Yes but in soviet america if you open the laptop the warentee is void.Salathar wrote:If you will send the laptop away, which is probably the safest option but the one that is likely to take most time, you can just take the hard drive out since it is not really needed to fix the power supply and any testing utilities can be run from a cd.
Laptop repair advice
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mikeeusa22
You can remove the HDD and either (through a mounting yoke or by putting into anohter laptop) migrate the data over. Laptops usually have hard drive doors that allow you t remove the HDD without taking the whole thing apart.mikeeusa22 wrote:The only other option is to get my parents to buy me a new laptop (btw what\'s a good one?) and transfer the data in the small amount of time the batt lasts. That laptop was the only "work" computer I had. "Working" on desktops sucks and is tiring.
As for fixing it yourself, a lose pin doesnt sound like a huge problem... but I have bad memories of doing laptop hardware maintenance. They are hard to maintain as parts are usually non-standard and hard to physically get to without taking the laptop to pieces. Some also use non-standard screws and have little short cables going everywhere. Then you end up with a spare board in the end wihtout knowing where it's supposed to screw in.. or accidentally rip off a cable.. and so on. That's about the only disadvantage of laptops to desktops.
So if you open it up and see no easy way of fixing it yourself (like the lose pin is clearly visible and you can apply solder without shorting out your PSU) you may want to consider getting someone more suicidal to do it.
Good luck whatever you decide to do!
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cavesomething
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You forgot:Casper wrote: That's about the only disadvantage of laptops to desktops.
lack of support for enough/large harddrives
crappy keyboards that can't be remapped to Dvorak nicely and miss lots of useful keys.
Stupid touchpads and/or thumbsticks, that change focus on you during typing (unless they are turned off, then a seperate mouse is needed).
expense of buying upgraded ram/drives/anything else.
horrid battery life that means they last less than 8 hours without recharging (often 3 hours is considered good).
BIOSen that are normally even more kludgy and propietry than desktop systems
dismal 3d performance compared to a desktop system
Poor field of view on the screens (compared to desktop TFT screens)
and finally, Expensive.
No, I loathe laptops (as if you hadn't guessed yet), I want to get a portable X-terminal, which would be a screen and chord keyboard (not a mangled qwerty kyboard) to connect to my main system via ssh and run my apps locally. Give me a screen that does that, and only that and I would be happy (extra bonus points for a foldable screen, that might be pushing things though)
As it is I guess I am stuck with an x86 desktop system. Those new amiga one's sure look pretty though....
Realistically your working set of programs + data will not exceed 350GB or so, and laptops go that far already.cavesomething wrote: lack of support for enough/large harddrives
Yes they can. Some cheap laptops don't allow it though. Besides that's what external keyboards are for...cavesomething wrote: crappy keyboards that can't be remapped to Dvorak nicely and miss lots of useful keys.
A seperate mouse is needed for a desktop machine too.. so your point is..?cavesomething wrote: Stupid touchpads and/or thumbsticks, that change focus on you during typing (unless they are turned off, then a seperate mouse is needed).
Fair point. They do cost around twice as much as a desktop.cavesomething wrote: expense of buying upgraded ram/drives/anything else.
Your desktop can do more than 8 hours without power? Care to try?cavesomething wrote: horrid battery life that means they last less than 8 hours without recharging (often 3 hours is considered good).
Recently this is not the case so much.cavesomething wrote: BIOSen that are normally even more kludgy and propietry than desktop systems
I've seen laptops with latest 256MB graphics cards in them... but on average they do tend to be not as good.cavesomething wrote: dismal 3d performance compared to a desktop system
That is rubbish. Mac laptops I've seen have very good screens, you can see them clearly from pretty much any angle.cavesomething wrote: Poor field of view on the screens (compared to desktop TFT screens)
Yes, but you don't end up with a system you can't carry without a forklift truck.cavesomething wrote: and finally, Expensive.
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cavesomething
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350GB? on a 2.5 in drive? where? You sure you didn't mean MB?Casper wrote:Realistically your working set of programs + data will not exceed 350GB or so, and laptops go that far already.cavesomething wrote: lack of support for enough/large harddrives
Casper wrote:A seperate mouse is needed for a desktop machine too.. so your point is..?cavesomething wrote: Stupid touchpads and/or thumbsticks, that change focus on you during typing (unless they are turned off, then a seperate mouse is needed).
[\quote]
Not so much, there is a numeric keypad (unless you use an amiga 600, but really, who does that anymore?) This is adequate, in extremis, for budging the mouse around, without getting hit accidentally when typing.
Yeah, get one with SLI-ed fx 6800 ultras in, then talk to me again ....Casper wrote:I've seen laptops with latest 256MB graphics cards in them... but on average they do tend to be not as good.cavesomething wrote: dismal 3d performance compared to a desktop system
Mac mini's are small, I have been half inclined to get one to use as a back-up system to run debian on.Casper wrote:Yes, but you don't end up with a system you can't carry without a forklift truck.cavesomething wrote: and finally, Expensive.