Algeria AgencyIT consulting & support
Repair: the decision is about days, not dinars
The one-third rule settles the easy half. The real question is how many days the machine will be gone, and what the person does meanwhile.
The article on the support family gives the arithmetic rule: if the part costs more than a third of a replacement, replace. It is correct and it settles the easy half of the question.
The other half is not about money. A repair keeps a machine away for a number of days nobody writes into the quotation, and during those days somebody is not working, or working badly, or borrowing a colleague’s machine.
That duration is what decides, and it changes the arithmetic completely: a three-thousand-dinar repair taking three weeks costs more than an immediate replacement, and the gap appears on no invoice.
This article handles that duration, what to do with the disk before entrusting a machine to anybody, and the rule that makes everything else bearable: the loan machine is this page’s real deliverable.
Repair is a decision about days
Put the question differently and it settles itself: for how many days will this machine be gone, and what does the person who used it do meanwhile?
The answer is rarely asked for because it is not in the quotation. A repair quotation carries an amount and a list of parts; it almost never carries a return date, and when it does that date is optimistic by construction.
The honest calculation adds three things: the price of the repair, the number of days multiplied by what that person’s unavailability costs, and the risk of the fault returning because the cause went untreated.
Done that way, the result often reverses. A cheap repair with a three-week wait loses to an immediate replacement; an expensive repair done in two days beats one. Price alone says nothing about the right choice.
The practical consequence is a requirement that is easy to state: ask for the return date at the same time as the amount, and ask what happens if it is not met. Two questions, and they reorganise the conversation.
The disk leaves with the machine
A machine leaving your premises takes everything on it. That is not a suspicious hypothesis, it is a description: the physical disk goes to a third party, into a workshop, where other people work.
So the first act of a repair is not technical, it is documentary: decide what becomes of the data. Three options, in order of preference. Take the disk out and keep it, which is possible on most desktops and on many laptops.
Second option, when the disk cannot come out: make sure of a recent and verified copy before it goes, because a repair sometimes ends with a replaced and empty disk, and that is entirely in line with the warranty contract.
Third option, and it is far too little used: disk encryption, enabled before any incident. An encrypted disk going out for repair says nothing to anybody, which settles the question at source rather than case by case.
Finally, write down what is leaving, on a paper signed by both sides: the machine, its serial number, its accessories, and whether the disk stayed or went. That paper is useless in ninety-five per cent of cases and settles the remaining five.
The loan machine is the real deliverable
As long as a repair immobilises a person, its length is not negotiable: it is an outage. As soon as a loan machine exists, the same repair becomes a logistics operation with no urgency, and the balance of power changes completely.
That is the main argument for a homogeneous estate, developed on the page about buying: one spare machine, prepared with the standard system image, covers the whole estate if every machine is identical.
A useful loan assumes three things prepared in advance. The machine switched on and up to date, not sitting in a cupboard for eight months. The data reachable from the share rather than from the desktop. And a one-page procedure so the person finds their way in ten minutes.
The third is the one that gets forgotten, and it decides the real effect: a loan machine on which the person finds neither their files, nor their mail, nor their shortcuts does not replace theirs — it turns a total stop into three weeks of slow work.
The cost of all that is one machine permanently tied up, which is real. Compare it with the cost of a three-week outage a year, and accept that the answer depends on your size: below five machines, mutual help does; above that, the loan machine pays for itself.
What repairs, and what no longer does
Not all faults are equal before repair, and knowing the two categories avoids paying for a diagnosis to learn something known in advance.
Repairs well, almost always: a power supply, a fan, a disk, a memory module, a charger, a laptop power connector, a hinge. Those are separate, standardised parts, and the work is mechanical.
Repairs badly or not at all: a mainboard on a recent laptop, a screen bonded to its touch glass, soldered memory. That is not the repairer’s unwillingness: those are design choices that make the part inseparable from the whole.
Between the two sits the commonest and worst-explained case: the intermittent fault. A machine that sometimes shuts down, sometimes restarts, sometimes overheats. It is repairable, but the diagnosis takes time and the outcome is never guaranteed — and that has to be said before starting rather than after.
The question to put to a repairer before leaving the machine fits in a sentence: have you already done this exact repair on this exact model? A negative answer is not disqualifying, but it changes the stated duration and it should change the price.
The diagnosis, and how it should be billed
A serious diagnosis takes time and it is normal for it to be paid for. The problem is not that it is billed, it is how it is usually conditioned.
The honest structure sits in two rules. The diagnosis is chargeable, at an amount stated before it starts. And it is deducted from the repair if you accept it, but its refund is not conditional on that acceptance — otherwise the repairer is paid to persuade you rather than to inform you.
The difference shows plainly in the document you receive. An honest diagnosis says what is faulty, what is not faulty, what the repair costs, what doing nothing costs, and what they would advise in your position. A commercial diagnosis contains only the third line.
There is one case where the diagnosis should be free and it is worth knowing: when the fault is obvious and known to the repairer within three minutes. Billing an hour of analysis for a dead power supply is not billing a diagnosis, it is billing a consultation.
The useful check, valid for any repairer: ask what they advise you not to repair. A workshop answering that everything repairs has just told you that it does not diagnose, it writes quotations.
The four faults that account for nearly everything
Across the small-business estates we see, four faults account for the bulk of the volume. Knowing them allows parts to be prepared in advance, which the family article recommends and almost nobody does.
The power supply is the first on desktops. It often dies abruptly, it is standardised, it costs little, and it is replaced in twenty minutes. A spare power supply on a shelf simply removes that fault from the outage table.
The disk is the second and it is the only one that threatens data rather than service. It usually announces itself — sudden slowness, noises, read errors — and the article on preventive maintenance explains how to read those signs weeks ahead.
The laptop power connector is the third, and it is mechanical: the cable gets pulled, the socket gets forced, the internal joint eventually gives. It repairs well, it immobilises, and it is partly prevented by a simple loop of cable.
The fourth is overheating through clogging, particularly in dusty premises. It never presents as a fault: it presents as a machine that has become slow, noisy, and sometimes shuts down. An annual clean makes it disappear and costs the price of a blower.
A battery is a consumable
A battery that no longer holds is not a fault, it is a normal end of life. The confusion costs money in both directions: machines replaced too early, and swollen batteries kept too long.
A battery loses capacity with every charge cycle, and a three-year-old machine that used to last seven hours lasting three is behaving exactly as expected. That is not a defect and it does not repair: it gets replaced, for a sum unrelated to that of a new machine.
There is one case that is not a consumable and demands immediate action: a battery that swells. It deforms the casing, it lifts the trackpad, and it is a physical risk. A machine whose base is bulging stops being used on the day it is noticed.
Two habits extend a battery and neither costs anything: avoid leaving the machine permanently charging at a hundred per cent when it lives on a desk, and avoid letting it heat up in a car or in the sun. Heat is the factor that wears fastest.
The purchasing consequence, which links this page to the previous one: ask whether the battery is replaceable and at what price, before buying. On some models it is glued, which turns a consumable into a workshop repair and changes the cost of ownership over five years.
The broken screen, the worst-made calculation
It is the repair where the one-third rule is applied most mechanically and most often wrongly, because the machine’s remaining useful life does not enter the calculation.
A screen is often the dearest part of a laptop, and on entry-level machines it frequently exceeds a third of the price of a new one. So the rule says replace, and that is sometimes false.
What it does not see: the broken machine may have two years of life left, a recent disk, a new battery, and a business package installed and configured. Replacement starts all of that again, and that work never appears in the comparison.
There is also an intermediate option the market rarely mentions: a laptop with a broken screen that works plugged into an external monitor becomes a perfectly usable desktop. For somebody who does not travel, that is a zero-cost answer.
The rule we apply here, finer than the third: repair the screen if the machine has more than two years of use ahead and the rest is in good condition; otherwise turn it into a desktop with an external screen; only replace if both fail.
Liquid: the right reaction is to do nothing
It is the one section in this pillar where instinct is systematically wrong, where the useful window is measured in minutes, and where nearly everything commonly said is false. It deserves writing precisely.
The correct sequence: unplug, switch off immediately — by holding the button down, not by waiting for a normal shutdown — remove the battery if it comes out, turn the machine keyboard-down, and do not switch it back on. That last instruction is the most important and the most violated.
What makes it worse, in order of frequency: switching it on to check whether it works, which puts current across wet tracks and turns a drying job into a short circuit. Drying with a hot hairdryer, which pushes the liquid further in and deforms components. And waiting instead of acting within the hour.
Rice does nothing. It is a very widespread belief and it has no measurable effect: rice absorbs moisture from the surrounding air, not liquid already inside, and it adds dust. The time spent trying is the only cost, and it is the main cost.
What genuinely matters is the type of liquid and speed. Clear water leaves a serious chance if the machine is opened and cleaned quickly; sweet coffee, juice and fizzy drinks leave a conductive, corrosive residue that keeps attacking the tracks for weeks, even dry. In that case a workshop clean within forty-eight hours is the only real option.
Repairing it yourself: what is reasonable
A share of what gets billed in a workshop can be done in house with no particular skill, and it is honest to say so even though it reduces what we bill.
Reasonable in house: replacing a desktop power supply, adding a memory module, swapping a disk for a solid-state one, cleaning fans and grilles, replacing an external keyboard, changing a cable. Those are screwdriver operations, reversible, with no risk to the rest.
Borderline: replacing a laptop disk, which requires removing a base and knowing which way a ribbon goes. Plenty of people do it correctly; the risk is not the disk, it is the neighbouring connector torn off by forcing.
Not to be done yourself: anything requiring desoldering, anything touching an opened power supply, and any work on a machine still under warranty — opening it often voids the cover, and that is written in terms nobody reads beforehand.
Two precautions make the rest safe: machine unplugged and battery removed before opening, and a photograph of each step before dismantling. The second looks excessive until reassembly, where it is worth half an hour.
What to obtain when the machine comes back
A repair ends with a handover, and that handover conditions what happens at the next fault. Four things, and none requires technical skill to demand.
The replaced part, returned with the machine. That is not distrust: it is the only proof the stated part was changed, and it is also information — a power supply dead at two years does not say the same thing as one dead at seven.
The cause written down, not only the action. "Power supply replaced" is an action; "power supply dead, probably following a surge, no protection on that socket" is a cause, and it tells you to buy a power protector before the next one dies.
The test performed in front of you, with the machine switched on, connected to the network, and the business package open. A machine that boots is not a repaired machine, and half the returns to the workshop come from that shortcut.
Finally, the warranty on the repair itself: how long, on what exactly — the part, the labour, or both — and what happens if the same symptom returns within the month. A repair with no written warranty is a paid experiment.
What we do, and what we will refuse to do
What we will refuse: taking a machine away without deciding with you what becomes of the disk, and without a signed paper saying what is leaving. It is five minutes and it settles the only disputes this activity produces.
We will refuse to bill a diagnosis whose refund is conditional on accepting the repair. A diagnosis paid to persuade you is not a diagnosis, and we would rather lose the repair than the distinction.
We will refuse to recommend a screen replacement without having said that a laptop plugged into an external monitor remains a complete workstation. That is a zero-cost answer and it loses us the sale.
What we do: the return date stated alongside the amount; the loan machine prepared, up to date, with the data reachable from the share; common parts held for the four faults in section 5; the replaced part returned with the machine; the cause written rather than the action; and the test performed in front of you with the business package open.
And what you can do this week without us: check whether you could lend somebody a machine tomorrow morning, with their files and their mail, in under an hour. If the answer is no, you now know the real cost of your next repair.
Frequently asked questions
Repair or replace?
The one-third rule settles the financial part: past a third of the price of a new one, replace. But add the days of immobilisation multiplied by the cost of unavailability. A cheap three-week repair often loses to an immediate replacement.
What should be done with the disk before handing over a machine?
Take it out if possible, otherwise make sure of a recent and verified copy — a repair sometimes ends with a replaced and empty disk, which is in line with the warranty. Encryption enabled before any incident settles the question at source.
Is a battery that no longer holds a fault?
No, it is a consumable: capacity falls with every cycle and a three-year-old machine lasting half as long is behaving normally. A battery that swells and deforms the casing, on the other hand, is a physical risk and the machine stops being used that day.
What do we do if liquid is spilled?
Unplug, switch off by holding the button, remove the battery if it comes out, turn the machine keyboard-down, and do not switch it back on. Rice does nothing. A sweet drink leaves a corrosive residue: workshop within forty-eight hours.
Can we repair things ourselves?
Yes for a desktop power supply, a memory module, a disk, a fan clean. No for anything requiring desoldering and for a machine under warranty, where opening it often voids the cover.
What should we require when a repair comes back?
The replaced part returned with the machine, the cause written rather than only the action, a test performed in front of you with the business package open, and a written warranty on the repair — duration, scope, and what happens if the symptom returns.
Where we come in
A breakdown costs whatever the absence of a spare machine costs. Most companies cannot answer that, and find out on the morning it arises.
- We keep a loan machine current, rather than a stock that sits unused.
- We announce the return date at the same time as the amount.
- We decide with you what happens to the disk before taking anything away.
We will never make a diagnostic refund conditional on accepting the quote: that is a way of selling a repair that is not worth doing.
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