Laptop Repair---need a geek with parts.

Planned obsolescence. It seems to have been a business model for 30 yrs. But I always do my best to NOT oblige them. Had my desktop for 6yrs., cleaned and upgraded it myself. Learned how to defrag and compress and all that stuff. Then along comes Windows XP and it really ticked me off. Lots of data on the hard drive could no longer be accessed and dealt with unless you took a cert class from Microsoft. T'd me off big time.

Yeah, I love that it's next to impossible to upgrade a laptop. So we end up spending money we don't have because they intended to keep us out of the underside of these machines.

Oh, yeah, the fan location is my favorite part. The word "LAPTOP" is a misnomer...either the fan or vents are right on my lap. I used to get red spots really bad through my clothes when I had the Sony Vaio...burned my skin. I bought the tools to take my HP apart. The warranty is long gone; I got it in 2010. I've had a Dell Latitude since 2008...flimsy, and things break when I get into it...hinges, keyboard.

Thermal shutdown is a real money maker for after market parts and repair. My first laptop I paid over $2000 for it. I haven't spent more than $300 since and I always buy refurbished.

Asus ROG? Can you send me a link so I can check 'em out? I want to get out of the truck in a couple months, so I have to watch my money, but I'd like to see what non-traditional brands have to offer. I know I already don't like the new HP's and Dell's, with their Cloud storage and no DVD. And I'm really not interested in Windows 8 touchscreen and learning curve. I'm resistant to change if you haven't noticed.

Thanks for your post.

 

I snorted when I saw the first 2 words, lol.
Okay, don't swap the hard drives.
I told Pattyj I can't afford to replace the software I've installed and my startup disks and security codes are in a storage unit = not accessible.
So--I need my present hard drive data, and I need a laptop that isn't fried.
What do you suggest?

 

I have an HP G42 Pavillion I bought in 2010 refurbished. There are about 200 screws and I have to disconnect wiring and remove the heatsink to get to the fan and the CPU. I then ran into the need for thermopaste, so that's where my expertise stopped. Plus I knew I'd never get the heatsink back where it belongs, so I just screwed it all back together and came on here to find out where to take it.
I've got a # for a guy when I get to Ontario next wk.

My files are backed up onto the D drive, but if your saying that Windows will make junk out of putting my C drive in another system...well, I'm screwed. Unless, I could get rid of Windows and install Linux, but then I think my data wouldn't be readable. I'm not enough of a geek to run that risk.

I've got a 2 gig thumbdrive, but I haven't had good luck with using that to transfer data to another laptop. Too many things come out jumbled.

Sounds like one more laptop repair and you'll be able to store the Library of Congress on your tower. lol

 

Foot prints?? Copy write protection?? It's my word docs, my excel spreadsheets, my photos, software I've bought and paid for. GGrrr!! I love XP but not as much as I loved Windows 95.
XP was their biggest selling OS ever and I couldn't understand why they would kill it off. It's been a good 10 yr run. I skipped Vista, HP had 7 on it and I adjusted. Don't wanna learn 8, so they can fahgeddaboudit.

I knew they must have an ulterior motive for killing XP.

 

Gosh, when I had my desktop, I could switch all that stuff out and upgrade, and never ran into driver conflicts. So now the average joe (or jane in my case), can't alter their own laptop.
You have saved me a lot of $$ and aggravation. Thanks.

 

Okay, so do I have to find a guy that knows a guy who for a lot of coin will take me to another guy who will sell me a license and do I have to mortgage my first-born? lol

 

I appreciate the inside scoop on Win8 & 9. So should I wait till this fall to spend money on a new system? I've lost track of who's who on here, but somebody told me to google to see what I may have fried (if anything) on my HP. I'm going to go do that now. Gotta spend money to fix it somehow next wk.(if fixing is at all possible).