Broken Laptop

M

Mushroom Prince

Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2004
Messages
532
Hey hardforum. Is it possible for a moderately tech savvy person to restore this broken laptop?












It belongs to a friend of mine. She has taken it to a couple of local repair shops and all of them have told her it would cost in the realm of hundreds of dollars to fix it. I'm hoping that I can find the parts on the internet and be able to install them with just the right set of screw drivers. But my knowledge of working on laptops is pretty limited. I'd say the most accomplishing thing I've done as far as compact computers is the one time I installed a new optical drive on a eMac g4. And that was while following a step by step guide.


Any help is MUCH appreciated!


-mp
 
how old is this laptop?
It looks as if you just need the hinge. My suggestion is to look at a mom & pop place for parts - and see if they'll take a hinge off a dead laptop for you -
again it looks old - and might I suggest she take a little better care - all that dirt and dust...

If it is very old ( single core - no XP OS) she might consider buying something newer....
 
If the screen still works, you're in luck. Just go on eBay or Craigslist and search for a broken one. Sellers invariably remove the hard drive, RAM, battery, etc. and sell broken computers at pretty heavily discounted rates. Often they'll even dismantle the chassis and sell the parts separately. You shouldn't have too hard a time finding the bits you need to replace everything.

Of course, this is depending on the age of the computer and the extent of the damage. You can get pieces from older enclosures pretty easily, but newer computers will tend to be in better shape. If it's both parts of the hinge that are broken, you'll need a new top casing as well as the bit from the hinge on the bottom.

Barring all other options, you should be able to order the parts from Gateway and do the job yourself, but it won't be cheap.
 
By the time you spend money on all the parts needed, ordered, and ect, it would be somewhat close to if you actually had it replaced by the company.
 
HvyMtl said:
how old is this laptop?
It looks as if you just need the hinge. My suggestion is to look at a mom & pop place for parts - and see if they'll take a hinge off a dead laptop for you -
again it looks old - and might I suggest she take a little better care - all that dirt and dust...

If it is very old ( single core - no XP OS) she might consider buying something newer....
Click to expand...


Actually its not old at all. She bought it maybe late last year.
 
Hey, check out sparepartswarehouse.com. I just ordered parts for my thinkpad from them. I received my items 22 hours after I ordered them (talk about quick). their customer service was excellent too. Google for the part #'s you need then check them out at spw.com. I highly recommend them.
 
Sellers invariably remove the hard drive, RAM, battery, etc. and sell broken computers at pretty heavily discounted rates.
Click to expand...

My advice? Be one of those guys who sells the busted laptop for cheap. Take that money, the money you saved on parts, and your time, and buy a new one.

If you must, I can tell you that replacing hinges on a gateway is not pleasant (not impossible, just time consuming). From the looks of those pictures, you'll need the left and right hinge assemblys, the palmrest, and the lcd bezel.
 
jwhazel said:
My advice? Be one of those guys who sells the busted laptop for cheap. Take that money, the money you saved on parts, and your time, and buy a new one.

If you must, I can tell you that replacing hinges on a gateway is not pleasant (not impossible, just time consuming). From the looks of those pictures, you'll need the left and right hinge assemblys, the palmrest, and the lcd bezel.
Click to expand...


I really appreciate the advice. But as it turns out I am trying to do all this for a friend. A female friend of mine who is a poor college student wishing she could get better use out of her laptop. I have a decent amount of time and superhuman patience.


I'm rejoicing at the words of someone who sounds like they've done this before and knows what they are doing. Can you point me in the direction of embarking on this journey? Tools and things i need to know about taking of the plastic off of gateway laptops? If the satisfaction of knowing you are helping someone get laid isn't enough I'd gladly send you gifts for your time and effort.
 
Mushroom Prince said:
I really appreciate the advice. But as it turns out I am trying to do all this for a friend. A female friend of mine who is a poor college student wishing she could get better use out of her laptop. I have a decent amount of time and superhuman patience.


I'm rejoicing at the words of someone who sounds like they've done this before and knows what they are doing. Can you point me in the direction of embarking on this journey? Tools and things i need to know about taking of the plastic off of gateway laptops? If the satisfaction of knowing you are helping someone get laid isn't enough I'd gladly send you gifts for your time and effort.
Click to expand...

LOL, as jwhazel said, i think it would be better if you advice ur friend to sell the parts and add a 100-200$, and get a new lappy ... ;)
 
fixing a laptop is really not all that hard if you take your time. You'll need to find some sort of repair manual, do some google searching for this. Once you figure out what needs to be replaced and how to replace it order up those parts. Like I mentioned earlier, sparepartswarehouse is great. the only thing is, you are forced to pay for 1-2 day shipping (which I normally do anyways), there is/was no option for cheapo ground s/h. I found calling them to be a great help. I talked to someone who sounded like they knew what they were talking about, or had access to someone who did. I had called and asked to make sure I had the right part, the representative put me on hold for a minute and confirmed i had the right number, then she guaranteed it or the part is free and they'll replace it at no cost.
Once you get the parts make sure you have the right tools for the job. use the correct size screwdrivers for a start; there is nothing worse than stripped screws. You should never have to force anything, make sure you understand how things fit together then plan how to get them apart. Since you have superhuman patience this should be no problem.

If parts turn out to cost a fortune though, do as the others suggested and salvage what you can. Anyways, hope that helped a bit.
 
I've fixed a few like this; mostly you just take the model # and go to eBay and search for "Gateway xxx hinge" and the like. You can usually find what you need that way, but it may not be as cheap as it could be. A lot of sellers gouge quite a bit for little small parts like that.

Once you get the parts you need, you can google for the laptop's service manual as well. The thing to remember is just to take your time and be gentle with the plastic parts! Let us know if you get in any difficulty and I'm sure someone here will be able to help.
 
FYI - it's been my experience working on a variety of laptops that hinges are a pain to replace. Generally, they are attached to a bracket holding the LCD and the bottom of the laptop. In all cases that I can recall, I had to take nearly everything out of the laptop to replace the hinges.

I've replaced hinges on Sony PCG-R505s and SRX series laptops as well as some Compaq models. Yours may be different.

impact computers has laptop parts, but they are expensive in my opinion. I used to work at what has become sparepartswarehouse, and the people there are great. The stuff they sell is new, as well, unlike impact, which seems to sell used stuff almost exclusively.

If you have the time, cheap replacement parts appear on e-bay from time to time, but it's hit or miss. It will help if you have a popular brand of laptop. If it's a B brand (averatec, acer, etc.), it might be a little more scarce.

The last piece of advice is to never separate plastic pieces with a screwdriver. Use your fingernails or a plastic tool and ease the pieces apart. A screwdriver will be easier, but the end result looks like shit.

Last piece of advice - Having done this kind of work for similar 'rewards,' keep in mind that you might get something for fixing it, but you'll hurt your chances quite a bit if she relies on you and you just mess it up worse. Good luck.
 
If it were a dell notebook then I believe you could get away with just replacing the hinges (also included with the lcd back cover, which is usually better to replace incase of cracked plastics). If the hinges damaged part of the base then it'll be way more tricky - replacing the palmrest or worst case scenario - the motherboard. The palmrest and motherboard are much more work than the back cover. I'd find a service manual .pdf and see if you can find out where the hinges are attaching to the base. You could also take the hinges/lcd assembly off the base and have a look where they screw into the base and see if it is damaged. As for tools, you could probably get away with a small philips screwdriver for the gazillion tiny screws, and possibly a thin flathead used to pry plastics away.
 
Oh, also looks like the control panel cover has a hole in it on the left side but that should be easy enough to replace i'd expect if you want to.
 
Did you say bought last year? What about warranty fix? Did she add a warranty? Where she purchase it?
See if she has the receipt and go thru where she purchased the laptop - and the manufacturer - see if it is covered under the warranty - if not, they might fix it for "less" since it is so "new"

The way I got the laptop I have now is due to a hardware issue on a Pavilion DV6105US purchased less than a year ago ( hard drive, memory and wireless failure = new $2500 "laptop" )
 
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