TravelAddict.org Blog

It’s official. I had to replace the motherboard in my Dell laptop. It took me 3 hours and about $200 in parts to get it running again. So far it is running ok. I won’t do this again. I would rather buy a new one.

This is also one of those rare instances where that extended warranty would have paid for itself in lack of headache. The old motherboard went bad and kept blowing out power supplies. Other than that it worked fine. I still am unsure what the real cause of the problem was. I am guessing a power surge nuked something and it kept back-feeding current to the power brick.

Either way I think I am going to invest in Apple Care for my MacBook Pro. Parts are even more expensive and it is already a big investment.

The worst part about laptops is you never know what you’re getting in to until you crack the case. Some are designed extremely well with part replacement in mind. Others are a mind-boggling 3D jigsaw puzzle that leave you with no hair and a few loose screws (literally). I’ve re-soldered and replaced so many power jacks, LCDs and motherboards. I even replaced the cold-cathode backlight in an LCD for a client. Getting all those small, thin layers of a 15″ LCD to sandwich back together and play nice together… Now THAT I will NEVER do again - just buy a new LCD already!!

And yet I keep taking the laptop jobs. I guess I enjoy the challenge now and then, and there is a big need for it out there, those things get pretty beat up. As long as I don’t get too many at once.