Dell Vostro 1400 Motherboard Replacement

A Dell Vostro 1400 came in to the shop last week. It would not power on. The customer said that they took it to another computer shop and they told them it was the power jack on their motherboard. After carefully taking this laptop apart, and testing the ac adapter, the power jack, battery and various parts on the motherboard for continuity it was determined that the motherboard was bad. The next step was to find a motherboard replacement.. this is why I am writing this post. The cheapest motherboard (from a reputable vendor...not Ebay!) was $300.... then you add our labor to install the motherboard, and then fix the computer software... it would be close to $400. For that the customer can buy a new laptop. ... so that is exactly what they ended up doing. I ordered a $400 HP Laptop for them and all is well!