laptop motherboard problem

[insomnia]

hi all have an acer laptop motherboard here and it has a problem its for sure electronic problem there is a component failing some were basically turn it it will stay on for around 8 seconds fan will spin also then of and straight back on and of again thats it i have the circuit board out now and its all smd components before took it apart it also didnt show anything on the screen

 

[tvtech]

Acer again. Was the lapppie under warranty....

When you started fiddling???

 

[insomnia]

no the laptop is out of warranty im just interested to see if its a failed component have you any idea

 

[tvtech]

no the laptop is out of warranty im just interested to see if its a failed component have you any idea

Absolutely no idea. All I know is that Acer make decent lappies (mine is approaching 4 years...now).

Never a moments problem.

 

[insomnia]

ye my bro is a tech and have to say they are not to bad the fujitsu siemens are a disaster also the hp dv models always complicated hard ware problems

 

[Reloadron]

So the CPU fan runs correct? You may want to check the CPU HSF assembly as depending on age and use the thermal compound could be dried up. Next if it uses multiple sticks (modules) of RAM you may want to remove one and then the other to see if a memory module failed. When doing that you may need to say remove the second module and place the first in the seconds slot. Just play musical RAM.

I take it it wasn't giving any POST at all? Nothing?

Ron

 

[insomnia]

hi reloadron thanks for your reply before this machine was gave to me all that stuff would have been checked faulty ram thermal paste etc it is definetly some component and the worse part of it is there all smd components nearly impossible to find good info on them

 

[tvtech]

ye my bro is a tech and have to say they are not to bad the fujitsu siemens are a disaster also the hp dv models always complicated hard ware problems

Probably depends on model etc. A mate of mine has a Fujisu Siemens and it's holding up pretty well thus far.

Not as well as my Acer though..acccording to popular Websites....it should have died around Two Years ago...

 

[insomnia]

Probably depends on model etc. A mate of mine has a Fujisu Siemens and it's holding up pretty well thus far.

Not as well as my Acer though..acccording to popular Websites....it should have died around Two Years ago...

they say all standard laptops have 3 years life around that but if you pop open your machine and blow out the dust change paste it could go for much longer so im led to beleave

 

[tvtech]

they say all standard laptops have 3 years life around that but if you pop open your machine and blow out the dust change paste it could go for much longer so im led to beleave

You are pretty much correct.

You will be surprised about how few people know about accumulated dust and a laptops reliability.

 

[insomnia]

i seen 8 dell laptops all the same models that over heated over dust and killed the hard drive and it was all down to dust cloged at heat sink my brother showed me could not beleave it

 

[tvtech]

i seen 8 dell laptops all the same models that over heated over dust and killed the hard drive and it was all down to dust cloged at heat sink my brother showed me could not beleave it

Lappies are so thin. Many have the processing power of a Desktop. Air needs to flow to keep things cool. No big air spaces like a tower.

I clean/vacuum my lappie insides around every two Months.

Works for me.

 

[Reloadron]

hi reloadron thanks for your reply before this machine was gave to me all that stuff would have been checked faulty ram thermal paste etc it is definetly some component and the worse part of it is there all smd components nearly impossible to find good info on them

Next step would be to try and determine what makes up the PSU, probably starting from the battery and external power connectors. More than once I have crawled over a laptop with a magnifying glass and shiffing as I went along. Big problem is that they are difficult to trouble shoot with their guts out.

On another note, with regular cleaning my Dell workststion notebook is going on 4 years old and despite heavy use, with regular cleaning it still runs great. I want it to get through our summer and run till around September / October and then think about replacing it.

Ron

 

[insomnia]

ye ron thats going well for you a good clean always keeps them right also its interesting to hear that you go over your board with a scope so do i but have yet to find problems is there any tips you can give me as in what to watch out for on the ceramic caps that may be failure really find it difficult to find info on this stuff even te guy thats training us its only the city and guildes course but he has lots of expierence and sounds like he doesnt want to go near smd

 

[Reloadron]

The problem with SMD is the things are difficult to probe (there are probes made for them) and most if not all laptops now do not include a schematic. You are left guessing a good bit of what does what. I had a few old Compaqs given to me. One had a bad HDD and the other sits in a junk pile. I replaced the HDD in the one, reinstalled the OS and gave it to one of my kids to shut him up.

Unless a failure is really apparent they are just about impossible to logically troubleshoot and as you must know 100 screws later less than fun to work on.

Ron

 

[insomnia]

ye its true taking them apart i dont mind but beleave me i cracked alot of cases before i got the hang of it lol ye id really love to get the hang of smd what speed scope is needed for laptop mobo,s do you know

 

[Reloadron]

The few times I have used a scope on them it has been an older 100 MHz. analog Tektronix which has been good enough. Someday I may get energetic and again open that old Compaq that is still in the junk pile.

On another funny note, I came home today to an Email from Dell telling me my service contract will die in June. I should give them a call as the stupid email didn't include a service extension price. I had given thought to replacing it but a good workstation type laptop isn't cheap. Something else to think about.

The ***** with a system that does nothing is a where to start. Since it just sits there the logical start is the inverting PSU they use but less a diagram or schematic it is a guessing game as to what is what. Assuming a good battery and a good AC adapter I guess you could yank the HDD and probe the HDD power pins and see if you can find any voltages like the 5 and 12 volt supplies? Even though you have reason to believe the RAM was checked it can't hurt to start with the basics. I had a Dell laptop go through here a few months ago and it did nothing. I yanked the first stick of memory and the thing booted right up and just ran slow. Windows XP on 512 MB of 1 GB isn't exactly quick.

Ron

 

[insomnia]

lol that is true ron i have checked for my self now but still same problem funny thing is it comes on 8 seconds of instantly back on 8 seconds then of for good its a real twister lol