Repair guides · page 2 of 4
Repair guides
Everything we know about diagnosing a laptop before you pay anyone to open it.
8 guides on this page
Older guides from the bench
Laptop won't turn on: a diagnostic sequence you can run yourself
Nine checks, in order, before anyone quotes you a motherboard.
Read the guide →Laptop overheating: why your machine got slow, and the cheapest fix in repair
Dust, dried compound, hardened pads, worn fan bearings. Sixty degrees of difference.
Read the guide →Laptop blue screen: reading the stop code before you reinstall anything
BSODs are diagnostic output, not a verdict. Most name the culprit.
Read the guide →Laptop water damage: what to do in the first ten minutes
Liquid doesn't kill laptops by shorting them. It kills them by corroding them, slowly.
Read the guide →Laptop keyboard not working: causes, tests and what each one costs
Dead keys, repeating keys, dead rows — three different faults with three different prices.
Read the guide →Signs your laptop battery needs replacing (and one that means stop now)
Cycle count, capacity, and a trackpad that has stopped clicking.
Read the guide →Laptop SSD upgrade guide: the cheapest way to make an old laptop feel new
NVMe vs SATA, the M.2 slot trap, and cloning without losing anything.
Read the guide →Laptop RAM upgrade guide: when it helps, and when it is soldered shut
8GB to 16GB ends the swapping. On half of modern ultrabooks, you cannot.
Read the guide →Get a firm price before we touch a screw
Diagnostics first, quote second, repair third — and you decide between each one.