Laptop Help!

[Newbie]

Recently my aunt mailed me her laptop to take a look at it because all of a sudden it would not turn on. She said she had turned it off put it in it's carrying case and the next time she went to use it, it would not turn on. Anyway I went to disasemble it and took a picture of the mobo. Can anybody look at this picture and spot anything wrong with it? If you need me to take more pictures zoomed in on different areas I will be happy to do it, just ask. Post any comments if you have any as to why it might not turn on.

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[JoeImp]

Lol you took a picture of a mobo and want us to find a problem with it. Check the battery/power stuff. Does it do anything when you try to power it on, beep it at all? I assume you tried to get it running before you ripped it apart? What did you try and what did it do?

[Newbie]

The laptop would do absolutely nothing. When I hit the power button nothing happened. I tried with the ac adapter without the batter and visa vera and with both. I couldn't get any beeps as it just won't do anything. I've been told it has been checked by a professional and they said the power cord was getting power just the laptop wouldn't come on maybe because the fan was not working. They were going to charge about 300 dollars just to open it up so you see why I did this. I mainly took the picture so if anyone noticed any soddering problems or anything out of the ordinary they could tell me.

[Arcane Wizard]

Not much to see with the mobo removed from the rest of the laptop.

Also, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter

[Newbie]

What would you like to see? Also I've never used a multimeter before and really wouldn't know what to do, but I'll research it as I looked at radioshack and they're pretty cheap.

Do you know what range multimeter I would need for test on a laptop?

[Arcane Wizard]

Same you'd use with any household appliance. But all you'll really need it for is to be able to show if all the wires work, not if the voltages and resistances add up on all the soldered components in the whole laptop.

Could just be that the on-switch broke.

Funny story: my dad's PC case's on button came with the wires soldered to the wrong switch contacts, only the reset button worked. Both switches' mechanisms where identical and of course right next to eachother so you could instantly see the wires where wrong. lolz

[Newbie]

Probably a newbie question, but how would I go about testing to see if the power switch is broken? If I get the multimeter do I need to plug in the ac adapter and put the diodes up against what to test? I really don't know much about this, but want to learn and thats why I'm asking a lot of questions.

[Arcane Wizard]

Just connect the meter to the connectors on the swith (should have wires attached running to the mainboard) and see if it lets current pass through while you push it or when you release it. I don't know if the switches are different for laptops, but it should only let a short burst of current through while you press it's button. No measurable current (from your meter) over the switch at all before, while, and after you press the button means it's dead and you don't need to spend $300 to fix it. Otherwise, figure out if that's what it's supposed to do and move on to the wires connected to the battery and mainboard. If all those are fine too but no LEDs light up or any of the laptops components seem to come to life in any way whatsoever, you might want to get a professional to look at it.

Of course, look for damage and other things that shouldn't be there (burn marks, traces of liquids, etc).

[NETWizz]

Laptop troubleshooting steps:

1. If laptop does not power on, press the button on back of battery to make sure it is charged. If not, charge battery.

2. Take power adapter and verify it works by connecting it to another laptop without a battery. I.e. If you are certain the power adapter works, it should be able to fire up that laptop.

3. Strip down the external parts. I.e. Undock it, remove Card Bus/PCMCIA cards. Remove Modular Bay Drives. Anything extra.

4. At this point, you have motherboard, keyboard, LCD, processor, RAM, and power adapter and Hard drives. Does it work?

5. Do you have any lights or any beeps? With no other batteries attached, this is a sign the power adapter works. Is the power brick's light light?

6. Remove the CMOS battery and let it sit over night. In the morning, reconnect it and also reseat the RAM. Try again.... try with one stick

7. Try connecting an External Monitor to verify the LCD just is not bad.

8. Power button?

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Order of failure:

1. Power adapters
2. Extra stuff connected to laptop such as HDD, Battery, Modular Bay Drive...
3. Keyboards, power button, and other accessories.

All of the above you should get some beeps, lights, or something on the screen assuming thee is power.

Failed LCD should be detected by connecting it to another external monitor unless it is the video card, which often is part of the motherboard.

4. Motherboard

5. Processor (Never seen one fail in a laptop... seen loads of laptops.) The Intel processor looks like a Pentium M Centrino, but I cannot see the markings. Regardless, it is Intel, and it is reliable.

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If nothing you do causes it to POST or give any indication of error, you can fiddle with the power button. If the battery is dead and won't charge, the motherboard is bad.

If nothing you can do can get it to POST or do anything and the power switch works and power is being delivered, the motherboard is bad.

[Arcane Wizard]

CMOS battery reset should only take a couple of seconds (10 or so?), so you can safe some time by only taking it out a short while first.