laptop repair

[vale]

Hey there fellas. Has anyone sent of a laptop to get repaired via a 3rd party company at all. My girlfriend has a fujitsu and I think the keyboard is buggered. She has no warrenty now so I was looking at places for her to get it send off to be fixed where she wont get screwed for cash.

Any tips would be awesome :D

[eaterofpies]

I looked into this for one of my old laptops and they wanted 75 quid to look at it + parts + time to fix it.

I would have a look at it and see if you can see anything wrong with it as its unlikely that the keyboard will just die though they do tend to unseat themselves. I have seen a keyboard controller die in a couple of laptops which means a new motherboard which is usually about £300 + time at which point its cheaper just to buy a new laptop.

[vale]

she spilt apple juice on it. The laptop functions fine but the keyboard is random as hell occasionally u can press the odd but but it likes to open its own programs i assume from key combinations and what not. I looked at one site online and they gave a quote for about 100 quid roughly a little less to get it fixed, but it will have to sent off that she would have to pay for and they could jack up the price if they find more damage and its not worth that much really so anymore than a 100 quid isnt justified.

[eaterofpies]

ah ok well you could probably replace the keyboard yourself but youll have to find somewhere to sell you one. the place we used where I worked was http://www.laptopsolutions.net/ and they seemed to be able to get just about anything if you called em.

if that wont work and the keyboard is really screwed you could try putting it through a dish washer and leaving it somewhere warm for a week but theres a resonably large risk that the keyboard will be completely dead after that (though I have heard of it working).

[Wedgeh]

I took my PC keyboard apart after the gf spilt peach schnapps in it and put it in the bath, dryed it out and has been fine for the 4 years since then to now.

[vale]

mmm recon removing the keyboard and then putting it in the bath and the drying it out in teh airing cupboard or something will work then?

[SlyDave]

just leave it on the side to dry, don't use the airing cupboard, if its full of towles and copper pieing, static can still kill it.

[SGT_Snacks]

Bath's can do miracles to parts etc, I've heard a lot of stories of "washing your componants". Someone I knew put a PS2 in the bath after his son spilt something inside of it. Worked fine. Just do some research is all I can say.

[BlackDemon]

Take the keyboard out, have a look under it to see if there is any visible damage to other parts underneath. If not then just try washing the keyboard, or buying a replacement one (just a keyboard for a laptop isn't too expensive and you can fit it yourself). If it looks like the spilt juice got under it then you may have more problems than just the keyboard, but generally laptop keyboards are fairly well contained for when you spill anything on them.

[BobNT]

if that wont work and the keyboard is really screwed you could try putting it through a dish washer and leaving it somewhere warm for a week but theres a resonably large risk that the keyboard will be completely dead after that (though I have heard of it working).


Sounds like a good way to either fix it or put it out of its misery for good :)

[BirdofPrey]

Hmm, id just put it in the bath, a dishwasher gets REALLY hot inside!

[putty_thing]

Pretty sure your average dishwasher isn't going to melt solder. Should work fine on any coated PCB (seen people do it with motherboards).

[BirdofPrey]

I was more afraid of it deforming something, especially if its a membrane keyboard.

[Wedgeh]

Warping is only good for starships hombre...