Laptop fun

[Trouble-Shooter]

I recently sold an old PIII laptop to a customer who needed something for word-processing at work. He also bought an external hard drive enclosure with a 250GB drive installed in it from me. The external drive connects via usb, and the power cord connection is strangely similar to a PS/2 mouse connector. My customer connected the power cord for the external hard drive to the mouse port on the laptop, plugged it in, tried to boot the laptop, and called me because the laptop didn't work. Now, I have a laptop that won't POST or show any signs of life beyond a battery and AC adapter light.

Do you think he fried the board when he sent 12v into the mouse port?

PS-This was his first time booting up this laptop. He just picked it up from me Sunday evening.

I'll have a rum and coke.....

Matt

 

[Trouble-Shooter]

Oh, yeah. He's also the under-sheriff in my county, and accounts for 20% of my referrals.

 

[MrMille]

That is not a good situation to be in.

As he accounts for a huge number of referrals, I would give him a replacement or repair the laptop (if possible) Perhaps a new Acer One? or another used P3 laptop, probably get one for 200 bucks.

I'd also show him how to connect up the external harddrive power supply, perhaps put a label/tag on the ps2 like power connector, so this doesn't happen again.

Sorry for your troubles.

 

[RonWood]

Ouch!

MrMille seems to have the idea right, try replace it for as cheap as possible. Or discuss with him how plugging in the power cable for the external hard drive blew the laptop up.

Remind him that it is your fault for not explaining it to him( it is what he wants to hear ) and see if you can compromise with an additional fee to get a replacement laptop( eg, another p3 from ebay or perhaps an Acer/MSI/EEE netbook ).

I had a customers wife do this to his gaming rig we built him. He knew it worked because he saw it when he bought it, but he takes it home and then went to work. His wife decided to be sweet and plug it up, however she plugged up his external hard drives power cable into the PS/2 port.

Long story short- I had no idea he had an external hard drive, he saw it working at my shop so I talked him into paying me 150 dollars extra to replace the motherboard and do the labor( remind me to get a case with a motherboard tray next time. ). Luckily my warehouse guy exchanged the motherboard after some begging.

Good luck!

 

[Simmy]

That's damn unlucky, but personally I wouldn't give him a new one. If he's a reasonable chap, he'll understand that it's not your fault in the slightest. Have you spoken to him about it? Has he suggested it's your fault at all or that he wants you to foot the bill?

Maybe compromise and ask him to pay for a new motherboard and you'll do him a favour and fit it for free.

 

[Trouble-Shooter]

I'm in the process of inspecting the circuits on the motherboard right now, if it's just a few burned solder points or something I may be able to resurrect it. It doesn't appear to be savable though. I did point out when I delivered it that the power cable for the external hard drive looks like a mouse cable and to be mindful of that. He isn't doing the whole "blame" thing at all, which is a relief but also leaves me with a lot of options to sort through. I do intend to finish repairing one of my other PIII notebooks and substitute that for the dead one, with a fee on top. The real sucky thing for me is that I had just replaced the onboard sound and power jack a week before in anticipation of his purchase. LOL.

Matt

 

[iptech]

How much time will it take to source & fit a new mainboard for PIII laptop?

No wonder he refers so much business work to you if you adopt such a charitable approach to repairs on such old equipment. If you're that concerned about his referral business, bite the bullet and buy him another PIII laptop and move on. By even investigating a possible repair you are send out the message that you may in some way be responsible for the frying of the last one.

I appreciate your desire to repair something that's broken, but from a business perspective you do need to see that your commercial objectives are not left behind.

Help the guy out, but don't take responsibility for his stupidity - no one else would!

 

[Trouble-Shooter]

I know what you mean iptech. Essentially, I am deciding to accept more responsibility than necessary to keep the customer happy because that is the only path that I have virtual certainty of harmony with existing and future customers at the sheriff's department. All other possible methods have a nice balance of ups and downs. In this case, I'll be out $50 on the split difference and 2 hours of my time, and life goes on peacefully. If this were a $400-$800 laptop he cooked, he's SOL.

And, yes, I am charitable after 3 or 4 dozen paid customers have come from the same source. Hopefully, 3 or 4 dozen more will come in the future. But with any other approach to this situation, I have to start considering what damage might have been done with regards to future customers. And, I'm still in the green on this transaction with how I set up the next step. Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Matt