A laptop can be repaired far more often than people think. Most of the faults that make a machine seem lost come down to a single part.
Every week people come to us convinced they have to buy a new computer, when replacing one component would do. Conversely, some faults genuinely are not worth repairing. Our job is to tell you honestly which side you are on, before you commit to anything.
The same symptom can come from several parts, some of which cost ten times more than others. A black screen, for instance: it could be the panel, its ribbon cable, the backlight, the graphics chip, or simply a display setting. Testing with an external monitor settles it in thirty seconds, and saves ordering a panel you do not need.
That is why we never give a price over the phone on this kind of fault. The diagnosis is free, the quote comes before any work, and you are free to say no.
A broken screen, a dead keyboard, a flat battery: none of these faults touches your files. They are on the disk, intact, and recoverable even if the machine will not power on at all. It is the first thing we check and secure, without exception, before any hardware work.
The question deserves an honest answer, and it is not the same for every machine. We apply three criteria.
Cost against value. A widely used rule: if the repair comes to more than a third of the price of an equivalent new machine and the computer is several years old, replacing becomes more sensible. Below that, repairing is the right call, financially and environmentally.
The state of everything else. Replacing a screen on a machine with a dead battery, a worn keyboard and a broken hinge makes no sense: each repair on its own is defensible, the sum of them is not.
The original build quality. A business or high-end laptop ages well, its parts stay available, and it is worth investing in. A seven-year-old entry-level model, much less so. See our article on when to replace your computer.
Two jobs stand out for their result against their price. Moving to an SSD on a laptop still running a mechanical hard drive: a start-up that took two minutes drops to fifteen seconds, and it feels like a new machine. And a full clean-out with new thermal paste on a device over five years old: temperatures fall sharply, the fan quietens down, and the heat-related slowdowns disappear.
Those two jobs extend the life of a laptop by several years for a fraction of the price of a replacement.
It depends mainly on the part. A battery or an SSD are available quickly. A screen panel of an unusual resolution, a keyboard from an uncommon model or a part for an older machine take longer. We give you that timescale along with the quote, before you decide.
In the meantime, bear in mind that a laptop with a broken screen is perfectly usable plugged into an external monitor with a keyboard and mouse. Many of our customers carry on that way without interruption.
Best said plainly. A laptop motherboard with a soldered, failing graphics chip calls for specialist microsoldering, rarely worthwhile on a consumer machine. A case deformed after a heavy fall, with mounting points torn out, cannot be straightened for good. And a very old model whose parts are no longer made cannot be repaired at a reasonable price, even when the fault is simple.
In those cases we tell you at the diagnosis stage rather than starting work that will get nowhere. And we recover your data, which is what matters most.
Software repairs and simple replacements are done at your place. Anything requiring the machine to be opened - panel, keyboard, charging connector, internal cleaning - is handled in the workshop, in Lyon.
We work on Windows laptops, all makes. For Macs and MacBooks, our specialist site apple-lyon.com takes over with the right skills and the right parts.
Often yes, but the job is heavier than it looks: the hinge frequently tears its mounting points out of the case. The diagnosis will say whether the repair will last.
It depends entirely on the panel: resolution, technology, whether it is a touchscreen, how it is mounted. That is why we draw up a quote after identifying the exact model, never over the phone.
Yes, in the vast majority of cases. The disk is connected to another machine and your files transfer in full, even if the computer itself is beyond repair.
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