I don't like laptops because of their limitations for upgrades and the difficulty to find compatible spare parts, but the worst thing is when you suffer a mishap that affects the structure, as in this case.
At home we have a modest 2017 Lenovo that cost 299 euros. One day it fell apart after a fall in which it didn't even reach the floor. It hit the edge of a table and this was enough to unhinge the hinges, which were already very hard due to a lack of grease and had ended up damaging the anchor threads and also breaking the screen cover.
When it was opened there was an infernal noise of plastic and metal rubbing against each other. The creaking sounds warned that at any moment the whole thing was going to disintegrate.
I opened it to try to loosen the hinges and move, remove, replace or straighten anything that was rubbing. I soon discovered that fixing it was beyond my competence. That's when I remembered a Youtube channel I subscribe to and have linked to here.
This is Goroware. The channel of a repair shop where they also test various gadgets and do interesting disk tests. That's where I saw a complete handmade repair of a laptop from the same series, but much more battered.
I searched until I found their shop, which happens to be in my province, and phoned to find out if they could repair it.
When a service is good, you have to say so. And the service provided by Antonio from Goroware is great. After sending the photos of the fault by WhatsApp and receiving the initial quote, the laptop was sent by courier. Being relatively close, it only cost 5 euros one way and another 5 euros back.
The follow-up is more than correct. Even with videos of the first assessment on the photos, the diagnosis of the device on the operating table and then showing the result once repaired.
The price seems fair considering that it is a fine work of craftsmanship and professional restoration. It is so well done that it comes with a lifetime warranty, provided the same breakdown is not caused by being run over by a truck. If it breaks down from natural wear and tear by the same rebuilt parts, it is guaranteed to be repaired free of charge.
In just eight days it was back in perfect working condition.
One potato
You can't ask much of this Lenovo. It gives what it gives. As it is often said in order not to confess that it is a potato: "it is suitable for office tasks".
This model, now discontinued and unsupported, had an insufficient 4GB of DDR4 RAM at 2133 MHz. The graphics card, an AMD Radeon R5, is no rocket ship either. The processor is an AMD A9-9420 clocked at up to 3 GHz, and it's quickly apparent that the whole package falls short for moderately demanding tasks. Nor is it compatible with Windows 11.
The cutback in component quality in order to adjust the price is immediately noticeable. The battery life was less than four years.
From day one the CPU consumption is excessive even at idle and the fan is blowing as soon as you open the browser and cycles through other tasks. It doesn't matter if you keep it clean, change the thermal paste on the processor and update BIO and drivers. The fan keeps jumping and the noise becomes annoying. Even if you restore everything to factory settings, it is still loud.
Even if the temperature is not high and you are working with light things, the fan whirring is unavoidable, so I deduce that this is its natural behaviour.
This is somewhat improved, but not entirely solved, by increasing the RAM from 4GB to 8GB.
In some forums and in the upgrade configurator on Crucial's website it is claimed that you can fit up to 16GB. Don't get carried away by any recommendation. It will work, it will work, but always limited to 2133 MHz and the manufacturer already warns that the maximum is 8GB.
If you have one of these, don't go for higher speed or better brand RAM because it's not worth the extra cost. You will be throwing your money away. The RAM will automatically and inevitably adjust itself to what is set by the BIOS, which is also capped. There is absolutely no possibility to adjust anything about the RAM.
Moreover, the specifications make this very clear:
"System clocks down for processors with lower memory controller".
I found one of those refurbished 8Gb modules very cheap, which I paid for with Bing points.
The bottom line is that, for a seven-year-old laptop that cost 299 euros, I have spent 80 to try to stretch it another seven years.
