I've got a Dell Inspiron laptop ... probably 5 yrs old. Still works, except that over time, as is prone to happen with Dell laptops, the power jack has become loose, and probably needs to be re-soldered to the motherboard.

I have soldered before, but the last time I did it was in High School shop class, 12 years ago, and I don't feel confident enough in my skills to attempt work on a motherboard.

I've found a place online that will replace the jack for $125, provided I ship the laptop to them. All the local places want at least $300 for the repair.

The laptop is not my primary computer, and I pretty much only use it for web/email/im when I'm travelling. It's pretty heavy, weighs in at about 7.5 lbs. I've also thought about replacing it with something a bit more lightweight ... perhaps a netbook? It looks like I could get a pretty decent one for about $250-350.

Any thoughts and/or advice? If I do go the netbook route, any recommendations?

I went through that with a Dell last year or the year before. I liked the laptop and had plenty of accessories, but didn't want to spend the $95 in labor for somebody to solder on a $5 jack. I bought another of the same model from their off lease site, swapped the hard drive, and it was as good as new for a few dollars more (and I got a second battery that way too).

With machines so inexpensive now, I wouldn't have somebody take it all apart and replace the jack. If I had to do it now, with all the netbook choices out there, I would most certainly go the netbook route for traveling.

Why don't you try to solder the jack yourself - if it works then great, if not then buy a netbook

It’s possible that the jack is damaged more than just coming loose, so a simple solder job may not be the fix. I still have my 7 year old Dell Inspiron but the touchpad stated acting up a couple of years ago. With the prices of netbooks these days, paying to have a 5 year old laptop repaired seems like having a VCR repaired.