Several Things You Must Consider Before Repairing Your Laptop in Service Center (Especially in Indonesia)

For those who doesn’t want to read my story just skip this part :D

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Several days ago I found this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/business/global/out-of-the-country-and-feeling-out-of-touch.html?_r=0 in my Facebook’s news feed. Out of curiosity I read that article and laughed so hard because I’m experiencing quite the same thing with just different ending.

So in about 3 weeks ago, my laptop suddenly can’t be charged. It wasn’t a surprise, because just several days before the incident my laptop power jack seems quite loose, indicated by the cable of the charger that must be shaken before the laptop charged. Because my laptop is very important to me (I spent most of my time with my laptop :D), and I needed to buy several computer peripherals, I quickly go to ‘Mangga Dua’ (Two Mangoes if translated to English XD), an area in Jakarta famous for its electronics store availability.

When arrived there, I bought some computer peripheral I needed, done in less than 1 hour. Then I searched for a service center to fix my laptop power jack and found one in the corner of the building. I explained my problem and after checked on my computer the person there said “Your computer has a problem with the IC, we can replace the IC for about 400k IDR, but there is a risk of permanent death if the IC doesn’t match your laptop”. I laughed in my mind, because that person analysis surely insane. The cable of the charger that must be shaken before the laptop charged is irrefutable evidence to solely blame the power jack. So I refused his offer softly by saying “Ok I will ask my family first”.

So I searched for another service center, and found it just in a short time. This time the person there seemed to know what to do and said “If that’s the problem, we can fix it for you, for 150k IDR”. I accepted his offer, and this is where the story was similar to the article I mentioned above. Let me quote one paragraph from that article:

Instead of using that magic electronic tester that I saw computer repair people use at my shop back home, this young man began tapping on my computer’s plastic shell with his fingers. It reminded me of how I used to check the backs of my older patients for pneumonia. He then put his ear down on the computer’s surface, which made my blood pressure rise even more. I could not figure out what this young man was doing since he was doing absolutely nothing high tech. It was really more like he was performing a deep Balinese massage on my computer. I nearly lost my mind when he started to take it apart. Screws were all over the place, and he was jiggling wires and jamming connections together. I thought everything on my computer was lost.

In my case, he was doing absolutely nothing high tech too, just soldering here and there for about 4 hours. Screws were all over the place too, and, like the quoted story, I thought everything on my computer was lost. In 4 hours, the repairman said “It’s fixed”. In my mind I said “Yeah, everything went better than expected”. So where’s the different ending I mentioned in the first place?

Here’s the different ending, when I tried to turn on my laptop, the ASUS logo didn’t come up, and I realized there’s something terribly wrong. I stated, with quite angry tone, that my computer worked like a charm exactly before he soldering here and there. But stupidly, I can’t prove that, because I didn’t turn on my computer before I gave my laptop. So, I gave him about 2 more hours to fix what he has done. In those 2 hours, I’ve gone through 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. So in the end, I just thought that “Okay, shit happens, the worst output in this case is I will spend about 2 million IDR for changing my mainboard” (my laptop warranty has ended), while looking at these bunch of helpless people soldering my mainboard again and again. After 2 hours have passed, he said that he still can’t fix it, and I already expected that. I gave 150k IDR and said in my mind “just take this money and die with it” XD. But he refused the money, and said “I just take 50k for the checkup payment” (maybe he felt quite guilty). Okay, whatever you say, I give the 50k and quickly removed myself from that cursed place.

Yes, the different ending is, everything on my computer WAS ACTUALLY LOST. Okay that’s exaggerating, only the motherboard was lost :D. Several days later, I brought my laptop to the ASUS Service Center, and just yesterday, finally I got my laptop in my hand again, after paying quite a lot of money of course.

When I tell the story to some of my friends (before I brought my laptop to ASUS Service Center), one of my friends also experienced similar things. He tried to fix his broken laptop in BEC (Bandung Electronic Center) and after leaving his laptop for about a week, the service center said “Sorry this laptop cannot be fixed”. After that, he went to laptop store to sell his broken laptop, and the person there said “Your laptop has been soldered insanely, sorry, it’s not worth much”.

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So, here’s the things you must consider before repairing your laptop…

Firstly, there are two types of service center, authorized and unauthorized. Here’s the difference I got based on my experience and surfing through the internet…

Authorized service center tends to slow in processing your laptop. It’s because the authorized service center must execute certain process like making records, sending to the technician, confirming to customers, ordering parts, and not to mention they have a lot of customers waiting for them. Authorized service center also tends to be pricier than unauthorized service center, because what they do is usually replaced parts, not repairing them (I’ve found a case when an authorized service center replacing entire motherboard because the audio jack is loose). With that being said, you can never go wrong when placing your laptop in authorized service center. When your laptop comes out, surely it will work like a charm (maybe in rare case it isn’t, because as clever as the squirrel hops, it will, one day, eat dirt).

On the other hand, unauthorized service center usually much faster in processing your laptop rather than authorized service center. But, you can GO TERRIBLY WRONG when placing your laptop in the unauthorized service center. You don’t know whether they switch/take your laptop components or not (I even lost some screw after ‘repairing’ back then…). You also don’t know whether they use new parts to fix your laptop or not. Everything is unsure and unsafe. So, you must really careful in choosing an unauthorized service center. An unauthorized service center recommendation from friends is one thing you need to avoid bad possibilities I mentioned before.

Based on those differences, I recommend you to go to Authorized service center if:

1.       Your laptop still has warranty. Self-explanatory here…

2.       Your laptop got some serious damages, like crushed by a tank (lol)

And I recommend you to go to Unauthorized service center (recommended unauthorized service center of course, not just random one) if:

1.       Your laptop got some minor problem

Here are some tips when you go repairing your laptop (especially in the unauthorized service center):

1.       Define your INITIAL and FINAL STATE

You can’t just tell your problem and give your laptop to them. IT’S TOO RISKY! State what your laptop can do, what your laptop has, what your laptop don’t, state everything you know, and of course, prove them. Lastly, state what you want for the result of the service.

2.       Ask for a guarantee

You must ask for guarantee in case they can’t fulfill your FINAL STATE. Of course you don’t want to pay someone to break your laptop.

3.       Watch the repairing process

This is a prevention measure to keep all your components safe from thievery.

Oh yeah, one more tip from me, before you decide to service your laptop, search in Google about your laptop problem. Sometimes some laptop problem has a very easy solution, like unplug and plug the RAM. Of course that can solve you a lot of efforts.

And for the last words, maybe everything written here is valid in Indonesia only. I don’t know the situation out there. I just know that in this country, there are some people who opened a service center based on his little knowledge of computer and his possession of solder and a screwdriver. Thank you FLASH COMPUTER (in ‘Mangga Dua’ 2^nd Floor) or sort of like that, the service center who gives me very valuable lesson that I will never forget for the rest of my life :D.