Computer gouging

[LewisM]

Decided to get the faulty power plug laptop fixed. Took it to one computer repair joint - a nationally known one - and they said that the plug on the board would require a complete new MOBO and the screen (I have had grey streaks in the monitor for about a year) for $400 and $300 respectively. $700 all up - which is about $600 shy of a new comparable system (it is a pretty high-end system).

Took it to the accredited repairer for this make. Told me the power socket is a separate mini-board, and that costs $59 installed. The monitor would be an additional $200 installed.

Needless to say, I went with these guys, and had them throw on an extra bunch of RAM whilst they were at it and STILL came in under the other turkey!!!

Incredible the price spectrum we see these days.

[killswitch (Edison)]

Yes laptops come with a modular board for the AC jack these days. This is one of the first things that break. Very easy to replace.

Even still, you can just buy a new AC jack from ebay and solder it on.

Sometimes all thats needed is to reflow the existing solder. Ive never had to replace a whole logic board just to fix the AC jack.

[LewisM]

I attempted the fix myself, but didn't seem to work, so went with the new board.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hear you Lewis , about a year ago my 1Tb external back up HD stopped booting up .

I download everything out of my lap top into this about once a month .

Anyway I took it to a 'Nationally known' repaired as well and they took it out back to test it ,, same as you ,, its dying they say , but we can send it to Sydney to try and recover your data ... , for between $500-600 ,,, bugger that !!! , they had the cheek to ask 'Do you have a back up' ,, dirrr , this is my back up .? .

Cut a long story short , I bought a 500mb HD and thought OH well , lets start again .
On getting home and un-packaging the new one , I noticed the new ones USB lead was the same as my dead HD so I tried it and presto ! it worked ,, the so called experts tried to sell me a new $19 lead for $600 ,, yep GOUGING !!! for sure .

Brian.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Laptop Mboard power sockets are usually on a daughter board that can be replaced (or lanyard), ebay. If they are not, the power sockets can be replaced...I've done plenty.

But they use non-lead solder and it is a absolute real pain to re-heat and remove.