ThrottleMonkey

Left work late last night after fixing my rear brake (pushbike) which was sticking. Did a tough ride over to Marple, New Mills, Hayfield and over Chunal to Glossop. 20 miles in just over an hour with a strong headwind all the way around.
Got home, showered and sorted tea out. In the meatime fired the laptop up to upload the ride data. Was in and out of the front room and quickly perched on an armchair, laptop on knee to connect my GPS watch. As I did that I sneezed. Laptop started to fall and my hand was covering my mouth (post sneeze) so I watched the laptop hit the floor in slow motion! Aaaaagggg!

Initially thought I'd got away with it. No signs of damage. Wandered back into the kitchen and sorted my meal out.

Went back to sort the ride data out and noticed the laptop wasn't charging.
I've either broke the charger (£20 for a Tosh one with warranty off ebay - expensive but will work and won't fubar the laptop) OR broken the CD power jack (£2.89 off ebay).
Given the charger is an expensive option if it's not that I've ordered a DC jack to replace that first. If the laptop still doesn't work I'll try a new charger.

So, I've started this thread as I've never attempted to repair a laptop before.
A quick google says I need to take all drives out, the keyboard off, cover off and about a million tiny screws to get to the DC cable. I'm very good at taking things to bits, but my track record for putting them back together again (and them working) is not so good. This never deters me though!

So, I'll add a few pics and posts once I have the part and get going.

In the meantime - What do you all reckon?

Who feels I am more than capable of sorting this simple DIY job out?

Finally, a question where my expertise is relevant! Computers.

Firstly, I offer this solution:





Secondly, laptops are tricky beggers and are not my favourite to take apart. First thing you'll need is one of those ridiculous small screwdrivers for the screws. I would also recommend some thin nosed pliers or similar to hook the screws out of their holes. Alternative method is to hold the laptop the right way out and catch the screw falling out, but if you do this, then don't loosen all the screws at once (I say this because I've seen it done by someone trying to be efficient who then spent half an hour locating the tiny feckers on the floor).

Once ALL the screws are out (again, I emphasise all because some of them are easy to miss and I've seen laptop covers snap off when people have tried to pull them and they've missed one screw), you can remove the cover. You'll probably need to remove the battery and, depending on the make, the following:
Hard drive
CD drive
Floppy drive

You shouldn't need to remove the monitor to get to the internal workings of the laptop or the keyboard (unless you're going in through the keyboard (not advised, it's hard work)).

Once the cover is off, it's important to be discharged statically, I usually just earth myself on the nearest metal thing, but if you get a proper computer toolkit they come with those fiddly anti-static wrist bands. After that, it's just a question of locating the part your replacing, disconnect the old one and put the new one in.

When I started out doing computer repairs, I took photographs at every stage so that I could go backwards through them and reverse the process to put it back together again.

If you're taking pics for us to laugh at, it might be handy to take good photos of your process so you can reverse it

Hope this helps.

I'm sure someone as capable and knowledgeable as you can do this simple task Kingy...... sorry, couldn't keep a straight face for the whole sentence

Pmsl. Touche! Great pic.

I've got various sized hammers, a facom screwdriver set and a draper mini set. Add in petrol can and matches and I'll be good to go when the part arrives.

Thanks for the advice. All sounds good. What can possibly go wrong?

I've tried in the past to take laptops apart they are a nightmare, just when you've thought you've got all the screws out and you start to pull the casing apart you hear the dreaded crack because theres still more left. I opted to pay £45 at the local pc repair shop mainly because my hands are like shovels and just as delicate.

Fooking el I don't believe it

You fixed your rear brake on your pushbike ? all on your own ?

(01-28-2015, 06:35 PM)Jollyjoiner Wrote: [ -> ]You fixed your rear brake on your pushbike ? all on your own ?

Ha ha. Trust you to pick up on that. Yes, after some head scratching and with liberal use of WD40, a 13mm spanner and a mallet the brake caliper surrendered. I'm still not 100% sure exactly what I did but it's not sticking anymore!

Spot on! Ha ha.

Unless you've got an impact driver you're fecked............hehe