Re: Trouble shoot with my Toshiba Satellite 3000-S353, please help!

Just curious, how much it would cost to "repair" a motherboard problem
for a laptop in UK?? It is really depends, or should I say, what is the
average cost to repair a motherboard problem (in either UK or USA)??
thx!

Most boards don't get repaired. They generally get replaced. It's
generally too time consuming to diagnose and fix boards at component level.
This kind of repair usualy only happens where the board is unique or very
special.

I work for £40 per hour (approx $70 I think). That's probably a bit less
than most IT Consultants here who work for abut £50 per hour. Motherboard
repairs are sometimes possible on desktop boards if it's something obvious
and replaceable like blown capacitors, but it's rarely cost effective as it
would take about 3 hours to physically remove and replace a full set of
capacitors plus the cost of the parts which are often difficult to souce in
the correct physical sizes. Rough guess would be £130. The board would have
to be pretty special to warrant that kind of outlay. Most new motherboards
for desktops range from approximately £30 to £180 here with a reasonable but
not top end model being around £90. I would not ever attempt replacing a
surface mount integrated circuit chip as the conatcts are so fine and
usually there's a whole slew of pins to solder. Specialist equipment is
required which costs a small fortune and would be way out of anyone but a
board manufacturer's price range :-) I don't possess such a fortune
(unfortunately). If I did I could retire quite comfortably thank you very
much :-)

The problem with laptop motherboards is that they generally consist of
several circuit boards linked together with ribbon cables in such a way as
they can be folded up into a very confined space, and the components are
smaller if anything than a desktop board. Unless it was something simple
like a broken solder joint on the DC input I wouldn't be interested in
touching it. A replacement motherboard would be the only way I would
proceed. Given the time taken in dismantling and reassembling the laptop
and assuming no cans of worms, it's a 2.5 - 3 hour job plus parts. £120 +
probably the same again for a replacement board. Given the price of a new
budget laptop being around £350 here - what's that in $$? About $615 ??
(Celeron system with a 1.4GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, DVD-RW), it is simply not
economical. Some owners could justifiably claim for accidental damage
against their household insurance if that is the cause of failure and after
paying a small excess of £60, they would get an up-to-date replacement
machine. Although normal wear and tear would not qualify for an insurance
claim.

Sometimes cheaper to return it to the manufacturer for repair as they often
apply a standard capped charge which is cheaper than I can afford to work
for, plus they can supply the parts at cost, whereas I would have to pay the
retail price. I'm good and thorough at what I do, but in certain areas I
can't compete, so I generally don't.

Nick


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