Urgent laptop repair needed in Galway

steel_spine

Hi There,

perhaps someone here can help me. My sony Vaio notebook (TGN-250 model) about 2-3years old died a few days ago. It lost power and wouldn't come on after I plugged my mp3 player in to charge. After all the usual testing the powercord, battery etc, I took it to the laptop repair place on Shop St, hoping it was a problem where the adaptor plugged in, as that had always been a little shaky.
I was called the same night after it was dropped off, and told they knew what it was, it would probably be fixed tomorrow and would cost 80eu.
I didnt hear from them yesterday so my flatmate went in for them while I was at work and asked about it.
They said they called me yesterday (they didn't) and told me it would be ready today and I could pick it up in an hour and pay 80eu.
Well I went in after work to be told it was not finished, was still in parts and he couldn't fix it. Apparently the 'chipset processor' is the problem, heating up when he tries to charge the notebook and he cannot source the part for it.
When I asked if it was possible to ghost the HD since that isn't faulty, i was told he didn't know because my HD was 'unusual, like the HD in an mp3 player' but he would see, so now I have to wait for another phone call tomorrow.
Now, hardware isn't my thing, but I do know a little about computers and there's something about that last line about ghosting the drive that reeks of bull**** to me. Are my fears unfounded?
And with exams over the next week, and a long trip the week after, I desperately want my notebook fixed. Is this part really unsourceable? i was thinking of taking it to Laptec tomorrow for want of knowing anywhere else but I have reservations about them. If anyone can help out I would be sincerely grateful, even if its just to get everything off my drive (Didn't backup as the external HD got full, my bad I know)

Thanks in advance and apologies for length

majiktripp

Sounds a bit dodgy alright. The motherboard may have been fried, fair enough but horse manure about "chipsets" and the likes...come on.. I recommed you ask for the laptop back, obtain a 2.5" SATA (or IDE depending on the hard drive, but I imagine it being SATA more than likely.) hard drive caddy (Maplin in Wellpark should have a USB one handy) and put your laptops hard drive into it, at least getting access to your files. From the description you give, your laptops not going to be fixed anytime soon at all. File access should be your priority and getting the loan or commandering someone elses machine until you have the time to address the situation properly.

steel_spine

majiktripp wrote: »

Sounds a bit dodgy alright. The motherboard may have been fried, fair enough but horse manure about "chipsets" and the likes...come on.. I recommed you ask for the laptop back, obtain a 2.5" SATA (or IDE depending on the hard drive, but I imagine it being SATA more than likely.) hard drive caddy (Maplin in Wellpark should have a USB one handy) and put your laptops hard drive into it, at least getting access to your files. From the description you give, your laptops not going to be fixed anytime soon at all. File access should be your priority and getting the loan or commandering someone elses machine until you have the time to address the situation properly.

Glad I'm not being unreasonable.
I'm a bit leery of yanking the HD and sticking it in a caddy as I've never dismantled a laptop before, but I'm assuming it'll be none too difficult?
Hopefully I'll get a better explanation of what is wrong with it when i pick it up as it seemed like guy passing messages on was garbling things a bit and clearly didnt know too much about computers. But then again if what he said was verbatim the tech was clearly hoping I knew nothing about computers either (I work in a tech support field)
I'd be happy enough to buy a new laptop if I can ghost my old one - if I can access the files and get a new XP laptop, I should be able to put n image of my old HD straight on it somehow, rather than installing everything individually yes?

majiktripp

steel_spine wrote: »

I'd be happy enough to buy a new laptop if I can ghost my old one - if I can access the files and get a new XP laptop, I should be able to put n image of my old HD straight on it somehow, rather than installing everything individually yes?

Not quite, your old HDD image would be expecting the hardware of the old laptop, and not the new one. Once you ghosted the image onto the New Laptops HDD you would have to perform a repair to Windows XP to allow Windows to ge tthe correct base drivers to allow it to boot up properly. I would aim for the Hard drive caddy / USB to IDE adapter first, check your files are ok first and that nothing has happened to them in the "repair" process. Once they are verified alright, then go about sourcing a new laptop. Even ask the repair guy to burn them to a dvd for you to access. Im sorry but I am sick to death of every man and his dog who can turn on a PC thinking they're good enough to be a Technician and then making huge f*** up's, makes every who IS qualified to do the job right look bad...

kikel

Yeah your sony has got a 1.8" hard drive. They are rare but are becoming more popular in smaller more compact laptops. Your repair guy would need something like this to remove the files from the drive
http://www.uxcell.com/ide-hdd-converter-p-11846.html

steel_spine

majiktripp wrote: »

Not quite, your old HDD image would be expecting the hardware of the old laptop, and not the new one. Once you ghosted the image onto the New Laptops HDD you would have to perform a repair to Windows XP to allow Windows to ge tthe correct base drivers to allow it to boot up properly. I would aim for the Hard drive caddy / USB to IDE adapter first, check your files are ok first and that nothing has happened to them in the "repair" process. Once they are verified alright, then go about sourcing a new laptop. Even ask the repair guy to burn them to a dvd for you to access. Im sorry but I am sick to death of every man and his dog who can turn on a PC thinking they're good enough to be a Technician and then making huge f*** up's, makes every who IS qualified to do the job right look bad...

Awesome, that makes sense - ghosting an HD is not something i've done before or had time to properly research with revision, so that advice helps.I'm not completely untechnical but I know what my limits are. I am demanding my laptop back in one piece today and take what info I get from him to another tech. If I'm satisfied the laptop is done for, I'll need to source a new one anyway as I need it within a fortnight, regardless of if I can get my old files or not. If I can get a tech to yank my files for me I'll happily pay for it, if not I'll look for an external caddy that will fit as you and the last poster suggested and go from there

majiktripp

The 1.8" drive makes things a bit more complicated alright. You will need to avail of the adapter linked above as the standard 2.5" adapter that maplin would have would not have the connector your drive needs. I have an IBM X41 Tablet with a 1.8" drive in it as well but it has the standard 40 pin IDE setup , if only your's could have been similar it would make the situation a lot easier!

steel_spine

majiktripp wrote: »

The 1.8" drive makes things a bit more complicated alright. You will need to avail of the adapter linked above as the standard 2.5" adapter that maplin would have would not have the connector your drive needs. I have an IBM X41 Tablet with a 1.8" drive in it as well but it has the standard 40 pin IDE setup , if only your's could have been similar it would make the situation a lot easier!

Ah well, I'll taking comfort in being told the HD seems sound. Right now all I want is him to put the thing back together and give it back