discussion How much, is too much, to replace fan in aged laptop? (jyo)

[Blind Dog]

My wife's Asus Vivobook laptop started its life noisy, and 4 years later, progressed to making a sound that I mistook for an idiot, pedestrian, walking past with a harmonica--sucking in and out. Incessantly!

Coretemps indicated temps ranging between 54 and 94 max. You could actually feel the laboured fan, vibrating the whole laptop.

Local computer (brick & mortar) shop charges $300 minimum, "...just to put it on our bench...". The price of a replacement fan ("If necessary.") would be about $60, and then there's the tax. Kijiji 'techs' are predatory here, imo. Even LD estimated in the $300 range. Too rich for my blood.

DIY time.



16 pesky little screws out, a swipe of Zippo fluid (couldn't find the iso), reapplied paste, and two pesky little connections--fan & battery, 15 rfa screws back in.

Twenty minutes, tops.

Temps are now running 40 to 71 degrees max.







My wife is playing Bejewelled, and I'm looking at a vintage Empire turntable, that's now (seemingly) much more affordable.


Query: how much have you been quoted/estimated for a laptop fan replacement/cleaning/re-paste, in your neck of the woods?

 

[sswilson]

Query: how much have you been quoted/estimated for a laptop fan replacement/cleaning/re-paste, in your neck of the woods?

I haven't checked locally (I've done my own fan replacements when required) but this.....

Local computer (brick & mortar) shop charges $300 minimum, "...just to put it on our bench...".

Sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. $100 maybe, but any more for a 1/2hr diagnosis (including cracking the back cover) would be an absolute fugget about it from me.

Maybe in the past when doing any kind of work on a laptop body required major work (mostly because access was from the top requiring keyboard removal for any work) $300 might have been justified, but in this day and age that's (IMO) highway robbery.

 

[moocow]

$300 just to diagnose? That's even worst than taking my car in just for an inspection.

 

[great_big_abyss]

$300 just to diagnose? That's even worst than taking my car in just for an inspection.

Ugh, when I had my Tundra, the service interval for oil changes was 16000kms (which is a bit long for my liking), but the Toyot adealership also had a service every 8000kms which consisted only of inspections. They didn't do a damn actual thing, and wanted to charge $100+ for it. WTAF.

Nowadays I just take my car to my local indy and get the oil changed every 8k kms...

 

[Blind Dog]

I haven't checked locally (I've done my own fan replacements when required) but this.....



Sounds absolutely ridiculous to me. $100 maybe, but any more for a 1/2hr diagnosis (including cracking the back cover) would be an absolute fugget about it from me.

Maybe in the past when doing any kind of work on a laptop body required major work (mostly because access was from the top requiring keyboard removal for any work) $300 might have been justified, but in this day and age that's (IMO) highway robbery.

I had never even opened a laptop. Do my own desktop builds, but had a legacy reluctance regarding laptops. Nothing like greedy merchants, and cocky clerks, to motivate this of. I was warned, by peers, that, 'Laptops are different (than desktops), and you should really take them to a legit shop.' Like you've noted, times have changed. Easy peasy.

$300 just to diagnose? That's even worst than taking my car in just for an inspection.

Before they even discuss your specifics, they explain the $300 minimum is written in stone, and it's for accepting your machine. Once they move it to their tech counter, you owe $300 -- no exceptions. The price goes up, from there. They don't want to repair your laptop, they don't want to sell you parts -- they want to sell you a new computer. My wife was made to feel like the repair was almost charity -- "Your laptop is how old!?!"

The made her feel, 'abnormal'. Cheap.

LD had nobody available to actually take in the repair, and she was told she would have to come back later, but $200 to $300 was the estimate--depending on what it actually needed.

Oh well, it's done, and 20 minutes, and $20, is no hardship.

 

[sswilson]

I had never even opened a laptop. Do my own desktop builds, but had a legacy reluctance regarding laptops. Nothing like greedy merchants, and cocky clerks, to motivate this of. I was warned, by peers, that, 'Laptops are different (than desktops), and you should really take them to a legit shop.' Like you've noted, times have changed. Easy peasy.


Oh well, it's done, and 20 minutes, and $20, is no hardship.

Not only are modern laptops relatively easy to work on, most of the manufacturers are now making PDF versions of their maintenance manuals available to the public, and third party videos with step-by-step directions on the most common repairs are plentiful.

Now.... that said... there are only so many easily replaceable parts in a laptop body so in most cases (beyond cleaning / fan replacement / TIM replacement) it's simply not cost effective to start replacing mainboards and/or integrated graphics. OTOH, trackpads, screens, and keyboards might be cost effective to replace depending on the age of the laptop.

$300 just to look at it suggests they really didn't want to look at it, especially considering you can pick up a pretty decent entry level laptop these days for $400.

 

[Blind Dog]

$300 just to look at it suggests they really didn't want to look at it, especially considering you can pick up a pretty decent entry level laptop these days for $400.

They're right across from the university, and have kids lined up. Either way, they're raking it in. I guess mom & dad, have money to burn.

Not to crap on kids -- things were simpler for me.



And things lasted longer than four years.

 

[Lysrin]

They're right across from the university, and have kids lined up. Either way, they're raking it in. I guess mom & dad, have money to burn.

Not to crap on kids -- things were simpler for me.

View attachment 41395

And things lasted longer than four years.

Sure but the Internet on that Etch A Sketch is painfully slow...

 

[Marzipan]

we charge $150 plus parts for a job like this...if you bring us the parts, we'll just charge the service though. replacing a blower isn't really that hard to do, so if you're savvy, would also be a good time to replace the thermal paste too

 

[Izerous]

MemEx is ~$140 for initial service fee IIRC.