Break the news to me gently - laptop DNR?

[ColonelBrandon]

My Sony Vaio laptop power jack is loose and no longer charges unless I hold the lead in at a precise angle. My PC guy won't touch it as it requires soldering it to the motherboard and the risk of it going wrong is too high. Phoned an online company and they said to send it to them and repair about £150-£175

The cover to the DVD drive also falls off.

Laptop 2-3 yrs old. Cost £430 new.

Have reserved a Acer from Comet for £350 that got heat on hotdealsuk
No idea if it's any good and it might not be as pretty as my Vaio but the reviews say it almost bounces!

I'd have to say it's probably not worth £150-£175 to fix since that's probably the entire value of the laptop (probably)

What I'd be tempted to do is sell the Vaio on eBay as there's probably loads of people out there who'd be able to do their own soldering to fix it so would bid on it.

Never even thought of that! Might be a be a bit worried about properly wiping the computer clean before passing it on though. But thank you NiceGuy2, it's what I needed to know re repair vs replacement.

I already have Microsoft Office 2007 on disc with a product key, can I use it for more than one machine or have to buy another? And do all new laptops come with Windows as standard?

If you've purchased Microsoft Office 2007 then just remove it from the old PC before you sell it. Then you should be covered for installing it on a new PC.

There are programs out there which can help you wipe the PC. The thing to bear in mind is what information are you worried about? For me, if someone really wants to go to all the time/trouble to recover my family photos then go for it.

But if it's more sensitive then you can use a program like DiskWipe to do it. Just bear in mind it takes a long time and obviously by definition all your data will be wiped. So triple check you've got all your data before you go.

Good luck.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated

This is a common fault on many laptops and it's mainly caused by users using their laptops on the bed and the power connector becoming jammed/tense causing strain and wear.