Should I repair my 2.5 year old gaming laptop?

[nofxthepirate]

I have an Asus G750JH-DB71 that I bought in January of 2014 for $2250. In spring of 2016 I spilled soda on it (first time in my life, having used laptops regularly for over 10 years). Long story short, I had to replace the palmrest for about 250 dollars. Since then it has been having problems staying connected when plugged in. This happened for several months but it always kept a charge. When it would cut out the battery would be there to keep it running. But 2 days ago it stopped charging completely.

 

The local computer repair place who replaced the palmrest has told me they are as sure as they can be that replacing the motherboard will fix the problem but it will cost about $450. As far as I can find, a reasonably similar current model (the Asus GL752VW-DH74) is about $1200. Although I'm not really sure if these 2 laptops are actually equivalent since comparing GPUs across generations can get a little complicated. I just tried to find one with a SSD boot drive and a 4GB video card. I am planning on building my own desktop rig in the spring and I would rather not buy a new gaming laptop in the meantime. Although I would still like to have a working laptop so that I can still game when not at my desk.

 

So basically should I put $450 into my $2250 laptop that I have already put $250 into so that it will hopefully last another couple of years. Or should I cut my losses and just buy a new one?

[79wjd]

Whether it's worth it or not is something you'd have to decide, but spending $1200 to buy a lesser gaming laptop to replace yours doesn't make sense to me. I'd say either fix yours or get a non-gaming laptop that you will continue to use after you build your desktop.

 

P.s. 960m is about 30% slower than a 780m (roughly).

P.p.s. will this repair place charge you even if it doesn't work? 

[Squish4058]

14 minutes ago, nofxthepirate said:

I have an Asus G750JH-DB71 that I bought in January of 2014 for $2250. In spring of 2016 I spilled soda on it (first time in my life, having used laptops regularly for over 10 years). Long story short, I had to replace the palmrest for about 250 dollars. Since then it has been having problems staying connected when plugged in. This happened for several months but it always kept a charge. When it would cut out the battery would be there to keep it running. But 2 days ago it stopped charging completely.

 

The local computer repair place who replaced the palmrest has told me they are as sure as they can be that replacing the motherboard will fix the problem but it will cost about $450. As far as I can find, a reasonably similar current model (the Asus GL752VW-DH74) is about $1200. Although I'm not really sure if these 2 laptops are actually equivalent since comparing GPUs across generations can get a little complicated. I just tried to find one with a SSD boot drive and a 4GB video card. I am planning on building my own desktop rig in the spring and I would rather not buy a new gaming laptop in the meantime. Although I would still like to have a working laptop so that I can still game when not at my desk.

 

So basically should I put $450 into my $2250 laptop that I have already put $250 into so that it will hopefully last another couple of years. Or should I cut my losses and just buy a new one?

I got the power jack replaced on my laptop for £50, if its not charging its likely that. 

 

You could always put a bid for it on ebay with not working as the condition and see how much it gets?

[nofxthepirate]

 @djdwosk97 Thanks for the clarification on the GPUs. The repair shop said they include a 6 month warranty on the motherboard replacement, so I am safe at least till I build my rig if I do that. I am planning on buying some kind of laptop for college soon as well, regardless of getting this one repaired, so I guess I could just buy that earlier and use it in the meantime. Although I wasn't planning on buying one with a dedicated GPU so I wouldn't be able to play games on it very well. My main concern is that this laptop will continue being a money pit.

 

@kris2340k Thanks for the suggestion, however this was actually the first thing I tried. I bought a replacement power adapter from Asus and then returned it when it didn't fix the problem. I had the repair shop look at the motherboard when they replaced my palmrest and they said there was water damage on the motherboard and that it would probably stop charging eventually. If I decide not to repair it then I will probably try to sell it.

[Imglidinhere]

The 780M is considerably more powerful than a 960M. Trust me, I know this. My main machine is a laptop with a 960M and they aren't worth $1200 right now.

 

If you wanted to get a machine that would worth your time, then go for a Clevo-based laptop with a 1060, like this: http://www.hidevolution.com/evoc-p650rp6-15-6-custom-built-gaming-laptop-w-nvidia-gtx-1060-w-g-sync.html

[nofxthepirate]

@Imglidinhere It was less about me finding a literal replacement for my current one and more about finding something I felt had similar power and features in order to make a value comparison(which I apparently didn't find anyway, lol). If I buy another laptop it will most likely not be a gaming laptop, even if that means I can only do light gaming until spring.

[Imglidinhere]

@nofxthepirate http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015PYYDMQ?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 This is the price of a 960M laptop for comparison.

 

However if you can spend $450 and get that Asus up and running, I'd do it, sure!  The 780M is still considerably faster than a 960M dreams of being.

[nofxthepirate]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I've decided to go ahead and get it repaired, hopefully it will last a while without any more problems.

[79wjd]

18 hours ago, nofxthepirate said:

Thanks for the advice everyone, I've decided to go ahead and get it repaired, hopefully it will last a while without any more problems.

I can't imagine what else would need to be replaced after they replace the mobo.....and I certainly can't imagine anything being expensive. So you should be good. (You might also just want to try and fix it yourself if you can find a replacement board.....depending on costs).

[nofxthepirate]

@djdwosk97 I investigated repairing it myself but I couldn't find a mobo for any less than the repair shop anyway, and labor was only 35 dollars. I have never actually worked on computer hardware outside replacing RAM or hard drives in my laptops, so repairing a laptop as my first real repair job didn't seem like a very good idea to me. People have told me for years that laptops are much harder to work on than desktops. I can't comment on how true that is but I didn't want to take the risk of getting in over my head. Maybe in the future after I've built my own rig and have some hands on experience I might be willing to try my hand at laptop repair.

[79wjd]

31 minutes ago, nofxthepirate said:

@djdwosk97 I investigated repairing it myself but I couldn't find a mobo for any less than the repair shop anyway, and labor was only 35 dollars. I have never actually worked on computer hardware outside replacing RAM or hard drives in my laptops, so repairing a laptop as my first real repair job didn't seem like a very good idea to me. People have told me for years that laptops are much harder to work on than desktops. I can't comment on how true that is but I didn't want to take the risk of getting in over my head. Maybe in the future after I've built my own rig and have some hands on experience I might be willing to try my hand at laptop repair.

For $30 I'd also pay for someone else to do it (and warranty it). It would have to be a pretty significant saving for me to do it myself. 

[samwitwicky4599]

Man get a new laptop if you have to get one anyway the pascal based laptops are much faster than 1 or 2 generations old the gtx 1060 laptop variant doubles the performence of the 780m

[nofxthepirate]

@samwitwicky4599 I never intended on buying another gaming laptop. I'm switching to a desktop as my daily driver soon enough and the kind of laptop I want is something thin and light so I can carry it around to take notes in classes. I don't expect to be able to game on it. A 1060 laptop is still 1500 dollars or more, I plan on using that money for my desktop rig.

[samwitwicky4599]

57 minutes ago, nofxthepirate said:

@samwitwicky4599 I never intended on buying another gaming laptop. I'm switching to a desktop as my daily driver soon enough and the kind of laptop I want is something thin and light so I can carry it around to take notes in classes. I don't expect to be able to game on it. A 1060 laptop is still 1500 dollars or more, I plan on using that money for my desktop rig.

Wise Choice mate but 450 dollars for a motherboard is bad i usually get alienware motherboards for 200-250$ 

[nofxthepirate]

@samwitwicky4599 It seemed pretty reasonable to me considering the laptop is almost 3 years old and they probably don't make that motherboard anymore since they don't make the G750 series anymore, and it's for a $2500 retail laptop so it was probably already a pretty high end motherboard to begin with. If I could just throw any compatible motherboard in there I would but that's not really how it works for laptops.

[samwitwicky4599]

On 11/8/2016 at 0:30 PM, nofxthepirate said:

@samwitwicky4599 It seemed pretty reasonable to me considering the laptop is almost 3 years old and they probably don't make that motherboard anymore since they don't make the G750 series anymore, and it's for a $2500 retail laptop so it was probably already a pretty high end motherboard to begin with. If I could just throw any compatible motherboard in there I would but that's not really how it works for laptops.

I know mate i could source a motherboard for a dell alienware m15x r4:3 years old and it would be like 170-250 dollars i just spoke out of experience mate

[Donut417]

On 11/5/2016 at 7:14 PM, nofxthepirate said:

I have an Asus G750JH-DB71 that I bought in January of 2014 for $2250. In spring of 2016 I spilled soda on it (first time in my life, having used laptops regularly for over 10 years). Long story short, I had to replace the palmrest for about 250 dollars. Since then it has been having problems staying connected when plugged in. This happened for several months but it always kept a charge. When it would cut out the battery would be there to keep it running. But 2 days ago it stopped charging completely.

 

The local computer repair place who replaced the palmrest has told me they are as sure as they can be that replacing the motherboard will fix the problem but it will cost about $450. As far as I can find, a reasonably similar current model (the Asus GL752VW-DH74) is about $1200. Although I'm not really sure if these 2 laptops are actually equivalent since comparing GPUs across generations can get a little complicated. I just tried to find one with a SSD boot drive and a 4GB video card. I am planning on building my own desktop rig in the spring and I would rather not buy a new gaming laptop in the meantime. Although I would still like to have a working laptop so that I can still game when not at my desk.

 

So basically should I put $450 into my $2250 laptop that I have already put $250 into so that it will hopefully last another couple of years. Or should I cut my losses and just buy a new one?

@djdwosk97 has a great plan . I heavily agree with that assessment. I would just buy a non gaming laptop and just save the extra money and use it on a desktop. I own a gaming laptop and I never use it for gaming. Hell I barley ever use it. Generally only for school. Desktop hardware tends to age better anyway. Im still running an i5 3570K and a HD7950 and it gets the job done for the moment. My hardware is about 3.5 years old and still going strong. A desktop to me is a better investment.