Recommendations for laptop repair in Seattle

September 8, 2006 10:19 AM

Any recommendations for laptop repair in Seattle?

After carelessly knocking my old HP Pavillion ze5185 laptop off a table while it was still plugged in, I find that the power cord doesn't fit in the socket anymore. Add this to the barely-functional fans and the wonky, buzzy soundcard and I figure that it just might be time to get the laptop fixed.

Does anyone have any recommendations in or around the Seattle area? I'm not averse to driving a little out of the way for a reliable repair shop.

posted by mhum to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I can tell you the places I know of -- there's a pc/laptop repair shop at 50th and University Way (under the Grand Illusion theatre) that was unable to fix a friend's Alienware laptop, and there's Seattle Laptop on Aurora (around 80th, just north of Beth's).

As a personal recommendation, the laptop sounds kind of dead and mayube not worth fixing (laptop repairs can often be *very* expensive). However, I'm sure those places will gives you estimates and you can figure out if it's worth it for you.
posted by j.edwards at 1:10 PM on September 8, 2006

Thanks! Seattle Laptop has a page on their website describing what seems to be the exact problem I have. I'll check them out.

Also, I have actually considered simply getting a new computer, but I did want to find out how much the repairs would cost first. In the end, I'll probably just bite the bullet and get a new computer.
posted by mhum at 1:38 PM on September 8, 2006

Also consider buying a replacement motherboard on ebay, which would fix all your problems in one go - make sure it's for the exact same model, but judging from my own make and model, laptop motherboards are surprisingly cheap and surpisingly numerous on ebay.

I just bought replacement parts for more than half of the laptop, for less than what I predict the labor fee would be from a repair place.

If you can find the service manual (probably a pdf, hopefully online somewhere) for your laptop, it walks you through every proceedure necessary to replace parts.
posted by -harlequin- at 2:13 PM on September 8, 2006

I've seen this place a million times, but I have no clue how good they are: A1 Best Computer
posted by reeddavid at 4:11 PM on September 8, 2006