Where to get a laptop fixed?

Raggaholic

Ok, here's the short version of the story. My dad got a laptop around 2 years ago, and two months after the warranty was up, it started giving him a ton of trouble (random crashes, sometimes crashing on startup, etc). He wants to use this laptop to DJ with, so random crashes could really hurt him if they happen in the middle of a gig.

He sunk about $500 into Geek Squad and, in the end, they did absolutely dick for him. They tried to charge him $125 to reinstall windows from his restore disks, and it was at that point that I realized they weren't quite the way to go. Now I have a pissed off dad and a laptop with issues.

My question is where should I go from here? I don't know any really credible computer places around here and I live in Indiana.

supabeast

If you haven’t already reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled the OS, do so. If that doesn’t work it’s probably bad RAM, a bad CPU, or a bad mainboard. You can test for bad RAM with (click the Free Download link) and if RAM comes up bad you may be able to just replace it. If it isn’t bad RAM, at this point it might be easiet to just cut your losses and get a Macbook.

Raggaholic

I'll check the RAM when I get home, but I've already done a format and clean install of Windows. It's still having the same problem. I even replaced the hard drive and still, it's the same.

Cutting my losses isn't an option because, at this point, it would be around $2500 in losses.

Wezoin

Sounds like it could even be a heat problem, at least thats what my 360 did when it overheated, and when one of the fans in one of my computers didn't work it did the same thing. Have you managed to find any patterns in the crashing? (ie, first time you turn it on for the day?)

I once had RAM that wouldn't work the first time I turned on the comp each day because it cooled down too much, so it would crash immediately whenever I turned it on, however after several "warm up"/failed attempts to turn on the RAM would warm up enough to work again. When I had the problem a friend of mine took it to look at it (after I'd done everything I could think of) and came back saying he had it "fixed" (much like your Geek Squad experience) but then when I turned it on it still failed and we clued in to the pattern. If this is your problem then a RAM checking program should detect the problem but only when its in the "cold" state where it cannot work properly, in which case you'd just need to replace the RAM.

Raggaholic

supabeast wrote: »

If you haven’t already reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled the OS, do so. If that doesn’t work it’s probably bad RAM, a bad CPU, or a bad mainboard.

Ok, I ran Memtest86 and it passed without incident. I guess that eliminates the RAM as a suspect. When GeekSquad checked it out, they said the DVD Combo drive is going bad. Would that be causing the crashes?

Eat_Fire

The dvd combo drive is not likely a cause. as far as their pricing goes $125 bucks for a reformat isn't ludicrous to people who know nothing about computers, my store actually charges more.

As for the problem itself, try defining the problem a bit more: how long does it take to crash? does it crash more quickly if you start it up right after a crash? does it give a blue screen or error msg? does a particular program or device being used with it trigger a crash?

Software memory testing isn't 100% conclusive, a problem can be intermittent. Checking out the ram is a good start.

If you want more advice here in the forum, post the actual brand and model of laptop, many of them have known issues (many Sony's suffer from bad mobo's, some Toshiba's have bad HD's, and just about every single Apple computer has a known issue that has to be fixed within 1 yr). Also list any parts replaced and what work was done on it.