Recommended laptop repair shops?

[OutToLunch]

Afternoon all...

Had a poke around on the search but no joy - has anyone used any particular laptop repair services they can recommend? I have an old batch of Acer Aspires that have had their DC jack connection to the motherboard detached through heavy handed use and a million people demanding them to be working again ASAP. 8O

There's plenty of repair companies to be found on Google, but they all seem to be much of a muchness - around £100 excluding collection yadda yadda. I seem to be stuck in a catch 22 situation of most of them wanting payment for collection before quoting, but being told I need a quote in order to get the school to part with the cheque for repair.

TIA

[Alex]

/me passes OTL a soldering iron

[OutToLunch]

If it was my own laptop, I'd be quite happy to break out the soldering iron rather than pay £100. When it's laptops the kids are going to use, fixing things that go "BZZZZT!" seem a little risky - first kid that gets toasted and won't be "Hurrah! You saved £500 on laptop repairs", it'll be "OMG, you killed Kenny!"

I also fear "Dad'll Fix It" syndrome - that feeling you get when you've put something back together, it's working, but you still have a handfull of screws from somewhere...

[Dos_Box]

That's nothing. I was talking to a collegue today who was quoted £400 to replace a broken laptop DVD drive!!
TBH £100 is quite good going in the world of laptop repairs. Either that or the aforementioned soldering iron should be broken out.

[OutToLunch]

£400?! Ye Gods. I wasn't quibbling (too much) about the £100, just wondering if anyone wanted to share a particular company they'd had good service from. If not, throwing darts at the google results it is

[ChrisC]

Just a shame they're out of warranty (am guessing), mind you, if they show signs of heavy handed-ness, they probably would charge you to repair anyway, sometimes consider weighing up the costs of accidental damage cover, always seems to excessive though.

Chris

[plexer]

I once had a quote to repair a broken screen on an acer laptop. Sent the laptop to the company but in the end they couldn't get the new screen for it after they had the machine for a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't be concerned about the buzz apspect of repairing due to the low voltage and current at that end of things but you definately don't get appreciated for going out of your way and if you do it once you can guarantee they'll expect you to do it everytime.

Have you spoken to Acer about authorised repairers?

Ben

[krisd32]

do a google search on a company called laptop solutions i used to use them in my old job, free collection etc.. and also only work upto a specified amount and also quote before doing any work i'd recommend them!
they're in edgbaston or somewhere like that!

[Netman]

Acer support = nightmare!!!
However.... if you ever get through to a human it's worth crawling to them as they once "extended" a warranty for free for us and then fixed and returned the laptop... same problem as yours actually so maybe you could claim a design fault?? Might be worth a try at least....

[acb_]

We used ACRC to repair the power connectors on three of our laptops.

They were helpful on the phone, collected and returned when they said they would, and did a solid repair job.

The connectors they fitted weren't compatible with the existing power supplies, so we had to buy three of those from them, second hand (15 quid a pop IIRC).

I used a local authority order with them and a promise to try to expedite the payment after the job was done - they spoke to our Bursar and seemed happy enough with that set up.

I'll use them again when the little darlings trash some more laptops...

[sahmeepee]

Acer support = nightmare!!!
However.... if you ever get through to a human it's worth crawling to them as they once "extended" a warranty for free for us and then fixed and returned the laptop... same problem as yours actually so maybe you could claim a design fault?? Might be worth a try at least....

The Acer extended warranties with accidental damage cover aren't too pricey really, but registering the laptops for their warranty is an exercise in bureaucracy and seems to be deliberately designed to put people off. Hopefully we won't need them after all!

[CyberNerd]

AFIK all our acer warranties expired some time ago, but Acer still fix them for free :0 Not sure how this happened, we suspect they might be charging our LEA under a laptop for teacher scheme, maybe they just lost the paperwork?> you could always just try and send them to acer.... works for us

[NetworkGeezer]

AFIK all our acer warranties expired some time ago, but Acer still fix them for free :0

Why you jammy ba$%^$%

[sahmeepee]

Or if that doesn't work, get CyberNerd to send them for you

[OutToLunch]

We used ACRC to repair the power connectors on three of our laptops.

They were helpful on the phone, collected and returned when they said they would, and did a solid repair job.

ACRC did an absolutely fantastic job - many thanks for the recommendation.

Filled out the enquiry form last Thursday evening, had a call from them Friday morning - they confirmed they were happy to work with the whole purchase order/invoice scheme and arranged a courier for Monday afternoon. Laptops were collected before I'd even managed to get accounts to fax them a purchase order. I had a mail from them Tuesday morning to confirm they'd received the laptops safely and confirm it was definitely a power connector problem, another mail from them Wednesday to say they were repaired and waiting for a courier - then the laptops were back here this morning before I'd even had chance to go tell the main office I was expecting them. Excellent!

The new connectors certainly look more sturdy than the OEM ones and everything is now working nicely. I'm a happy camper.

Ben