I broke my laptop

[Wolfgang Allinger]

On 06 Jan 13 at group /sci/electronics/repair in article lnjje811bcnfgtt3ilnoa9o9h6pbbo4cnn@4ax.com
<jeffl@cruzio.com> (Jeff Liebermann) wrote:

On 06 Jan 2013 15:22:00 -0400, all2001@spambog.com (Wolfgang Allinger)
wrote:

And I have here in PY a T30 which died one year ago because a bad
(flexing) mobo. The best notebook, I ever owned. So I didn`t burried
it

I agree. It's a good machine.

Maybe you can transplant some parts to revieve one of the both T30.

The intermittent motherboard is caused by the BGA chips coming
unsoldered from the MB.

I know

It can be fixed crudely with a hot air SMT
desoldering station, or more correctly with a BGA reballing kit.

I`ve baked it two times in my oven, it works for some month. But I gave
up, to bake it a third time. The baking tips I found somewhere in IBM HW
forums. But it takes just a hour to dismantle it and seal all critical
places with alu-foil... and then another hour to fix it all. Ok, the
second time was a bit quicker.

Anyhow I now have two German NB with bulky 17", no IBM quality, but good
enough for me. Also I miss the T30 a little bit...




Saludos (an alle Vernünftigen, Rest sh. sig)
Wolfgang

--
Wolfgang Allinger, anerkannter Trollallergiker reply Adresse gesetzt!
Ich diskutiere zukünftig weniger mit Idioten, denn sie ziehen mich auf
ihr Niveau herunter und schlagen mich dort mit ihrer Erfahrung!
(lt. alter usenet Weisheit)

 

[Sjouke Burry]

"Gareth Magennis" <sound.service@btconnect.com> wrote in
news:bUlGs.696421$nB6.571471@fx21.am4:

"William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:kccp7e$7i6$1@dont-email.me...
I'm still rather bemused that a bit of wine could short out
a 5V or so line and cause that amount of current to flow.

It might not have. It might have caused a chip to misbehave, which in
turned pulled the excessive current.



Hmm, this is interesting.

I have been assuming that the connector in the photos has a whole load
of data pins on the left hand side, and 2 heavier duty pins on the
right carrying the power supply. It looks to me that these two power
supply pins have been shorted, resulting in localised heating to the
point of partially melting the connectors. I have also assumed that
this huge increase in current is what killed the melted device that
was supplying that current.

I can't otherwise see a scenario whereby a faulty component could have
forced such a huge current between these two pins.


Gareth.

The water causes the chip to deliver the wrong, too high voltage,
processor and/or memory dies, and in doing that, draws excessive current,
melting the stabilizer chip.
No need for the water to carry lots of current.

 

[mike]

On 1/6/2013 10:50 AM, Gareth Magennis wrote:

hi Jeff,

hope this makes things clearer than my description!

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/2610/imag0147pk.jpg

Do you think it is worth me trying to fix this? I've written it off at the
moment.

Both plug and socket seem quite badly damaged, but might still work or I
could possibly hard wire the power connections.
If I can find out what that melted device is I can replace it if I can find
one to buy.
Do you think there will be further damage? I can buy another keyboard cheap
enough on FleaBay.


I ordered another laptop yesterday, but this one did used to sound excellent
as a TV / mini hi-fi, and was especially useful for editing the 10 hour
recordings without headphones or external speakers.




Thanks,

Gareth.


Not clear why you chose to obscure the plug in the picture.

If that's a metal ring around the periphery of the plug, the
likely scenario is that the wine got on the outside and shorted
that metal ring to the pads on the socket. Then the pins got hot
and melted the plug and socket. The conductive medium may have been
remnants of flux.

I'd clean up the socket to clear the shorts and see if it runs on an
external monitor. Since you have the schematic, put power to it and
see if the display works. Then worry about the chip.
You can always remove the tape and tap into the power wires and jumper
to the board.

 

[Windmill]

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> writes:

[...........................] Those models are also

in the class of machines with the defective Nvidia chips.

In what way were they defective? I have a cheap EMachine whose VGA
output failed (the HDMI seemed to still produce some output, but I
can't use that) and a cheap Gateway laptop whose output to its LCD
screen also failed (at about the time I had decided to use it with a
serial link to the EMachine to try to see what was going on.

Both have NVidia chips.

Then I used the laptop with an external VGA monitor and a serial link
to the Emachine. When I made the serial connection, both machines
started to display correctly, and have worked for some months since!

That's enough to make me wonder what is in those NVidia chips besides
VGA circuitry.

Bizarre.



--
Windmill, TiltNot@Nonetel.com Use t m i l l
J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ O n e t e l . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 13:45:16 GMT, spam-no-spam@Onetel.net.uk.invalid
(Windmill) wrote:

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> writes:

[...........................] Those models are also
in the class of machines with the defective Nvidia chips.

In what way were they defective?

There was a class action suit involving Dell, HP-Compaq, and some
others. I attempted to get 5 laptops repaired under the settlement,
but was denied because I lacked the original receipt. I did manage to
get one repaired by Dell. They replaced the motherboard with another
defective motherboard trading one problem for another. When I called
Dell to get their repair fixed under their warranty, they announced
that they do not warranty their own warranty repairs. I gave up.

The original Nvidia settlement web site was removed immediately after
the settlement window had expired. These offer some detail:
<http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/nvidia-reaches-settlement-in-class-action-suit-affecting-apple/>
<http://slickdeals.net/f/2445870-NVIDIA-LAWSUIT-www-nvidiasettlement-com-Includes-Notebooks-from-hp-compaq-dell-aaple>
What I find disgusting is that even during the settlement window,
Nvidia was continuing to ship known defective video chips.

I have a cheap EMachine whose VGA
output failed (the HDMI seemed to still produce some output, but I
can't use that) and a cheap Gateway laptop whose output to its LCD
screen also failed (at about the time I had decided to use it with a
serial link to the EMachine to try to see what was going on.

Sorry, but I can't help you. You didn't bother supplying the model
number or either the machine or video card. I have had serious
difficulties in the distant past dealing with Emachine hardware and
refuse to fix them. The most common problem is a failing power
supply, which initially causes parts and pieces of the computer to act
oddly (hangs, crashes, feature failures, etc). Eventually, the power
supply just quits, making the culprit obvious.

I have 3 assorted Gateway laptops in the closet (for parts). All have
the same problem. They won't turn on. Gateway has been uncooperative
bordering on hostile, has refused to supply repair information, parts,
or repair information. I don't have the time or equipment to do
reballing, so they're destined for either a miraculous fix if I can
find the parts and time, or cannibalization.

Both have NVidia chips.

So do most of my working laptops.

Then I used the laptop with an external VGA monitor and a serial link
to the Emachine. When I made the serial connection, both machines
started to display correctly, and have worked for some months since!

Yes, that's common. There's no common failure mode for the Nvidia
chips. More correctly, there are multiple failure modes most of which
are itemized in the settlement web pages. Sometimes, and external
monitor works, sometimes not.

That's enough to make me wonder what is in those NVidia chips besides
VGA circuitry.

There's a HUGE amount of technology in the video chips. The idea is
to offload anything that has to do with video to the video chips,
leaving the CPU to run programs, not deal with video management. Just
read about the enhanced technologies used by game programs and you'll
have a clue.
<http://www.nvidia.com/page/technologies.html>
<http://www.geforce.com/hardware> (near bottom of page)

Bizarre.

Not really. More like disgusting.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

"I have 3 assorted Gateway laptops in the closet (for parts)."

Are any P series ? We might be able to make a deal. I got one that seemed to shut down at random running Vista, but would run Linux all week long. It was not the OS though because I had four identical ones and swapped drives around and the problem stayed with the machine. Also the HD (a WD1600BEVT) locked itself and Gateway as ell as WD are being useless. This spontateous lockdown is a known issue with this model. Guess what I will never buy again and will unrecommend in the strongest of terms.

Anyway, this laptop is a real gem. I broke the CD door (front only) on the one I use so that is getting swapped, but it still works. I broke the keyboard connector on the MB so I have to use external, but it doesn't matter because the one I use is about ready. The edge enter key is flopping in the breeze and the arrow keys need to be hit hard to work.

My sister had one of the lot I bought and broke the screen so that is gone. The PS has been dropped and has a cracked case.

Although it shuts down, it does not fail to power up. Think maybe we can do something with the lot of them ? (that is if they're P series, these are the 17" jobs with the (almost) full keyboard, which is one of the reasons I bought them)

They have the shitties sound I have ever heard. It's compressed like AM radio and I can't seem to find out how to turn off that "feature".

Anyway, I would trade the thing for damnear anything. It's basically a core in a way. the shutting down could well be a cooling problem, one of your scrap units might have just what it needs. A cooling problem would explain why it shuts down on Vista but not Ubuntu.

Lemmme know if we might be able to do something here. I don't weant muuch for such aa decrepit thing of course, in fact a trade would be good. Junk for junk lol.

 

[Windmill]

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> writes:

On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 13:45:16 GMT, spam-no-spam@Onetel.net.uk.invalid
(Windmill) wrote:

Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> writes:

[...........................] Those models are also
in the class of machines with the defective Nvidia chips.

In what way were they defective?

There was a class action suit involving Dell, HP-Compaq, and some
others. I attempted to get 5 laptops repaired under the settlement,
but was denied because I lacked the original receipt. I did manage to
get one repaired by Dell. They replaced the motherboard with another
defective motherboard trading one problem for another. When I called
Dell to get their repair fixed under their warranty, they announced
that they do not warranty their own warranty repairs. I gave up.

The original Nvidia settlement web site was removed immediately after
the settlement window had expired. These offer some detail:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/nvidia-reaches-settlement-in-class-action-suit-affecting-apple/
http://slickdeals.net/f/2445870-NVIDIA-LAWSUIT-www-nvidiasettlement-com-Includes-Notebooks-from-hp-compaq-dell-aaple
What I find disgusting is that even during the settlement window,
Nvidia was continuing to ship known defective video chips.

I have a cheap EMachine whose VGA
output failed (the HDMI seemed to still produce some output, but I
can't use that) and a cheap Gateway laptop whose output to its LCD
screen also failed (at about the time I had decided to use it with a
serial link to the EMachine to try to see what was going on.

Sorry, but I can't help you. You didn't bother supplying the model
number or either the machine or video card. I have had serious
difficulties in the distant past dealing with Emachine hardware and
refuse to fix them. The most common problem is a failing power
supply, which initially causes parts and pieces of the computer to act
oddly (hangs, crashes, feature failures, etc). Eventually, the power
supply just quits, making the culprit obvious.

I have 3 assorted Gateway laptops in the closet (for parts). All have
the same problem. They won't turn on. Gateway has been uncooperative
bordering on hostile, has refused to supply repair information, parts,
or repair information. I don't have the time or equipment to do
reballing, so they're destined for either a miraculous fix if I can
find the parts and time, or cannibalization.

Both have NVidia chips.

So do most of my working laptops.

Then I used the laptop with an external VGA monitor and a serial link
to the Emachine. When I made the serial connection, both machines
started to display correctly, and have worked for some months since!

Yes, that's common. There's no common failure mode for the Nvidia
chips. More correctly, there are multiple failure modes most of which
are itemized in the settlement web pages. Sometimes, and external
monitor works, sometimes not.

That's enough to make me wonder what is in those NVidia chips besides
VGA circuitry.

There's a HUGE amount of technology in the video chips. The idea is
to offload anything that has to do with video to the video chips,
leaving the CPU to run programs, not deal with video management. Just
read about the enhanced technologies used by game programs and you'll
have a clue.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/technologies.html
http://www.geforce.com/hardware> (near bottom of page)

Thank you for the links; I'll take a look. After I complete my tax
return :-(

--
Windmill, TiltNot@Nonetel.com Use t m i l l
J.R.R. Tolkien:- @ O n e t e l . c o m
All that is gold does not glister / Not all who wander are lost