Troubleshoot and repair your laptop

More and more of us are turning to laptops as a convenient way of working. They’re more powerful than the desktop systems of just a few years ago, and allow you to work wherever you want.

But while most PCW readers wouldn’t think twice about opening up a desktop PC when something goes wrong, to many of us a laptop may as well be a sealed box. Densely packed with components, and often with no obvious way to access parts, it’s no surprise that the first reaction to a laptop problem is often to call in the specialists.

You don’t have to do that, though. The most common problems you’ll come across with laptops – ­ and even some that might at first seem like they can only be fixed by a factory repair job – ­ can be undertaken by most users. The trick is in knowing where to start and how to find simple solutions.

Over the next few pages, we’ll explain how to tackle common laptop problems, so you can be up and running again with minimum hassle. We’ve also included tips to help prevent problems and keep your laptop working for as long as possible.

So, before you despair and send it back to the manufacturer, take a look to see if we’ve got the solution to your portable problems.

Disk essentials
One of the most feared hardware problems, especially on a laptop, is hard disk failure. And often the first you’ll know is when you see an error message along the lines of ‘Disk boot failure. Insert system disk and press Enter’. When this happens, there’s a good chance your hard disk has died. When did you last make a backup? Have you ever made one?

Don’t panic, though –­ the first thing to do is enter the laptop’s Bios. Is the drive still recognised? If it is, Windows could simply be suffering from a corrupted boot-loader –­ the solution to that is below. If the Bios shows no disk, however, it’s quite likely that the circuit board has failed.

At this point, many people would give up, handing the laptop to a repair outfit, but the circuit board can almost certainly be replaced with one from a donor disk, giving you renewed access to your data. Detaching it from the disk’s casing is merely a matter of undoing a few screws. There might also be a thin ribbon cable, but this simply unplugs ­ – just be gentle with it.