Laptop repair advice please

[cazzz1975]

my neighbour was discussing their laptop problem, they have a hp laptop, the problem is that when they switch on the laptop it wont fire up although you can hear the drives kick up and the fan sounds fine but it doesnt go to the bios, it seems dead, there is no screen, its on but dead. after some googling I thought it may be graphics related(thesearches pointed towards a motherboard/graphics problem)

they have mentioned to me today that a company has told them it can fix their problem for £52 pounds by repairing the board. http://www.pcemergenc...uk/laptop-repairs.php

I am a bit skeptical about the cost and the repair. does anyone know this company?

[cazzz1975]

the laptop is approximately 4/5 years old

[RATTER15]

The price sounds reasonable.

[cazzz1975]

I know ratter, they think its good, but when I was googling the problem they said it was highly likely the motherboard was gone and the motherboard cost over 200 quid to replace.

who's to say another part of the motherboard may have been affected by this problem as well. I cant help thinking that £52 quid is just the start.

[Buenchico]

I'm always worried about firms who you can't easily trace to get your money (or your computer equipment) back from if something goes wrong.

There's no address given on that website. Further the domain name is registered to a Silviu Chelaru who has hidden his address by (illegally) claiming to be a 'non-trading individual':
http://tinyurl.com/38vz2ha

Chris

[cazzz1975]

thank you for that buenchico,, I can understand why they would look at such a great deal, I just felt dubious about them. but I thought that it is normal for me to be distrustful ;)

[MarkRae]

Treat these people with extreme suspicion. As has been pointed out, they have falsified their registration with WHOIS. Why don't you ask them why they have done that and see what how they reply...?

[TTG]

Check the ram chips are seated correctly. Should be behind a screwed in panel on the bottom of laptop.

[cazzz1975]

hi mark, they replied to my neighbour by text......

Hi TTG, yes the ram chips were seated fine

[ChuckFickens]

Have you tried booting it up with an external monitor plugged in? that way you should be able to tell if it's a screen problem or a mainboard/graphics problem.

[cazzz1975]

when it was plugged into a separate monitor it was blue screening, whilst it was blue screening the screen image was breaking up with white lines.

[ChuckFickens]

That does sound like a graphics problem. Which Model of HP is it? as Nvidea had some problems with their graphics chips a couple of years ago and a lot of manufacturers are replacing effected laptops with those chips well outside their normal warranty period.

[cazzz1975]

Ooh that's interesting it's a pavilion 9267ea

[ChuckFickens]

And that's one of the effected ones!

Have a read here

http://news.cnet.com/...54_3-10020782-33.html

http://www.ripoffrepo...hp-defectiv-5ag44.htm

http://h30434.www3.hp...top/td-p/25344/page/6



It seems they have extended the warranty by one year, but only for certain models. but even if it's not a listed model or past that extra year point I would be on the phone to them and claim that as it's a known hardware issue (see links above) that nvidea (and HP themselves) have admitted exists that they need to fix it under the sale of goods act (it's reasonable to expect a laptop to last 5-6 years)

You might not get anywhere (well unless you are prepared to take them to court over it!) but it's got to be worth a try, I've had two sony laptops repaired free of charge well outside their warranty period over the last 6 months for exactly the same problem.

[cazzz1975]

thanks chuck, I will get them on to it.

this is the beauty of answerbank! I dont think they knew their laptop had this issue

[ChuckFickens]

Unsurprisingly, it's not something any of the manufacturers, or Nvidea, have wanted to make general public knowledge.

[cazzz1975]

okay, have looked into this a bit so I can explain it to them, however in my ramblings I have stumbled upon this site http://www.nvidiasettlement.com/index.html

basically their laptop is not covered by the problem, even though it has suffered the problem!!?? (ry686ea)

[SunnyCable]

To be honest what you need is a graohics repair job. Most companies out there use heat guns and reflow your chips sintead. This is a temporary fix which doesn't last more than 30 days. I found one company called WebMax and they can repair these motherboards and provide a warranty. Check them out http://www.webmax.ltd.uk