1000 dollar paper weight? My hp laptop is slowly dying and there isn't a cure, what are my options?

March 31, 2009 4:42 PM

1000 dollar paperweight? My hp laptop is slowly dying and there isn't a cure, what are my options?

I have a hp pavilion laptop that has a faulty chipset.


Currently I can get into windows although the screen is getting dimmer with every use and has vertical yellow bars every 2 inches. I've had multiple crashes, blue screens, black screens and the nvlddmkm error call of death.

so I pretty much have given up on ever fixing it. I don't have a lot of $ to spend or patience to deal with this thing anymore. So I wondered if I could scrap it for parts or ???

Its past warranty. I'm aware of hp's extended warranty program but of course my particular laptop is not covered.

posted by ljesse to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Love it while it is still with you, and let it go peacefully. Treasure your last days together.

You could probably salvage the hard drive, memory modules, and possibly the CD/DVD-ROM if you're desperate enough.

Laptops on their last legs are generally not worth fixing. They just get sicker and sicker until they pass away.

BACK UP YOUR DATA!
posted by turgid dahlia at 4:46 PM on March 31

Check how much a replacement motherboard (or base including motherboard, but stripped of all else) is on ebay. For a $2500 laptop that was about 3 years old, I spent a little over $100 and got a working replacement motherboard with a faster processor. It wasn't as difficult to get going as I feared.

When a laptop breaks, a lot of places just disassemble them and sell the parts separately online. They mark them up to enough to make a profit out of a busted machine, and the markup is spread across the parts so you save money by paying an inflated cost for a part and repairing yours.
posted by -harlequin- at 4:52 PM on March 31

Buy a USB enclosure for the for the hard disk so you can use it with your replacement machine.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 5:01 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

Put your model number (not the pavillion 1234, but the one on the bottom of the machine, like ab123us or 123456-999) into here and see what's available.
posted by gjc at 5:04 PM on March 31

Back it all up ASAP. If budget is an issue, get a cheap ASUS laptop.
posted by zaelic at 5:30 PM on March 31

Have you checked to see if the credit card you bought it on has an automatic warranty-extending feature? Amex has saved my ass on two out-of-warranty laptops.
posted by roomwithaview at 6:05 PM on March 31