[RndTbl] Question about Laptops

Robert Dyck rbdyck2 at shaw.ca
Fri Dec 24 18:38:53 CST 2010


My sister's fiancé bought a used Dell Latitude C600 for her daughter. The
display hinge broke on the right side. I worked for Powerland Computers at
the time, and they had a large selection of old laptops through recycling.
The reason they keep them is replacement parts for repairs. But they didn't
have a replacement hinge for that model. For one thing corporate customers
who provided a lot of the broken or obsolete laptops didn't buy that model,
but more importantly that model has a weak hinge that breaks a lot. I since
found a website with a description how to fix the hinge using sheet metal
and glue, but when buying one you are better off avoiding that model. The
Dell Inspiron had rugged hinges, the problem was specific to the Latitude
C600.

At Powerland we had a few customers bring in laptops for repair. One
customer brought in an Asus Atom with a solid state "drive". There was
nothing we could do to fix it. To ensure the netbook is easy to repair (read
"not expensive"), choose a one that has a normal laptop hard drive, and an
access door on the bottom to get at it. Older laptops and some new netbooks
have the hard drive under the keyboard, requiring significant dismantling to
get at it. Powerland charged $60 per hour for laptop repairs, so the more
time it takes a technician to repair it the more it will cost you. For my
home based business I charge $30 per hour for any computer work, and no
sales tax, but you still want to keep that down. Besides, the only laptop
replacement parts I have in stock is one mini-IDE hard drive, two really old
LCD displays, and one not-quite-as-old dismantled laptop. I have to find
parts for any other repair.

Just some hints from the repair guy.

Rob Dyck





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