It has been proven again and again, enabling a mobile workforce can be a boom to the success of all types of businesses. Business owners see increased productivity, efficiency, and employee satisfaction (and thus higher retention). All of these add up to cost savings. However, the lifeblood of a mobile workforce is the laptop and the key function of them is that they can go anywhere. This opens them up to a world of potential damage. But, why are they so much more costly to repair?
From one of our previous blog posts, here are 5 reasons it costs more to repair a laptop:
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- The use of proprietary components: In order to keep things light and small, many manufacturers have to make custom components that are only standardized for their particular product. So, when one laptop is replaced with a new model, it can be nearly impossible to find replacement parts. There are some manufacturers that do not even have replacement parts for their own laptops so it’s up to the laptop repair technician to figure out an alternative repair method or simply declare it unrepairable. Either way it’s expensive!
- More integrated circuits: Integrated circuits (ICs) happen to be the leading reason why the size of consumer electronics is shrinking almost every day. However, the biggest drawback of ICs is the fact that they do not have screws or hinges that can be lifted in order to open them up and replace faulty parts. When an IC blows, it needs to be replaced but finding a replacement is not easy. 80% of the ICs used in laptops today cannot be purchased by a regular repair center and those that can, are very expensive. This adds additional overhead to any repair job. Some smart laptop repair engineers will improvise but often times these choices will mean that the laptop does not last very long. The alternative will be to send the laptop back to the manufacturer for repairs if it’s still under warranty.
- The latest components are not designed to be repaired: The innovations in technology are happening at such a rapid pace, it’s often not in the manufacturer’s best interest to allow repairs. If your machine fails after three years, there is likely a smarter, faster, lighter-weight model to replace it with, instead of repairing the outmoded tech. Also, in order to protect proprietary technology, manufactures may limit the access you can have to it. It makes the repair process both difficult and expensive from a consumer’s stand point.
- The price of connecting wires and boards have risen steadily: Things like the keyboard connector, the screen connection cable etc., seem to all vary from one manufacturer to the next. There are some that only use a specific type of connector which is not interchangeable with those of other laptops. So, when these wires fail, an otherwise cheap fix of simply replacing a wire by a technician can often become expensive owing to the rising cost of these wires. Since the screen’s cable is the most commonly failing item in 90% of laptops, the price of this repair varies widely but happens to be the most expensive for laptops with high resolution displays.
- Fault detection takes hours: While components were larger in the past, they made detection of failure points easier. Today, according to experts, shrinking components have made it increasingly difficult to find failure points. Laptop repairs that once took an hour or two now can end up taking the whole day. Also, literally hundreds of screws, adhesive and tape used in laptops makes the process even more cumbersome and so these are repairs that can only be handled by experts.
With the high-cost of laptop repair, is it really worth shifting your team to a mobile environment. ABSOLUTELY! At this point in the game, not offering mobility is going to cost you the most in loss of talent. The engineers at Great Lakes Computer are experts in computer, printer, server, and point-of-sale repair and maintenance. We offer several levels of service as well, from hourly to contract maintenance. Contact us today to get your computer problems fixed and your laptop back on its feet.
