re: Laptop repair shop recommendations

I get what you think you're saying. But to have me pull your stuff apart, and then solder caps or MOSFETS, when you're going to blame the repair guy for anything that ever goes wrong from now until the end of time?

If you have to use a multimeter on a laptop, and most components of a desktop, just recover the data and move on.

I honestly don't get how you can't replace it for cheaper. I buy Ultrabooks with discrete graphics every five years or so for under $1k. "Run of the mill" laptop is a Microsoft Surface Go in case of emergency ($399 assuming you have a keyboard.) If you've already had to fix a POS you bought less than two years ago twice, why are you throwing good money after bad? I have a Lenovo I haven't had to do anything with but clean the screen in years.