On Sun, 10 Feb 2013 18:26:38 -0800, "David Farber"
wrote:
First of all, I value your opinion quite highly.
Careful. I've been very wrong in the past. Nobody can guess(tm) as
much as I do and also have a perfect record. Caveat Emptor.
I mentioned the "not
economical to repair" part because I wasn't sure the motherboard was stable.
I try as hard as anybody to keep things running for as long as possible.
Good. I'm somewhat of a fanatic on the topic of repair and recycling
(in that order).
Repairing a minor problem on a laptop, and then finding a more serious
problem is an all too common risk. There was a point in my life when
I decided that I would never accept another laptop for repair because
of all the mechanical failures (BGA soldering problems mostly). They
would leave my shop fixed, but then come back 30 to 180 days later,
usually with a dead motherboard. I did my share of BGA solder reflow
repairs, but they were generally not worth the time effort. I think
my batting average was about 1 success in 5 tries. About 4 years ago,
which coincided with a massive "Nvidia recall" epidemic of failed
laptops from all them major brands, that I had to provide a written
disclaimer over failures specifically covered in the recall. Things
are not much better these days, where the soldering of large BGA chips
and the mechanical securing of motherboards still seems to be a
problem.
I can't offer much advice as to which laptops are worth fixing and
which are an invitation to a financial loss. In general, I look for
potential high cost damage, such as overheated CPU's, overheating
video chips, dead batteries, dying hard disk drives, and intermittent
motherboards. A few questions to the owner (flashing display,
unexpected shutdowns, failure to boot, sticky keys, loose power jack,
etc) are usually sufficient to uncover these potential future
failures. If it's too much, stop before it's too late.
There's also the matter of profit. I charge $75/hr for shop time. It
takes me at least 1.0 hrs to tear apart a laptop making $75 my minimum
charge for fixing nothing. I could probably do the fan for double the
cost of the fan plus $75 labor if there was nothing else wrong. The
problem is that there's always something else wrong, both in hardware
and in software. Dead batteries are the most common. Dying hard
disks (use a S.M.A.R.T. util) are a close second. The potential cost
could easily approach the cost of a replacement laptop. In the past,
I would buy the laptop from the customer, rebuild it, and sell it for
a profit. However, with $350 entry level laptops and $200 Chromebooks
commonly available, that's no longer an option.
Since you said it's more likely the mouse problem is a software issue then
the motherboard should be in good shape and it will be economical to repair.
I don't know for sure if it's a software problem. Flaky motherboards
have very different symptoms. Hangs, power shutdowns, flickering or
weird display, boot failures, dead ports, corrupted data on the HD,
and general strangeness in ALL programs, are more typical failing
motherboard symptoms. You can look for these yourself, but it's easy
enough to ask the customer first.
I didn't want to go to the trouble and spend my customer's money and time
replacing the fan and finding out a few weeks later that the motherboard was
not stable.
That's why there's an estimate fee. You check out the machine for a
small price. That doesn't eliminate your risk, but certainly does
reduce it. However, in my case, I'm stupid and don't charge for
estimates. That's because most of the estimates turn into repairs,
and the not worth repairing are obvious at first glance.
Incidentally, there's an easy way to tell if the customer is
interested in fixing the laptop or is quietly shopping for a
replacement. Ask if they want a new or used fan. If used, then
they're either cheap, or planning a replacement.
--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558