Laptop Problems
 

So for no reason at all, i turned on my laptop and it appears my display is ****ed. Imagine the screen is made up of four quarters, divided by vertical stripes. Well, the far left quarter is greyed out - as if the lighting is on at half power. gr8!

I've checked the drivers, etc, but its clearly a hardware issue - i restarted and went into the set up screen, and you can clearly see the same quarter of it is greyed out too.

SO;

1. Is this a problem that you reckon can be easily / cheaply fixed? Any ideas on approximate costs? Im not sending it away to Asus again as that was a complete ****ing disaster last time. Im also not paying £50 to get it looked at before anything is even done to the machine, especially as its a good couple of years old now.

2. Where is good to buy a new laptop? And by good, i mean reliable/cheap. I dont game, and i dont really use my machine for anything other than downloading, playing music, watching films and being a butte on IRC.

3. How far have prices dropped / has technology marched on in the last 2 years? Am i naive in thinking my mid-range laptop of 2 years ago may be a low-range laptop of today?


My current machine Specs:

ASUS A2D Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2800+ 2.13GHz
2.13 GHz
512MB RAM
15" Screen
35GB HD
DVD +/- RW

HD not an issue because i use an external one now; A bigger screen and i'd have to get a bigger laptop bag and i'm tight, DVD +/- RW prefferable but not essential as i have an external one now, and i wouldnt settle for a slower processor or less RAM than i have now obviously but i dont care about adding too much more.


Any help, much appreciated.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Acer TravelMate 4202WLMi Intel Core Duo T2300E / 15.4 WXGA / 1GB / 80GB / DVD+/-RW / XP Pro / Laptop / Notebook PC

Price: £339.99 ex VAT
(£399.49 inc VAT)

Re: Laptop Problems
 

A long warranty?
Beyond that, it's hard to say. Each brand seems to have it's bombs.

A *lot*. A two-year-old midrange will probably barely make it to the low budget notebooks. 512mb is absolute minimum RAM you get nowadays, and the processors have hopped miles.

The Acer DM mentions seems good enough, but you'd probably enjoy a 14.1"er.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Hiya
Deffeh
can
you
read
this
as
it's
on
the
left
of
your
screen?

PS
sorry
I
can't
help
your
thread

Re: Laptop Problems
 

[predictable]

IN THE ASS!

[/predictable]

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Its greyed out; but not blacked out. Also your avatar and shit was in the way. But i appreciate the effort.

Man expensive stuff sure is expensive :mad:

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Also from what was Simply

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...273054&CatId=0

Price:
£289.99 ex VAT
(£340.74 inc VAT)

Intel Celeron-M 430 1.73GHz
512 MB DDR II SDRAM - 667 MHz - PC2-5300
80 GB - Serial ATA Hard Drive
DVD±RW Dual Layer
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Wireless 802.11a/b/g LAN
15" XGA TFT Display
Fingerprint Security
Bluetooth

I'm sure you can get more features, but I'd say that's pretty much base price for a new unit.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Unless you want to hit the Ebay wheel of fortune.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

In fact, a Dell Inspiron 1501 which fits DM's rectal better for 14.1" WXGA, 512mb RAM, AMD Sempron 3500+, and the other gadgets starts at 348.99£. With a DVD/RW it's 372.49£, and 401.87£ if you want to go hi-tech and grab 1GB RAM (although guessing you're not after any performance, so a sluggish WinXP cuts it for your needs). Including VAT and shipments.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Def, have you tried switching it off and on at the wall? That might solve your laptop problems.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

How about we switch you on and off? That might solve your sexlife problems.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

My sexlife is pretty good at the moment thanks.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Somehow, I suspect this is related to the appearance of the new Harry Potter book, which brings more children into the streets and shops.

AM I RITE?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Actually if anything the Harry Potter book is a bad thing. Sure the kids are out getting the book but they're out with their parents. Then they're stuck at home, inside, reading away. As such it means alot less young poon out and about.

Also you'd be suprised at the number of Harry Potter fans, young sweet girls, who don't actually want to see a magic wand.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

You've put some thought into this, haven't you?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

I like thinking things through. It helps that you've got your story straight when the Police start interviewing.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

At first it is important that you make sure it is a real hardware problem. Verify that it is independent of your installed OS and driver configuration (a quick and easy test would be to run another OS installation from a bootable CD/DVD - for example some kind of linux like KNOPPIX).

Now if you made sure it is a hardware problem, a common problem could be the connection between your display panel and the lower part of the laptop containing the motherboard/cpu/memory/fans/hard disk/keyboard etc. Sometimes its enough to verify and re-adjust the cable connection responsible for carrying the signals to the display panel. Sometimes you can verify this problem without even disassembling the notebook by gently applying pressure around the place where the cables are connected. In case of a tear/wear cable problem you should see the display problem change and with a bit of luck even disappear if you apply pressure at the correct place.

It is a common problem for some types of laptops and i have extended the lifetime of several notebooks by an additional year or 2 by repairing it myself (disassemble notebook carefully, check and redo all cable connections, remove dirt from keyboard/mainboard and sometimes fix cables).

You should look around the internet and maybe you are lucky and somebody documented how to disassemble your laptop before you try it yourself. Some of them (esp. Sony) are tricky.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

I had a similar problem with my laptop after one particularly bumpy bus ride. Sent it off under warranty repair.
Turns out the cable that connects to the lcd inside the monitor housing had came loose on one end, and that was the cause of it.

Its not something i recommend repairing yourself, given its the monitor of a laptop we're talking about here but its reasonable simply to fix if the cause is the same for you.

Otherwise, the fix would be for them to replace the entire lcd and associated components and that costs a wee bit.\

dabs, ebuyer perhaps, etc.

Its moved on quite a bit, and no you are not naive to be thinking that - but it wont be as bad as low-end but its close to it.
You should find laptops around the approximate spec below for ~300-400 max

Re: Laptop Problems
 

He could get a broken version of his laptop off Ebay and switch the bits over, assuming of couse that a broken screen isn't part of the problem.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

some very useful advice, and some non ironic thankyous from me :o

Im not going to take the thing apart; i dont have time, and i dont trust myself to not make it worse. I put a little bit of pressure down but it doesnt seem to have done anything, i'll try again in a bit i guess.


RE repairs:

Where would you reccomend - any chans, a local place, etc?

What can i expect to pay?



The laptop is no longer under warranty and even if it was i wouldnt be sending it to ASUS because im not waiting 3-4 weeks for them to bill me for
Parts
VAT
Labour
Delivery

in total about £120ish.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

If the problem is with the graphics card being just plain broken, it's going to be tough to repair. Those are often very much interconnected to the motherboards, and most laptops don't really have an option to reasonably change one without going through major revamps. Then again, assuming it's an intel GMA, I'm astonished it's broken in the first place.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

in my experience it will almost certainly be the LCD panel that is faulty. You could try replacing the harness (the cable that connects it to the motherboard) but they wont only cost you pennies to buy and if it doesnt fix the problem you will have wasted the £30-£50 it will probably have cost to buy plus the time you spent installing it.

It might be a loose connector as suggested but unlilkely in my experience considering you have had the laptop for years without problem. That sort of thing doesnt just waggle about in there its pretty snug and in cases of loose connectors its usually evident fairly early on and down to poor assembly.

You could try to download some ASUS diagnostics and see if there is a video chipset test to run, but this will most likely be integrated on your motherboard so to replace will require a new motherboard.

IMO your best bet is to ensure it is not a loose cable problem or a graphic chipset problem first then try and get an old broken ASUS laptop from ebay and swap the LCD panel over, it wont be too tricky if you are careful but looking around on google I cant find any disassembly instructions to help you.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Which is best?

this

Or


this

?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Have you thought about whether or not you want to be running Vista?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

The Acer is by hardware superior. Smaller (as you won't be gaming with those anyways, 14.1" WXGVA is enough for office use), otherwise mainly identical with a little better graphics. It's not going to run Vista anywhere near good enough, though.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

GB2FYAD, but this time make it the FYAD of a few years ago so you actually manage to improve your posting rather than just making it into some sort of idiotic circle jerk.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

how do you circle jerk on your own?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Horn has an unusual penile defect.

Posting multiple times in series is another way.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Acers can be bought reasonably cheaply and I've had mine for two years now with absolutely no problems. My girlfriend just bought a newy, £500 or so, with a staggeringly pretty rigid screen though she went for an AMD Turion proc in it which feels less than awesome in Vista (though she's got all the bells and whistles turned on so ymmv). You even get surprisingly good graphics chips in them (there's a decent enough ATI Mobility chip in this to run C&C3 quite happily), large HDDs and good amounts of RAM for very little money really.

Notebooks are frankly absurdly cheap compared even with a year ago, especially considering the spec you can get for your money. For twice what you'd likely pay for a consultation and repair on your existing one you can get a new one that'll probably be spec'd about twice as good as the broken one was anyway.

And if you're thinking of going down that route, you might as well see if you can get some of the case removed near the screen hinges and check it's nothing obvious like a loose/broken cable. Even if you can't fix it, you can probably sell it for parts to pay for a few bevvies so it's pretty much win-win.

Just don't buy it from EBuyer, which would pretty much be my standard advice for any purchase that you can't afford to make again if it arrives broken and you're left waiting two months for a damned RMA.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

I was mainly refering to the video card.

Doesn't help with laptops though, spite maybe an Asus C90S.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

I honestly have not. How unreliable is Vista atm?

I've not considered it because I doubt I will need Vista for anything as I don't really play games or do anything to need it.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

vista is still at least a year away from being a sensible choice of OS

Re: Laptop Problems
 

The thing is, why you'll probably want to pick up the laptop with XP on it. Generally, XP is a little bit of a soak in what comes to RAM. I run excessive useless programs (55 processes running at the moment), and I've got around 500mb RAM in use. Whatever exceeds the RAM is paged from the hard drive, and that's piss slow in compared to RAM. Vista will be more hardware greedy than XP, and the gains are very tiny. What I am saying, that it's going to be uncomfortable to use.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Is there a reliable 'build-your-own' laptop shop on-line?

I'm not too bothered about the HD or RAM (as long as it is upgradable to a decent amount) as I'll probably get an external HD.

I've got a copy of Windows XP on disk to install so I'm not to bothereed if it comes with an OS or not.

I don't really play games so that's not going to be a great issue so as long as it's got a decent processor and sound card, I don't really mind.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

You shouldnt rely on using swapspace nowadays. RAM prices are pretty low right now and 1gig of 667/800 DDR2 so-dimm costs about 40 Euro including VAT here.

The problem with upgrading existent RAM in a notebook is that in most cases you dont have slots free. So you need to replace the existing RAM instead of adding to it.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

www.laptopsdirect.com was recommended to me when I bought mine, and they did a very good job.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Also you all lose internet points. If someone else here had started a thread called 'laptop problems' the very first thing i would have done is come in and say 'the problem with ur laptop is theres a butt typing on it' before trying to be helpful

Re: Laptop Problems
 

I'm pretty sure using those dreadful smilies is the step beyond post-irony back into utter shitness.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Veni, vidi, buttum.

Re: Laptop Problems
 

http://geek.pricegrabber.com/search_...terid=43031148

this is an American site then? So a $599.99 laptop will cost £296.50

So does this site give you a collection of the best prices from prope shops or is it more like E-bay?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Before I buy a laptop could someone answer this for me, what is a warranty?

If I have a one year warranty and I leave my laptop on continuously for 364 days and the power supply burns out (which might be an exaggeration of what happened to my curent laptop :(), can I get it fixed for free?

Re: Laptop Problems
 

Yes. You should. Of course, it depends on the terms of the given warranty - a lot of warranties are somewhat limited. You'll get a ticket with the terms with the package, or you can ask them about it.

Also, a place worth visiting when it comes to laptops is NBR.