How to repair laptop. Short guide

To start with, a laptop computer is very much similar to a desktop computer. In fact, you can even use all your PC diagnostic tools for your laptop.

Before plunging headlong into discussing how to repair your laptop, let us see what the common laptop faults are. There are actually quite a number of them, and they can occur in any part of the laptop—its memory, its hard disk, its motherboard, its screen, its DVD drive or any other part associated with it can develop faults even as it is being used. However, for every part that can have a problem, there are several diagnostic tools available. Replacements are also possible for most parts.

Let us begin talking first about the laptop memory. This is technically known as RAM (Random Access Memory). This memory is actually made up of electronic components, and so it is quite possible that it can develop faults.

The common problems associated with a faulty memory is that the laptop may freeze occasionally, or it may not boot, or it may show the Blue Screen of Death and simply crash! One symptom of faulty memory is when you are pressing the power button and the system seems to start but no picture appears on the screen. In such cases, everything else would be fine—your DVD drive and hard disk would appear to work without a problem.

So, if such problems arise with your memory, you could use some laptop memory RAM tools. A very popular tool is the Memtest. Memtest is a software application that is supposed to be burned on a CD and make it a bootable tool. We describe here how Memtest is to be used. You could download your copy of Memtest here.

Faults with the hard disk are the second most common laptop faults. A common symptom of a faulty hard disk is that the operating system appears to do what it really shouldn’t. It may fail to start programs, or may fail to start various services, or may not boot at all. One symptom here is when your laptop freezes but the mouse seems to be functioning well.

There is a good diagnostic and repair tool for laptop hard disk file system. It is included in UBCD called SPFDISK or Special FDISK. This tool is included in UBCD by default.

Another tool available for hard disk testing is HDTune. This is available in UBCD4WIN. You can download UBCD4WIN here. How to guide is here. The only difficulty with this is that it needs to be compiled. It is also like the Windows interface which recognizes USB devices. (Do not confuse this with UBCD.) It needs to be first compiled and then it also needs a copy of Windows XP. You have to first start the compiler, then it will make an .iso file which you will later burn on a CD.

The third most common laptop fault is a malfunctioning DVD drive. As laptop DVD drives are very small, usually it is a compromise between size and drive stability. The most common symptoms of a faulty DVD drive are that the DVD drive reads very slow DVDs and CDs. Sometimes, it cannot even read them properly and stops entirely, displaying a message onscreen that some file cannot be read. It may also happen that during the Windows installation, the DVD drive doesn’t read properly and stops the installation process.

Just to clarify, there is no universal guide on how to replace a DVD drive for all laptops. You will need to go to the Internet and find a disassembly guide for your specific laptop model.

If you don’t see any software fault in your laptop, you can use system restore points and just set the system to some restore point and see if that works. There is a very common problem with the wireless card from Intel. The simplest fix for that is to go to the Intel website and download the latest drivers and software from there.

If Windows in the laptop appear completely broken and the hardware checks don’t show any faults in the hardware, then the best option for you is to reinstall Windows. This will be good in two ways. First, your system will become completely clean and fresh. Secondly, there will be free space available again as the Windows operating system tends to use more space when it is in operation.

Laptop screen faults also occur when the screen begins to flicker or sometimes doesn’t turn on at all. This problem could be because of the cable connecting your screen with the laptop motherboard. To be sure that this is the cable, just connect an external monitor to the laptop and see if it behaves the same way as your laptop screen does. In this case you will have to most probably replace the cable.