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Questions tagged [laptop-repair]

Questions about performing repairs on your mobile computer

391 questions
49
votes
8 answers

How to mitigate any privacy-related risks associated with taking your laptop for repair?

Either my fan or my battery on my refurbished laptop is malfunctioning and it frequently overheats and shuts itself down. I wasn't able to determine the culprit and thought it best to show my laptop to an expert. I also have an active warranty that…
user51309
  • 583
23
votes
4 answers

Can I safely charge my laptop with a non-standard, third-party charger?

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop. My charger has stopped working. I have access to a Lenovo charger. Can I use this charger on my laptop?
user8418
  • 311
22
votes
3 answers

Greasy water in laptop's DIMM slot

I have a laptop that got some soup spilled onto it between the space bar and the touchpad. Almost all of the soup ended up in the upper DIMM slot which sits underneath the keyboard. I took the laptop apart and I've managed to clean and dry…
Boris B.
  • 325
12
votes
2 answers

My MacBook is a Battery Denier

I have a four year old MacBook rev 1,1 (the original Intel Core Duo). Just recently it has begun denying the existence of its battery while still happily running unplugged. I get the X battery icon which claims "No Batteries Available". It is a…
Schwern
  • 2,196
11
votes
3 answers

Reviving a dead laptop battery

Is there any way to revive a dead laptop battery? I have a three year old Dell Latitude laptop that I've been using pretty intensively. After a year or so, the battery dropped dead - if I plug the laptop out it goes into hibernation in a matter of…
Alex Ciminian
  • 235
11
votes
8 answers

I just spilt coffee on my laptop, what should I do?

I have just dropped a half full latté on my company laptop and am not sure what to do. Is there a way I can make sure that my laptop is usable again? What steps must I go through to improve it's chances of survival?
Jon
  • 784
6
votes
2 answers

Laptop wifi card doesn't look like I expect

I've been having intermittent problems with the Internet connection of my HP Envy, which has an Atheros Wifi card. Some googling indicates that this is a fairly common problem with these laptops. I contacted HP, and after an attempt at a software…
Nate C-K
  • 175
6
votes
5 answers

HP Laptop stuck in reboot cycle (won't clear POST) after BIOS upgrade

I've almost finished rebuilding an HP dv9702ea. The windows/software part went fine. However after that I thought I would update the BIOS with the latest as found on HP's website. It appeared to work fine, saw the program saying blocks being…
Robin Gill
  • 151
6
votes
2 answers

will older laptop screens work to replace broken newer laptop screens?

For example, if I have an old p4 acer laptop with a perfect screen, and a newer dual core acer laptop with a cracked screen, can I swap the screen in to the newer unit (assuming it's the same size)? Or, do they change the cables/interface…
Scott Sz
  • 1,943
6
votes
3 answers

Will a laptop run well indefinitely as long as its components are updated when necessary?

I'd just like to know about what it takes to keep a laptop running and if it will be similar to new so long as it's components are updated.
Joey Peluka
  • 61
6
votes
4 answers

How to repair a laptop's screen hinges?

I want to repair a laptop which has been heavily damaged by a fall. The display is kept in place by two metal hinges, one by side, whose attach on the plastic underneath and on the motherboard. The right one is good, but the screws on the left…
Kodeeo
  • 456
5
votes
1 answer

Can I run with a computer in my backpack?

This maybe a tad off-topic, but as it says on meta, hardware questions should be fine on Super User. I want to run home from work (~20 min of jogging) but I need to bring with me my laptop, a Macbook Pro with an SSD drive. I there a risk of hardware…
Cotten
  • 529
5
votes
2 answers

Pink sticky strip inside laptop

I had spilled a drink onto my laptop keyboard. During disassembly, I found this strange item inside. Looks like a piece of sticky rubber. What is it? What is the purpose of it?
Bartlomiej Lewandowski
  • 147
5
votes
2 answers

How to figure out whether GPU, CPU or motherboard is broken?

So I was "hacking" my internal laptop monitor (basically I was trying to understand the pinout and try to use it externally). During that I used continuity checker to trace circuitry. It is my old laptop so it was meant for experiments. Now I did…
Arturs Vancans
  • 317
5
votes
2 answers

Installing new OS without screen?

I got an old laptop which works perfectly except for a broken screen. I would like to install Linux on it and use it as a home server. The problem is that the VGA output works only after it boots into the OS, so I cannot access the BIOS to change…
Afiefh
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