Repair mainboard or buy new laptop

Sphericalcow

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Hi,

I bought a Lennovo Ideapad 500S almost 2 years back. It just suddenly stopped working, I brought it for a repair in Challenger and they said the motherboard is fried and repair cost would be $600. Is this even a normal price? Should I try SLS for repair to see if I can get a better price?

Anyway, assuming the cost is really around $600, can I get a laptop with better specs for $600? I tried looking for laptops around that price online but I don't know much about comparing specs. I just wanna get a laptop with similar performance, it's enough to do most of my day to day job.

Here is my laptop specs for your information
Processor: Intel Core i7-6500U (Intel Core i7)
Graphics adapter: NVIDIA GeForce 940M - 2048 MB, Core: 1072 MHz, Memory: 2000 MHz, DDR3.
Memory: 8192 MB DDR3L-1600 MHz
Mainboard: Intel Skylake-U Premium PCH
 

ZrE0_Cha0s

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600 nowadays also wont get such specs. and is your laptop warranty over ?

and if u know to to fix can follow what obichacha have said.
 

Ark Law

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Get a used Thinkpad T series or X200 series

For $600 brand new you're looking at craptops, not laptops
 

dryteletubby

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Do you mean these?
Lenovo ThinkPad X240- excellent for S$350 https://sg.carousell.com/p/168583778

The x240 has the wannabe apple trackpad that is a pain to use. You can replace it with the trackpad from the x250 series. And as usual for used laptops the battery status is a gamble you may need to factor in the cost for a new battery. The x240 and x250 onwards come with 15w tdp processor which is slower than the older x230. Also they only come with a 720p the screen that is below average quality.
 

obichacha

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Agree with you, should top up a bit for X250.

Lenovo Thinkpad x250 for S$799 https://sg.carousell.com/p/162062916

The x240 has the wannabe apple trackpad that is a pain to use. You can replace it with the trackpad from the x250 series. And as usual for used laptops the battery status is a gamble you may need to factor in the cost for a new battery. The x240 and x250 onwards come with 15w tdp processor which is slower than the older x230. Also they only come with a 720p the screen that is below average quality.
 

86technie

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Cheapest i saw was Levono Ideapad I5 with MX150 at $999.
If not second hand.
 

Ark Law

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Do you mean these?
Lenovo ThinkPad X240- excellent for S$350 https://sg.carousell.com/p/168583778

The x240 has the wannabe apple trackpad that is a pain to use. You can replace it with the trackpad from the x250 series. And as usual for used laptops the battery status is a gamble you may need to factor in the cost for a new battery. The x240 and x250 onwards come with 15w tdp processor which is slower than the older x230. Also they only come with a 720p the screen that is below average quality.

The 4th gen is sh*t for the rubbish all-in-one clickpad. X250 may be out of reach for TS. The 2nd & 3rd gen is a better buy at $200-$400. $200 leftover can optionally spend on RAM, SSD, new battery, etc.

Plenty of quality HP Elitebooks and Dell Latitudes at those prices as well. HP makes some decent stuff on their enterprise series, but they are more finicky to service than Dells and Thinkpads. I bought a mint X230 for $300 (4GB RAM, 128GB SSD). Add a new (original) battery for $80 and I've got a laptop that's as powerful as a 7th gen ultrabook and lasts 6 hours.

https://sg.carousell.com/p/dell-e6320-look-fresh-condition-go-cheap-price-today-165502897/
https://sg.carousell.com/p/lenovo-slim-t420s-core-i7-2620m-4gb-ram-128gb-ssd-168553958/
https://sg.carousell.com/p/core-i5-gen3-laptop-lenovo-x230-discounted-units-166496000

It's just once you've laid hands on these well built laptops, it's hard to go back and buy another Ideapad/Pavilion/Inspiron

 

it_geek

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get a new one.


Getting an Ideapad was a mistake. Learn from it.
 
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cscs3

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The x240 has the wannabe apple trackpad that is a pain to use. You can replace it with the trackpad from the x250 series. And as usual for used laptops the battery status is a gamble you may need to factor in the cost for a new battery. The x240 and x250 onwards come with 15w tdp processor which is slower than the older x230. Also they only come with a 720p the screen that is below average quality.

You are right, x240 or T440 trackpad is a pain to use.
Also, the original spec is i7 CPU. Hard to get a hardware to match this spec at $600.

You should try other repair shop (not sure what is your original problem). Challenger is a bad place to start with for repair job.
 

Ark Law

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Also, the original spec is i7 CPU. Hard to get a hardware to match this spec at $600.

You should try other repair shop (not sure what is your original problem). Challenger is a bad place to start with for repair job.

i7 or i5 doesn't matter much for laptops. Anyway, worth a shot for TS to try and see if Nigel could fix it. I'm sure his fees are much more reasonable than carrot places like Challenger/Laptop Hospital.

https://www.facebook.com/Pccareandsolution/
 

pcdreams_hr

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i7 or i5 doesn't matter much for laptops. Anyway, worth a shot for TS to try and see if Nigel could fix it. I'm sure his fees are much more reasonable than carrot places like Challenger/Laptop Hospital.

https://www.facebook.com/Pccareandsolution/

You can try Digital Hospital...
Quite some of their services are FOC in the first place.

https://www.facebook.com/digitalhospital.sg/
They are doing a promotion on motherboard repairs.
Apple motherboards @ $222
Windows motherboards @$122 with 7% discount. :)
 
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