# Laptops worth repairing or not?



## TNGTony (Mar 23, 2002)

Hi all,

Well it seems that my poor laptop has some sort of hardware failure that is causing the dreaded blue screen of death. It seems to be heat related, though I have found absolutely no commonality to the problem and the message of the BSoD is never the same twice in a row. It generally comes up with a memory error but it also has come up with video setting errors, lan card errors (when the LAN isn't even active), application errors and other things. The BSoD has come up in the safe mode while I am trying to figure out what could be causing the issue . It has come up while booting up from a CD restore image. Sometimes it doesn't happen for days. Other times the computer will not start for HOURS just endlessly cycling through failed boots in whatever mode you wish to try.

So... the question is... is it worth repairing a 2-year old $1000 out of warranty laptop (Toshiba Satellite -- would cost about $600-$700 to replace today with about the same specs)? I guess the question is, will it cost me $400 to get a laptop repaired? I am mostly concerned about the intermittency of the problem. I know it is very difficult to fix something that hasn't failed 100% mostly because you can't diagnose it properly.

The reason I ask is I have zero experience in the consumer computer repair business. I usually do my own repairs or with a ton of help from a friend fix my own computers for only the cost of parts and possibly a few beers.

I am asking for opinions about whether to repair or just buy new to replace. Please no comments on the Toshiba brand and how good or bad it is unless it is related to the reliability of a repair.

Thanks

See ya
Tony


----------



## dj76116 (Jan 19, 2007)

Better to find a deal on a new one, My 17" Satellite cost $1200 or so w/3 yr service. They're much better now and you'll benefit from the improvements.

fixing laptops is a whole new career than PCs most of the time

dave


----------



## gto5830 (Jan 7, 2007)

TNGTony said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Well it seems that my poor laptop has some sort of hardware failure that is causing the dreaded blue screen of death. It seems to be heat related, though I have found absolutely no commonality to the problem and the message of the BSoD is never the same twice in a row. It generally comes up with a memory error but it also has come up with video setting errors, lan card errors (when the LAN isn't even active), application errors and other things. The BSoD has come up in the safe mode while I am trying to figure out what could be causing the issue . It has come up while booting up from a CD restore image. Sometimes it doesn't happen for days. Other times the computer will not start for HOURS just endlessly cycling through failed boots in whatever mode you wish to try.
> 
> ...


Go to GOOGLE AND LOOK FOR "Disk Fitness Test", download it and then burn a disc or make a floppy of it. Then boot your pc to this disk and run the advanced test, This is a hard drive utility that will test to see if there are any problems with the hard drive. If it comes up with any error codes, then you may just need to replace your hard drive first before you decide to buy a new laptop. You could also look for a utility disk by the name of "Ultamate Boot CD" (UBCD) for Windows. This has a bunch of other utilites on to chesk hardware to give you some idea on which direction to go. If it is the hard drive, then all you need to do is replace the hd and then re-install all your software. Hope that this has helped.


----------



## tzphotos.com (Jul 12, 2006)

If it is a hard drive problem. It is very easy to change a hard drive in a laptop. Beyond the hard drive fixing a laptop can be costly.


----------



## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

> _"We have found that, in many problem situations where hard drive
> replacement occurs, the replacement could have been avoided.
> That's because most hard drives returned by customers are not
> actually damaged-meaning that the problem was caused by
> ...


Before you assume you have a problem with your HDD, read on...

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/technolo/dft/dftnew.htm


----------



## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

It depends. If this isn't your primary computing device and you can easily diagnose and fix the problem at a reasonable cost, then do so. If it's one of your primary workstations, particularly if it's more than a few years old, I'd replace it. If you're even thinking of running Vista, your old laptop is probably under powered. I recently acquired a new laptop with a couple of gigs of RAM and decent video card and I wouldn't run Vista on anything less regardless of what MSFT has to say.

Good luck.

John


----------



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

tzphotos.com said:


> If it is a hard drive problem. It is very easy to change a hard drive in a laptop. Beyond the hard drive fixing a laptop can be costly.


It's so simple that even I upgraded my laptop HD from 20G to 80G. The 20G is now a USB portable drive for me.


----------



## TNGTony (Mar 23, 2002)

Hey all, thanks for the advice! I'll try a few of the diagnostics suggested and see if I need to spend $$ on new laptop or just an HDD.

I appreciate it

Tony


----------



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

I'll chime in by pointing out that a laptop is one of the very few cases where an extended warranty plan might be worthwhile. As has been pointed out, they're difficult (read: expensive) to fix, and they're relatively fragile. The biggest drawback is that if you get a 30-month-old laptop fixed under warranty, what you get is an already-paid-for 30-month-old laptop.


----------



## CoriBright (May 30, 2002)

A system board (ie motherboard) for a Toshiba is usually around $500 + labor. Because so much is integrated onto the system board in a notebook, they aren't the easiest of hardware items to replace. Personally if you have an older notebook with no warranty, I'd probably trade it in and purchase a new one. Toshiba do quite a good trade in program, and you don't have to purchase a new Toshiba... or even purchase anything else if you've decided a new one isn't worth buying right now.


----------



## TNGTony (Mar 23, 2002)

Trade program? Really? I'll need to look into that. I haven't had a chance to see if the hard drive is bad. but other than the fact that the unit is dying on me now, I liked this laptop a lot!

See ya
Tony


----------

