Laptop woes. Suggestions?
Posted by chicken n peas on 2010-03-31 17:12:25, Wednesday|
I have a fairly high end laptop made by Fujitsu. It's the first laptop I've ever owned. I've had it for about 5 years, and the graphics started to go, with little single pixel vetical lines in red, blue and green. Eventually the problems increased when I downloaded some sort of fixes from the manufacturer that I probably didn't need. These executables were then making the screen freeze and resetting the graphics card, so that the screen went black for a few seconds, followed by a popup that my graphics card was reset. It happens even with an external monitor. Quite a mess. Now I lose the screen altogether at startup, and can only start in safe mode if I want to see anything. Good enough to transfer my files to another drive while I still can, suppose I should be glad for that. After telling a friend I wanted to replace the graphics card, he was a little amused, telling me that laptops often notoriously only last a few years, and that the graphics cards are often part of the motherboard, meaning you have to switch out the entire motherboard (replacement for my motherboard is $1000 when the computer itself cost around $1750 new in 2005). I really wish I had known this! Anyway, I am told some laptops are more parts friendly, that they allow you to replace things individually. Is this true? Also, which ones are not made to crap out on you after a few years? Do they all do this? As much as I hated Fujitsu customer service, I really loved my Lifebook. I feel cheated for spending so much on a computer made to have such a short lifespan. Currently I am forced to use my crappy no-name backup computer. I don't think I can even afford another laptop, but if I could, are there specific brands that you can replace individual parts for less than the value of the entire laptop? Or... is it possible my old one can be salvaged? Is it possible to find another like mine really cheap and use it for parts? Can a motherboard be replaced by an idiot like me? Hmm... Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks. |
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