Crazy repair quote ?

long_b

Looking for opinions on a quote I just got from the Fujitsu repair center for the repair of my 2 year old Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook C110

The symptoms were it would freeze or power down unexpectedly, and you had to blow into the fan (no joke) to get the yoke to boot.

Anyways, they say they have to replace the whole base unit ("everything under the keyboard") and it'll cost ... €600 !!

Is this a fair price ? Is there anywhere else that might be able to do it for me ?

jum4

You could just replace the fan/heatsink yourself. Ebay should sort you out.
But the prob could a number of other things.

KeRbDoG

The lappy powering down could be because of the thermal cutout when your fan sticks and the CPU/GPU temp hit the power off level.
Best thing is to get a replacement fan yourself and get it installed as jum4 said. Not a hard task, and then test. Could save yourself 500-550 euro from those greedy buggers

lomb

Its probably your fan, ebay is your friend BUT DONT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE MOTHERBOARD WITH YOUR FINGERS it will blow it. use static strap whatever you do buy one on ebay and ground it carefully to the metal chassis.

SouperComputer

please tell us who this is....

long_b

I sent it back through the Fujitsu helpdesk to their repair center (in Antrim I think).

t5pwr

I know that you can get a base that the laptop sits on that has fans on it if you want to test it and see that the fan is the problem, something like this http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gditech/4lanousbblco.html
I dunno how expensive these things are here but if you know anyone with one just to test.

It might help for the short term if it is the fan but you are better off replacing it anyway...

themole

that price is about right for replacing a mother board.

they are basically saying they can't fix it without replacing most of the stuff.

i would go with what was said before.

how much is the lappi worth? ie what are the specs.

you best option may be to spend 50-100 trying yo fix it yourself, and if not to buy a new one

SolarNexus

I was quoted 190 just to check a pc, nevermind repair.

stevenmu

long_b wrote:

The symptoms were it would freeze or power down unexpectedly, and you had to blow into the fan (no joke) to get the yoke to boot.

If that works it could even be a bit of dirt or something in the fan preventing it starting, there's really very little power in them and the tiniest thing can block them. If you're going to go the route of changing the fan, it could be worth having a look at the existing one and seeing if you can pull any bits of dust or fluff off of it. As mentioned above, beware of touching anything on the motherboard or any other circuitry (altough if FS are going to charge you €600 to replace it all anyway you may aswell give it a go).

Capt'n Midnight

long_b wrote:

Looking for opinions on a quote I just got from the Fujitsu repair center for the repair of my 2 year old Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook C110

The symptoms were it would freeze or power down unexpectedly, and you had to blow into the fan (no joke) to get the yoke to boot.

Anyways, they say they have to replace the whole base unit ("everything under the keyboard") and it'll cost ... €600 !!

Is this a fair price ? Is there anywhere else that might be able to do it for me ?

Options
- cooling gel pad
- is the room too hot - my sky box dies when the room is hot
- turning down the speed in utilites - maximum power saving
- an external fan - you can even get usb powered ones

- is the fan making any noises ??
- try running it with a hair dryer pointing at it (NB on cold) to see if stable

- what would €600 get you on eBay ??
- how much could you sell the screen + memory + HDD for on eBay
sad to say but if you could find a buyer for the screen it might not be worth repairing
- check ebay for a similar laptop with a cracked screen - should be less than €600

Ishindar

try hovering out the fan, could be as simple as that :cool:

long_b

Thanks for all that advice folks.

Will definitely have a go at fixing it myself.

I'm trying to get to talk to someone in the repair shop so they can tell me how *exhaustive* their investigations were before making their decision ..

The laptop cost 1600 in Dec 03 - 1.4 Centrino, 512MB, 40GB HDD.

Gurgle

long_b wrote:

I'm trying to get to talk to someone in the repair shop so they can tell me how *exhaustive* their investigations were before making their decision ..

Point to note:
People in repair shops (especially big shops) are unqualified part-swappers.

And as for:

lomb wrote:

DONT TOUCH ANYTHING ON THE MOTHERBOARD WITH YOUR FINGERS it will blow it

NO IT WONT ALL ICS DESIGNED IN THE LAST 15 YEARS HAVE STATIC PROTECTION CIRCUITS ON EVERY PIN AND ARE PERFECTLY SAFE TO TOUCH, ESPECIALLY WHILE GROUNDED AS THEY ARE IN-CIRCUIT

RicardoSmith

One trick with laptops is (while its turned off) get a can of compressed air (maplins sell them) and blow air though all the vents and grills, and through the fan and HS of the laptop. This will clear it of all dust thats probably making it overheat. Try that before you go anywhere else.

Theres also a place in Phibsboro that fixes laptops. http://www.computersunlimited.ie/

Capt'n Midnight

Gurgle wrote:

NO IT WONT ALL ICS DESIGNED IN THE LAST 15 YEARS HAVE STATIC PROTECTION CIRCUITS ON EVERY PIN AND ARE PERFECTLY SAFE TO TOUCH, ESPECIALLY WHILE GROUNDED AS THEY ARE IN-CIRCUIT

Yeah right , PC manufacturers are notorious for using cheaper components or alternatives if one source is short stocked and since designs changes are common because of short product life you can't take it for granted that they all are.

If you are wearing a jumper that crackles and flashes when you take it off in a dark room then no chip will dissapate that much power - moral be careful.


Rules of thumb on PC's prices I use - 50% Depreciation (compound) every 18 months due to moores law, AND 20% (linear) a year because of 5 year life expectancy.

A quick look at ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/Fujitsu-Lifebook-S6110-PIII-1-2MHz-504-MB-RAM-40-GB_W0QQitemZ6814067004QQcategoryZ18792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
$405 - (6 hours to go so it would cost more )

sceptre

stevenmu wrote:

If that works it could even be a bit of dirt or something in the fan preventing it starting, there's really very little power in them and the tiniest thing can block them.

Indeed. Most notebook fans tend to be light wee maglev fans - they're not expecting anything at all to be impeding the spinning.

I reckon RicardoSmith's suggestion is worth trying first - easy, no disassembly required and most importantly it's cheap.

Asok

From prior experience with fujitsu (I worked for a company that did alot of fujitsu kit) They really are just part swapping monkeys in the the repair centre. Like the lads said try replacing the fan. The c series are a descent laptop and are straight forward to take apart and at the end of the day what harm can it do.

Capt'n Midnight

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fujitsu-Lifebook-S6110-PIII-1-2MHz-504-MB-RAM-40-GB_W0QQitemZ6814067004QQcategoryZ18792QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Winning bid: US $710.00

On that basis it's hard to justify €600 on a repair.

As for taking it apart - do you know anyone who has done this to their laptop ? They are always hidden screws so be careful !

Gurgle

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

They are always hidden screws so be careful !

As a general rule, anything made of rubber has a screw hidden behind it.

Capt'n Midnight

It's the ones hidden under the warranty stickers I hate.

long_b

Got it returned - the only further details I could get (after about 5 calls) was that the base unit was the "smallest replaceable part".

Meanwhile it has been running fine for the last few hours now. I like to think that they inadvertently fixed it by opening it (dust or something?).

490 plus VAT my a**se.