This laptop has a power problem. The battery stops charging when I move the power cord on the DC adapter. When I start moving the cord left to right, the power LED light on the front goes on and off and the battery charge LED goes on and off too. I removed the battery and [...]

In this post I’ll explain how to troubleshoot a dead laptop and find the problem. The following troubleshooting tips are not model and brand specific, they should work for most laptops. Let’s take a look at two different scenarios. Example 1. The laptop is absolutely dead. When you plug in the power adapter and press on [...]

What can you do if the laptop LCD screen turned completely white? From my experience I can tell that this problem may be related to the following: 1. Loose connection between the video cable and the LCD screen. 2. Defective LCD screen. 3. Defective motherboard (I assume the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard). Here’s an example of [...]

This tutorial explains how you can install internal wireless card into an older laptop. I assume that your laptop is “wireless ready” witch means it has a slot for the wireless card and equipped with wireless antennas, but missing the wireless card. Why did I make this tutorial for an older laptop? Because all new [...]

Is it possible to fix laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick? Yes, it is. You will not fix the memory slot itself, but you can work around the problem. Today I received a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 laptop with the following complaint: The laptop starts and works properly, but recognizes only one of the [...]

Today I found a great source with service manuals for Sony Vaio VGN series laptops and notebooks. Links to the service manuals were posted on one of the Russian forums (comment 13). Not sure for how long these service manuals will be available for downloads but they are the time of wringing this post. Some [...]

In this guide I will disassemble a laptop LCD screen in order to remove and replace the backlight lamp (CCFL). Replacing the backlight lamp is not an easy task even for experienced technicians. If you do something wrong you will permanently damage the LCD screen and have to buy a new one. Proceed on your own [...]

This guide will explain how to repair a failed or loose DC power jack on a laptop computer yourself. Here’s my previous post related to DC power jack related issues. Disclaimer: I’ve made these instructions only for people experienced with soldering and repairing computers. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this job, please do not open [...]

This laptop came for repair because of the LCD screen backlight failure. My customer complained that the laptop LCD screen is black but the laptop works with an external monitor. Here are my steps for troubleshooting this laptop with the backlight failure. First of all, I tested this laptop with an external monitor connected to the VGA [...]

These instructions will help you to remove and replace keyboards on various laptops. I will not be able to cover all models but you’ll get the idea. Steps for removing and replacing the keyboard are similar for most laptops. Warning! - if your laptop is still covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, do not open the case [...]