Notebook PC Manufacturer Who Will Sell Parts? 129
gp310ad asks: "Fujitsu refused to sell me a basic part for my P2120 notebook PC. The part is the small daughter board which bridges the external charger to the internal circuitry. It is approximately two square cm with two connectors mounted. There are no passive or active electronic components on the board. I was told that I would have to complete Fujitsu technical training before I would be allowed to purchase this or any other part that requires removing more than two screws. According to Fujitsu, the hard drive (three screws) is 'not a user replaceable part'. Which brings me to my question — I am in the market for a new notebook PC and would like to know which manufacturers are 'end user friendly' when it comes to out of warranty repair parts. The model and features will be determined by what is available within my budget. However, I do not want to be stuck with an out of warranty machine from a manufacturer who will not sell parts."
Dell (Score:5, Informative)
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Again, if that's not trusting, then I don't know what is.
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(I kid!)
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Re:Dell (Score:5, Funny)
*duck*
(get you're mouse off of that "troll" option, it was a joke!)
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Are you sure it isn't outsourced to africa (tunisia, morocco, senegal), like it is for european french-speaking market ?
I started working with a woman from India (Score:2, Offtopic)
It's not always funny.
Re:Dell (Score:5, Informative)
Despite all the bad things people say about dell, my next laptop will most certainly be dell. The D/dock I purchased for the D800 will even work for a new D820 or D620. That's $150 I don't need to spend.
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I'm interested in that. I have an integrated card, and I was told the only way I could step up was with a new motherboard. What did you upgrade from/to?
I may have to pop mine open to see if I wasn't being fed marketing bull.
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Styling seems to be very in for laptops these days. However, I think the current trend of 17" WXGA screens is absurd. My processor is slow by today's rather excessive standards (P4-1.8
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I have an E1705 now (I love the new 17" WUXGA screens), but I still use my I8200 quite a bit too. My first E1705 was a dud (as were many of the early Core Duo systems from any manufacturer, and I suspect I had a dud CPU from the symptoms), but the replacement is rock solid and as mentioned, by old I8200 still serves me well too. I do need to order a new fan assembly for it though... The fans
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The 24-inch I-mac uses one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MXM [wikipedia.org]
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ [mxm-upgrade.com]
http://www.nvidia.com/page/mxm.html [nvidia.com]
Re:Dell (Score:5, Interesting)
From the innovative company that uses laptop parts in their desktops and non upgradeable parts in their laptops.
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What's wrong with that? You end up with a very quiet desktop with low energy consumption. Since the box is bigger, you actually have a lot of leeway as far as heat sink designs, so the desktop can be made to run cool as well.
-b.
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Pay more for a slower cpu then with a desktop
Video cards with less power then a desktop
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http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-8500-8600-D800-G eForce-4200-Video-Card_W0QQitemZ110063239885QQihZ0 01QQcategoryZ74957QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZVie wItem [ebay.com]
I can upgrade to the one linked above (64mb) , or to the quadro that come in the M series (M70, I think).
It's a bit of work, but a very nice option.
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If you need notebook parts go aftermarket [notebookpartszone.com].
GOOD ANSWER. Mod parent up. (Score:2)
Realize that the people at Fujitsu are dedicated professionals -- dedicated to work-avoidance -- and because they work for the company they are at the top of the work-avoidance hierarchy.
The work avoidance plan that is typical in situations like this is that the main company licenses a limited number of other companies, and it is those companies that might stoop so low as to actually serve the customer. The trick is to find one of those other companies that will sell for a r
Also... How to make yourself REALLY miserable. (Score:2)
My experience with Dell is that there is a social breakdown happening there. It's not nearly as bad as the one the U.S. government caused in Iraq, but it is bad enough that you might want to save yourself from grief.
There are sometimes weird phenomena where two negatives cancel, leaving a positive. Sometimes companies become so crazy that employees decide to treat the customer right ju
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What is happening is that some consumer vendors seem to be discouraging repair and pushing for you to replace the whole unit with a newer one, and more profit for them. So, before you buy anything, verify vendor support
I second that... (Score:2)
Unlike HP, who wanted $800 for a motherboard for a unit they were selling for ~$900.
Hint to HP: I threw away your computer and bought a Dell. I hate being gouged...almost as much as I hate computers that melt their motherboards because of poor design. You may think of me as a consumer, but I do have a pain threshold, and you do have competition.
IBM/Lenovo thinkpads... (Score:4, Interesting)
Toshiba (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Toshiba - I SECOND (Score:2)
The first was the fan, and I was very impressed with the way Toshiba handled it. They didn't fuss or anything, they just asked which part I needed, said how much it cost, and asked if I wanted it shipped or if I wanted to pick it up at a distribution center. That one took I believe 8 screws to replace (4 on the fan and 4 to get the cover off).
The battery was a no-brainer of course, hardly worth mentioni
Re:Toshiba - Carried (Score:2)
I've never had a bit of trouble from them.
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In the school I work at, everyone has 3 year-old Satellite A10s, and the minimum wait time through Toshiba is 4 weeks.
Naturally, we bought two floating spares, then swap them out whenever a warranty is required.
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IBM/Lenovo (Score:5, Informative)
The Thinkpad division apparently takes serviceability VERY seriously. They sell every single sub-assembly down to individual types of screws. I personally have ordered several tiny parts to replace in my Thinkpads.
I'm not sure what the contact points are for IBM Parts now that it's Lenovo. Previously you could call a number and order nearly anything that had an FRU number.
Re:IBM/Lenovo (Score:4, Informative)
Re:IBM/Lenovo: Confirmed: Lenovo sells IBM parts (Score:1, Informative)
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On the other hand, you can get most of the parts, and the batteries are still in supply in the retail chain; I just ordered one from Newegg. IBM was absolutely stellar in terms of support; Lenovo seems to be not quite as good. Much much better tha
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Damn. You should have called me. My employer just tossed a ton of 704's that we were using in production as recently as six months ago. F50's, too.
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Some columnist had an IBM PC with a mouse and his kids removed the ball and lost it outside. Apparently, the whole mouse cost something like $100 and, not surprisingly, he didn't want to pay that much, when he just needed a new ball. He went through an enormous amount of trouble to buy one, but IBM couldn't sell it to him, because they didn't have a part number for just the ball
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Surely a biological supply company specialising in dissection specimens could sell you one. Though you might get further asking for a 'teste'...
-b.
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Fujitsu not so great (Score:3)
Years ago, we always had problems with Fujitsu/Siemens stuff. We had staff who bought their own notebooks, and then they were horrified at the replacement costs for parts, like an external floppy.
I've not had experience with HP for parts, but I know that I've had an easy time with Dell. I was able to order a replacement keyboard for my laptop, with minimal hassle (and that was in Switzerland, replacing a US keyboard with a Finnish one). Other places I've worked, we had it pretty easy getting replacement motherboards and so on.
Apple (Score:4, Interesting)
I've bought Apple parts (Score:2)
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You can by parts for damned near any laptop from chopshops, via ebay or their websites.
That's not what the questioner was asking about, though. He wanted to know which manufacturers sold parts directly to the public.
100% WRONG (Score:2)
Believe it or not, alot of the parts in a mac laptop can be bought from dealers and people who fix them. Most want to install them but alot of repair sites will sell the parts to you direct.
I can't let this slip. You're completely WRONG. You're talking about places like PBfixit, and sure, you can get parts there if you feel like paying +400% markups for USED parts (because they buy old Powerbooks and such, and rip them apart. NONE of their parts are new, because NOBODY CAN GET APPLE PARTS. This is pr
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You know what helps when making blanket statements? Solid research. Because otherwise there is a solid chance you will be wrong and end up sounding like an idiot. Such as in this case.
With the exception of the casing, ALL parts are sold elsewhere; the manufacturers of the parts do NOT have exclusive agreements with Apple (including the manufacturer of that scroll wheelie). They can sell to whoever they want and those resellers can sell the pasrts to you.
Unfortunately, like
IBM/Lenovo (Score:4, Informative)
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Graphics Cards (Score:2)
Can you buy laptop graphics cards?
If so, where?
I'd think that being able to upgrade the video card would be a nice selling point, but AFAIK, nobody sells just the 'mobile' video card.
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I guess I could see maybe removing the CD/DVD drive and replacing it with some sort of swappable video card, but then how do you load the game?
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But not today.
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HP works. (Score:2, Informative)
HP (Score:1)
A ThinkPad.. (Score:2)
IBM / Lenovo (Score:5, Informative)
IBM / Lenovo provides detailed disassembly guides which are easy to find on the web. They detail (with pictures/illustrations) how to strip any of their laptops down to bare plastic.
I also like how they label the screws on the bottom so you immediately know which to remove first. For instance, 3 screws have a little pic of a keyboard next to them. Remove these and the keyboard comes out. Also each screw hole in the bottom has a '1' '2' or '3' next to it. A sticker on the bottom has full-size images of each screw with a '1' '2' or '3', so you can immediately find what length screw belongs in each hole. If you have ever had a pile of screws you need to put back in your laptop this feature should be immediately attractive.
This is my 3rd Thinkpad and I have torn all 3 apart multiple times. I have also torn apart Toshiba, Dell, HP and find the Thinkpads to have been the cleanest looking inside and easiest to work on. Also, if you get a chance, pull the HD out of a Thinkpad and notice how thin, light, and well-designed the carrier sleeve is that holds the drive and protects (insulates) the exposed PC board which is attached to the bottom of the actual drive. Clean and precise! The whole inside of Thinkpads are clean like that.
No doubt I like working on Thinkpads the best, and have probably fixed (torn apart with the hope of figuring out what is wrong) > 50 laptops over the last 10 years.
Btw I don't work for IBM/Lenovo nor even in the computer/electronics industry.
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I haven't had to call Dell in quite a while, as I'm now Dell
Re:IBM / Lenovo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:IBM / Lenovo: lilo/grub advice on official site (Score:1, Informative)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/documen t.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-50366 [ibm.com]
Regardless of the utility of this specific information, I'd like to see more ~mainstream hardware companies standing behind Linux like this. In the meantime, I'll be ordering up a Thinkpad X60s tonight
The Laptop Guy (Score:2)
This may be offtopic (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:This may be offtopic...Use Thermal paste (Score:2)
Works exactly as he says, in my experience. (Score:2)
--
George W. Bush comedy and tragedy [futurepower.org]
Asus (Score:2, Informative)
Illegal? (Score:2, Interesting)
They'd just sell the parts at a ridiculous price, of course.
Sony (Score:1)
http://servicesales.sel.sony.com/web/index.jsp [sony.com]
http://www.impactcomputers.com/ [impactcomputers.com]
Many of the mechanical parts have broken over time. I had to replace the touchpad, keyboard. and screen hinges. You also shouldn't judge the quality of the laptop by the parts that broke on me. I was not delicate with this laptop, and this all happened after 6-7 years of use
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No third party repair shops? (Score:2)
Avoid Acer (Score:3, Informative)
*gag*
Same with the other hardware on their machines, but most of that can be found on the chipset mfgr's sites with enough work.
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I still won't buy Acer ever again, of course, when people like Dell make better machines with better support (friend of mine has an XPS. Big and ugly but otherwise amazing)... but having a workaround for the driver issue is nice.
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It's not that they change the GPUs (what, you think Acer et al have the ability to re-design and re-fab ATI/nVidia's chips?), but that the drivers just don't have the right enumerations for the laptop hardware. In most cases, this is a simple fix with a tool
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HP/Compaq - no problems getting parts (Score:1)
Hey Fujitsu, I will never buy a laptop from you based on this!
Try non-mainstream whitebooks (Score:1, Interesting)
Consider looking at non-mainstream, customizable notebooks, known as whitebooks. These notebooks are often made by the same manufacturers as those of Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and other brand names. There are only a handful of ODMs (original design manufacturers), the companies that actually make the notebooks, in the world, the two largest being Quanta and Compal; ASUS lags behind them but is making its way up to the top three.
With whitebooks, you will never get a laptop cheaper than through, say, D
I hate to say it, but when it comes to parts... (Score:3, Informative)
My dad broke the USB jack on his old Thinkpad, and I recently tore it down to the bare motherboard. The construction was nowhere near as elegant as the Toughbook (like 5 different types/lengths of screws, as opposed to 2), but the whole teardown process is documented in drooling-idiot detail in a PDF on IBM's site. Of course, when I got inside, I found that the USB jack does not in fact match any of the ones I can get from Digi-Key, so it was all pointless anyway. I got to marvel at some absurd IBM engineering though, like the rotary heatpipe fitting to send CPU heat up behind the screen. A cast metal chassis would be so much simpler...
Dell and Lenovo (Score:3, Informative)
Which are bad? (Score:1)
Don't ask Fujitsu. Ask repair shop. (Score:2)
Do you also commonly contact manufacturers to actually buy your laptops? Most manufacturers are not direct seller (dell is an exception). Manufacturers sell to distributors (and in case of parts, to certified repair centers), and that's where you have to ask for your parts.
Ask a certified, independent Fujitsu repair center - they most l
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In europe, as far as I know, all the Fujitsu repair centers I know can resell parts freely. Fujitsu themselves only sell to repair centers.
Parts (Score:1)
Building a Laptop From Scratch (Score:2)
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Apple, of course!! (Score:2)
Replacement parts for laptops (Score:2)
Do-it-yourself Laptop Repair Guides (Score:2)