[vox-tech] Local laptop repair?

[Nick Schmalenberger]

On Sun, Oct 05, 2008 at 12:57:13PM -0700, Jimbo wrote:
> hey I fix cars...how hard is a laptop?
> 
> Jimbo
>
Its actually not too hard if you follow the service manual. I
know people who just start unscrewing things without getting a
service manual first, but I try not to because there might always
be another plastic tab or screw under a sticker I don't see until
I break it or something. I think Toshiba and IBM/Lenovo have
better service manuals than Dell. The Dells have photo
illustrations that I think are harder to understand than the line
drawings in the other manuals and the dells are also generally a
bunch of html pages instead of a pdf.  Some of them may also be
only available on the web. At least Dell service manuals are
easily available though, I think with the Toshiba I had to email
an authorized service center because it wasn't on toshibas site.
With Dell and IBM it was right on their website, and with IBM you
could download a pdf which was nice. 

For Thinkpads thinkwiki.org and forum.thinkpads.com are
also very helpful sites. Lately though, I've actually gotten more
cautious or lazy about repairing laptops because some of those
that I repaired or saw repaired just had more problems later. For
some problems it may not be worth the trouble if it involves
taking out the motherboard or lcd panel. But repairing laptops is
definiely possible and often works out pretty well. There are
a huge amount of parts available on ebay. There are also tricks
you may already know about like using an ice cube tray for screws
and putting screws taken out at later steps in "later"
compartments. Have fun.
Nick