I have contemplated the whole rebuild the old or get a new. In the end, I may do both, relegating the old one to the garage. I found a few parts laptops on eBay for not a lot of money that may end up paying off.

I am still holding out hope that I'll be able to resurrect the darn thing with some solder and some solid core jumper wires. I have done it before on an old TV and what's the worst that can happen? I short out the motherboard more? LOL

I had it apart last night to confirm the problem at hand. I cleaned things back up on the underside of the motherboard and put it back together. It will run on battery only! I have an old Latitude CPi that I can charge the batteries in and 3 batteries!! LMAO! I may be able to remove the power cord entry from the CPi and solder it onto my laptop. That was the part that took the brunt of the damage.

Getting a new laptop is something that I has been sitting in the back of my head for quite a while now. Lets face it, a 7 year old laptop is still a 7 year old laptop! It was difficult to justify the expense when I had a perfectly working laptop that fit my needs. Now I no longer have that...

For now, my desktop works ok, it just isn't as convenient.

 

This is what I bought back in Feb. I started with the $899 one and It worked out to around 980$ once I added in everything I wanted. I got a few things for free (upgraded video card) because they were out of stock on the regular ones. If you're looking for a 17" this one is good.
You said you wanted a good resolution. Mine is a 1280x800 Hi-def LED monitor. Really nice actually. Nice thing with the studio's is they come with HDMI outputs, so if you have a hi-def TV you can hook up easily. Mine also has bluetooth (can't remember if it was an add on or not. If it was I got it for free). There were also some other neat options that I didn't take. I debated having the backlit keyboard for a while. It is a neat and useful option, and looking back now it would have been nice to have. They also have an optional fingerprint reader, but I figured I'd never use that since it seems like a novelty to me.

 

The more I look, the more difficult it will be to beat the price to performance ratio that the Lenovo Ideapad Y550 from Newegg. The Core i7 processor is an animal!

 

I heard that one is pretty solid. I just looked at quite a few reviews and over 98% of owners seem pleased with it. There is another one (I guess from the way I read it) is the older model - basically the same computer just the previous model, that has been out for a year or so and it is still also getting very high marks - both in reliablility and performance.

 

If you do buy a dell laptop, call their small business division, and make up a fake company. When I bought my monitor they shaved $100 off the list price, threw in a free sound bar and didn't charge me for shipping which saved me about $160.

 

Man I thought i was a cheap SOB. Beast that is just evil... but saving money is saving money so

 

Sounds like my 1 year old MacBook.

 

kyle, check your PMs when you get a sec.

 

Well $160 is $160 in my pocket and not theirs

 

Curtis, Thank you for your generosity!

Just to cover this thread like I have in PM's and in the Swartlkk needs a replacement laptop campaign thread... This morning I was reminded that I have a bonus coming. This is something that typically goes straight to savings to be doled out as required for general expenses. Well, this year, we'll use it before we have it. It will take the sting out of the cost of a replacement laptop.

Given this additional cash, I think it would be best to buy something new that will hopefully last me what my old laptop has (wishful thinking). Now it is just a matter of determining what to get... LOL