Below is a list of the most common laptop repairs we do. This may help you diagnose the problem, before you send the laptop to us.

No signs of life

Diagnosis: If your laptop comes back to life it was stuck in a battery backed crash no repair necessary - if not then the internal or external power supply may be faulty - check the obvious: a) fuse b) power lead c) ac adapter. If you have a volt meter - check the voltage output of any external power supply is correct and constant. If you find the ac working OK then you have an internal PSB (Power Supply Board) or connector block fault - electronic repair is necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. Most repairs of this type are usually carried out at standard fixed price of about £75 plus not more than £7.50 for return postage. Most repairs are successful and it takes 2 to 3 working days from the time we receive your laptop.

Liquid spillage

Diagnosis: Upon any spillage it is imperative that liquid does not come in contact with the laptop motherboard. If the spillage has just occurred switched the laptop off, remove the battery, turn the unit upside down with the keyboard facing the ground and leave in a warm and dry place for a few hours, make sure there is no visible liquid before powering. Powering any earlier may cause damage. If the keyboard or the laptop doesnt work as should then book it in for repair as soon as posible - leaving a liquid damaged laptop for more than a few 5 days may result in component corrosion and write-offs.

Repair: Strip-down - chemical clean - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. Spillage repairs are carried out at a premium rate of about £120 plus £7.50 postage, as normally a chemical clean and thorough inspection is required. Where necessary we may replace keyboards. Most repairs are successful if brought in early enough - so time is of the essence.

No power

Diagnosis: Remove all removable devices such as: additional memory, battery, hard disk and try powering the system again - should the laptop still not boot then your system probably has a processor or motherboard fault. Electronic repair is necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. If the engineer diagnoses the system board to be faulty, then the success of the repair depends the component to be replaced. With this type of repair the engineer will call you with the cost of the repair including any parts that are to be changed. Most jobs on big brand names are carried out successfully.

Laptop Keeps shutting down

Diagnosis: This depends on when it happens - if the laptop boots then always shuts down in the same place, i.e. during the same part of the boot process or during the same activity, then it is likely to be a software/virus fault and you should use last known goods configuration to see if you can rectify the problem. If not successful then a virus repair may be necessary regretfully your antivirus disk is unlikely to rectify the fault - software repair or software reinstallation is necessary. If the laptop shuts down anytime it feels like, it is likely that the processor has been exposed to excess heat probably caused by the air vents being blocked or cooling fan failure (modern laptops have excess temperature safeguards - this fault is more apparent on laptops that use 'full heat' processors which require more cooling) - electronic repair and processor replacement will be necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. If fault is software based our resident software engineer will remove your hard drive and perform a live scan to find and remove the virus or software bug and you will also be advised to run a frequent virus update and check to prevent recurrence of a similar fault. If fault is hardware then it is likely that the engineer will call you with the additional cost of the processor and repair. We are able to fix most of these faults - but it is a fine balance on costs if it is hardware problem. Remeber if we need to reinstal the software we can arrange to backup your data at an additional cost normally £35.

Dead battery

Diagnosis: Make sure you have tried a new battery to check the fault is not battery circuit related. Should you find a new battery is still not charging or your laptop is not operating from a charged battery (some batteries have a meter that show charge capacity) then it is likely that you have a power management controller or motherboard fault.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. Our engineer will check charging operation with a new battery once the repair is done before we send the laptop back to you.  Success rate for this type of repair is usually between 90 and 100%.

Dim screen

Diagnosis: If you have recently changed the power supply ensure that it is of correct amperes. This is normally printed on the base of your laptop and on your power supply. If all is correct then it is most likely that you have an inverter board or a backlight fault - electronic repair is necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - re-assembly - burn-in testing. This is a component repair to one of the following  backlight inverter board, screen ribbon, faulty light tube and on a rare occasion it could be the screen. Our typical success rate is 90-95% - usually with no extra parts required. Repair cost is about £75 plus a £7.50 return postage.

Won't boot up

Diagnosis: Use a boot floppy or CD disc and run the 'fdisk' command to check if your hard disk is responding - (or with Win XP CD chkdsk utility in repair console - although any bootable diagnostic utility will do) - if utility shows up bad sectors then change your hard disk and reinstall your operating system using the recovery disks provided to you at the time of sale. If your hard disk is OK on those tests then you may have lost your master boot record - possibly caused by bad media or a virus - electronic/software repair may be necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair -- re-assembly - burn-in testing. Depending on the result of the tests a new hard disk may or may not be required. The cost would normally be fixed repair price of about £35 plus HDD cost if required and additional £35 if data recovery is needed. Our success rate is almost 100% on these kind of repairs.

Screen has lines or bands

Diagnosis: Press firmly along the edge of the screen and close/open the screen to see if the screen returns to normal - this could be a ribbon cable or screen terminal fault - an electronic repair is usually possible. If you don't see any change, the presence of permanent lines/bands on the screen means small fracture to the screen. These can be usually seen under magnifying glass when screen framework is removed and in these cases a new screen may be required - electronic repair is not possible, we may offer a screen change but may be coslty from £100 depending on the laptop.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - re-assembly - burn-in testing. Our engineers may have to use needlepoint soldering irons to bond fine connectors onto glass  - repair success rate is an average 60%. If a screen has to be replaced then costs often exceed £100. Before we proceed with this type of repair we will contact you with the full cost to get your go ahead.

Blue screen on start-up

Diagnosis: Normally the fault is either: software, virus or hard drive. If not then the fault is likely to be memory or system board.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. Either a software/hardware repair may be necessary - in some cases both - where new hardware and engineering is required there is usually a fixed rate or £75 plus £7.50 for returnpostage. Most repairs of this nature are successful.

Continuously tring to boot

Diagnosis: Almost certainly this is some kind of memory/socket or cache fault. We recommend testing/replacing all memory modules - if the fault still persists the an electronic repair may be necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. We often need the laptop in longer about 4 days for testing. Most repairs of are successful.

System crashes

Diagnosis: This could be a memory/memory socket/video controller/video memory fault. We recommend testing/replacing all memory modules - if the fault still persists them an electronic repair may be necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. We often need the laptop in longer about 4 days for testing. Most repairs are successful.

Faulty connectors

Diagnosis: If the port is still attached/in one piece then it must be checked through software diagnostic. Testing must take place outside operating system environment - i.e. system must be booted into diagnostic mode. If port is still showing as faulty then electronic repair is necessary.

Repair: Strip-down - diagnostic - component repair - dust - 'Arctic Silver' CPU cooler service - re-assembly - burn-in testing. This is a common type of repair and generally highly successful. The most common repair we do is replacement of internal power input jack.