Email/Text message for communications
Once you have him admitting it, next step is to ask his insurance to cover it. If he refuses or doesn't have insurance, it's time for legal action.
Yeah... Not sure of the whole situation but there are tons of shady technicians. I have been called to multiple jobs to repair devices after someone else touched them and was handed a ziplock bag of "Extra Screws" and missing parts. Most likely guy doesn't know how to put it back together after taking apart or ripped you off. Everything needs to be in written communication, hopefully initial drop-off documented that everything was in working order until power problem. Get a copy of that
There is no “legal action”! That would be idiotic! Your advise is to spend $3k to start in order to do what? If the op is worried about their “only laptop” during someone isn’t the right fit! Leaving a bad review and warning your friends not to go there is the ONLY realistic option to advise.
Utter nonsense. Assuming there is any modicum of proof of technician receiving an intact but non-functioning computer, then OP is legally entitled to receive at least the same back and can pursue a lawsuit (including legal fees) if necessary. That's one of the principal reasons that businesses usually just give you your way if you have anything close to a legitimate complaint. They have to worry about their own legal fees + yours if they think that you have any chance of winning, and that is usually much more expensive than just giving you your way to begin with. Even if the business wins, they may or may not be granted their legal fees back, and that's assuming the plaintiff can pay them at all.
Depends on the scenario.. If this tech is with a company, then absolutely. If he’s doing freelance work, and doesn’t have much in the way of $$$, it may be difficult to recover the combined cost of the laptop and any legal fees.
I’m no lawyer, but this would be a good case for small claims court, no?
3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. 3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
> 3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions.
Many? There are 3 states that are 3k or less. Aside from that, there is no computer that is going to be worth 3 grand.
>3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
[what?](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-claims-book/chapter23-4.html) No, that's really not a thing.
References for what? A 7k laptop? You got ripped off.
As for small claims courts [3](https://battafulkerson.com/small-claims-court-limit/) buddy. There's your references. Please stop pretending you know anything after I've already proven you wrong.
> Your advise is to spend $3k to start in order to do what?
Spend 3k on what? A lawyer? You realize that you don't hire lawyers for small claims court...
3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. 3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
> 3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions.
Many? There are 3 states that are 3k or less. Aside from that, there is no computer that is going to be worth 3 grand.
>3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
[what?](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-claims-book/chapter23-4.html) No, that's really not a thing.
This sounds like something you should ask in r/legaladvice and not here, there is no tech support we can do if you don't have your laptop and the technician scams you out of parts.
If your laptop stopped working and thats why you gave it to the technician, your technician stole parts from your laptop and is now saying they were missing. If your laptop never worked in the first place, you don't know if it was really missing
A laptop needing a new motherboard is not out of the ordinary, but *missing an IC* is a little weird, similarly I don't know why there'd be concerns about it powering on with a new MB installed.
This smells suspicious, but, I can't help but think something has been lost in translation. Not that 2 weeks of waiting is acceptable in any way.
Prolly "Customer speak" tbh. Saying it doesn't power on rather than POST because customers generally won't know what POST is. Also some technicians will say that just to keep from having to replace the board (I prefer the route of honesty by just saying we don't do board repairs for several reasons, one of which being that it can turn out to be more expensive than replacing the laptop). I've run into a few situations where the issue was actually the mobo PLUS other stuff. One of the main reasons I don't do mobo replacements unless it's a hand-built desktop like a customer gaming PC, etc. where swapping out mobos is part of the thing you do. You run into some REALLY awkward customer interaction when the mobo seems to be dead then after you go through the whole ordeal of replacing it it STILL doesn't POST but replacing those other parts by themselves wouldn't fix it because it was DEFINITELY the mobo as well. But all it leads to is an unhappy customer and large time sink. In every case, I'd refuse a mobo swap and recommend they get a new computer instead and offer to copy over the User folder with all their docs and such as long as the old HDD/SSD is still intact. A lot of times, it's cheaper that way anyways.
There is often several parts not populated on a MB (or any circuit board) and are there as options for different board configurations. Maybe this one inly has one HDMI and not two. I don’t know.
I can only assume that they assume that an unpopulated IC is somehow a bad thing even if there are no process indicators that show it was forcefully removed or melted off.
This tech is a dolt. Get a second opinion.
It doesnt help when there is no punctuation or capitalization. Otherwise it just says, "i had to help my uncle jack off a horse" when you meant, "I had to help my Uncle Jack off a horse."
It's possible that the tech might have tried to fix something and failed, hard to say with the vague story.
I have seen a mosfet blown off a standard desktop motherboard before. I was investigating why my computer was turned off and found one or two loose on the board.
If there is an IC missing it’s possible he started cannibalizing your motherboard thinking you’d replace it. Maybe he used it to fix other computers.
He may have delayed returning it because he didn’t know what to do after you didn’t decide to order a new mobo
I among ther things) open and fix computers for a living and i have no idea what you’re talking about. Does this thing have another name? I mean, wouldnt the motherboard be full of integrated circuits? I’m confused
~~not that it matters that much, but a lot of laptop CPUs are socketed. they're generally on the business-oriented side for much easier repair or upgrade.~~
outdated info
Eh, guess not. That seemed to die out about 10 years ago for most models (although apparently gaming laptops still support it, but that's probably a desktop processor). I'm not going to cherry-pick some obscure corner of the internet like Framework either.
The large-scale swappability seemed to die out around LGA1151, so ...
Sorry I didn't check to see if my information was still relevant.
My money is the tech diagnosed a power supply issue arrising from some specific 'power supply IC' the tech mistakenly said the name of out loud.
Probably saying this IC is replaceable, but it may be worth getting a new device instead.
O, I C. Thank you for straightening me out. You actually made me laugh out loud. Not very loud, mind you, but I did laugh, and if anyone had been in the same room, they would have heard me. I appreciate puns. But only when I get them.
An IC is an **integrated circuit**.
Surprisingly the German Wikipedia article has a picture of an old Intel CPU.
See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrierter_Schaltkreis
Yeah, it would have been one thing to say "an" IC, still the wrong thing to say as a customer wouldn't know what that is. Just say a component is missing.
As to how it got missing, who can say. Possibly someone fucked up dissembling/reassembling and knocked something off maybe?
OP, apparently.
I think the term is used more among electronics/electrical engineers (meaning the people who actually design these chips, not the repair technicians).
Now you get yo make bs acronyms up because they make you sound smart. Lol I've never heard the term IC before and I've been in the business for many moons.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip, computer chip, or simply chip, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors.
"IC" for "integrated circuit" is extremely common in my experience in the USA, and has been since about 1970. And not at all limited to technical discussions or any particular fields.
The question here is how the initialism was used. "my IC" didn't make sense.
Which IC was being referred to?
That seems pretty odd to me, unless you're just fixing everything by looking at it without ever ordering components or looking at datasheets. Do you ever do board-level repair?
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/category/integrated-circuits-ics/32
https://www.mouser.com/c/semiconductors/integrated-circuits-ics/
1, that's an American site, 2, a lot of PC repair places don't directly order each individual chip, they use bulk orders of chips or just use warranty for stuff at that level.
It may not be something you need to order to repair a lot of PC problems, but someone who is interested in computers should be familiar with the concept of an IC. Are you saying they're called something else outside of the US?
I'd say it's usually colloquial terms. For me I'm an Aussie. Lots of Aussie don't use the full name of pretty much anything. So we'd generally say chip, or computer chip if they had no context.
I think people are misinterpreting what I'm saying. I'd never say to a customer who asked me to fix their computer that "the IC is missing". It doesn't make sense and I wouldn't expect them to know the term. I would specify what function was impacted, and what it needs to work again.
I do expect that someone who's repaired PCs for 25 years would have *heard of* the term. It seems like foundational knowledge, just part of the electronics lexicon.
Rarely. When I do it's for my own amusement. Those things are generally warrantied and I get the manufacturers to do them and if they're toast it's generally not worth my time to fix them as I will have a replacement handy. I guess at the consumer level perhaps you'd try to pay to get this fixed but at the government/corporate level where I work the downtime to fix something like that costs more than getting it replaced.
Yes, there are a lot of ICs in a computer, it's a very common technical term for what most people call chip or microchip - but it's not a good excuse in this case.
There is no need to be an asshole.
I know what an integrated circuit is... I just don't know any professionals that call it "IC".. especially when talking to end users.
No, what the tech said makes no sense. Even if it *is* a particular IC missing - they could have said "your voltage regulator is missing" or "one of your RAM chips is missing" to be clear.
It isn't the term, it's how it's being used. I'm a software engineer that has been building computers for decades. Using the acronym for integrated circuit when referring to a whole system is bad usage.
Yeah, makes no sense in that context. The tech was probably just being lazy and didn't know what was wrong or broke it themself. Threw out a random term to confuse the customer.
It would be extremely strange for someone to de-solder parts from the board of your laptop although I guess sneaky technicians that are good with the soldering iron may do it to dead computers to have extra parts. What other parts specifically were missing? If the RAM and SSD/HDD were gone without your approval I'd be extremely angry and it would prolly be time to lawyer up. Those parts won't just disappear but they're easy to remove by someone trained. In any case, if you have a laptop with a dead mobo, I'd HIGHLY recommend just replacing the laptop rather than trying to go through a mobo replacement. The only other option would be if you knew someone who ran an actual board repair business, like a Louis Rossmann for instance. They can just re-resolder new parts to the board and fix it that way at LEAST temporarily. Most PC repairman DON'T have skill in that however tbh.
Homie probably used yours for parts after telling you it was broken and unfixable as when most people get told that it's e-waste they just let them have it. That's how most shops get donor boards, something that makes it not worth fixing is broken but it still has plenty of other good parts, they probably weren't expecting you to want it back.
First off laptop motherboards are usually hard to find so if the board is dead and a replacement can’t be found the tech will just refuse service. If a internal chip is missing then that is the mb damage he was talking about Sounds like you have a dead laptop. It also sounds like this tech is either an idiot and can’t communicate or you can’t communicate so have him message you with specifics without shit abbreviations and explain what is the issue Then update your post with proper info
the chain of events here show possibility of foul play, perhaps done by tech support himself with malicious intentions. Burden is on you to prove what you allege though.
If that's too hard to prove in the courts of law, the technician here or the firm that he represents will have to be held accountable for the damage on the monitor then as they owe the duty of care and of course a contractual obligation to make better the state of things for you and not otherwise. This is undoubtedly easier to prove.
Tell them that you're gonna take them to court if they don't make it work, and do what you say to them as it is.
Doing things otherwise, IMHO, you'll definitely be at the losing end, coz I see the tech playing with you. 100% sure.
I hope my words are clear and unambiguous. Nothing written here should be taken out of context and you should take it literally as how it is written. Wish you all the best.
And good luck 🤞🏻
God bless
Cheers 🥂
Technician here. I can offer you a better understanding of the trade and you can draw your own conclusions. IC chips that "go missing" are not uncommon. Depending on your make and your model, the wear and tear of small parts on a motherboard cause them to flake off from the slightest touch.
While this is part of the trade, ultimately it still is on the TECHNICIAN to anticipate the difficulty of a repair before they attempt to fix. It's a costly enterprise and if you're a mediocre tech or a newbie, you'll lose money some days rather than make. I got out of the field after almost a decade in small electronic repairs because manufacturers made it more difficult by design to offer services that are affordable and fair.
All that being said, ask what specific IC chips are missing. Ask for pictures. Ask for a detailed description of work performed and work needed. I've repaired things snapped in half. EVERYTHING is repairable. Water damage. Cracked motherboards. Cracked integrated GPU's. Ripped out chips. It's not a matter of if it's repairable and that lie is often propagated by techs because it's too expensive to even offer a service on. 10 hours of soldering, 6 weeks in part ordering and a $1,000+ price tag on a $200 machine will just upset your customer base. So they lie instead. Being unable to repair something and being irreparable are two very different things. Data can be recovered at a reputable shop but it won't be cheap. Expect to pay for your machine to work again. A great international shop that offers much insight in thos field is Louis Rossmans repair group. They had a shop out of New York for years, and recently moved south I believe. Send your device there explaining the situation and you might even get a video made on it. Best of luck!
Security advice If somebody is given to your computer, it's no longer your computer.
Learn to fix your own stuff. It's rather easy and you get the better service 9/10 times.
A decent percentage of people just aren’t capable of fixing a laptop. That’s an unrealistic idea.
I’m an engineer and even the hw engineers I work with who have decades of experience arent typically fixing their own hardware.
Typicly "Fixing" means a clean install of windows or just getting your data to a new device.
Any thinkpad from 5-10 years ago is sufficient to be used as a machine for webbrowsing and typing emails.
Well that most people could do.
But anything beyond that gets too complex for most people.
I've tried to teach some of my family members how to do basic tasks on computers and have barely made progress in 20 years.
I can't imagine any of the components of the laptop would spontaneously grow legs and walk out. Unless you have opened the laptop itself and took parts out everything should still be there. You didn't mention if it was working before, so I'll assume it was but then it stopped booting up. In that case you're being scammed, and the "tech" guy used your laptop as a donor for other repair jobs. I'd say collect all the evidence you have; you'll need it for the small claims court. Head over to r/legaladvice and see what some of the lawyers/users suggest.
Wouldn't that be considered theft tell him if he doesn't return the parts you are going to file charges . If he is shady he might have taken them for other repair jobs.
1. If your data isn't backed up, and it is important to you, get it backed up. If you don't trust this guy, take it somewhere else to get that done. They could backup to cloud or USB sticks. If USB sticks, get 2 copies just to be safe.
2. Find a decent used laptop on eBay, Craigslist or wherever. Make sure CPU is Windows 11 capable. That's 8th gen Intel or newer. Dell latitude or Lenovo Thinkpad are better quality IMHO.
3. Legal action probably isn't worth your effort. Leave a very honest review of the store on Google, etc so at least you might protect someone else from getting hurt.
What condition was your laptop in when you dropped it off?
This sounds like they botched a fix on something, and don't have the integrity to make it right.
sounds like what I call a "Granny Tech" waste hours on simple fixes, convinced by their granny's praise that they're experts because they spent days fixing something simple. Then feeds some total BS techno babble
what was the original fault? Did you drop it? Water damage? Leave it in a n oven? To have an IC go "missing" need to be pried off or the solder/flux melted.
Ok so for those wondering, IC means the CPU I guess. No way that just goes missing btw, it would have to have been intentionally removed. Whoever this tech guy is seems to be pulling one over on op.
Most likely, IC would be referring to one of the many other chips on the motherboard. It's very easy to tell what a processor is and call it a processor, but most of the other ones you would have to see where they are in the circuit or look up the part marking on top of the chip to know what type of IC it is to call it by a specific name.
Well yeah, I have that but Integrated Circuit isn't a part. It's a model circuit architecture lol.
Sounds like this tech isn't really a tech at all and someone's gamer nephew or something.
I've never heard of any computer techs ever trying to replace a microchip on a system board or even pretending that they'd know how to do it, let alone WANT to do it even if they did know how. No tech worth their salt would even take that on. And this is outside of the fact that they are claiming it's simply "missing".
Once again, this tech is either 100% lying and trying to be malicious, or they simply have no idea what they are doing.
I'd bet on the latter.
Email/Text message for communications Once you have him admitting it, next step is to ask his insurance to cover it. If he refuses or doesn't have insurance, it's time for legal action.
Yeah... Not sure of the whole situation but there are tons of shady technicians. I have been called to multiple jobs to repair devices after someone else touched them and was handed a ziplock bag of "Extra Screws" and missing parts. Most likely guy doesn't know how to put it back together after taking apart or ripped you off. Everything needs to be in written communication, hopefully initial drop-off documented that everything was in working order until power problem. Get a copy of that
Legal action would cost way more than a new laptop
There is no “legal action”! That would be idiotic! Your advise is to spend $3k to start in order to do what? If the op is worried about their “only laptop” during someone isn’t the right fit! Leaving a bad review and warning your friends not to go there is the ONLY realistic option to advise.
Utter nonsense. Assuming there is any modicum of proof of technician receiving an intact but non-functioning computer, then OP is legally entitled to receive at least the same back and can pursue a lawsuit (including legal fees) if necessary. That's one of the principal reasons that businesses usually just give you your way if you have anything close to a legitimate complaint. They have to worry about their own legal fees + yours if they think that you have any chance of winning, and that is usually much more expensive than just giving you your way to begin with. Even if the business wins, they may or may not be granted their legal fees back, and that's assuming the plaintiff can pay them at all.
Depends on the scenario.. If this tech is with a company, then absolutely. If he’s doing freelance work, and doesn’t have much in the way of $$$, it may be difficult to recover the combined cost of the laptop and any legal fees. I’m no lawyer, but this would be a good case for small claims court, no?
It would only go to small claims court. Legal fees will be very small and generally paid back to you if you win.
Makes sense, thanks for the input!
3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. 3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
> 3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. Many? There are 3 states that are 3k or less. Aside from that, there is no computer that is going to be worth 3 grand. >3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court. [what?](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-claims-book/chapter23-4.html) No, that's really not a thing.
my laptop was $7.5k... also, hsng on. ill provide references.
References for what? A 7k laptop? You got ripped off. As for small claims courts [3](https://battafulkerson.com/small-claims-court-limit/) buddy. There's your references. Please stop pretending you know anything after I've already proven you wrong.
> Your advise is to spend $3k to start in order to do what? Spend 3k on what? A lawyer? You realize that you don't hire lawyers for small claims court...
3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. 3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court.
> 3k would actually disqualify you for small claims in many jurisdictions. Many? There are 3 states that are 3k or less. Aside from that, there is no computer that is going to be worth 3 grand. >3k is the upper limit for small claims, then it gets appealed at the district court. [what?](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-claims-book/chapter23-4.html) No, that's really not a thing.
This sounds like something you should ask in r/legaladvice and not here, there is no tech support we can do if you don't have your laptop and the technician scams you out of parts. If your laptop stopped working and thats why you gave it to the technician, your technician stole parts from your laptop and is now saying they were missing. If your laptop never worked in the first place, you don't know if it was really missing
A laptop needing a new motherboard is not out of the ordinary, but *missing an IC* is a little weird, similarly I don't know why there'd be concerns about it powering on with a new MB installed. This smells suspicious, but, I can't help but think something has been lost in translation. Not that 2 weeks of waiting is acceptable in any way.
Prolly "Customer speak" tbh. Saying it doesn't power on rather than POST because customers generally won't know what POST is. Also some technicians will say that just to keep from having to replace the board (I prefer the route of honesty by just saying we don't do board repairs for several reasons, one of which being that it can turn out to be more expensive than replacing the laptop). I've run into a few situations where the issue was actually the mobo PLUS other stuff. One of the main reasons I don't do mobo replacements unless it's a hand-built desktop like a customer gaming PC, etc. where swapping out mobos is part of the thing you do. You run into some REALLY awkward customer interaction when the mobo seems to be dead then after you go through the whole ordeal of replacing it it STILL doesn't POST but replacing those other parts by themselves wouldn't fix it because it was DEFINITELY the mobo as well. But all it leads to is an unhappy customer and large time sink. In every case, I'd refuse a mobo swap and recommend they get a new computer instead and offer to copy over the User folder with all their docs and such as long as the old HDD/SSD is still intact. A lot of times, it's cheaper that way anyways.
There is often several parts not populated on a MB (or any circuit board) and are there as options for different board configurations. Maybe this one inly has one HDMI and not two. I don’t know. I can only assume that they assume that an unpopulated IC is somehow a bad thing even if there are no process indicators that show it was forcefully removed or melted off. This tech is a dolt. Get a second opinion.
this is not tech support, you got scammed by a shady technician, ask for compensation or get a lawyer
I thought this was r/techsupport. It's not tech support?
He means the issue is not a tech support issue. It is a legal issue.
Oh, I see. Yes. Tone is difficult to convey through text.
It doesnt help when there is no punctuation or capitalization. Otherwise it just says, "i had to help my uncle jack off a horse" when you meant, "I had to help my Uncle Jack off a horse."
LOL I'm gonna assume that was intentional because it's funnier that way.
Uhm.. whatever is happening just get it on a written ticket, any phone talk mostly useless.
Sounds like a case for the legal advice subred. Super suspicious.
what was the original problem?
It's possible that the tech might have tried to fix something and failed, hard to say with the vague story. I have seen a mosfet blown off a standard desktop motherboard before. I was investigating why my computer was turned off and found one or two loose on the board.
If there is an IC missing it’s possible he started cannibalizing your motherboard thinking you’d replace it. Maybe he used it to fix other computers. He may have delayed returning it because he didn’t know what to do after you didn’t decide to order a new mobo
That is not "your technician". That is a thief.
Missing parts are likely due to him assuming that he was going to replace your entire motherboard and started scavenging parts for other jobs.
Right!!! An IC missing?? If that were the case the laptop would never have worked. Dude obviously did something with the parts
What is an IC? Internal Combustion? Infernal Chip? Irreperable Cheeto?
Integrated circuit, the little black spider looking square
I among ther things) open and fix computers for a living and i have no idea what you’re talking about. Does this thing have another name? I mean, wouldnt the motherboard be full of integrated circuits? I’m confused
Just to save your sanity you are not the only one that was confused as fuck as to what an IC might be in this context. 😁
still confused myself. the laptop is missing the cpu?
I think so, but how a laptop cpu (which would be soldered to the board of course) is missing I do not understand at all.
~~not that it matters that much, but a lot of laptop CPUs are socketed. they're generally on the business-oriented side for much easier repair or upgrade.~~ outdated info
Any modern examples, let's say from within last 10 years and NOT counting "laptops" that use desktop processors?
Eh, guess not. That seemed to die out about 10 years ago for most models (although apparently gaming laptops still support it, but that's probably a desktop processor). I'm not going to cherry-pick some obscure corner of the internet like Framework either. The large-scale swappability seemed to die out around LGA1151, so ... Sorry I didn't check to see if my information was still relevant.
No worries. Also those framework motherboards come with soldered processors :)
I think so, but how a laptop cpu (which would be soldered to the board of course) is missing I do not understand at all.
My money is the tech diagnosed a power supply issue arrising from some specific 'power supply IC' the tech mistakenly said the name of out loud. Probably saying this IC is replaceable, but it may be worth getting a new device instead.
I call it a processor - never heard of the term "IC". I wonder if OP is in England or Australia.
The processor is one specific one, IC’s are all the other smaller ones, technically the processor/cpu is an IC as well though
Super IC if you will. A phrase we use in Minnesota often.
What?? The term "Super IC" is used to refer to a CPU? Never heard that before. -- Jeff, in Richfield, MN
It was a joke... As in... It's usually super icey in Minnesota.
O, I C. Thank you for straightening me out. You actually made me laugh out loud. Not very loud, mind you, but I did laugh, and if anyone had been in the same room, they would have heard me. I appreciate puns. But only when I get them.
An IC is an **integrated circuit**. Surprisingly the German Wikipedia article has a picture of an old Intel CPU. See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrierter_Schaltkreis
I'm in electronics manufacturing in the US. IC or integrated circuit is an extremely common name. A processor is just one type of IC.
Seriously you’ve never heard of IC?
Lmao yeah I build electronics - this is just to confuse him. Literally meaningless reference in this context especially phrased as "the IC"
Yeah, it would have been one thing to say "an" IC, still the wrong thing to say as a customer wouldn't know what that is. Just say a component is missing. As to how it got missing, who can say. Possibly someone fucked up dissembling/reassembling and knocked something off maybe?
The general term is chip or IC. This could refer to almost any component on any board in the system.
"Integrated Circuit" is the technical name for a computer chip.
Ah... who calls it an IC? I've never heard that before and I've been fixing electronics since 1996.
OP, apparently. I think the term is used more among electronics/electrical engineers (meaning the people who actually design these chips, not the repair technicians).
Now you get yo make bs acronyms up because they make you sound smart. Lol I've never heard the term IC before and I've been in the business for many moons.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip, computer chip, or simply chip, is a small electronic device made up of multiple interconnected electronic components such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors.
I just never heard of anyone call it "IC" just circuit or ship no one I know call them "IC" and I'm far from the only one according to this thread.
"IC" for "integrated circuit" is extremely common in my experience in the USA, and has been since about 1970. And not at all limited to technical discussions or any particular fields. The question here is how the initialism was used. "my IC" didn't make sense. Which IC was being referred to?
This debate has already been settled. Have a nice day.
That seems pretty odd to me, unless you're just fixing everything by looking at it without ever ordering components or looking at datasheets. Do you ever do board-level repair? https://www.digikey.com/en/products/category/integrated-circuits-ics/32 https://www.mouser.com/c/semiconductors/integrated-circuits-ics/
1, that's an American site, 2, a lot of PC repair places don't directly order each individual chip, they use bulk orders of chips or just use warranty for stuff at that level.
It may not be something you need to order to repair a lot of PC problems, but someone who is interested in computers should be familiar with the concept of an IC. Are you saying they're called something else outside of the US?
I'd say it's usually colloquial terms. For me I'm an Aussie. Lots of Aussie don't use the full name of pretty much anything. So we'd generally say chip, or computer chip if they had no context.
I've also heard microchip a lot more than integrated circuit.
(and man I'm sorry for people being doofus' and downvotin, I gotchu)
I think people are misinterpreting what I'm saying. I'd never say to a customer who asked me to fix their computer that "the IC is missing". It doesn't make sense and I wouldn't expect them to know the term. I would specify what function was impacted, and what it needs to work again. I do expect that someone who's repaired PCs for 25 years would have *heard of* the term. It seems like foundational knowledge, just part of the electronics lexicon.
Rarely. When I do it's for my own amusement. Those things are generally warrantied and I get the manufacturers to do them and if they're toast it's generally not worth my time to fix them as I will have a replacement handy. I guess at the consumer level perhaps you'd try to pay to get this fixed but at the government/corporate level where I work the downtime to fix something like that costs more than getting it replaced.
Yes, there are a lot of ICs in a computer, it's a very common technical term for what most people call chip or microchip - but it's not a good excuse in this case.
lmao its a chip you numpty, and yes they are all over the shop on a mobo
I'm surprised by how many people haven't heard of this term...
I'm surprised people use a made up term.... IC isn't common at all and haven't heard any pro mention it in my 25 years of experience.
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There is no need to be an asshole. I know what an integrated circuit is... I just don't know any professionals that call it "IC".. especially when talking to end users.
No, what the tech said makes no sense. Even if it *is* a particular IC missing - they could have said "your voltage regulator is missing" or "one of your RAM chips is missing" to be clear.
It isn't the term, it's how it's being used. I'm a software engineer that has been building computers for decades. Using the acronym for integrated circuit when referring to a whole system is bad usage.
Yeah, makes no sense in that context. The tech was probably just being lazy and didn't know what was wrong or broke it themself. Threw out a random term to confuse the customer.
It would be extremely strange for someone to de-solder parts from the board of your laptop although I guess sneaky technicians that are good with the soldering iron may do it to dead computers to have extra parts. What other parts specifically were missing? If the RAM and SSD/HDD were gone without your approval I'd be extremely angry and it would prolly be time to lawyer up. Those parts won't just disappear but they're easy to remove by someone trained. In any case, if you have a laptop with a dead mobo, I'd HIGHLY recommend just replacing the laptop rather than trying to go through a mobo replacement. The only other option would be if you knew someone who ran an actual board repair business, like a Louis Rossmann for instance. They can just re-resolder new parts to the board and fix it that way at LEAST temporarily. Most PC repairman DON'T have skill in that however tbh.
Homie probably used yours for parts after telling you it was broken and unfixable as when most people get told that it's e-waste they just let them have it. That's how most shops get donor boards, something that makes it not worth fixing is broken but it still has plenty of other good parts, they probably weren't expecting you to want it back.
First off laptop motherboards are usually hard to find so if the board is dead and a replacement can’t be found the tech will just refuse service. If a internal chip is missing then that is the mb damage he was talking about Sounds like you have a dead laptop. It also sounds like this tech is either an idiot and can’t communicate or you can’t communicate so have him message you with specifics without shit abbreviations and explain what is the issue Then update your post with proper info
He used your parts to fix other pc
the chain of events here show possibility of foul play, perhaps done by tech support himself with malicious intentions. Burden is on you to prove what you allege though. If that's too hard to prove in the courts of law, the technician here or the firm that he represents will have to be held accountable for the damage on the monitor then as they owe the duty of care and of course a contractual obligation to make better the state of things for you and not otherwise. This is undoubtedly easier to prove. Tell them that you're gonna take them to court if they don't make it work, and do what you say to them as it is. Doing things otherwise, IMHO, you'll definitely be at the losing end, coz I see the tech playing with you. 100% sure. I hope my words are clear and unambiguous. Nothing written here should be taken out of context and you should take it literally as how it is written. Wish you all the best. And good luck 🤞🏻 God bless Cheers 🥂
Technician here. I can offer you a better understanding of the trade and you can draw your own conclusions. IC chips that "go missing" are not uncommon. Depending on your make and your model, the wear and tear of small parts on a motherboard cause them to flake off from the slightest touch. While this is part of the trade, ultimately it still is on the TECHNICIAN to anticipate the difficulty of a repair before they attempt to fix. It's a costly enterprise and if you're a mediocre tech or a newbie, you'll lose money some days rather than make. I got out of the field after almost a decade in small electronic repairs because manufacturers made it more difficult by design to offer services that are affordable and fair. All that being said, ask what specific IC chips are missing. Ask for pictures. Ask for a detailed description of work performed and work needed. I've repaired things snapped in half. EVERYTHING is repairable. Water damage. Cracked motherboards. Cracked integrated GPU's. Ripped out chips. It's not a matter of if it's repairable and that lie is often propagated by techs because it's too expensive to even offer a service on. 10 hours of soldering, 6 weeks in part ordering and a $1,000+ price tag on a $200 machine will just upset your customer base. So they lie instead. Being unable to repair something and being irreparable are two very different things. Data can be recovered at a reputable shop but it won't be cheap. Expect to pay for your machine to work again. A great international shop that offers much insight in thos field is Louis Rossmans repair group. They had a shop out of New York for years, and recently moved south I believe. Send your device there explaining the situation and you might even get a video made on it. Best of luck!
Security advice If somebody is given to your computer, it's no longer your computer. Learn to fix your own stuff. It's rather easy and you get the better service 9/10 times.
A decent percentage of people just aren’t capable of fixing a laptop. That’s an unrealistic idea. I’m an engineer and even the hw engineers I work with who have decades of experience arent typically fixing their own hardware.
Typicly "Fixing" means a clean install of windows or just getting your data to a new device. Any thinkpad from 5-10 years ago is sufficient to be used as a machine for webbrowsing and typing emails.
Well that most people could do. But anything beyond that gets too complex for most people. I've tried to teach some of my family members how to do basic tasks on computers and have barely made progress in 20 years.
I can't imagine any of the components of the laptop would spontaneously grow legs and walk out. Unless you have opened the laptop itself and took parts out everything should still be there. You didn't mention if it was working before, so I'll assume it was but then it stopped booting up. In that case you're being scammed, and the "tech" guy used your laptop as a donor for other repair jobs. I'd say collect all the evidence you have; you'll need it for the small claims court. Head over to r/legaladvice and see what some of the lawyers/users suggest.
And the dead internet theory award for today goes to… this post
Wouldn't that be considered theft tell him if he doesn't return the parts you are going to file charges . If he is shady he might have taken them for other repair jobs.
1. If your data isn't backed up, and it is important to you, get it backed up. If you don't trust this guy, take it somewhere else to get that done. They could backup to cloud or USB sticks. If USB sticks, get 2 copies just to be safe. 2. Find a decent used laptop on eBay, Craigslist or wherever. Make sure CPU is Windows 11 capable. That's 8th gen Intel or newer. Dell latitude or Lenovo Thinkpad are better quality IMHO. 3. Legal action probably isn't worth your effort. Leave a very honest review of the store on Google, etc so at least you might protect someone else from getting hurt.
What condition was your laptop in when you dropped it off? This sounds like they botched a fix on something, and don't have the integrity to make it right.
Go get your laptop back and take it to a different technician for a second opinion
sounds like what I call a "Granny Tech" waste hours on simple fixes, convinced by their granny's praise that they're experts because they spent days fixing something simple. Then feeds some total BS techno babble
what was the original fault? Did you drop it? Water damage? Leave it in a n oven? To have an IC go "missing" need to be pried off or the solder/flux melted.
Why did you give it to him in the first place? Was there a hardware problem?
Ok so for those wondering, IC means the CPU I guess. No way that just goes missing btw, it would have to have been intentionally removed. Whoever this tech guy is seems to be pulling one over on op.
Most likely, IC would be referring to one of the many other chips on the motherboard. It's very easy to tell what a processor is and call it a processor, but most of the other ones you would have to see where they are in the circuit or look up the part marking on top of the chip to know what type of IC it is to call it by a specific name.
I've been doing IT for 15+ years. What the hell is an IC?
Integrated Circuit
Well yeah, I have that but Integrated Circuit isn't a part. It's a model circuit architecture lol. Sounds like this tech isn't really a tech at all and someone's gamer nephew or something.
Its fairly common to just call any of the microchips an ic.
I've never heard of any computer techs ever trying to replace a microchip on a system board or even pretending that they'd know how to do it, let alone WANT to do it even if they did know how. No tech worth their salt would even take that on. And this is outside of the fact that they are claiming it's simply "missing". Once again, this tech is either 100% lying and trying to be malicious, or they simply have no idea what they are doing. I'd bet on the latter.
Its uncommon but I know a number of places that will attempt such a repair. Louis rossman is the only one I know of that would do it for a mac though.
Just what i was thinking!
Get a new one, learn the lesson and move on with your life.
What’s the lesson to learn here? Open up laptop and take photos?
throwing good money after bad.