New laptop or repair mobo?

[samjamieson]

Hi everyone, my Lenovo Thinkpad E560 is throwing up a few error codes on boot (0187, 2200, 2201) that recommend system board replacement?

Before I get it repaired I was hoping to find a possible replacement laptop so I can weigh up the costs. I'm pretty happy with the laptop as it is so would really just be looking for a direct replacement (or worse as I game less now!).

Thanks, Sam

1. What is your budget? 1000 AUD but would like to spend minimum, ha

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15" or smaller

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920 x 1080

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable

5. How much battery life do you need? Average

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? The only game I have been considering playing is Cities Skyline and FM. But I haven't played a game on the current laptop in 2 years so not a priority

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) browsing internet

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 250gb +

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? I've had this one 4 to 5 years so around that would be good.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? None

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. I've had dell's for the last two laptops and have been happy. Had a terrible experience with HP years ago but I'm over that now

13. What country do you live in? Aus

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

 

[jojesa]

You could just buy the motherboard of eBay or Aliexpress for less than 90 AUD.

 

[samjamieson]

You could just buy the motherboard of eBay or Aliexpress for less than 90 AUD.

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't really realise they would be so cheap. Is it easy to replace?

I'll ask a local repair place but most weren't open till Tuesday. So hoped to get a laptop cost to compare beforehand.

 

[jojesa]

A shop might charge 3x that price to replace it.
You could watch videos on YouTube about disassembling it and you will see if you're up to the task.
Could you remove the keyboard, connect a external USB keyboard and power on the laptop.
Do the errors still come on?
You could watch videos on YouTube about removing the keyboard.

 

[geofelt]

Thinkpads are easy to service.
I had no problem replacing a motherboard on a T480s.
There are several youtube videos available to demonstrate taking things apart.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Interesting error codes, suggests "dead eeprom chip" and missing UUID and serial number. This is most likely just a corrupt bios. However missing UUID and serial number means someone already replaced the motherboard or tried to flash new bios (without transfering uuid and serial number) to the new bios file.

1. bios chip actually gone bad 2. Bios corruption and some "techincian" used incorrect file 3. someone replaced the motherboard already? 4. some other mainboard issue which is giving wrong error code

EDIT: if you actually can get into bios part and have difficulties getting into operating system you can try just flash latest bios, go to lenovo site with your model number and download latest 1.40 "bios bootable cd" with another PC and then boot from it, update latest bios and see if it solves this.

I had this same thing happen also when i replaced LCD panel on lenovo laptop, and few times with motherboard. I did not get the "dead eeprom" just the usual missing uuid and serial number which is normal since those are not transfered. Did you change ANY part lately? I mean even new battery can potentially cause this if you breaked something on the way when installing it.