Laptop Maintenance

Laptop maintenance can be a pain. It takes a long time and you have to be very careful with what you are doing so you don't break any components. A laptop is valuable piece of technology that is able to give someone access to multiple different things at once. They are also able to communicate with someone to make it easier and faster. When repairing a laptop, the person must be very careful. If you do not trust yourself or feel you might break anything, and I mean anything, then I suggest calling in or taking your laptop to a specialist. If you feel that you are able to repair it on your own, that is good. It is much cheaper to repair your own than get someone else to. Disclaimer: None of these photos are of my own creation and I am using photos that I found on Google.

To start, there are some things you need to know before you fix a laptop. One, that is different than a desktop. This should be a given, but just to run through some of the difference they are size, time it takes to take apart and put back together, ease of access, and steps to repair a PC. Another thing you need to know to fix a laptop is that it goes through different steps to get to the motherboard. Laptops differ from model to model and make to make so a Asus will not have the same steps as a Lenovo. Also since there are different iterations of a type of computer, this will also make it different. Another difference is that a Desktop has a case where everything sits in while a laptop has to conserve space so everything is together. You are able to see the different parts in a desktop case while in a laptop you have to take it apart step by step to see everything. The timing on a laptop also takes longer than a desktop if the person knows how to fix both and goes at the same rate. So, all in all, a laptop is different when repairing it than a desktop. It may have similar or same parts but it is still different.

The first thing one must look at, is the different parts of a laptop. If you have a desktop, then some of the parts will be different. First, lets start with the monitor. The monitor for a desktop, as you should know, is not connecting to the tower except through cords. For a laptop, it is connected to the base or "tower" through some type of material (usually plastic or metal) and cords. These cords are connected within the base of the laptop so you have to take apart the base to get to them. Another difference, is the the RAM. RAM or Random-Access Memory comes in different forms. The most common one that everyone uses today, unless you have a very old computer, will have DDR. DDR stands for double data rate and the first iteration was DDR SDRAM (the SDRAM stand for synchronous dynamic random access memory). The different iterations that RAM has gone through with DDR are DDR, DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4. Today, they are making DDR5. There are also GDDRs but that is for a different Instructable. Most laptops nowadays use DDR3 and DDR4. DDR3 and 4 look like the ones in the picture. RAM does not need any tools to get out once you get to the RAM.

The motherboard is one of those that also differs between a laptop and a desktop. A motherboard is shaped based on form factor. According to Wikipedia, the form factor is 'the specification of a motherboard – the dimensions, power supply type, location of mounting holes, number of ports on the back panel, etc." (Computer Form Factor). The different form factors for a laptop are not many and can be looked up on one's own time to figure out which form factor is yours.

Most laptops use a wireless connection while desktops used a wired connection. There are always exception to this though. Laptops can use a wired connection with a CAT cable there is probably a Instructable somewhere). The cable is called Ethernet. Almost every laptop has a Ethernet port these days. Ethernet is used to speed up one's connection to router. Wi-Fi does this virtually but since the person is farther away, their speed would be slower. There are many different ratings for Ethernet and CAT cabling is the most used. Desktop uses wired connection more unless they have a wireless card or a Wi-Fi adapter. Laptops either will use their software/hardware to use Wi-Fi or they will connect to a router through Ethernet. A Wi-Fi adapter in Laptops is a lot smaller than one that can be used in desktops.

Common Things in a Laptop That Should be Known Before Repairing a Laptop

CPU - Central Processing Unit - brain of the computer

Motherboard - connects everything together as a circuit board

Ports - connects an outside object to the laptop

Battery - able to hold a charge to keep the laptop running while not plugged in

LCD - the 'monitor' for the laptop

power jack - where power comes into the computer from a cord

Hard Drive - stores data to access later

DVD RW - slot where a DVD or CD can be put into a laptop -common in older laptops and older models

Heatsink- able to cool the CPU down

Fan - spins to create cool air and lets air escape from the heatsink

Keyboard - where typing occurs

Touchpad - where a finger goes to move the curse on screen

Wi-Fi adapter - connects to the router through wireless signaling

GPU - Graphics Processing Unit - able to increase the display and renders much of the display, mostly in newer laptops

wires - able to connect one thing to another

RAM - explained in a previous step

I was able to find a good site that the has a multi-purpose kit. I'll put it at the end of this paragraph. It says that you should have three different kind of screwdriver and bit kits, flashlight, crimping tool, cable tester, toner and tracer kit, multi-purpose knife, spudger tool, needle nose pliers with cutter on them, external hard drive, SATA/IDE Hard Drive adapter, power supply tester, flash drive, My Passport Ultra Portable Hard Drive, Hiren's Boot CD, Ultimate Boot CD for, Techtool Pro DVD, version of Windows, Blank CD/DVD/Dual Layer DVD-R, patch cable, SATA cable, Firewire cables, USB converters, miscellaneous screws, RJ-45 connectors, RJ-45 Female to Female Straight Coupler, thermal paste, Hand Sanitizer (not necessary but would be good to have), notepad, laptop bag, and of course a laptop. It was not said, but a duster too. Now the average person is not going to have all of that, so what the average person should have is a flash drive, some tool kits, DVDs, screws, notepad, laptop bag, laptop, duster, and a flashlight. The site also has a comment section that add some things as well to anyone who is going to visit the site. The site is this:

http://www.thetechmentor.com/posts/build-a-solid-c...

The laptop can fail in many ways. It could have a faulty battery which would cause power issues; it could have very little thermal compound/paste which would cause less performance and could cause the laptop to heat up too quickly and shut down; CPU not seated right -bent pins- which could cause the computer to not work or would cause the computer to boot to only some things; RAM not seated right which can cause many memory issues including Blue Screens of Death and not being able to log in; screws not put in right which could cause many different issues- both hardware and software- to the laptop; LCD monitor not put back into place properly which causes the monitor to experience some weird issues; touchpad/keyboard could not be plugged in properly or part of it damaged which causes it not able to be used or parts of it; Hard Drive not reseated properly which causes hard drive to work properly; corrupted Hard Drive or RAM which causes memory errors; security software incompatibility which would cause inability to use the software; port broken which causes port not to be used; virus/bug/worm/malicious code which could cause multiple software issues; can't connect to Wi-Fi due to drivers which causes no access to the Internet; and incorrect drivers which would cause that certain driver not to function. There are so many other ones, but these are some of the more major ones. Leave a comment down below if there are any other ones that are major that I forgot to mention too.

The first two videos are of me talking about disassembly of my old laptop. It is an Asus N71J laptop from 2010. I got it recently and that was my second disassembly. The other videos are of ones that cover the different parts of a laptop including CPU, thermal compound, RAM, and Hard Drive. If I am forgetting anything, comment and I will see if I can get back to it and fix it. These laptops are different than mine so some of the parts are in different places as I expect yours will be. Again, if you don't trust yourself; are a little more of a forceful person; or don't know how to, even after this; then I suggest that you take it in or you get someone to come and fix it. These videos don't cover software, but that can be looked up as well. There are also repair manuals to help you fix your laptop. Just search up the make and model of your laptop and put repair manual in the search and you should be able to find one. For this Asus N71J it is this: http://www.lpmanual.com/manuals/asus/ASUS_N71Jq.pd... just as an example.

http://www.freepik.com/free-icon/wrench-and-screwd...

http://www.techspot.com/news/58832-tech-primer-ddr...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_form_factor

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&so...

Videos shown on the previous step are embedded.