A cracked screen, a battery that no longer holds a charge, a machine that runs hot and slow, a lid that will not stay up, or a laptop that simply will not turn on. Those five cover most of what comes through the door.
Gadget Ali repairs laptops at two shops, 6551 No. 3 Rd in Richmond and 935 Marine Dr in North Vancouver. Walk in during business hours, no appointment needed at either.
The diagnostic is free and you get a written price before any work starts. If your computer is not worth repairing against what it is worth, we will tell you that instead of quoting you.
Walk-ins welcome • Richmond and North Vancouver locations
Inside Richmond Centre Mall Opp Koodo and BestBuy, 6551 Number 3 Rd MRU-11, Richmond, BC V6Y 2B6
935 Marine Dr #39, North Vancouver, BC V7P 1S3
Call ahead to check availability or walk in during business hours for fast service.
Every job starts with a free diagnostic. We find out what is actually wrong before quoting, because the same symptom can mean a cheap part or an expensive one. A computer that will not power on is often an adapter, a charging jack or a battery rather than a dead board, and those are very different prices.
You get a written number before anything begins. If we find something else once the machine is open, you get a call and a revised price rather than a surprise at pickup. We work on Windows laptops, Chromebooks and business machines, and on Apple hardware too.
Apple laptops have their own parts, their own faults and their own pricing. Everything we do on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is on our MacBook repair page.
Cracked panels, flickering, dark displays, or lines across the picture. We confirm whether the fault is the panel, the cable or the backlight before quoting, because those are three different repairs.
A machine that only runs on mains power, drops from forty percent to nothing, or shuts down without warning. A battery swelling under the trackpad is the urgent version and should not wait.
Blocked airflow, dried thermal compound, or a worn fan bearing. Most machines three years or older have never been opened, and a clean often solves it outright.
A computer that will not boot usually has healthy storage inside it. Before anything else, we get your files off. Failed drives, corrupted volumes and dead machines are all worth checking.
A charger that only works at one angle, or a machine that shows no sign of life. Replacing the jack is a fraction of what a board replacement costs, so it gets tested first.
Dead keys, a trackpad that will not click, or a lid that no longer stays where you put it. Loose hinges crack the case and then the screen, so they are worth catching early.
Parts availability matters more than the badge on the lid. Mainstream models from the major manufacturers are straightforward to source. Less common configurations and older machines take longer, and we tell you the lead time at diagnosis rather than after.
Bring the model number with you if you can find it. It is usually on a sticker underneath the machine, and it lets us check parts before you leave rather than after.
Richmond on No. 3 Rd and North Vancouver on Marine Dr. No appointment, and you can bring it back to the same counter if anything needs a second look.
We test the machine and tell you what we found at no cost. You are free to take that information and think about it, or use it somewhere else.
You know the number before any work begins. If something else turns up once it is open, you get a call and a revised price, not a surprise at pickup.
Eligible repairs are covered on parts and labour for 30 days, and we explain what that covers before the job is finished rather than after.
Four things account for a large share of the laptops we see, and most people arriving with them expected worse news than they got.
Usually yes. A computer that will not turn on has almost always suffered a power fault, a failed charging circuit or a board problem, and none of those touch the storage. The drive inside is intact and your files are still there.
That changes the order of the conversation. Before we talk about whether the machine is worth repairing, we get the data off it, so you are never choosing between your files and your budget.
The exception is Apple hardware. On Macs with the T2 chip and on every Apple silicon model, the storage is soldered to the board, which makes recovery board level work rather than a simple transfer. If that is your situation, our MacBook repair page explains what that involves.
A lid that no longer stays where you put it, or one that creaks and feels stiff, is not a cosmetic problem. Hinges are anchored into the plastic around the screen, and once those mounting points crack the hinge starts pulling the case apart every time you open it.
Left alone, that ends with a broken display cable or a cracked panel, which turns a modest repair into a screen replacement. If your lid has started feeling wrong, get it looked at before it takes the screen with it.
Laptops pull air through a small intake and push it across a heatsink. Over three or four years that heatsink fills with a compressed layer of dust that air cannot pass through, and the machine responds by slowing itself down to stay within safe temperatures.
The symptoms look like a dying computer. Fans loud constantly, the base too hot to keep on your lap, performance dropping off after ten minutes, and occasional shutdowns. In a lot of cases a proper internal clean and fresh thermal compound fixes all of it, and no parts are needed at all.
Blowing compressed air into the vents does not do this. It packs the dust deeper into the fins and can spin the fan far past its rated speed. Doing it properly means opening the machine.
If the charger only works when you hold it at a certain angle, or the machine charges intermittently while you type, the jack has usually worked loose from the board rather than failed outright.
This is worth acting on early for one reason. A loose jack that keeps getting pushed damages the connection into the board, and at that point the repair moves from a straightforward part replacement to board level work at several times the cost. Caught early it is one of the cheapest repairs on this page.
These are starting prices for Windows laptops and Chromebooks. The model decides where you land, and you get an exact figure after the free diagnostic. Apple pricing is different and sits on our MacBook repair page.
If the repair would cost more than about half of what a comparable used machine is worth, we will say so. Older laptops often develop more than one fault, and sometimes replacement is the smarter call. The diagnostic is free either way, and eligible repairs come with a thirty day warranty on parts and labour.
Usually not. On a machine three years or older that has never been opened, the heatsink is often packed with compressed dust, and the computer slows itself down to stay within safe temperatures. A proper internal clean and fresh thermal compound frequently resolves all of it without replacing anything.
Yes, though Apple hardware is covered separately because the parts, the faults and the pricing all work differently. See our MacBook repair page.
Richmond: 6551 No. 3 Rd, Richmond, BC V6Y 2B6, (604) 399-5566. North Vancouver: 935 Marine Dr #39, North Vancouver, BC V7P 1S3, (604) 700-0231. We serve customers from across the Metro Vancouver area at these two locations.
Bring the model number from the sticker underneath the machine and we can check parts while you are standing there. Send it to us with a description of the fault and we will come back with a range before you make the trip.
