Repair or replace laptop?

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OKLAHOMAN

OKLAHOMAN

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My 3 year old Toshiba satellite laptop decided to crap out this weekend and will not boot up. My question is should I have it repaired or just go and buy a new one for 4-5 hundred. I've heard on laptops it isn't cost effective to repair, is this true?
 
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replace the one you have and figure out how to turn the old one into pens. :cool:

honestly, at the prices now a days, they aren't worth it to fix them unless they are under warranty. And sometimes, not even then. The micro circuitry inside is a pain for anyone to work on, so all they really try to do is swap out boards to find where the problem is. And if they don't have the boards for that computer any more, then it gets expensive.

All this goes for digital cameras too. Not worth fixing outside of warranty.
 
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Depends on what's wrong with it. You need to find out why it won't boot.
Does it power on?
My ancient Toshiba had a CD drive go bad and it wouldn't boot until I removed it.
If the machine serves your needs while working and the repair is simple and inexpensive, repairing it makes sense.
 
If you do decide to repair, while I was in Oklahoma City, my cousin gave me the number of a good place that works on computers. Let me know and I will get you the number. You might even call them and see what they say.

Dan

OKLAHOMAN said:
My 3 year old Toshiba satellite laptop decided to crap out this weekend and will not boot up. My question is should I have it repaired or just go and buy a new one for 4-5 hundred. I've heard on laptops it isn't cost effective to repair, is this true?
Click to expand...
 
What are the symptons Roy do you have any lights on it or does it try to start and then shutdown I repair laptops and other pcs and might be able to give a few ideas if we knew more.
Jerry
 
1st thing to try - remove the battery, wait 30 seconds, put it back in. Has worked for me before and it doesn't cost too much.
 
Jerry, it lights up and tries to boot, then it says
(WINDOWS FAILED TO BOOT, THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY A RESENT HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE INSTALLATION.
WINDOWS CAN ATTEMPT TO REPAIR(RECOMENDED)
OR TRY TO START AGAIN.)

After running the built in repair feature I then get a msg.
(STARTUP REPAIR CANNOT REPAIR THE COMPUTER AUTOMATICALY SENDING MORE INFORMATION CAN HELP MICROSOFT CREATE SOLUTIONS)

SEND INFORMATION x
DON'T SEND x

VIEW PROBLEM DETAILS (This has a dropdown and I can take a photo if needed)

Thanks Roy
 
Hell Gary about all I know how to do on a computer is turn it on and off. I usually ignore updates:redface:.
GaryMGg said:
Did you just recently run an update? Sounds like a driver could be corrupt.
Certainly doesn't sound like the laptop is fried.
Click to expand...
 
Will it allow you to boot up in Safe Mode? If so, perhaps you can use the System Restore option (in XP) to go back to the last known good configuration....

Best,
Mike
 
Did the laptop come with any recovery CD's? PM me if you want and I will sned you my phone and maybe we can work through it over the phone on some simple things you can try.
Sounds like your hard drive may have gone out. Sometimes you can try the hard drive in another pc if you have access but there is a lo of things you could try some you may not be comfortable doing IE: bootdisk repair cds and such but I would bet it is the hard drive which can be replaced and any good computer geek can recover some of your files hopefully. If I lived closer I would be willing to take a look for you.
 
Seer said:
Did the laptop come with any recovery CD's?
Click to expand...

That. If it recognizes that Windows failed to load, then it's probably just a corrupted file. Pop the recovery cds in and away you go. Worst case scenario you'll have to put in a bootleg CD, use the serial number that came with the PC and then download the drivers with another PC, load onto laptop. Bingo.
 
Russianwolf said:
replace the one you have and figure out how to turn the old one into pens. :cool:

honestly, at the prices now a days, they aren't worth it to fix them unless they are under warranty. And sometimes, not even then. The micro circuitry inside is a pain for anyone to work on, so all they really try to do is swap out boards to find where the problem is. And if they don't have the boards for that computer any more, then it gets expensive.

All this goes for digital cameras too. Not worth fixing outside of warranty.
Click to expand...


+1 for this!!!
 
PROBABLY NOT MAJOR

You might well be able to take it in to a computer repair walk-in and for $25 (that's what it costs around here) they'll tell you what's wrong and it will only take them about 10 minutes. It could be as simple as a corrupted file which they can probably fix right there. It does not sound to me like a major disaster
 
Found the recovery CD, and just inserted it about 20 min. ago it's going through it's thing, will see, got my fingers crossed.
 
Skye said:
Seer said:
Did the laptop come with any recovery CD's?
Click to expand...

That. If it recognizes that Windows failed to load, then it's probably just a corrupted file. Pop the recovery cds in and away you go. Worst case scenario you'll have to put in a bootleg CD, use the serial number that came with the PC and then download the drivers with another PC, load onto laptop. Bingo.
Click to expand...

Hey Roy!!!

Don't you enjoy listening to these young whipper-snappers and their new language???

Don't understand a word of it, but it sounds like they are REALLY convinced it's EASY!!
 
OKLAHOMAN said:
Jerry, it lights up and tries to boot, then it says
(WINDOWS FAILED TO BOOT, THIS MIGHT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY A RESENT HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE INSTALLATION.
WINDOWS CAN ATTEMPT TO REPAIR(RECOMENDED)
OR TRY TO START AGAIN.)

After running the built in repair feature I then get a msg.
(STARTUP REPAIR CANNOT REPAIR THE COMPUTER AUTOMATICALY SENDING MORE INFORMATION CAN HELP MICROSOFT CREATE SOLUTIONS)

SEND INFORMATION x
DON'T SEND x

VIEW PROBLEM DETAILS (This has a dropdown and I can take a photo if needed)

Thanks Roy
Click to expand...

Seeing that it getting past the POST and trying to boot Windows means that the problem is most probably due to a corrupted file. You should try a reinstall of Windows.

If you have files that you stored in "My Documents", what you can do is to use another directory name when doing the reinstall. I think that by default it is WINDOWS - just change it to WINXP or something else.

If the reinstall is successful, then you can access the old My Documents folder under the old Documents and Settings folder.

What I recommend to everyone, is to create a directory in the root directory. You can name it Files, Documents or whatever suits your fancy. You then re-point the "My Documents" shortcut to this directory. To do this, open File Explorer and right-click on "My Documents" and change the Target to the directory that you have created.

What this does is to isolate your documents directory from the Windows directory tree, so anytime you have to reinstall, you can easily to that without worrying that your files will be lost.
 
Roy:
What you are describing is a corrupt file in the Vista operating system. Vista Home was notorious for chomping up os files.

If the reinstall doesn't work, I'd replace it with a new one.
Sam's Club has a Dell Slime for $227. It had a 10 inch screen, Windows XP, a battery that will go all day, wired and wireless Internet. It is very light weight, has a spill proof keyboard and is perfect for running the credit card machine at shows.

I wish my old laptop WOULD crap out so I can justify buying another one of these.
 
What this does is to isolate your documents directory from the Windows directory tree, so anytime you have to reinstall, you can easily to that without worrying that your files will be lost.[/QUOTE]

This also has the added bonus of getting around some of the persinckity permissions issues if you are sharing the root directory on your lan too. Just be sure you have good wireless security on your router.
 
That'll fix it's wagon

ed4copies said:
Skye said:
Seer said:
Did the laptop come with any recovery CD's?
Click to expand...

That. If it recognizes that Windows failed to load, then it's probably just a corrupted file. Pop the recovery cds in and away you go. Worst case scenario you'll have to put in a bootleg CD, use the serial number that came with the PC and then download the drivers with another PC, load onto laptop. Bingo.
Click to expand...

Hey Roy!!!

Don't you enjoy listening to these young whipper-snappers and their new language???

Don't understand a word of it, but it sounds like they are REALLY convinced it's EASY!!
Click to expand...
Well after listening to all and using the recovery CD the laptop met it's fate against the wall. Will be going out tomorrow looking for a new one:mad: I have not a single glue:confused: what I was doing.. Will be looking for one that has ONE button OFF/ON just like that new cell phone I got after the one before that did everything for me but be a PHONE:mad: The new one only receives and makes calls....I'm way to old for this crap.....
 
Buy a Mac! Scrap that PC. I've had a Mac Powerbook for three years and it has never, not once crapped out on me. That's just my opinion.

Once you go Mac, you don't go back! Haha
 
shawnmhill said:
Buy a Mac! Scrap that PC. I've had a Mac Powerbook for three years and it has never, not once crapped out on me. That's just my opinion.

Once you go Mac, you don't go back! Haha
Click to expand...


Probably because you can't afford the return ticket!! :biggrin::biggrin::tongue:
 
well I wouldn't of destroyed it, you could of at least donated it to a local charity, they could of fixed it for less then $30. Plus you get a nice fat tax deduction.

Those of you suggesting re-installing windows, that should be a last case scenario. Unless he knew what he was doing he would have lost all his software installs, and most likely some data as well.

Unless your familiar with the Mac don't go that route. You lose all your current purchased software and unless there is a Mac compatible App, you lose the data that goes with that software. Also while the Mac is a much easier/reliable computer it is different than a PC so there would be a different learning curve on how to use it.

Also you shouldn't skip security updates. Even if there is no data worth stealing on your PC, it can be used by malicious people to infect other peoples computers. On Vista and Windows 7 PC's security updates are more important the Anti Virus protection.
 
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Well Diane said before spending $700 try one more time, so off I went to a computer repair shop.........$60 and up and running again, he reloaded the O/S and drivers, at least thats what he told me I think........
 
Did you give her half of the savings?:biggrin:
OKLAHOMAN said:
Well Diane said before spending $700 try one more time, so off I went to a computer repair shop.........$60 and up and running again, he reloaded the O/S and drivers, at least thats what he told me I think........
Click to expand...
 
Roy, glad it worked out for ya in the end. I tinker a lot with computers and there was a lot of good advice given. However, I have had a notion to throw a few things against the wall myself, lol.
 
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