Laptops are complicated pieces of equipment but repairing one may not be as expensive as a laptop repair technician may lead you to believe. It is important to carry out thorough research before embarking on a laptop yourself. Ensure that you have a few basic items to assist you rather than making the common mistake of grabbing anything nearby. A Laptop is not an inexpensive item to replace so it is worth avoiding unnecessary mistakes.
This article is intended as a rough guide of tips for laptop repair, there is plenty of information out there on the internet that will help with specific enquiries. Make sure you ask all the questions before you begin to attempt a repair yourself, if you don’t do the research you may be charged more for someone to correct the mistakes that you have made. Should you decide to undertake a repair be sure that you have a good understanding of what needs to be done, if you don’t have the first idea seek professional help.
Before you begin it is sensible to make sure you have long nosed tweezers, an electric static discharge mat, a Teflon wedge, needle nose pliers and Phillips head screwdrivers size 0 & 1. Take a back-up of everything on the hard drive before beginning the repair, just in case. It is best if possible for the repair to take place in a room without carpet.
One word of advice if you are playing around with the LCD the backlight inverter can give you quite a nasty shock if the laptop is powered up. So ensure that the laptop is switched off and unplugged from the mains. It is also sensible to remove the laptops battery and hard drive before beginning a repair.
Obviously if you are a novice to laptop repair you will probably not own anti-static gear like wrist straps etc, if there is a likelihood of you carrying out laptop repairs regularly it may be worth investing in the anti-static gear, rather than killing off your laptop and having to dump it in the rubbish.
When carrying out a repair do not disassemble the laptop unless it is necessary to do so. Try to ensure the environment you are to work in is clean and make sure that you have the correct tools. Before beginning the repair make sure that you test the machine properly, you need to have the correct symptoms to diagnose the fault. If you need to remove any parts of the laptop take care to keep the parts in a safe place where they won’t get damaged. When removing screws keep them with each part they have been taken from, this will help when reassembling the laptop. When fitting the laptop back together use the correct size screws for each part, this will prevent you ending up with screws that simply do not fit the holes you are left with. Before disconnecting connectors make sure that you have had a good look at how they work, it is worth making notes for yourself as you carry out the repair as it will help jog your memory.
