is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, had a problem other week with the laptop, very dark screen, at the shop, said it needed a new inverter(think thats what he said) got it home, could, nt get windows, back to the shop, he says computer won,t pick the hard drive up or something to that effect, nothing wrong with the hard drive, he,s giving it one last try(hes had it for 2 weeks) if he can,t do it thats it he says theres nothing more he can do, his he right , the laptop is only 2 and half years old, fujitsu siemens amilo l. marg.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

If he's had the thing for a fortnight and can't make his mind up, get it back take it somewhere else and get a second opinion.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

If the screen is very black then yes it may wel be the backlight inverter board, usually available on Eby etc.

Like this although may not be the same model.
Although... is it always dark, does it ever flicker brighter?
Could also be the switch or cabling.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

shine a torch on it look very closely and when it is switched on if it shows your anything its your back lamp..

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, sorry,misled you slightly, it was the invertor to start with, he put a new one in,got it home fujitsu logo came on bright enough, new invertor worked, but then that was it, no windows, nothing, so took it straight back( because windows was on before the brightness went, thats when he said the hard drive was not picking up windows or words to that effect.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

it shouldnt take more than a day to diagnose any pc fault. imho, if its finding the hard drive but not windows can you not just reinstall windows? check in the bios to see if its finding the hard drive.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, shop has still got the laptop, he,s tried reinstalling windows more than once but says hard drive not picking it up.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

I hope you can get it sorted,but i dont think it will be cheep my be you may have to bye a new one

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

you would think with it only being 2 and a half years old it would still have a bit of life left in it.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

ive just read it right is it vista home basic ,i knew somebody who had the same model and his usb went in fact he said it was the worse laptop hes ever had.think he bought from tesco.and it wasnt cheap either.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

more likely it could be a sata drive,, I had a nightmare recently with one wher teh Windows disk wouldn't 'see' teh disk.

It does sound like teh 'tech' guy doesn't really know his onions though. IMHO i'd be getting it back from him before he does real damage

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Sounds like, when fixing the fault they introduced another, perhaps by disturbing the connections to the drive.

May need opening up & checking again.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, will know later today if he has been able to fix it or NOT, keeping everything crossed!

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

sorted?

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, he,s giving one last try, will definately know late tomorrow when i get it back, either dead or alive!

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

don't assume because he says its dead that it is....

There may be more skilled people around who can resuscitate it.

:D

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

i will get a second opinion on, and maybe shock it back into life! but seriously i did think i would get more than 2 and half years out of it, and thinking about it maybe i should have took the extra warranty out on it.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

let us know if it comes back broken still.....

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Maybe you should have taken it back to where you bought it from if it was only 2 1/2 years old.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

will let you know if its still broken, did,nt think i could take it back to where i got it from after 2 1/2 years,by the way it was pc world i got it from, say no more, and it cost £499.00 to be exact.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Marg
There was an article recently in the paper about extended cover, on some one who bought a 1000 quid Telle that lasted 2 1/2 years, they had extended cover, but because the thing was unrepairable, they only got 400 quid in vouchers towards a new one. So much for extended warranty, a rip off.

Retlaw.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

As someone else has had it apart then PCworld will not touch it unless charging you.

If he cant do it, get it back.
Demand a refund on anything you have paid him.

There are other people that can sort laptops out.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Sounds like its not a big priority to the shop, which shop is it out of interest?

If it needs a new hard drive then these cost about £30-£35 for 160GB.

I had a problem like this a few months ago and i used a program called KillDisk (free) to completely restart the hard drive.

Id take it somewhere else if its taking to long.

Matt

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, sorry i,ve not been on for a few days(been getting new caravan sorted) well, i,ve my laptop back, sorted. something to do with the hard drive controller, think thats what he said, i,m not very technical. any way its up and running so far so good . marg.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Did he fit a new hard drive controller to your laptop?

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

yes, i think so, not been charged yet for repairs, told me to run it for a month to see how it goe,s on. marg.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

would surprise me as they are normally integrated to the motherboard on a laptop so not something that can be 'changed' without major work.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

sorry, i was just guessing when i said i thought he had put a new one in,still ok up to press, keeping my fingers crossed. marg.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

I know that, I was just interested to see what bull she was told by the repair geek.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

Just to let you know he is not a Bull or a repair Geek .

Wait till marg comes back and tells you the outcome of her Lap Top repairer then maybe you will come back with a sorry for that statement .

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

hi, i,m no tech, all i can tell you is what he told me it was the hard drive controller and now its working fine, all i know is he kept me informed all the way along and i don,t think he gave me a load of bull, he does,nt seem that kind of person, i also know he would,n rip me off either. marg.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

all depends on how much he charges for getting it working I suppose.

re Bondi38. she had come back with a tale of hard drive controller which in > 15 years of messing with PCs I've not seen one die and then when it comes to laptops they can't be 'replaced' as they are part and parcel of the motherboard. As the complaint was that it wasn't booting then he'd screwed up the config in BIOS which would only need a simple reset ( all of 30 seconds or so) or it was broken which Neil agrees is a very funny position to have recovered from.

Re: is my laptop ready for the graveyard!
 

The clue for me is the time taken to diagnose the problem.
An itermittent fault is the only thing that takes days/weeks to fathom when the box doesn't boot, there is a diagnosis path to follow.
Always get a fault report in writing as that removes the Chinese whisper element from what was said.