Skyhooker
Member
- Reaction score
- 9
- Location
- Dundee, Illinois
Hi, everyone,
I'm still in the process of deciding what services I plan to initially offer in my repair business (I'll be starting in a few weeks). I know that much of the hardware of laptops in integrated, and thus not easily (or not at all) repairable, apart from drives, RAM, and so forth, but I keep coming across one problem with laptops that I'd love to be able to help with, but has a wide range of ease-of-repair, and that's overheating.
I learned about this problem firsthand a few years ago when my own Toshiba's cooling fans decided on one speed, and that was full-blast, and I could still fry eggs on the keyboard. After some research online I found a great site that had detailed disassembly and reassembly instructions, with lots of photos, and decided to take the plunge. A couple hours later my machine ran like new, and I had a new hatred for Toshiba's engineers, since a process that should have been simple and safe required a full disassembly, down to the motherboard and beyond, just to effectively clean out dust. This was, incidentally, when I first realized that I was at least decent at repair, and that if I (and my computer) could survive that nightmare, anything less was a cakewalk.
Since then I've helped out several other people with overheating laptops, a couple of which were essentially bricks since they reached thermal shutdown not long after boot-up. I haven't found any as hellish as my Toshiba, and a couple of Dells I worked on had a nice access panel to the heatsink, making the job a breeze, but I'm sure I'll need detailed repair manuals for most models.
How do you guys deal with these repairs, if at all? I'm pretty sure that invasive repair of laptops, if not by a manufacturer-certified tech, will void the warranty, so I'll keep away from any still in-warranty. Also, the potential for damaging the machines themselves in the process is much higher than for desktops, if for no other reason than a laptop may already have been physically abused and disassembling it may reveal the damage, maybe even make it difficult to reassemble. The results I've been able to achieve have been so dramatic and satisfying, both to me and the computer owners, that I'd really love to offer service for overheating, but I'd also really love to hear from you old hands out there about your experiences in this area. Do you do this kind of work? If so, how do you protect yourself in terms of liability, signed agreements, etc? How do you charge for this type of service? Any other advice you could offer?
One last note: my experience with my Toshiba led me to make one simple modification to my machine. I now cut squares of used laundry fabric softener dryer sheets and tape them over the air inlets with masking tape. The tape leaves no residue, the material catches all of the particles big enough to start clogging the heatsink, and three years later I've never had another problem with heat. I change the filters once every 2 months or so.
I'm still in the process of deciding what services I plan to initially offer in my repair business (I'll be starting in a few weeks). I know that much of the hardware of laptops in integrated, and thus not easily (or not at all) repairable, apart from drives, RAM, and so forth, but I keep coming across one problem with laptops that I'd love to be able to help with, but has a wide range of ease-of-repair, and that's overheating.
I learned about this problem firsthand a few years ago when my own Toshiba's cooling fans decided on one speed, and that was full-blast, and I could still fry eggs on the keyboard. After some research online I found a great site that had detailed disassembly and reassembly instructions, with lots of photos, and decided to take the plunge. A couple hours later my machine ran like new, and I had a new hatred for Toshiba's engineers, since a process that should have been simple and safe required a full disassembly, down to the motherboard and beyond, just to effectively clean out dust. This was, incidentally, when I first realized that I was at least decent at repair, and that if I (and my computer) could survive that nightmare, anything less was a cakewalk.
Since then I've helped out several other people with overheating laptops, a couple of which were essentially bricks since they reached thermal shutdown not long after boot-up. I haven't found any as hellish as my Toshiba, and a couple of Dells I worked on had a nice access panel to the heatsink, making the job a breeze, but I'm sure I'll need detailed repair manuals for most models.
How do you guys deal with these repairs, if at all? I'm pretty sure that invasive repair of laptops, if not by a manufacturer-certified tech, will void the warranty, so I'll keep away from any still in-warranty. Also, the potential for damaging the machines themselves in the process is much higher than for desktops, if for no other reason than a laptop may already have been physically abused and disassembling it may reveal the damage, maybe even make it difficult to reassemble. The results I've been able to achieve have been so dramatic and satisfying, both to me and the computer owners, that I'd really love to offer service for overheating, but I'd also really love to hear from you old hands out there about your experiences in this area. Do you do this kind of work? If so, how do you protect yourself in terms of liability, signed agreements, etc? How do you charge for this type of service? Any other advice you could offer?
One last note: my experience with my Toshiba led me to make one simple modification to my machine. I now cut squares of used laundry fabric softener dryer sheets and tape them over the air inlets with masking tape. The tape leaves no residue, the material catches all of the particles big enough to start clogging the heatsink, and three years later I've never had another problem with heat. I change the filters once every 2 months or so.
. I like the dryer sheet material because it's coarse and irregular, and dust just loves it. I think it's the same material as those "Swiffer" dusters.
