Components on a printed board. What are they?

[nlouks]

Hi this is probably a really simple question for you guys but I've looked all over the place trying to find out what are some of the components on a faulty motherboard I have. They are next to the power input on the board and are named as PL(then a number) PC(then a number) and PR(then a number)

I'm trying to find out because the board doesn't recognize any power input. I thought there may be a board fuse or something but I can't tell what I'm looking at to follow the power.

Any help would be REALLY appreciated.

Thanks guys.

 

[Chippie]

A picture would help.......

 

[nlouks]

I'm getting a picture sorted.

I spoke to a guy I know and he said:

The PC is a SMD Capacitor
The PL is a SMD Inductor
The PR is a SMD Resistor

I think he knows his stuff.

I've just got to figure out how to test a capacitor. I have a multimeter with a cap testing function but I'm unable to tell what the capacitor should read.

Does anyone know if you should get continuity across a capacitor?

 

[Boncuk]

Hi,

getting continuity on a capacitor indicates it is defective.

However to get accurate measurement results one of two connections on the PCB should be removed.

E.g. if a capacitor is connected with a resistor in parallel you will measure the resistor instead of the capacitor when using the Ohm range on your DMM.

Mainboards are usually multilayer boards and desoldering a through hole part will probably destroy one of the inner layers (which you won't realize while desoldering).

If the power supply is good and the PC doesn't even start booting you most likely have a defective CPU (or corroded contacts in the CPU socket).

You might remove the CPU and use a Q-tip dunk in pure alcohol and distribute that in small doses onto the socket and also the CPU pins. Wait about 15 minutes to reinsert the CPU when the alcohol has evaporized 100% and try again.

Repeat the same procedure with the DDR-RAM.

If this didn't help I suggest to cannibalize the board and purchase a new one.

Boncuk

 

[nlouks]

Thanks for the reply.

The CPU and RAM cannot be the problem as the laptop starts up fine on battery.

It just wont recognize the charger, which is definitely working.

I cant seem to trace the power.

I have looked for days on the internet for a schematic but had no luck.

The board is DA0MA7MB8C7 its taken from a Gateway MA7 Laptop.

Any more help would be appreciated.

Cheers, guys.

 

[Mikebits]

getting continuity on a capacitor indicates it is defective.

Not quite so, the cap could be in parallel with a component that has continuity.

 

[nlouks]

I cant find any caps that have continuity anyway.

Saying that though there is one near the battery connections that has continuity. Its still attached to the board though so it could be looping back round somewhere.