Searching for a laptop repair shop that solders...

March 24, 2008 8:29 AM

I'm looking for a reptable laptop repair shop that handles Gateway/e-machines systems and would attempt to re-solder or replace a broken power jack rather than replacing the entire mainboard. I'm in Tempe, AZ, but a reputable mail-in company would work too.

A friend has an emachines m2350 laptop, which is a re-badged Gateway m520. To the best of my ability to diagnose, it appears to have the cold-soldered DC power jack problem that google suggests plagues this model. The machine is not under warranty, and the Geek Squad/big-name-repair-place answer seems to be "replace the entire motherboard, at a cost of $200-$400," which does not make financial sense for my friend given the age of the laptop. I started to tear the machine down last night, but the online teardown guides I can find don't go further than "gain access to the RAM under the keyboard." It looks like the entire system will have to be disassembled to get at the underside of the mainboard and I'm not quite that brave when it comes to someone else's machine.

The only repair companies I can find through Google (search terms: gateway/emachines power jack repair) aren't local, and have shady-looking search-engine optimization stuff all over their pages. Can anyone suggest a shop from personal experience that is likely to get the job done well? I'd prefer a local shop, but I suspect I'll be going with a mail-in because almost nobody actually solders things as part of "computer repair" anymore.

posted by Alterscape to computers & internet (2 comments total)

IAACG (I am a computer guy)

Alas, soldering is a lost art amongst my peoples, and even if you were to find a Hoary Bearded Computer Guy who would be comfortable doing that, their labor won't be much cheaper than just replacing the motherboard.
posted by Oktober at 8:55 AM on March 24

Oktober is dead on. Soldering is dead. It's because there's not enough money in teaching people 'how' to solder...cause if they screw it up or it doesn't work, they're out the time. Not enough money in it.

Look @ your local university for an Electrical Engineering student. He/she may be willing for a small fee, to do the work for you. I remember there being one at the Big 10 Univ. I went to, that would buy old monitors/broken machines and repair them for profit.
posted by filmgeek at 2:24 PM on March 24