The $15 fix that saved my 2009 Gateway laptop after Best Buy said it was done
Pulled a Gateway NV52 out of a free pile at a garage sale in Mesa last spring. Thing booted but the screen flickered like crazy and Best Buy quoted me $180 to look at it, more than the laptop cost new probably. I watched a guy on YouTube take one apart and he said 9 times out of 10 it's just the display cable getting pinched at the hinge. So I ordered a $15 replacement cable off eBay, took the bezel off with a guitar pick, and swapped it in about 40 minutes. The old cable had a visible kink right where it bends at the hinge, bare wire showing through the jacket. New cable in, no flicker at all. It's been my shop laptop for invoices and YouTube tutorials for 8 months now. If you have an old laptop with a flickering screen, check that hinge cable before you trash it. Anyone else fixed something for under $20 that a shop wanted to charge way more for?