I have a fairly new laptop where the audio has become increasingly janky - it can work fine for a while, and then suddenly descend into white noise before being completely gone until I bend the laptop ever so slightly for it to come back. Obviously a physical problem.
I contacted the vendor (until my dialogue with them is concluded, I will not name them), and was told that from my description, this sounded like an issue with a subboard where the audio port and sound chip is located. They wanted me to send it in, but this would require sending it out of the country for a 48 hour repair (+ shipping time) which I was not too keen to do, and especially as I am quite dependent on the laptop in my daily life, I wouldn't want to be without it for that long.
However, the problem has since gotten worse, and I recently contacted them again in preparation for finally sending it in, in fear of this become ever worse. However, now it has been more than 6 months since my purchase and they won't prioritize the repair anymore, bumping the repair time up to 2-3 weeks. This is way too long for me to consider at this point, so I am now looking at options to have it replaced locally instead, in case we cannot find a suitable solution.
However, I don't really know how to proceed with this, as I am quite clueless about hardware. Would such a repair be possible by someone not having the proper schematics? Would it be easy to identify the correct subboard to order if I am unable to get the information from the vendor?
It was also difficult to assess the quality of the local repair shops - some of them give the impression that they are quite competent, but rather seem like they might specialize in helping grandmothers set up their e-mail client. How would I determine if I can trust them with my device?
Without knowing the brand etc I would assume the sound hardware is integrated onto the motherboard and isn’t easily replaced. It might be a daughter board with a ribbon connector. There’s also various possibilities on whats wrong - maybe its just the port, maybe its something deeper.
You could always get an external USB soundcard instead as a workaround
From the way they describe it in their answers to me, it seems they believe the fault is in a subboard that can be replaced (although with the possibility of a fault in the mainboard as well). If it's just connected with a ribbon connector, is that something you generally would be able to replace yourself? I might still end up having to send it in, but the wait time is in this very moment unbearable.
I do have a USB audio interface that I use when "docked" at my desk, and I use a headset when I am on the go (which is seemingly not affected at all by this, I suspect there is a connection to the speakers themselves that is affected). This is mainly a problem when using it somewhere else in my apartment, and especially in the sofa where it is moved a lot while on it.
Another workaround would be to use Bluetooth headphones or speaker.