Repair shop recommendation for soldering ac adapter?

Tails142

Hey,

My 9 month old €1800 laptop (MSI GT780r) has stopped charging :rolleyes:

I'm going through the RMA process but reading the terms they will probably refuse to fix it for free even though I haven't been putting it through much punishment - the laptop is quite heavy and I suppose sometimes when I'm using it on my lap the adapter is pressing against my leg.

http://jkarma.msi.com.tw/Customer_Service/AttachedDocs//IEEN_AGB.htm

AC adapter pin damage on main board

The ac adapter pin will not break under normal operating conditions. It’s been tested extensively and standardized to be capable of (almost) unlimited amount of plugging in and out the ac adaptor. When it breaks, it is considered to be caused by misusage. Customer will be charged a fixed fee for repairing it.

Does anyone know of a laptop repair shop around Dublin that would be able to resolder the connection from the motherboard to the ac adapter, I've done a bit of googling and it seems to be a common enough problem that people are experiencing.

Also if I send it for RMA and they decide to charge to fix it, what sort of bill do you think I would be looking at? Anyone go through this before?

Joseph

I do PC & laptop repairs, and yep it's a common problem though it will depend on what way the jack is attached to the motherboard, sometimes it can just be easily replaced when broken, other times it will require more work removing the existing broken unit and soldering on a new one (ie more expensive)

In a repairshop I imagine it'll be from 150-250 to get it fixed, roughly of course.

Tails142

Annoying me cause the last laptop I used (Sony) for 7 years with no trouble and its still going strong - build quality on the MSI's seems to be quite poor, would never buy one again, hopefully the RMA process will give me some satisfaction and if they do want me to pay to fix the problem I hope I don't get ripped off.

johneire31

If you can make your point to them that it was being used in the normal fashion and that it still broke which would indicate it was faulty to being with.

Yes they do test the laptops but they only test a sample taken from production. They test them using a statistical confidence interval with a predetermined tolerance level. Most components will fall into the acceptable 'zone' while some will not and will make it out into the real world. You should argue strongly that the broken jack is the result of defect rather than use. No manufacturer can say that all components will last a lifetime of a system because they tested them.

j

Tails142

Just as an update to this, I sent the laptop back to MSI, or rather their service agent in the UK.

All was well, they sent a courier to pick it up, replaced the motherboard and one of the two hard-drives... why only one I'm still not sure... reckon it was just so I'd lose all my data but I had it backed up anyway so no harm.

Laptop was sent back and I didn't have to pay to get the damage fixed so I was pretty satisified, even though the HD they replaced it with was slightly lower spec, 8mb cache instead of 16mb.

But alas tonight the hard-drive that they didn't replace has now failed :rolleyes: It's Raid 0 so the only option I have is to send it back to them or replace the HD myself, or I guess I could just run with the one hard drive...

Can't believe I have to go without my laptop for another couple of weeks now while I go through this whole hoopla again. I so want to blame MSI but it was a Western Digital hard drive which is a brand I trust so I suppose I can't blame MSI for this, s*** happens I guess. MY own fault the other day for thinking I haven't had any hard drive failures in a while and for jinxing myself.

Just can't understand why they would change one of the two hard drives when there was nothing wrong with either of them, and now a few weeks later the one they didn't change has failed, grrrr :mad:

ED E

They stole your drive and gave you a failing one would be my bet. 3rd party service agents can be pretty terrible at times. Sony Mobile's would be a good example.

Tails142

Well I'm a massive cynic so I would tend to agree with you, however it's the drive they didn't replace that has now failed.

I wonder what happened to the perfectly good drive that they did take out... or maybe it did get damaged when I shipped it over and they swapped it out..

Anyway, suppose I was just coming back to say that the aftercare from MSI was pretty reasonable if not a bit questionable.

Would definetly not be recommending anyone to buy MSI in future though. Even though the hard drive failure and damaged DC connector wasnt their fault, the overall build quality of the laptop is piss poor.

In fact in the report I got back from the last repair, there was a comment in the received condition section saying "front bezel not properly fitted/loose", no s*** that's the way it was from the day I bought it and they way they sent it back to me, the thing doesn't sit in place, keeps lifting out ... /facepalm