Laptops Common Faults:
The laptops that tend to come through our office all seem to have the same common issues.
Screen Damage - The laptop screen and been shattered and would need to be replaced with a new screen
| Problem |
Description / Fix |
Estimated Cost |
| Damaged LCD Screen |
Laptop screens become shattered, usually because they have been left on the floor and stepped on, dropped, or most commonly been picked up by the screen of an open laptop. There is no way to repair a broken screen, the only option is to have the screen completely replaced. |
£30 Labour
£100* New Screen |
| Very Dark Screen |
When you switch the laptop on the screen does not light up at all, but you can see windows very faintly, it is almost like the lights behind the screen have stopped working. The problem is that the 'inverter' has 'blown' and needs to be replaced. |
£30 Labour
£40* New Inverter |
| Bad Battery |
People find the battery on their laptop lasts about 1+half hours when they buy it from the shop, But as the months follow the battery holds less and less of a charge. The reason for this is that constantly leaving the laptop plugged in overcharges the cells and destroys them one by one. Most batteries have 6 or 9 cells, so as they get damaged one by one they stop getting charged and hold less of a charge. Once charged unplug the laptop and use the battery power until its almost dead to prolong a battery's life. If the battery has been depleted/damaged a new battery would be needed. |
£30 Labour
£40* New Battery
£20* Used Battery |
| Keyboard Damage |
Sometimes we have cases where someone has spilt liquid on to their laptop keyboard causing the keys to stick, and on extreme cases the keys to type random characters. In the case of 'sticky keys' taking the keyboard and keys out and cleaning behind will sort out the problem. Depending on the liquid that is spilt over the keyboard ie 'coke' can destroy the circuit board behind the board and would need replacing |
£30 Labour
£30* New Keyboard |
| Power Damage |
By leaving the laptop constantly plugged in will cause the battery to die, once it has gone past this stage and the battery does now accept the charge given, the current overloads the components inside the laptop and burn them out. The laptop will not turn on at all and is a major problem. We can resurrect your data from the laptop and burn off to DVD's but currently do not hold the equipment in our office to repair this damage. |
£60 Labour
£15 Parts |
* Indicates that this is an average price, different manufactures have different prices.
Laptop Handling:
Here are a few ways to get the full potential from your laptop.
1) Use your laptop on a flat surface. Underneath the laptop is two fans that keep your laptop running at the right temperature. If the laptop is laying on a blanket or sofa this will block the fan vents and the laptop will over heat and could cause power damage (as described above). Invest in a flat tray or any flat hard material that the laptop will sit completely flush on. Remember it only has to be the size of a laptop which is usually 17 inches across.
2) Do not drink or eat around your laptop. This may seem like common sense but people still do. Most commonly of all is people listen to music in the kitchen on their laptop while they are cooking away, and in a moment of
inattentiveness knock something over the laptop causing keyboard damage (see above).
3) Handling your laptop, do no leave it on the floor and do not ever pick you laptop by the screen. It only takes the pressure equivalent of squeezing a grape on the right part of a screen to break it. This is something to bare in mind when picking up a laptop from the screen.
4) Do not leave your laptop plugged in all the time. This is a bad habit to get into but a very hard habit to get out of. In an ideal situation, you should unplug the laptop when it is fully charged and let it run down until you get the automated message about the battery being low, This should be default set to 10% unless you have personally changed it. Once you get the message charge until full. Think of your charging habits the same as your mobile phone; Your not going to charge a fully charged mobile phone and you are not going to leave your mobile plugged in 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Batteries need to be trained, so to get the best out of your battery follow this hint.
5) Use an effective spyware protection like spybot search & destory, which is completely free. Also invest in a top of the range antivirus protection software that will not put a system drain on your PC, this is about £25 per year. Our recommendation is ESET's NOD32. This will keep your PC running as fast as it was the day you brought it.
6) Cleaning your laptop does not do it any harm either. Laptops pick up a lot of dust and grime. We recommend completely turning off the laptop and running a vacuum over the air vents on the under-side of laptop. If you have a brush attachment (aka the curtain attachment) for the vacuum, then run that across the keyboard too.
7) If you battery is not holding it charge as much as it did when you brought your laptop then change immediately, but note, a battery should last a minimum of 45 minutes. As i explained above in the 'Bad Battery' section, a dead battery 'will' destroy your PC in the long run. If you are going to buy a new battery, the best tip is the more 'cells' the better, which also mean the battery will last longer.
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