Do it yourself laptop repair techniques for changing the hard drive of your laptop

Many people look at a laptop as a confusing device, and indeed are rather intimidated by the thought of any do-it-yourself laptop repair. But in reality a laptop is only slightly more complex than a desktop computer, and in many cases, it can be just an easy to repair. If you need to replace the hard drive on your laptop, for example, there is no need to pay a technician a premium to do it for you.

It is quite possible for a reasonably technically competent person to repair a laptop himself or herself. Generally speaking, if you wouldn’t hesitate to repair your desktop PC, you shouldn’t hesitate to repair your laptop either. When laptops first came out there was a certain tendency among laptop manufacturers to build a mystique around their products. If something went wrong with a laptop, such as, for example, a hard drive needing replacement, the customer was encouraged to turn the laptop over to a professional repair specialist, or to ship the laptop directly to the company.

These professional repair specialists would usually charge a small fortune for repairing the device. If the device was within the warranty period, the company would replace the drive for free, but often enough the user would be unable to use their machine for quite some time in any case. However, attitudes have changed, both on the part of big companies, as well as of users.

The manufacturers have simplified the components of the laptops so that laptop repair is now fairly easy, and users, on the other hand, also seem to be less intimidated at the thought of repairing a laptop on their own.

The size of most laptop drives is standardized, most of them being no more than two and a half inches thick. There are some ultra portable drives that are a little slimmer than this, but by and large the two and a half inch drives are the industry standard for laptops today. Remember to only buy a laptop drive that is compatible with your laptop drive controller. Laptop designs for SATA drives will have a slot controller, while certain laptops have a special connector that is unique to them.

Now, you should disconnect the power from your laptop and place it face down on a table. There will usually be a panel at the back or on the side that will give you access to the drive itself. This panel will be held in place by either a cache or by screws. Release the cache or the screws, and remove the panel, and then replace the hard drive according to the manufacturer’s instructions. And pay nothing to the laptop repair professional.

Click here to learn how to save time and money by carrying out laptop repairs by yourself.  

Laptop repair: The secrets of how to replace your laptop battery revealed

Before we go into details of laptop repair, and of how to replace your laptop’s battery, we should first probably discuss what would be the optimal time to replace it in the first place. Now, a good many things can act to shorten the life of a battery. The environment, humidity, or even the simple action of time, are all factors that demand consideration, and any or all of these things can reduce the life of your battery.

One thing you need to know is that any laptop battery can only be charged a certain number of times. The number of times a laptop battery has been charged affects its usefulness far more than almost any other factor. You can effectively lengthen the life of your laptop’s battery by running it off main power whenever this is possible. Otherwise, your laptop’s battery can be charged around five hundred times before it starts losing effectiveness.

Another thing that affects battery life is the kind of laptop you have, and what sort of power drain your laptop places upon the battery. A laptop that places a severe strain upon a battery’s resources will considerably shorten the life of the battery. A normal battery, with a reasonable drain upon it, should last you anything from between one and a half to two years. Ultimately your battery will be able to maintain the computer for shorter and shorter periods, and when this happens it is obviously time to change the battery.

The first thing you need to do when you attempt laptop repair of this sort, is to check what sort of battery your computer uses and to purchase a replacement that is compatible. Now, obviously, the first step is to power down your laptop. Once your laptop is powered down, also ensure that the AC power connection is disconnected. If you use an internet connection with your laptop, as most of us do, you would be well advised to disconnect it before you start to replace your battery. The battery will usually be held in place by a simple cache. Release this cache to slide the battery out of its compartment.

Be careful never to touch the contact points of any laptop battery with your bare fingers. Doing so can seriously reduce the efficiency of a battery. Now remove the new battery from its box and slide it into the battery compartment, making sure that the cache snaps back into place. That’s all it takes to replace a laptop’s battery. It’s a simple enough job that you absolutely must not pay a laptop repair technician to do it.

Click here to learn how to save time and money by carrying out laptop repairs by yourself.  

How to choose between the laptop repair services available to you

If you have a laptop that has some issues you might well be confused about which laptop repair service you should go in for. Laptop services range from the inexpensive to the truly exorbitant, and you may wonder whether it is quite safe to choose a cheaper service over a more expensive one.

The answer to that question is that services differ. Not all cheap services are necessarily run by incompetents, and not all expensive services will necessarily be worth your while. Remember that many companies, including the laptop companies themselves, often charge more than they should for laptop parts and laptop repair services.

But this makes searching for a good laptop repair facility all the more confusing. The first step to understanding which laptop repair facility will work best for you is to understand your laptop itself. When you understand how your laptop works, you also will understand to a reasonable extent what it might take to repair it, and this knowledge will give you the ability to perceive whether the charges being applied for the repair of your laptop in a particular instance are reasonable or not.

As with everything else on the planet, knowledge is the key to power here as well. Understand the problem you have with your laptop thoroughly, and the chances are much lower that anyone will be able to ‘put one over you’ when it comes to repairing it. You might even find if you learn enough, that you become able to handle the most basic areas of laptop repair yourself. For example, some simple jobs like replacing the LCD screen or the keyboard of your laptop could certainly be done by even a person with a very basic knowledge of the inner workings on a laptop.

Why pay anyone to simply replace the screen of your laptop when you can just as easily do it yourself? The internet is a great place to learn new skills, and this applies to laptop repair as much as to anything else. You should be able to download detailed illustrated tutorials on different subjects of this nature, for example, on repairing or replacing your laptops LCD screen, or on replacing your keyboard. Go for an illustrated tutorial on laptop repair, if it is at all possible, or, even better, check out youtube videos, which are both highly detailed, and which have the advantage of providing you with step by step instructions on laptop repair.

Click here to learn how to save time and money by carrying out laptop repairs by yourself.

Having the right tool on hand can make laptop repair very much easier

Laptops are becoming increasingly common in today’s world, and with that comes a need for more laptop repair services. Whereas even a decade ago, a laptop was a relatively rare thing, these days every university student has one. However, this doesn’t change the fact that laptops are still more expensive than a desktop to maintain or repair. That’s why a lot of people with basic technical skills choose to repair their laptops themselves. This isn’t hard to do if you have some knowledge of what you’re doing, and, of course, if you have the right tools to go about repairing your laptop with.

However,  you need to be very careful, because the average laptop is considerably more complex than your average desktop PC in terms of miniaturization, and consequently, in how difficult a repair job can become. You mustn’t think that just because you’ve repaired desktop PCs in the past, that you are necessarily qualified to repair or disassemble a laptop.

If you’ve never tried your hand at laptop repair before I’d advise you to take a good look at the schematic diagrams of the model that you’re using. These are sometimes included with the manual. If they are not, you can often find a good many schematics online. Read the schematics and see whether they make any kind of sense to you. If they don’t, you would be well advised to leave the repair of your laptop to the professionals. On the other hand, if you can understand what the schematics say, there is a good chance that you will be able to conduct various kinds of repair that your laptop may require from time to time.

Now, there are many tools on the market that claim to be able to resolve software issues and problems. My advice would be to leave most of them alone. All you really need to protect your laptop is s good antivirus, like AVG, for example. If you have performance issues in the long run, any computer expert will tell you that a simple reinstall of your operating system is likely to solve them far more quickly and reliably than most of the software available on the market. Where hardware repair is concerned, remember that repairing your laptop will involve dealing with highly miniaturized systems that requires tools that are actually capable of working on that scale. These tools include special grippers and extensions, as well as a soldering iron and soldering wire, which can all be invaluable in laptop repair if you know what you’re doing.

Click here to learn how to save time and money by carrying out laptop repairs by yourself. 

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