Computer repairs in Dublin?

Meller

Does anybody know of any reasonably-charging laptop repair shops in Dublin?

The DC power jack of my laptop broke off, and my local repair shop charges €120 for repair. I know that all the repair involves is a disassembly of the laptop and soldering the jack back into place, so paying half the price of a new laptop for it seems a bit ridiculous.

Anybody know anywhere that do this kind of thing for a cheaper price?

Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

PapaSierra

Cost of that DC jack is usually less then 3 euro, what you are paying for is someone's time and experience. But yes, that is too much. I do the job using professional equipment and good quality parts and charge half of that price.

Just google for few repair shops in your area and give them a ring or send an email. I'm sure someone will do it for less then €120.

HelpWithIT

PapaSierra wrote: »

Cost of that DC jack is usually less then 3 euro, what you are paying for is someone's time and experience. But yes, that is too much. I do the job using professional equipment and good quality parts and charge half of that price.

Just google for few repair shops in your area and give them a ring or send an email. I'm sure someone will do it for less then €120.

Firstly not all laptops have soldered DC Jacks, they may have harness cables which with shipping can cost repairer €20-€30 to buy, if the company are legit and pay VAT etc then this is also factored into the cost, also you can be assured that when you get a guarantee with the finished job that at least the reputable Repairer will honour that guarantee. One shop in D7 charges over €200 for that repair!. Cheapest laptop you will get new is around €300 mark so obviosly to have to factor the economics into it. Last piece of advice, if repairer just uses a mobile number as his/her contact numberr...get someone else (-;

PapaSierra

Yes, in some laptops you need to replace whole cable with DC jack but in most cases you can desolder and replace the DC jack. Anyway €20-€30 is an ebay price for 1 pcs. If you have a proper repair shop you can always order 20-30pcs of different types of connectors from direct distributor and then they cost under €12 on average.

I 100% agree with your last advice. If someone uses only his/her mobile number and maybe have some very simple .com website then he/she can't offer high quality of service. One of the reasons is that these people never have as many customers as proper repair shops (not even close) so they simply can't invest too much in tools and workshop equipment - simple as that. So if you don't want to have a BGA chip reflow done with a hot air gun (or gas torch!!!) from Lidl etc. simply keep away from them.

HelpWithIT

Papa Sierra...Do you do reballing by any chance?

PapaSierra

No, I do reflow only. If done right it usually works another few years. In some cases I also modify cooling unit to prevent it happening again. DV6000 is a good example, a replace that poor quality 'rubber like' thermal pad with square piece of copper to increase thermal conductivity. I also recommend using a thermal pad especially if someone is using a laptop to play demanding 3d games.

Reballing is better as you can replace lead free solder with proper solder. It maybe isn't so environmental friendly but it last much longer. Unfortunately it requires a lot more work and more expensive equipment so I'm afraid it would be to expensive repair in most cases not worth doing.

PapaSierra

No, I do reflow only. If done right it usually works another few years. In some cases I also modify cooling unit to prevent it happening again. DV6000 is a good example, a replace that poor quality 'rubber like' thermal pad with square piece of copper to increase thermal conductivity. I also recommend using a thermal pad especially if someone is using a laptop to play demanding 3d games.

Reballing is better as you can replace lead free solder with proper solder. It maybe isn't so environmental friendly but it last much longer. Unfortunately it requires a lot more work and more expensive equipment so I'm afraid it would be to expensive repair in most cases not worth doing.

PapaSierra

sorry for that, I don't know why the message got duplicated