Which parts of my laptop can be salvaged?

Cephas

Posts: 116   +0
So I have a broken Dell Studio 1747 laptop with a fried graphics card (or at least I think that's a problem) and to my understanding it would be cheaper to get a new laptop than to repair it.

What I'm wondering is, is there any parts that I can somehow take out and put into a new lappy to save money before I throw the husk away eg. the hard drive or the blu-ray drive?

Cheers!
 
Unfortunately not much. I'd keep the hard drive and perhaps pick up a USB dock for it, but you have to spend money on the dock then... I used to buy external drives, but now I've got a couple docks and they come in handy quite often but my situation may be different than yours. I wouldn't bother with keeping the bluray drive unless your new laptop doesn't have one AND the drive is replaceable. However, you could probably make a few bucks by selling it.
 
I see, fair enough. Thanks :)

Actually, do you happen to know if there's anywhere on the forums (or elsewhere) I could appraise what my broken laptop is worth?
 
Best bet for that is ebay.. There may be a few people here that could provide an educated guess, however I'm not one of them.
 
A laptop with a shot graphics chip is worth very little to anybody who knows about laptops but you may well find a buyer on eBay. Sometimes a few months extra wear can be gained by removing the motherboard and heating up the graphics chip to reflow the solder but it is only a short term fix. Have you tried connecting the laptop to an external monitor to be sure that it's not a screen fault? Someone might be interested in a bluray upgrade.
 
I have tried that, but unfortunately doing anything strenuous either causes a freeze or a blue screen, if it ever starts up at all. I'm 90% sure it's the graphics card sadly :(
 
It's worth downloading HWMonitor (free) to read your cpu and gpu temperatures and to see whether the laptop is overheating.
 
I used speedfan when the problems started occurring and the temps all seemed within normal levels, so long as I was using my external laptop cooler (which I always used).
 
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