I took my Dell Latitude 7290 to a repair shop because it was acting up. They told me I'd have to replace the motherboard just to fix the cable that connects the internal circuits to the screen. I'm skeptical about this and wonder if they were just trying to upsell me on a new laptop instead of fixing it. Is it really true that a motherboard replacement is necessary for this issue?
4 Answers
From what I can see, what you’re experiencing is likely a GPU memory error, not just a bad connection. Fixing that would typically mean swapping out the motherboard, but honestly, depending on your laptop's age and specs, buying a new one could be a more cost-effective solution overall!
Usually, you shouldn't need to replace the motherboard just to fix the display connection. If the laptop has other damage, they might have been trying to explain that rather than the cable issue needing a full motherboard replacement. It's often the case that you can fix screen issues without going to that extreme. So if your device is failing in other ways, it might be worth considering a new one instead of dumping a lot of money into repairs.
What was going on with your laptop that led you to the repair shop? Was the screen working fine with an external monitor? If it was just screen flickering when you moved it, that might be related to a graphics memory issue rather than the connector.
If the connector that links the screen is broken and they aren’t sure how to fix the board properly, I can see why they would suggest a motherboard replacement. But generally, that seems excessive unless there are deeper issues.
Yeah, it does sound sketchy. They probably saw additional problems and decided to go for the bigger fix rather than just the minor one.