Bill Gates on the Daily Show
Bill Gates on the Daily Show.
Vista released.
Vista released.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Toshiba Satellite A65 Motherbard Repair $149
Toshiba Satellite A65 laptop motherboards have a power jack that fails.
We repair this for $149 which covers both parts & labor.
We have learned that authorized Toshiba laptop repair centers, major retail chains and small computer shops have been telling customers they need a new motherboard when this part fails.
The piece is only built to handle so many plugs & unplugs. It breaks under normal usage. This is a decent laptop and many manufacturers suffer from this problem.
Many customers are quoted $500 - $700 on a new motherboard.
Here we replace the failed component. We do this repair daily and see the A65 a few times per week.
We do a free diagnostic. There is no charge if we check the laptop out and it is not repairable. About 99% of the A65 laptops that come in here with a failed power jack are repairable.
Our power jack repair service is $149. This price covers both a new power jack & labor. The price is current as a January 2007 and will not be changing any time soon. We charge $15 for return shipping.
If your Toshiba Satellite A65 motherboard has already been replaced feel free to ship in your old motherboard and we will purchase it.
We repair this for $149 which covers both parts & labor.
We have learned that authorized Toshiba laptop repair centers, major retail chains and small computer shops have been telling customers they need a new motherboard when this part fails.
The piece is only built to handle so many plugs & unplugs. It breaks under normal usage. This is a decent laptop and many manufacturers suffer from this problem.
Many customers are quoted $500 - $700 on a new motherboard.
Here we replace the failed component. We do this repair daily and see the A65 a few times per week.
We do a free diagnostic. There is no charge if we check the laptop out and it is not repairable. About 99% of the A65 laptops that come in here with a failed power jack are repairable.
Our power jack repair service is $149. This price covers both a new power jack & labor. The price is current as a January 2007 and will not be changing any time soon. We charge $15 for return shipping.
If your Toshiba Satellite A65 motherboard has already been replaced feel free to ship in your old motherboard and we will purchase it.
Toshiba S205-S703 Power Jack Repair
A Toshiba Satellite S205-S703 laptop came in for repair this week. it needed a power jack repair.
The center post of he jack was loose and wiggling all around. The laptop would switch from battery power to AC power repeatedly.
This is a jack that we have in stock (we stock almost all of them).
A Sony Vaio VGN-S270P LCD Repair
We get in quite a few Sony Vaio VGNS series laptops with cracked LCDs.
The S series is a slim and fast laptop. There is nothing wrong with the design; however, the LCD is one of the heaviest parts of a laptop. Lightweight laptops use thin LCD panels to help keep the machine lightweight. One good fall and… Crack!
Sony has a flat rate for these repairs. They charge $650. We offer brand new screens here for $399. That is a high priced LCD but at least it is good to see that we can beat Sony’s pricing.
The S series uses a 13.3” WXGA “glossy” LCD (w/ what Sony calls XBRITE).
By glossy we mean you can see your reflection in it when it is powered off.
A lot of these laptops also have a built in web-cam.
Tax breaks to lure Google to NC
"Proposed tax breaks to lure a Google Inc. computer hub to the foothills of North Carolina are mounting as the search engine company considers where to locate a $600 million operation."
The full story is here on WRAL.com.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
IBM ThinkPad R51 Repair
An IBM ThinkPad R51 laptop came in for repair this week with a unique story...
The owner moved into a new house and did some computing with his R51. While unpacking he found out that there was a tiny leak in the roof. Water dripped in through the roof and landed onto the R51's screen. It dripped down into the laptop destroying the LCD inverter and planar card (motherboard).
Unfortunately, we were the third stop he made. He had taken it to a local computer repair shop who charged him $75 to let him know it was ruined and he should buy a new one. They handed him an estimate for $1100. Many "repair" shops do this simply because they do not want to work on the machine and/or they do not have access to the parts and actively trade with the larger vendors. He had then called IBM. They will usually do a great job with the repair but they also wanted over $650. Finally, he found us after a coworker heard of his troubles. He shipped in the unit for a free diagnostic, we checked it out and quoted him. He said yes.
The parts were in stock and he was out of here in under a week for under $400.
Dell Inspiron E1505 Repair
A Dell Inspiron E1505 came in for repair. This one had a glass of water spilled on it. Unfortunately, it was not a survivor. The motherboard, hard drive and memory were all damaged during the spill. Usually when water is spilled on a laptop the motherboard will get wet. Usually that is the only part to be damaged but not always.
We're going to end up repairing this particular machine. Sometimes when they're this bad we end up buying them for parts. In this case the laptop was only 2 months old and our price was right, so the customer decided to proceed.
IC Power CN5560 Laptop Repair
This off brand laptop came in for repair last week, an IC Power CN5560. A brief google revealed this laptop is also known as a "Balance" laptop. The Balance laptops we sold by Walmart.
The laptop came in for a power jack repair, a service that we perform sevral times per day.
The laptop came in for a power jack repair, a service that we perform sevral times per day.
2007 International CES Keynote
The 2007 International CES Keynote by Bill Gates can be watched online here.
The 2007 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) celebrates "40 Years Of Progress, Innovation and Vision."
The 2007 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) celebrates "40 Years Of Progress, Innovation and Vision."
RootkitRevealer v1.71
Just wanted to throw a link out to a MS utility that detects rootkits on Windows OSs without getting into what a rootkit is or does...
RootkitRevealer v 1.71
RootkitRevealer v 1.71
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Another fun day of eBay orders
Another fun day of eBay orders…
There are good sellers on there. There are good deals on there. There are hard to find parts on there. BUT… Unfortunately, things just aren’t what they used to be. These days, we use eBay as little as possible. We purchase plenty of parts from other reliable vendors at higher prices due to the large amount of problems.
Last week we needed to order a few parts on eBay. They all arrived today. 4 out of 5 of the parts were defective.
Above is what $300 gets you. A cracked screen. Unfortunately, going by the sellers response, it was not something that happened in transit. It was a shady seller out to rip someone off. We were the lucky buyers. Now the fun paperwork begins.
When someone tries to rip you off on eBay, the first step is to open a dispute. This is usually done with Paypal. Unfortunately, Paypal is not what they used to be, either. We recently received an email from them regarding a claim that said “Due to an increase in seasonal email volumes, we may not have been able to answer your email... …further questions regarding your PayPal account please call 1-402-938-3531.” Of course we do not have further questions; we have one question that we’re still trying to get resolved! Calling Paypal and staying on hold for an hour is certainly not a solution and not even an option in some cases.
When purchasing anything on eBay you absolutely must use a credit card. And the credit card company must have a decent customer service call center. This way, you can dispute the charges and ship back the junk you received. This brings up yet another point. Paypal does absolutely nothing to prevent chargebacks, even though they state right on their website “PayPal works hard to help protect sellers.” In a way, they do what they can- nothing is 100% when buying or selling online. We used to be a “Gold Level PowerSeller” on eBay, but due to the problems, growing lack of support and ever-increasing eBay/Paypal fees, we now just sell a few odds and ends on there. And it isn’t just us that has noticed this. Our neighbor had over $2,200,000.00 in eBay sales last year and has all of the same complaints that we do. When they quit supporting their product and keep raising prices, bad things happen. This has probably contributed to the amount of bad sellers on eBay. And it is hard to find a good seller on eBay. These days the bad sellers do not get negative feedback often enough because buyers are afraid that they will receive a negative feedback in return.
Anyways, back to work…
There are good sellers on there. There are good deals on there. There are hard to find parts on there. BUT… Unfortunately, things just aren’t what they used to be. These days, we use eBay as little as possible. We purchase plenty of parts from other reliable vendors at higher prices due to the large amount of problems.
Last week we needed to order a few parts on eBay. They all arrived today. 4 out of 5 of the parts were defective.
Above is what $300 gets you. A cracked screen. Unfortunately, going by the sellers response, it was not something that happened in transit. It was a shady seller out to rip someone off. We were the lucky buyers. Now the fun paperwork begins.
When someone tries to rip you off on eBay, the first step is to open a dispute. This is usually done with Paypal. Unfortunately, Paypal is not what they used to be, either. We recently received an email from them regarding a claim that said “Due to an increase in seasonal email volumes, we may not have been able to answer your email... …further questions regarding your PayPal account please call 1-402-938-3531.” Of course we do not have further questions; we have one question that we’re still trying to get resolved! Calling Paypal and staying on hold for an hour is certainly not a solution and not even an option in some cases.
When purchasing anything on eBay you absolutely must use a credit card. And the credit card company must have a decent customer service call center. This way, you can dispute the charges and ship back the junk you received. This brings up yet another point. Paypal does absolutely nothing to prevent chargebacks, even though they state right on their website “PayPal works hard to help protect sellers.” In a way, they do what they can- nothing is 100% when buying or selling online. We used to be a “Gold Level PowerSeller” on eBay, but due to the problems, growing lack of support and ever-increasing eBay/Paypal fees, we now just sell a few odds and ends on there. And it isn’t just us that has noticed this. Our neighbor had over $2,200,000.00 in eBay sales last year and has all of the same complaints that we do. When they quit supporting their product and keep raising prices, bad things happen. This has probably contributed to the amount of bad sellers on eBay. And it is hard to find a good seller on eBay. These days the bad sellers do not get negative feedback often enough because buyers are afraid that they will receive a negative feedback in return.
Anyways, back to work…
