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Laptop LCD repair in Tirana, Albania (or buy a new one in Balkans)?

Posted by (traveler) on

I dropped my old laptop bag on the sand near the coast in Albania, and now find myself without a working machine. I'm slowly working my way towards Tirana (the capital) and hope to find a shop that will repair the damaged LCD. As for the damage, well the computer turns on but the screen stays black, and only "some" of the blinking lights flash on (others stay off). The laptop is old and is on its last legs but since I am dependant on my laptop for travel purposes I need an immediate fix (either a repair shop or a new computer). My 2 questions are:

1) Where is the best place to easily repair a damaged LCD display for an old laptop in Tirana, Albania?

2) Where in these 3 Balkan countries (Albania, Macedonia, or Bulgaria) should I purchase a new simple PC laptop? I don't need anything super just a slim, wide screen machine with focus on memory (1-2GB RAM), everything else is a luxary. I'm thinking Skopje, or Sofia might be the best places as they are the only capitals I'll be visiting before returning to Norway (and I don't want to buy anything there since it's so overpriced. I'm not sure whether it's cheaper to find a quality machine online (and have it shipped to the Balkans), or just buy it direct from a local shop.

Thanks

Posted by
368 posts

An option for a new laptop to get the data off would be just to pull the hard drive out the old one and worry about it when you get home... That should be pretty easy to do with just a screw driver.

Posted by
1555 posts

I would tend to think that you would have your best bet in Sofia since it is a larger, more 'modern' city though I would think that you would be able to find a machine in Tirana and Skopje too.

Posted by
990 posts

I'd contact an online seller and get the model and configuration you want and get it shipped overnight to your hotel in your next port of call. And I think I'd call to make the arrangements to be sure that they can ship immediately. I agree with Arnold that Sofia will be your best bet to buy from if you can wait. But the price will probably not be as good as you can get online, even with express shipping.

Posted by
12040 posts

My experience with some of the electronics vendors in this area of Europe was that inferior pirated copies of well-known brands were quite common (of course, that was back in 2001...). Much of it also seemed like it "fell off the back of a truck", if you know what I mean. Examine any merchandise closely before you consider buying. That being said, I agree with the others that Sofia probably represents your best chance of obtaining quality merchandise.

Posted by
368 posts

LCD repairs (if they are not loose connectors to the main board) are generally not worth it as they end up costing as much as a whole new computer.

Another option is to see if they have a like model which you can scavenge the screen from. Getting a new screen from the manufacturer might be a challenge and probably take at least a week (my experience in North America, so Albania probably is even more difficult).

If you could find a new laptop for under $700 I would probably go for that instead of trying to fix the current one. Only problem that I can see with that would be getting your data off the old one if that is necessary.

Good luck!

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