A childminder in Fairfield had a Linx ultraslim laptop that stopped turning on. She had been told by two people that the data could not be recovered because the machine would not start, which is not the reason, and she wanted a third view. The reason is simpler and it is a firmer no: the storage in that machine is soldered to the logic board.
| Media | A Linx ultraslim laptop that will not power on, with its storage provided as eMMC flash soldered directly to the logic board. |
| What was reported | Linx ultraslim laptop, stopped working and will not turn on, storage is eMMC soldered to the motherboard, owner told by others that the data is unrecoverable because the machine will not start, files wanted. |
| Fault class | Outside intake. Flash soldered directly to a logic board is excluded from what this lab accepts, so the job was declined at the enquiry stage. Nothing was posted, nothing was assessed and nothing was charged. |
| On the bench | None. The exclusion was identified from the machine model and confirmed with the owner before anything was sent, so no bench time was spent and no fee arose. |
The reason she had been given was wrong. A machine that will not start is a repair verdict, not a recovery one. Whether a laptop powers on has no bearing on whether storage inside it can be read, and on a machine with a removable drive the answer would have been straightforward.
The real reason is the soldering, and it is a hard line. In an ultraslim of this type the storage is eMMC flash soldered directly to the logic board. Flash soldered to a logic board is outside what this lab takes in. That is an intake rule, not a judgement about difficulty, and it applies equally to Apple Silicon Macs, tablets and similar machines.
Saying so on day one is the point of this case file. She was told before she posted anything. There was no diagnostic to wait two days for, no quote and no deposit, because there was no job. An honest no costs a phone call. A dishonest maybe costs postage and a fortnight.
What is inside intake is anything that unplugs or unscrews. A drive or SSD that can be taken out of a machine and posted on its own is ordinary work. If you are not sure which kind of machine you have, the model number is usually enough to settle it over the phone.
Nothing reached a bench. The machine was identified from its model as one carrying soldered eMMC storage, and that was confirmed with the owner during the enquiry.
She was told the job was outside intake, told why, and told not to post it. No diagnostic was booked, no figure was quoted and no charge of any kind arose. She was also told what would be inside intake, so that if the practice ever has a machine with a removable drive she knows the answer will be different.
Declined, at the enquiry stage, with the reason given plainly. The right result for a case like this is the customer keeping her postage and not spending a fortnight waiting for a no.
No charge. There is no price on this page because there was no job. Where storage can be unplugged or unscrewed the ordinary rates apply, a single drive or SSD at £300 + VAT and cards or pen drives at £250 + VAT, but soldered flash never reaches that stage.
Check before you post anything. Ultraslim laptops, tablets, Chromebooks and Apple Silicon Macs commonly carry their storage as flash soldered to the logic board, and that is outside what this lab takes in. The model number is usually enough to settle it in one phone call, and it is a call worth making before you pay for postage. If your machine has a drive or an SSD that unscrews or unplugs, that is a different situation entirely and an ordinary job. On a soldered machine the practical protection is a backup that runs on its own, because once the board goes there is nothing to send anywhere.
Every case file here is written up from a real enquiry handled for households and businesses across Liverpool, Merseyside and the wider North West, anonymised so that nobody is identifiable. Each one gives the reasoning behind the diagnosis, the method the fault actually called for, and the equipment it was worked on.
A bent plug is damage to the connector, and the memory that holds your files sits well behind it
A knocked stick that stops being recognised has cracked something between the plug and the memory, and the memory is usually fine
A corruption error on a stick usually means the controller or the filesystem, and neither is the memory that holds your photographs
The diagnostic is free and takes 2 working days from arrival, the figure is fixed in writing, and logical faults run on no fix, no fee. Start online or ring the freephone.