used, there would be different steps. If you decide to do this, let me know and I can walk you through it.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Also, please do not pay them $100 to back up your system. Nothing is wrong with your harddrive, so your data is safe. Remove the harddrive from the laptop and put it in one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817334014

You will then have an external harddrive with all of your data on it that plugs in via USB. Pull your stuff off of the harddrive and then use the drive as backup, extra storage, etc... You can pull your bookmarks from the backup as well. Depending on the browser you used, there would be different steps. If you decide to do this, let me know and I can walk you through it.

I already have an external hard drive, but for ten bucks, I'm sure I could swing that. I just never got around to transferring everything from my laptop to my external hard drive. The only issue with that is that I have absolutely no idea how to open up the back and take the drive out. I tried once before when I was first having the overheating issue and I couldn't get the whole back off, just small panels. I don't want to risk breaking anything, so do you have any idea how to get it open? I can take a picture of it if you need to see.

Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it

 

[feezle]

The harddrive just slides into the side of the laptop. It is held in place by a bracket that is held in with 2 screws. You will have to flip the laptop upside down and remove the 2 screws and you should be able to slide the harddrive out. You will then just have to take the bracket off so it will fit in the enclosure.

Here is a link that shows you what it looks like:

http://www.bandb.ru/description/Dell-1525-black-manual-eng/hdd.htm

You could probably then put the laptop on ebay for parts and make $50 or so.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Awesome, thanks!

 

[auralia]

buy a new one and do the data back up yourself, just take the old hard drive out of burnt up lap top and get the data off yourself you can look it up on the interent it's not hard and you can use your dads desktop to do it... if you can wait you can always brave a black friday line too.

 

[NYCDiane]

Buy a new laptop --- Best Buy always has great deals --- and be sure to get a "chill pad" to prevent the laptop from overheating.

No point in repairing an old one that's in bad shape, anyway.

 

[Colleen27]

As others have said, you're better off replacing a laptop rather than repairing it. Technology advances and comes down in price so quickly that major repairs like motherboards are seldom worth making on run-of-the-mill computers. That goes double for laptops, which are more expensive to fix and have shorter overall lifespans. Pulling the hard drive to turn it into an external isn't difficult at all - it took me about 15min, $20 and a trip to Radio Shack to have my laptop drive happily docked on my desktop USB port.

 

[Mrs. Charming]

Hey, are you using my laptop!? My power cord fried last night! I'm using an old power cord at the moment. It's so weird, this JUST happened. Was yours a Compaq?

What I did with the old one was I bought an adapter that turns the old hard drive into a USB external. It works really well! I use it mostly for storage though.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Hey, are you using my laptop!? My power cord fried last night! I'm using an old power cord at the moment. It's so weird, this JUST happened. Was yours a Compaq?

What I did with the old one was I bought an adapter that turns the old hard drive into a USB external. It works really well! I use it mostly for storage though.

Heh, that's funny. No, mine wasn't a Compaq (although that's the make of computer I'm on right now). It was a Dell Inspiron 1526. I loved it and it was a good computer, it just... died.

I'm probably going to do that. I really need the data that's on that drive (photos, music, Word docs, spreadsheets, movies, etc), so I can't really fathom just letting it all disappear into oblivion. Anyway, thanks!

 

[nd5056]

Check out this one HERE: and HERE:

For the repair money you'll have twice the technology and speed.

.

 

[trustknoone]

Replace it, not worth the expense of repairing. Dell is having a sale now

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/...6202&acd=63EMVK-8W0RU-MSRZCBQ-T18QE6-3IDD9-v1

 

[dawson5]

I've never had a dell. Do they use proprietary parts? You said "My laptop's a Dell Inspiron 1526, so I can only get the Dell parts through their website." If something like this happens again are you going to be in the same situation of only being able to buy parts from Dell?

We had something of a same situation with a sony desktop. It didn't fry but the integrated video card was shot (certain colors glowed neon green). Only way to fix is to get a new motherboard is what I was told. Sony uses proprietary parts, it was going to cost $275 from what I could tell, if I could find the motherboard, not including any labor. It was a 5 yr old computer, I spent $300 more and got a way better one.

I'm with everyone else, buy a new one but I would do some research and make sure if something happens you can find the parts easily and economically.

 

[feezle]

Laptops are a lot less forgiving when it comes to replacing parts. Since everything has to fit into the case, most everything is proprietary.

 

[tjl]

If your motherboard is fried plus you need a new battery and you have got other problems with the laptop....I say buy a new one.

If you feel like repairing it....it is possible. My Dell Inspiron 1720 had a fried graphics card, my wife plugged an ac adapter into the S-video out....ok...that cheap 'clever' engineer that decided to use an S-video connector for an AC adapter....arg, drives me up the wall. That's a warning to all, watch out for these awful ac adapters for external hard drive enclosures with s video out connectors. Back on topic, my laptop cost me about $1200 and I was willing to give anything a try. On my Dell Inspiron 1720 the graphics card is separate from the motherboard. So, I ordered a used/salvaged graphics card off of ebay for $110. I made sure to buy the exact same graphics card for the replacement. I went to one of the laptop repair websites and got the doityourself instructions for free. I've only opened up a couple of laptops before, but with 3-4 hours of work I was able to carefully....extremely carefully replace out the graphics card. My laptop works great and the repair saved me a bunch of money.

For you, I suggest you buy a new laptop. Disassemble your old laptop and sell the remaining good components as parts. You will probably be able to make a minimum of $200 back after parting out your old laptop. I'm sure someone needs a replacement screen, drive caddy, cd drive, keyboard, fan, memory....etc.

Best of Luck

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

Check out this one HERE: and HERE:

For the repair money you'll have twice the technology and speed.

.

I vote replace also but not with either of the above from what I have read Dell is producing junk, as your computer was proof at just past it's warranty expiry date you had to repair it thus resulting in it being fried.

Lenovo is a Chinese company that took over the production of IBM's computers, and believe me IBM computers are just expensive boat anchors!