Where to go for laptop repair?

[Slammy1]

A friend's laptop needs some work. I think I've isolated it to the power switch, and with my inexperience with laptop repair recommended they have it repaired by a shop. Any recommendations for finding a shop? I've done the standard Google search, not a lot of local mom/pops that work on laptops.

 

[jackofalltrades]

There isn't alot of mom and pop shops that really do board work on laptops. And from my experience working on laptops alot of the time what looks like a power button issue is really a mainboard issue/ not worth repairing, but check ebay there are some there claiming to have everything needed to do the repairs, I would just check their references before commiting to a repair.

 

[Maldian]

Slammy1, I work on laptops daily doing repair work. I agree with jackofalltrades, you have better luck just buying a replacement board for the machine rather than attempt the old replace the power switch trick. You have a 50% chance of it not working. If it is a Toshiba, that percentage will decrease.

 

[paul878]

If you think it is the switch that is defected, you can short it see if the laptop comes on.

 

[Slammy1]

Hey, thanks for the advice. The laptop is a Gateway, this was the deal:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2046926
Except we got it in January.

From what I read, you need to take the keyboard out to expose the power wires to short. Got too out of my comfort zone as I've never worked on laptops past memory/HDD.

So, if we're talking MoBo replacement, would that come with the wiring for the power button? If it's a motherboard replacement is it worth fixing?

Thanks again. I meant to try and log on at work (at lunch, of course) but I was too busy to take much of a break so sorry for the delay in my reply.

EDIT: There's a Micro Center close to work, I was thinking of taking it there.

 

[mindless1]

1) What is/isn't it doing, what lead to diagnosis of power switch?

2) As JOAT pointed out, it could refuse to turn on because of a board fault. Does the /action/ of the switch feel different, like it is broken internally or something? As someone pointed out you should be able to remove the panel above the keyboard and short across the switch contacts to see if the laptop turns on... it may not be necessary to remove the keyboard first to get the panel off - find a detailed disassembly guide/manual or just start gently popping panels or looking for associated screws through the back of the laptop that might hold that switch panel on.

You would probably have to take keyboard out to expose the mainboard power switch socket, which is one place to short pins to eliminate the chance of the wiring being bad too but I doubt the wiring went bad, usually it requires a mechanical stress like taking a laptop apart brutally to foul existing/previously working wiring, which is why I would first just pop the switch panel and short the button contacts instead of taking it apart further yet.

3) No, a replacement mainboard will not (usually, but you could ask the seller for it if it is an eBay pull or something) come with power button or wiring.

4) As reference point for the value of it as-is, an NV59 on ebay that won't power up currently has 8 bids at $152 + $15 s/h... so if you can't do the work yourself, and considering that it probably isn't the power switch unless someone had brutally taken it apart for another reason and damaged the wiring or connector was loose, or unless the power switch motion feels wrong/different, otherwise odds are it isn't the power switch and so it seems cost prohibitive to pay some for both labor and a new board when you can get ~ $150 out of it as-is. However, it is possible you simply have a cracked solder joint on the switch and 5 seconds of soldering iron time could fix it.

One other thing you could try is looking in Craigslist for your area, there might be some starving electronics tech that would diagnose for cheap... but ask for references or at least enough to know it isn't some geek squad kid who can't do component level repair.

 

[Tsavo]

Hey, thanks for the advice. The laptop is a Gateway, this was the deal:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2046926
Except we got it in January.

From what I read, you need to take the keyboard out to expose the power wires to short. Got too out of my comfort zone as I've never worked on laptops past memory/HDD.

So, if we're talking MoBo replacement, would that come with the wiring for the power button? If it's a motherboard replacement is it worth fixing?

Thanks again. I meant to try and log on at work (at lunch, of course) but I was too busy to take much of a break so sorry for the delay in my reply.

EDIT: There's a Micro Center close to work, I was thinking of taking it there.

The only people that can fix this is Gateway. I know, I have the same model with the same problem. I tried fixing it by replacing the button switch, but that didn't work.

They charge a flat $200 fee for out of warranty repairs. Call Gateway support and they'll get the ball rolling for you.

 

[Tsavo]

2) As JOAT pointed out, it could refuse to turn on because of a board fault. Does the /action/ of the switch feel different, like it is broken internally or something? As someone pointed out you should be able to remove the panel above the keyboard and short across the switch contacts to see if the laptop turns on... it may not be necessary to remove the keyboard first to get the panel off - find a detailed disassembly guide/manual or just start gently popping panels or looking for associated screws through the back of the laptop that might hold that switch panel on.

Gateway hit a low point in design with the placement of the switch. It's buried in the right-hand hinge area, which requires removal of the keyboard, removal of the touch panel (NOT touch pad), and removal of the front LCD bezel. I got my hands on Gateway's service manual which put in a lot of unnecessary and time consuming steps to getting that button out, which included complete removal of the LCD panel itself (lots of small wires). I did all that monkey malarkey, and it still wasn't the button switch that was defective.

I thought it was the button switch because I could depress it while lifting the lid and it would power on. I put it back together and it worked like this a few more times before going completely dead.

 

[paul878]

Gateway hit a low point in design with the placement of the switch. It's buried in the right-hand hinge area, which requires removal of the keyboard, removal of the touch panel (NOT touch pad), and removal of the front LCD bezel. I got my hands on Gateway's service manual which put in a lot of unnecessary and time consuming steps to getting that button out, which included complete removal of the LCD panel itself (lots of small wires). I did all that monkey malarkey, and it still wasn't the button switch that was defective.

I thought it was the button switch because I could depress it while lifting the lid and it would power on. I put it back together and it worked like this a few more times before going completely dead.

If lifting the lid would allow you t power it on, that would suggest there is a lose connection or a short somewhere.

you think that is bad? just try to replace the lcd on some Toshiba model.
you got the take out everything including the motherboard.
WTF are there engineers thinking, you just pop the bezel out and have access to the lcd on the old models.

 

[Tsavo]

If lifting the lid would allow you t power it on, that would suggest there is a lose connection or a short somewhere.

It would suggest that, I agree. But I did everything to it besides slap its ass and call it Sally, including carefully reseating every wire and checking every connection thrice...and still no dice. It was at most, toast. It was at least, not a beast.

Dead. In the water, it was.

I liked the NV53 when I got it, and I got 2+ years out of it, but pulling it apart showed me how many corners Gateway cut to make it.

 

[mindless1]

^ Loose connection would probably be a broken solder joint. I leave it up to you whether it's worth the time or within the skill level to reflow solder joints IF it's a component this can be done to/reasonably.

 

[Slammy1]

Yeah, she could power on while lifting the lid for a while like you describe, then that stopped working. I read some on the repair, there's a button and a harness and the design problem is the harness (though she also said the power button got mushy over time). It pinches and breaks wires.

I guess the $199 is guaranteed, I was just hoping for a better turn around. I saw on Amazon that several used ones were selling with a low of $430, but if design is as bad as you're saying I'm wondering if $200 is worth the risk of future breakdowns.

Micro Center charges a $70 diagnosis fee, but the person I talked to said they could fix it cheaper than $199. Not sure if that means $269 + tax, but I'd be willing to pay some. It's my friend's wife and she's getting ready to start back to school so they're losing her income and money's tight.

I'm really glad I didn't open it up any more than memory testing. Everyone that described the operation in my Google search seemed really knowledgeable about laptop repair and still included some strong cautionary statements. I can put a PC together but I always get big cases because I have big hands. Best I can say about that level of laptop repair is I saw it done once on an older laptop.

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks for the advice so far. It's been really helpful.
EDIT2: Took it to MC, they're pretty close to work. They said they'll call tomorrow and let me know, I'll report back on my experience.
EDIT3: Turned out the MoBo is bad. Decided not to fix it, Micro Center didn't charge me anything for the diagnosis.

 

[Tsavo]

Yeah, so.

Got the laptop back from Gateway.

They said they only fixed the power button but when I booted the first time Windows wanted to do the SP1 update dance.

I already had SP1 installed before I sent it off.

Now, something like 3-4 hours of everything crashing, and I'm restoring an image from back up.

Yeah, so now my Gateway boots, but it don't work at all.

 

[Slammy1]

Good luck, Tsavo, I hope the only problem was the power button.

 

[paul878]

How typical!
They re-imaged your hard drive at the repair depot that is why it wants to install SP1. I would run check disk to see if the hard drive got damaged during shipping.

What do you mean it don't work at all, give a better description of the problem.