Laptop Repair Quote High?

Evenstevens

I've been advised that my laptop has failed a hardware diagnostics test and I need to have a new hard drive installed. I've been quoted 160 euro and just wondering would that be about average for that kind of thing. It's nearly half what I paid for the feckin thing in the first place.

Any advice welcome

Thanks

irishgeo

Evenstevens wrote: »

I've been advised that my laptop has failed a hardware diagnostics test and I need to have a new hard drive installed. I've been quoted 160 euro and just wondering would that be about average for that kind of thing. It's nearly half what I paid for the feckin thing in the first place.

Any advice welcome

Thanks

i hope that includes the hard drive.

Plopli

A new laptop HDD would start at ~40€ but can go up to close to 200€ depending on size.

Physical install is probably a 5 min job but then you have the crap software install that can take multiple hours depending on what you want (update, backup and restore and so on).

160€ sounds a bit dear to me but not by much if they do the whole shebang of backup/reinstall/restore.

If it only the HW swap with a small HDD, it's definitely expensive.

Could you share more info (machine, HD size and such) ?

The Glass Key

Sounds about right tbh, I wouldn't pay it, the HDD is going to be costing €60 euro and any fool can put the operating system back on. In my book and I'm far to cheap €120 would be as much as I'd charge. If its doesn't include VAT then its just a rip off.

You can't even say its an hour or two hour job because any well organised repair shop will be looking at a line of computers at the same time so while they are waiting for your drive to format or for files to copy over they can be working on another machine.

White Heart Loon

Sounds about right, 60 for the drive, 100 for the backup/rescue, reinstall and restore

yawhat!

Very expensive, they will probably stick a 250GB HD in it and just reinstall windows and drivers onto it. An hour job max. Any friends that are anyway decent with computers would be able to do it for you.

I hate how PC Repair places rip off people.

Evenstevens

Thanks for the feedback. 160 includes everything. The computer is in the shop at the moment and I can't remember the exact specifications but it's a Lenovo basic laptop. Windows 7. No bells or whistles really.

The Glass Key

One shop I know would change €100 another I know would want at least €200 and then hit you with VAT. It is worth shopping around.

White Heart Loon

23% of that 160 is Vat

coylemj

If the HDD is knackered then I assume that the OP is going to get nothing more than a factory restore to a new HDD and all his data will be lost.

If the old HDD can be read then for €160 I'd be expecting it to be replaced with a new SSD plus data migration.

Duggy747

yawhat! wrote: »

Very expensive, they will probably stick a 250GB HD in it and just reinstall windows and drivers onto it. An hour job max. Any friends that are anyway decent with computers would be able to do it for you.

I hate how PC Repair places rip off people.

If a complete wipe and setup is done in an hour max then something was skipped / it's a rush job which for when someone is paying over €100 they want a job done right, not corners to be cut. Working in an organisation you could have a machine up in running in no time if you used an image since so many similar models are used in a company.

Updates alone can take an hour plus depending on hardware and some laptop models like the Dell Inspiron N series have the drive inside the case so you have to strip most of the laptop to get it out from underneath the motherboard, that adds a bit of time to the job.

The amount of times I've had people come into me with their machines resetup from another repair shop with things missing like the OS not activated, screws not put back or drivers not installed for their touchpads, FN keys on keyboards and special buttons, wireless switches, memory card readers, the "Unknown device" the techie wasn't arsed solving. Basically an in / out job done with minimal effort and care with the gall to charge the customer top dollar hoping they'd be too computer illiterate to notice.

€160 is a bit steep but the price always depends on the size / type of drive and if there's any recovery off the old drive involved, depending on what's wrong with the old drive time and work can vary on retrieving data off it. If you want to try and lower the price then ask about a lower size drive like a 320GB if it's a 500GB being put in, for example.

If it was a case of you just paying for a new HDD + setup then that would be a rip-off for sure.

CreepingDeath

yawhat! wrote: »

Very expensive, they will probably stick a 250GB HD in it and just reinstall windows and drivers onto it. An hour job max. Any friends that are anyway decent with computers would be able to do it for you.

I hate how PC Repair places rip off people.

That completely depends on lots of factors.

I'm the "I.T. guy" for my family and my girlfriends family.
I wouldn't just install the factory install and leave it like that.

Someone decent should install ALL Windows Update since that factory install too, that takes a lot of time.

And the factory image is generally on the same hard disk, so it the hard disk goes then so does the factory image.
This happened to a laptop I had to fix for a family member.
It took me hours to install Windows, install all the Windows updates for the last few years, find all the hardware drivers specific to that machine,
install a free virus scanner and put the latest Adobe flash player on there. It takes a while.

unkel

Well said, Duggy747.

coylemj wrote: »

If the HDD is knackered then I assume that the OP is going to get nothing more than a factory restore

How would you do a factory restore if the HDD is knackered?

Anyway, a fresh clean install of windows is much better than a factory restore, albeit a lot more work...

paulheu

Not really sure anyone saying €160 for replacing the HDD is a rip off has any idea about running a business. The idea of upgrading to a SSD for that much money is even more clueless.

This is a Lenovo laptop running WIN7 so I would guess it is at least a 250GB drive which would sell for around 50 retail. Doing the diagnostics and actual replacement will be another 1.5-2 hours. Add to that a re-install and €160 incl VAT would not be the cheapest but certainly not a rip off. You can't compare this to a DIY job which,while fairly easy, would not be for everyone.

I'd be more interested to know how the diagnosis was made that he drive needs replacing. What was the reason the laptop was brought in to begin with?

paulheu

CreepingDeath wrote: »

This happened to a laptop I had to fix for a family member.
It took me hours to install Windows, install all the Windows updates for the last few years, find all the hardware drivers specific to that machine,
install a free virus scanner and put the latest Adobe flash player on there. It takes a while.

On windows 7 at most two hours, Windows 8 even less.

XP would take a century though..;)

Skerries

tbh I would pay him to date for work carried out and buy a drive online and get one of us to do it if you re uncomfortable with doing it yourself