Broken Screen, Bad AC Adapter, Motherboard Dead, etc…

by john on October 2, 2009

If you have a hardware problem with your desktop or laptop, you’ve come to right place. We’ll do our best to help you get it fixed. Or you can bring it into one of our three locations and a tech will be there to help you.

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jon Ehret October 6, 2009 at 2:16 pm: I have 3 workhorses and a dell all H/U to 28mbps cox cable doxcis3 . 3 of them are running on speedtest.net @ 25 to 30 mbps depending on the time of day. 1 of them is running @ 13mbps at the most and slower at times. I have changed cables and ports on router and problem stays there. I even got a new 10/100/1000 Nics card but it didn’t help. What can be the problem.
2 john October 6, 2009 at 2:58 pm: Jon,

Reboot the system and close all programs that startup in the task bar. Run the speedtest again. Disable any Internet Security or anit-virus (temporarily) and run speedtest again. If it is still slower, you might have a trojan running in the background.

Basically, if it isn’t the hardware, then it might be something in the software. To look deeper, you can open up your task manager (right click on the task bar and select Task Manager) and see how many processes you are running. Viruses usually don’t show up, but some Internet Security software eats up lots of CPU time. Also if you are low on memory, multiple applications and tasks will cause the operating system to use the hard drive as virtual memory and slow the whole machine down.

If you have a virus, then try running multiple anti-virus programs. Not all programs catch all viruses.

Follow this link for more info and links to download free anti-virus programs: http://www.pchell.com/virus/

As always, we can get you a copy of Kaspersky or NOD anti-virus that is the best all-around programs that we have found.

Good luck and let me know if there is anything else we can do to help.

j
3 Natalie October 13, 2009 at 9:49 pm: I have a toshbia laptop that the screen has gone out on. Would would it cost to have you fix or replace the screen? Would it just be cheeper to buy a new laptop all together? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Natalie
4 john October 14, 2009 at 7:52 am: Natalie,

Usually it is cheaper to fix your old laptop if just the screen or motherboard is broken, but not both. Also, sometimes the “Screen has gone out” is really just the inverter (back light) and that is much less than the cost of replacing the entire screen. The only way for our techs to know, is to bring it into one of our locations, or ship it in via The UPS Stores (Mention CorporateAccounts-WorkOrder-LaptopsPlus for FREE Shipping) and we’ll let you know right away.

If your machine is older, and you are thinking of replacing it, there are great deals at our stores, and at other stores, like Office Depot, during the holiday season!

Have a wonderful day!

j
5 Hugo November 20, 2009 at 5:33 pm: I have an HP Pavillion ZV5000 and my inboard graphics are fried out. When I have my drivers installed, the screen looks all messed up. When I uninstall the drivers, it works normally but I can’t play any games. Is this fixable?
6 john November 23, 2009 at 11:54 am: Hugo,

Most likely the drivers that have installed are incorrect. There are two chip sets (ATI or nVidia) that come in the zv5000 class. Below is a link to HP’s driver list.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=228&product=385148

Also, there are several models in the zv5000 class. Make sure that you are choosing the correct model. Not all drivers will work on all models. Below is a list of all the zv5000 models.

» HP Pavilion zv5000 Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5000t (DL228AV) CTO Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5000z (DP523AV) CTO Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5001AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5001US Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5001xx Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5002 Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5002AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5003AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5004AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5005AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5006AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5007AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5007LA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5008AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5009AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5010AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5011AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5012AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5013AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5014AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5014EA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5015AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5015EA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5016AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5016EA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5017AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5018AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5019AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5020US Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5021AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5022AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5023AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5024AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5025AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5026AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5027AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5028AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5029AP Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5030CA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5030US Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5034US Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5037WM Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5040EA Notebook PC
» HP Pavilion zv5045EA Notebook PC

If this still doesn’t work, bring it into one of our stores, and they will be able to locate and install the correct driver and get you back up and running.

Click here for locations and hours. http://laptopspluswest.com/about-laptops-plus-west/

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I had the flu.

j
7 Louis Johnson May 9, 2010 at 10:40 pm: I need to have the motherboard replaced on my HP dv5? It has a AMD processer.

Price quote please. Also how much would it cost to replace AMD with Intel Centeron or Pentium?

Regards,

Louis Johnson
8 john May 10, 2010 at 8:20 am: Louis, The HP DV series has a known flaw that we have found and can be fixed. It heats up quickly and can’t dissipate the heat properly. If you can bring it in to one of our stores, we’ll take a look and you may not have to replace your motherboard. Also, the AMD and Intel chips are NOT interchangeable.

j
9 Louis Johnson May 11, 2010 at 8:51 pm: Appreciate that. Thats exactly what happened. Mother board kaput. I will bring to store in Carlsbad… Thanks for for your input..
10 Jun Manzano June 17, 2010 at 6:27 pm: My dell ispiron power adapter blue light indicator sometimes come on and sometimes it does not when I plug the adapter on the wall. It finally stopped coming on last night. I attached it to my laptop and my power indicator does not show I had power going in. The wall sucket was verifed to be working by plugging lamp etc. Do you repair adapters? If you do, how much? Do you sell adapters and how much?
Thanks,
Jun
11 john June 18, 2010 at 3:55 pm: We have genuine Dell OEM adapters in stock and they cost $79. They are not repairable.