the death of a laptop
Mrs C's laptop went into hospital recently, for tests and possible
repair. There it stayed for the best part of 6 weeks, waiting for
a transplant (a motherboard), but no suitable donor was found.
So a few days ago it was sent back to Doctor Gary, who suggested
we try elsewhere.
He phoned up a supplier and obtained a quote for a new motherboard
from the manufacturer ... £290, which with Gary's labour costs
and existing postal costs would have brought the bill up to about
£400. So we've decided to call it a day for this laptop ... Gary
will strip it down for spare parts ... good news that some of it
of it will be recycled, but bad news in that we've spent about
£700 on it (including repairs) over the 2-3 years we've had it.
My son-in-law had a similar problem with his laptop -- the
motherboard went caput, after 2-3 years' use.
As Gary told me: "You have to look at laptops as being disposable
items". In a way, I suppose cars, fridges, TV sets and washing
machines are disposable items, except that we hope to get at least
10 years' use out of them.
Postscript (14 April 08): I've just read an article from the IT
section of The Guardian, which might be of interest to you.
It was written by Kurt Jacobsen, and was all about the growth
of microscopic tin whiskers in new types of lead-free solder
used on circuit boards, leading to short-circuiting and computer
breakdown.
http://tinyurl.com/2w2sp6
I wonder if the growth of tin whiskers was the cause of the early
demise of these two motherboards?
repair. There it stayed for the best part of 6 weeks, waiting for
a transplant (a motherboard), but no suitable donor was found.
So a few days ago it was sent back to Doctor Gary, who suggested
we try elsewhere.
He phoned up a supplier and obtained a quote for a new motherboard
from the manufacturer ... £290, which with Gary's labour costs
and existing postal costs would have brought the bill up to about
£400. So we've decided to call it a day for this laptop ... Gary
will strip it down for spare parts ... good news that some of it
of it will be recycled, but bad news in that we've spent about
£700 on it (including repairs) over the 2-3 years we've had it.
My son-in-law had a similar problem with his laptop -- the
motherboard went caput, after 2-3 years' use.
As Gary told me: "You have to look at laptops as being disposable
items". In a way, I suppose cars, fridges, TV sets and washing
machines are disposable items, except that we hope to get at least
10 years' use out of them.
Postscript (14 April 08): I've just read an article from the IT
section of The Guardian, which might be of interest to you.
It was written by Kurt Jacobsen, and was all about the growth
of microscopic tin whiskers in new types of lead-free solder
used on circuit boards, leading to short-circuiting and computer
breakdown.
http://tinyurl.com/2w2sp6
I wonder if the growth of tin whiskers was the cause of the early
demise of these two motherboards?
posted by justin at 5:05 am
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4 Comments:
i am on my third laptop in as many years, but this is my first new out of the box one... i wonder if its me...?
that whiskers thing is fascinating!
Hi Angel ... I suspect whiskers could be the cause of a lot of computer breakdowns.
I shave mine off completely. :)
why not just buy a new laptop? might end up being less expensive.
Hi Rachel, that's one option we're considering. Another possibility is that Mrs C takes over my laptop with Vista on it, while I take over my son-in-law's "tower" with XP on it.
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