Electronic Repairing: Laptop Repair

Laptop Dead Motherboard Fix

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<span style="font-size: large;">                   Laptop Dead Motherboard Repair</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This article is only for the experienced people who know well, how to assemble and disassemble laptops.I will explain the basic troubleshooting of the motherboard. If your laptop doesn't start, Is it bad power jack or power fuse.Let's say when you start your laptop put the charger in and press the power button on and it doesn't show any reaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>What is the possible error??</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">First of all you should check the adapter by the help of multimeter. If it is working well then remove the top cover of the laptop.As you can see the picture given below the power adapter plugs into the DC-IN (DC-IN is the power jack at the back side or on other sides of your laptop.) of  power jack which is connected to the motherboard with the help of harness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In some motherboards the DC-IN power jack is directly soldered with the mother board.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now plugin the power adapter in the socket and check the voltage with the help of multimeter at the point where DC-IN jack or DC harness is connected to the motherboard. Now If you are reading the same value of voltage as viewed in case of adapter then DC-IN jack or DC harness is working properly and the fault exists in the motherboard.And if there is no voltage then the DC harness must have to be replaced.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Then you should also check the fuse using multimeter which is located near the DC-harness.If the fuse is bad then after replacing it the laptop will start.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">If the problem still exists, then you will have to disassemble the laptop and separate motherboard for testing. You have to clean all the parts from dust as we know that dust becomes an blockage  towards the conduction. So you should always keep in mind that whenever you open the laptop clean it from dust completely.Now take a overview that your laptop has any loose connection or poor solder.If you didn't find any loose connections or poor solder then just for contentment re-solder all the SMD components specially on the power section. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Note: Now a days all the laptops are designed on a surface mounted device or SMD mode and this rarely have loose connections.But re-solder only for your satisfaction.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After doing all this now you should insert the power plug in and check all the electronic components that can be tested with multimeter so you should check whether if there is any component that causes any short circuit problem.Now the only parts you have not tested are dc power jack and fuse.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now test the dc power jack from input to ground as in my case the problem was existing here.It was really shorted.I used x1 range of multimeter to test the fault.Also on further inspection i found a shorted diode.The reason behind the short circuit of dc power jack is the shorted diode.Replacing the diode brings my laptop back to life.</span></div>

Laptop Dead Motherboard Fix

Laptop Dead Motherboard Repair This article is only for the experienced people who know well, how to assemble and dis...

Laptop overheating solution

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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Laptop overheating problems</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Overheating is the primary reason for a laptop to work for a while when plugged into the wall, and then to freeze up or shut down on its own. There are two kinds of overheating involved, the first is component specific and the second is related to the overall temperature inside the laptop. Individual components, such as the CPU or video processor may simply get hotter faster than they should due to a manufacturing flaw or installation issue and we’ll talk about these issues in the section about troubleshooting motherboards, CPUs and RAM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In this discussion, we’re going to restrict ourselves to problems caused by the whole laptop getting too hot. Overheating usually takes place in the body of the laptop, although it is also possible for the LCD electronics or the inverter in the lid to be adversely affected in a high temperature environment. Engineers employ a number of strategies to prevent all of the heat generating components crammed into </span><span style="font-size: large;">laptop body from generating so much heat that they damage themselves. The most important strategy is limiting the amount of heat produced in the first place. That may sound like the ultimate design goal, but laptop manufacturers also have to compete with each other on performance, and higher performance components usually mean more heat generated. The main culprits in the heat generation cycle are the two large processors, the CPU and the video processor. Intel and AMD both manufacture special versions of CPUs for laptops, which run at lower power levels (producing less heat) when they aren’t fully employed. Temperature management in laptops goes handin- hand with battery life management, since less power consumed means less heat produced, and a longer battery life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Increased fan noise may be your first indication that your laptop is running on the hot side. It can be extremely irritating to work on a laptop with a loud fan that frequently cycles on and stays on for extended periods. A well designed laptop with good power management should be almost silent in normal usage, with the exhaust fan becoming audible only during periods of intensive computation. Fan speed is also controllable, so a well designed laptop will run the fan just fast enough to keep the temperature in the ideal operating range. However, some manufacturers go overboard on packing in high performance components to create a power laptop in the “desktop replacement” style, and these monsters tend to run hot even when they are in new condition. Go online and read some customer reviews of your laptop when you first suspect overheating. If the reviews include a common thread, like “the left side of the keyboard becomes too hot to type after fifteen minutes,” it means your laptop was poorly engineered. It’s easy to find aftermarket products that are sold for the purpose of cooling down hot laptops. These range from passive devices that are intended to lift the laptop off the desk and provide for better air circulation, to stands with multiple fans powered from the laptop’s USB port. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">These powered cooling devices might not hurt much while the laptop is plugged in with the AC adapter, but they don’t make any sense when you are running on battery since drawing power from the battery increases its internal heat generation. But if you expect a positive contribution from a powered cooling device, find one that has its own power supply. The most important thing you can do to prevent your laptop from overheating is to operate it in the proper environment. For starters, it should be placed on a hard, flat surface, with no obstructions within a couple inches of the sides and back. The flat surface can be at an angle, some laptops run cooler if the back is higher than the front as this increases passive air circulation. If you’re going to use your laptop on your lap or some other soft surface, like a bed, find a board or some other flat, heat-resistant object on which you can place the laptop. If you’re using the laptop for a short time on a non-ideal surface, like your lap, take a look at the bottom to see where the vents are and don’t block them. And remember, if your legs are getting too hot for comfort, the laptop isn’t very happy either. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Laptops are dependent on the surrounding air for cooling, so if you run a laptop in an environment that’s too hot, it will overheat no matter what other precautions you take. The maximum operating temperature for most laptops is in the range of the 85° to 95° Fahrenheit (30° to 35° Celsius). You should check your operating manual to make sure, but generally speaking, laptops have a much smaller operating range, cool or hot, than people. That doesn’t mean the laptop will immediately shut down or refuse to work if you take it up to the attic on a summer day, but heat is a merciless killer of electronic devices. Operating the laptop in a high temperature environment can lead to errors or data loss and shorten its life. By the same </span><span style="font-size: large;">token, you can’t let the laptop reach a high temperature while turned off by leaving it in a hot car or on a radiator, and then expect it to cool itself off when you take it somewhere nice and turn it on. Better to let the laptop cool down before powering it on. Cleaning the laptop may solve your overheating problem if it’s filled up with lint or if it has accumulated a blanket of insulating dust on its heatsinks, which are the metal finned structures placed on hot components to increase the surface area that can be cooled by air.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Unfortunately, unless you partially disassemble the laptop, your cleaning efforts will be limited to blowing compressed air through the vents, which can also have negative consequences. You must use canned compressed air sold specially for cleaning electronics, as other compressed air sources may contain too much moisture and bits </span><span style="font-size: large;">of foreign matter. You should also follow the instructions, especially if they warn you not to use the can upside-down, which may expel propellant. On the whole, if you’re going to try to clean out a laptop that’s experiencing overheating problems, you’re probably better off finding detailed disassembly instruction on the web and carefully removing the keyboard or getting the top half off so you can see what you are doing. As </span><span style="font-size: large;">tempted as you may be to use a vacuum, don’t, unless you have access to a special static free electronics vacuum.</span></div>

Laptop overheating solution

Laptop overheating problems Overheating is the primary reason for a laptop to work for a while when plugged into the wall, and then to f...

Troubleshooting Sound Problems

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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Computer Sound Problems</span></b></div>
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Volume up and sound audible? Check any external volume controls first, usually on the side or front edge of the laptop. We’ll come back to the volume being up again, but if you aren’t getting audible sound out of your laptop, the first thing to check that the sound isn’t muted by a checkbox on the volume control and that the slider isn’t all the way at the bottom. The basic volume control is normally present in the system tray at the<br />
bottom right of the screen, with a little speaker as the icon. If you can’t see it on a Windows system, try expanding the tray menu by clicking the left arrow in the tray, and be patient if the laptop is still booting. You can always get to the basic volume control through Windows Control Panel, and you can also change the settings there to add the control to the system tray. WiFi, network, modem OK? Many laptop manufacturers combine all of the I/O functions on a separate daughter card that rides on the motherboard. The daughter card usually includes the WiFi transceiver, the 100/1000BaseT Ethernet adapter and the dial-up modem, along with the sound system hardware. If you lose any of these capabilities at the same time that you lose your sound, odds are the daughter card has backed out of the connector to the motherboard or simply failed. Do your research on the Internet to establish that your laptop really does have an I/O daughter card before breaking the laptop open.<br />
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Make sure you find a photo illustrated guide for replacing your model’s daughter card online if the manufacturer doesn’t provide a manual. External speakers? The volume control on speakers usually<br />
serves as an on/off as well. Some speakers may be powered by batteries rather than a transformer or USB connection, so double check that you don't have speakers with dead batteries. If the speakers aren’t connected to the laptop by a USB port, they aren’t drawing amplification power from the laptop and must be getting it from a transformer or batteries. If your speakers are connected through a standard stereo jack, you can plug in a simple headphone to see if any sound is coming out of the jack, just don’t have them on your head in case the sound is too loud. If you are using external speakers from choice rather than necessity, disconnect the external speakers and try troubleshooting with the built-in laptop speakers first. Speakers that connect directly to a stereo jack on the laptop (little circular port) are running on the built-in sound card. Speakers connected through just the USB port or through a PC card are running on their own sound device.<br />
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 Laptops come equipped with an external volume control, which is handy for turning the volume up or down without having to stop what you are doing and access the control in Windows. On newer laptops, this control may be digital and integrated with the software volume, so the<br />
two don’t contradict each other. But some laptops used a hardwired volume dial that can turn the sound completely off, independently of the software setting. If the dial is off, nothing you do in software will induce the laptop to produce sound. It’s also a good time to check that the speaker stereo jack or USB connection is firmly in place. USB speakers? Make sure you have the latest driver for your operating system version downloaded from the Internet and installed. Remember that USB speakers are really combining a simple USB sound card and speakers, so the software is critical. If the Windows Device Manager doesn’t report any problem with the USB sound driver, everything is connected properly, all the volume controls in software and hardware are up and not muted, and you still can’t get sound, either the USB port or the<br />
USB speakers are bad.<br />
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Try them on another USB port and another computer before giving up on them.OS see sound device? If the operating system doesn’t see the built-in sound device, you can try reinstalling the latest driver, but unless the original driver was corrupted, it’s unlikely the problem. If Device Manager reports a hardware problem, odds are the built-in sound has failed. Unless the sound functionality is on an independent daughter card in the laptop, as determined from your owner’s manual or a little Internet research on your exact model, don’t even think about replacing it. The cost effective solution is to add USB speakers or a more complex USB or PC card sound device to the laptop. If you can’t get sound through the internal laptop speakers, plug in external headphones just to make sure that the speaker wires inside the laptop haven’t broken. This problem is more common with laptops that feature the speakers in the lid, under or alongside the screen. But software controls remain the #1 problem for laptop sound problems. Aside from the primary volume control often found in your system tray, there may be various other mixer panels and volume adjustments offered in other applications using sound.<br />
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One of these can cause a complete absence of sound if the "mute" box is checked. Do music CDs play? Does your sound system work properly with everything except music CDs? If you do have USB speakers, your DVD/CD player and your laptop motherboard must support Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) for the digital stream to be fed to the speakers. Without DAE, music CDs are not digitally processed by the laptop, only amplified. So if you have an older laptop and the sound card functions for everything except for music CDs, the problem is related to the player, not to the sound system. Check under the properties tab for the DVD/CD player and change the setting for “Enable digital CD audio” as a test. One hint that CDs are being played digitally is that the CD drive may spin up and down while playing music, rather than staying spun up at it’s slowest and quietest speed. Some people disable digital CD audio for that reason, if the laptop supports the old fashioned hard wired CD connection as well.OS sounds? In Windows, the basic "Sounds" menu is found in Control Panel. Sound events that have little speakers next to them are enabled. Enable sounds for some actions that you recognize (like "exit program" or "minimize") and see if your speakers work now. Note that Windows sounds don't need to be enabled for music CDs, videos, Internet phone or radio or games to be heard.<br />
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 We’re just working through the possible problems by process of elimination. Voice-in problem? Is your problem with the microphone? Check that you have the mic in the proper port. If you are doing speech recognition, you should purchase a quality noise cancellation mic, and go through the calibration and testing procedures your software will support. If you still have a sound quality problem, you may need to bypass your built-in sound card with a USB microphone or plug in PC card sound. Mixer muted, driver? Make sure that the microphone isn't muted in the software mixer panel. Check Device Manager for any problems, and if there are any warnings ("!", "?", "i") next tothe sound card, reinstall the driver. If the mute box is unchecked and there isn't a driver problem, try the microphone on another audio device and replace it if it's bad. The female audio connector or jack for the mic in laptops can easily get broken or deformed if the microphone cord gets pulled on or kicked, and likewise, the conductors in the cord can be frayed or broken. Poor recording quality?<br />
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 If your recordings sound poor when you play them back, check your patch cables and jacks for loose connections. Some cables are extremely low quality, so if you plan to do a lot of audio work, start by getting a good set. Make sure that your mixer settings (the software mixer panel) aren't uneven, muting the channels you want, or simply running an unexpected mix. Try muting any channels that aren’t contributing to the recording, since they may be introducing white noise. For example, if you’re recording sound from the<br />
CD, mute the mic. Don't neglect to check the quality of the audio source - if you're trying to record from a hissing tape or a scratchy recording, the sound card does not automatically filter out the unwanted noise. High end recording software does give you the option to clean up recordings, but usually after the recording process is complete.Cables and hardware quality?<br />
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 Laptops aren’t marketed for their ability to do studio quality sound recording, and there’s a reason for that. For music recording, make sure the sampling rate is set to 44 KHz, audio CD quality. Interference is always a possibility, especially if it takes the form of loud ticking or hum. Try moving the system to another location if you're recording near any electrical motors or other possible sources of low frequency interference. True audiophiles spend hundreds of dollars (or more) on audio patch cables that could be worn as jewelry, given the rare metals the wiring is drawn from.<br />
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They also spend hundreds of dollars on replacement USB or plug in PC sound cards for their laptops, and although these are marketed more for their playback rather than recording quality, you get what you pay for. Internet sound problem? Is your problem related to playing Internet radio or other web based audio applications? If the quality stinks, it's probably your connection to the Internet. If you have a broadband (cable, DSL) connection and the quality still stinks, it could be the ISP or website is overloaded, so try again later on. It could also be that you're running too many tasks at the same time or the hard drive is near full and virtual memory is thrashing it. Check the hard drive and motherboard diagnostics for potential performance issues.The Laptop Repair Workbook E-Version 1.2 173 Player site requires installed? Most Internet audio applications use a third party player, such as Real Audio. These players may or may not come preinstalled on your notebook, depending on the manufacturer.<br />
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 If you get no Internet sound at all, but all other audio applications work, either your OS and the player software aren't getting along or you’re missing a required CODEC. Try reinstalling the latest version of the software used on the particular website or research the problem on Google for your specific setup. Websites with audio content usually link to the player site from which you can download a free copy of the player, though you may have to register and reboot when it's done downloading. Game problem? There are a number of reasons the sound quality on your system may not match your experience on somebody else's laptop.<br />
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The sound card or motherboard audio in your laptop may be lower quality. The same goes for the speakers, whether internal or external. You could also be picking up interference on the speaker wires, so try routing them away from the AC power adapter and any peripheral device transformers. Laptop gaming sound will never compare well with PC gaming sound unless you’ve purchased a USB or PC card external sound adapter that supports 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound and scattering the required speakers around the room.Is the audio problem with an older game? Very old games require obsolete sound card compatibility.<br />
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The default settings of IRQ=5, Address=220, DMA=5 are usually required, since the game communicated directly with the sound card. You may be able to force your sound card to these settings, or, when supported by the driver, you might get by with emulating them under the sound card setup in Device Manager. There's also the possibility, if your game actually exits and runs in DOS mode, that you need to have the proper drivers installed in the DOS Startup files, config.sys and autoexec.bat. This won’t be possible at all in newer Windows versions without a full DOS emulator installed.</div>

Troubleshooting Sound Problems

Computer Sound Problems Volume up and sound audible? Check any external volume controls first, usually on the side or front edge o...

CPU RAM Motherboard Troubleshooting

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<b><span style="font-size: large;">CPU RAM Motherboard Troubleshooting</span></b></div>
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Live screen? Does the screen show any signs that the laptop is alive and thinking? If it does, the motherboard hasn’t failed outright, though it may turn out to suffer from partial failure or intermittent problems. If you get nothing on the LCD but the system works fine if you connect it to an external monitor, you should skip to video diagnostics from this point. Power diagnostic done? Do you see any LEDs flashing, hear any beeps, drives spinning up, fans, etc. Laptops are all equipped with status LEDs, normally including an LED for power on, an LED showing the AC Adapter is attached and functioning, and an LED to show the battery is present and charging. If the power isn't coming on, proceed to power failure diagnostics. If the<br />
power diagnostics sends you back here, continue following through the diagnostic steps.<br />
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LCD diagnostic done? If you haven't performed the video failure diagnostics for a dead screen yet, do so now. Remember that in the vast majority of laptop computers, the video processor shares the same physical memory modules with the CPU. If the diagnostic points to a video processor failure, make sure to search the Internet to see if it’s a characteristic failure for that model with a possible workaround, like reflowing the solder. Done overheating diagnostic? This is particularly important in the case of dead screen troubleshooting if the problem only occurs when the laptop is warmed up. All of the components in your laptop are subject to failure if the laptop gets too hot, including vital motherboard components, the CPU and the RAM. If your laptop is overheating and you ignore the fact, you might properly diagnose the component that is failing when it gets too hot and replace it, but unless that component was itself responsible for the overheating, you've treated the symptom without finding the cure. Swap RAM fix? Many technicians will start troubleshooting any dead screen or no boot failure by swapping out the memory, because it's easily done and it's often at fault. If you have two RAM modules installed you can try running one and then the other, and if you can borrow a compatible module from a friend, it will rarely damage their RAM to try it in your system. While we hate to recommend you go out and purchase a part just to try it out, a replacement memory module for your system may run as little as $20. If your existing RAM turns out to be good and the problem is solved later on, you’ll be able to install the spare, increasing your capacity and performance. For most home users who have never taken a laptop apart before, swapping the RAM is a good gamble before we get to taking the laptop completely apart.<br />
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CPU heatsink active? All modern laptop CPUs require a heatsink, and most of these are an active heatsink, with a fan on top, or a hood over the CPU heatsink with a fan blowing air through. Laptops offer heat and power management at both the operating system and BIOS level. You may be able to set the exact temperature in CMOS Setup for which you want the fan to come on or the system to warn of thermal overload and shut down. In the operating system, you can generally tweak the CPU settings so it consumes less power (resulting in lower performance and less heat) or for quiet operation, which limits fan usage.If you just installed a replacement CPU and powered the system up with no heatsink as a test, you may have damaged the new CPU already. If the fan on your active heatsink isn't spinning up, replace the fan and hope for the best. Make sure to confirm the new heatsink fan is operating after replacement since it could be the power point on the motherboard that's failed. You should never need to replace the heatsink itself unless you break the hold-down mechanism, since it’s just a chunk of metal. If you replace the entire active heatsink, make sure that it’s designed for your specific model, or it may fail to contact the CPU even with the proper application of thermal paste, guaranteeing failure.<br />
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Hear beeps? If you have a system that powers up, the next question is, do you hear any beeps coming from the laptop. If your motherboard doesn't have a dedicated piezoelectric speaker for beep codes, it will use the built-in laptop speakers. The beeps should come in repeated patterns, so many in a row, and then repeated. Write down what you hear and then head to Google and search for the translation of the code. If you hear an unending string of beeps, it's often bad RAM if the screen is dead, or a keyboard failure if the screen is live. Depending on the manufacturer, you might also get specific beep codes for CPU failure or video processor failure. Many beep codes have been abandoned since they pertained to non-user replaceable surface mount components. It never hurts to shut down and reseat the system RAM if you're getting a beep code. Runs stripped? Bench testing laptop motherboards is quite different from bench testing PC motherboards because laptops are engineered as a unit and it's not easy to run the motherboard out of the case. The option is to simply strip everything not essential for a live screen out of the laptop to ensure that there isn't a problem with a component that is putting an undue mechanical stress or electrical load on the motherboard. The RAM and the CPU need to remain installed, but you can remove the hard drive and the DVD drive, and if you're ambitious to take the whole laptop apart, you can try for a live screen without the keyboard or any non-essential daughter cards installed. You should always unplug the AC adapter and remove the battery while working on the laptop, but you'll have to plug the AC adapter back in again to attempt to boot.CPU swap works? If you still have a "no signs of life" situation with the motherboard powered up and stripped down, it’s either a motherboard component failure or the CPU. Swap in a known good CPU if you can get one dirt cheap or free, not forgetting to install a good heatsink and to connect the fan, even just for a quick test. You need to find a CPU that's supported by the laptop BIOS, it's not enough to find one that mechanically fits the socket, assuming the CPU isn't soldered into place! The only way to determine what CPUs are appropriate is to check your user manual or do a little research on the web. Think twice and three times about the value of your laptop before spending real money on a new CPU, since you’re just gambling the problem isn’t a motherboard failure. If your old CPU is bad and the heatsink fan is dead, it's a pretty sure bet that the dead fan caused the CPU to failure.<br />
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You can identify many motherboard component failures with a decent magnifying glass. They’ll show burnt or melted spots, discoloration, or be carbonized right out of existence. Some discrete motherboard components such as capacitors and power semiconductors are replaceable with a good soldering iron, though there’s always a chance they’ll pop again as soon as you power up if the fault lay higher upstream. Other surface mount components are barely visible to the eye, require an insider’s access to replacement parts, and expensive soldering equipment to attempt to install. There's no point in calling the manufacturer to price a new motherboard if you determine it's the most likely problem. Laptop motherboards are specific to the model and family, and the manufacturers charge you almost as much as a brand new laptop for most replacement motherboards. If the laptop is relatively new or beloved and you really want to keep it going,<br />
the best option is to try to find a replacement motherboard on eBay from a pull, from another failed laptop with a different problem like a bad LCD. There's always the risk the replacement will be bad as well, but in shopping, you may find that a second hand working laptop of your exact model is available for less than you would have thought. You can buy it and move your hard drive over in a jiffy, but make sure you don't end up paying as much as the price of a new, superior notebook. Freezes on boot screen? Does the system power right up, give a happy beep or two, then freeze on the BIOS screen?<br />
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First try removing any external connections, including your networking, cellular modem or dial-up modem cord, printer cables, anything that wasn't attached to the laptop when you took it out of the box for the first time. If this allows the laptop to boot, the problem is either with one of the peripherals you disconnected (check by process of elimination) or with the software driver for that peripheral. Windows based systems may automatically start in Safe Mode after being powered down and rebooted if the problem was with a driver.Demands password? Does your system power right up and demand a password? We're talking about pre-OS load here (a BIOS screen password), not a Windows password. This normally pops up in a small text box in the dead center of the screen, which may be dark but for the box. Some newer laptops are equipped with fingerprint scanners or other biometric locks, but these give you the option to type in a password as a fallback. If you know that a password is set but you've forgotten it, you may be in for a headache. It's also possible that somebody in your family ended up entering CMOS Setup and set the password by accident. Unfortunately, if the machine is asking for a password on boot, it may also demand a password to access CMOS Setup in order to disable it. Check with the manufacturer's tech support and do a Google search to see if there's a workaround before taking the laptop apart. Desktop motherboards come equipped with the equivalent of a "Forget Password" jumper, but laptops usually aren’t that friendly. There's a good chance that the password is cleared by removing the RTC (Real Time Clock) battery that also preserves the CMOS settings.<br />
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You should search the web for instructions for your model, as it may involve a whole complex sequence of events, like removing the RTC battery, AC adapter and main battery and then holding in the power switch. OS load takes forever? Does the OS load take forever or does the system get as far as complaining about a missing boot drive, a bad disk, missing operating system, no boot partition, anything similar? If you get any of these messages, proceed to hard drive failure diagnostics. If the system doesn't freeze on the BIOS screen, but doesn't start loading the OS either, it could be a rapid overheating problem with a critical motherboard component, but the odds are still with software. One check is to change the boot order in CMOS to boot the DVD/CD drive first, and to try a bootable disc. If the disc boots and the laptop sits quietly without freezing up, the problem is with the hard drive or installed software.Random reboot? Does the system reboot itself for no apparent reason, either during the boot process or at any point once you're up and running? Random reboots are often caused by mechanical or thermal problems. Mechanical problems include little bits of conductor flopping around inside the laptop, vibrations caused by airplanes, tapping your foot on the floor or typing on the keyboard! Remember that the whole laptop is crammed into this narrow little box and the connectors are fairly fragile. You can eliminate flaky mechanical issues by trying a USB keyboard and mouse and not touching the laptop while operating. If that solves the problem, you know the reboots are due to vibration. For thermal problems, see the overheating flowchart. A random reboot is sometimes caused by a Windows operating system setting. This can be solved by going to System Properties<br />
and selecting the Advanced tab, then the Settings tab under Startup and Recovery. Clear the checkmark under System Failure – Automatically Restart. It might solve the problem, or it might lead to a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error that helps diagnose the underlying cause, often RAM. Main battery installed? If not, try running with the battery installed, or try running your AC adapter though a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). The problem may be with your electrical power grid, either brown-outs, surges, or poor regulation. Testing with the battery installed makes more sense than running out and buying a UPS, unless you have one available, but some laptop owners see extending battery life by storing it in ideal conditions when not traveling as half the fun of ownership. Ruled out software, virus? If you don't have an up-to-date malware protection suite installed, including anti-virus, antispyware, and anti-adware and a firewall, you haven't even begun to eliminate invasive software as the root of your problem. Installing all of this protective software after the fact will usually make you aware of a malware problem, but it may be too late to<br />
cure it without extensive Google research on your part. The "good" software is designed to keep the "bad" software out. Getting rid of “bad software” once it's established on your laptop is more dicey.Software lock-ups can also occur because of data corruption or operating system registry confusion. While reinstalling the<br />
operating system and starting over from scratch is the dodge of somebody who can't pinpoint the problem, it's often the only practical solution for the casual laptop user. You should run the standard operating system clean-up chores before giving up. Windows offers a number of hard drive maintenance tasks under System Tools. Random freeze? Is your laptop suffering from random lockups?<br />
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We're talking about lockups that you need to power off and on to clear. If you can CRTL-ALT-DEL your way out of a lock-up, in fact, if you can get any response with it at all, it's more likely a software conflict or incompatibility. Although the CPU, RAM and motherboard are all candidates for intermittent lock-ups, the hard drive and motherboard connections are also possible. Overheating is always suspect in random lockups. If you call tech support with these symptoms, they may recommend that you flash the BIOS to the latest version. The procedure is simple, you download the software from the manufacturer's website and the process is automatic when you run the program, but BEWARE. If you grab the wrong version of the BIOS off the web, if the manufacturer has made a mistake, if you can't quite determine which revision of a motherboard you have, or if the process gets interrupted in the middle by a power spike, etc, you can lose the motherboard. In other words, if the BIOS doesn't get completely installed or isn't correct, you can never boot the system again to fix it. But if you've concluded that the only option is buying a new motherboard or a new laptop, it's worth a try.<br />
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If the problem is with an external peripheral, the first step is to inspect and reseat the cable connecting the device to the laptop. If it’s a USB peripheral, the best test of both the device and the cable is to connect to another computer and see if it works. If it does, the problem is with the port hardware or the driver (see the keyboard, mouse and USB troubleshooting flowchart). If the port is physically loose or damaged, the repair requires resoldering or replacing on the motherboard.<br />
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Try a different USB port on the laptop and try reinstalling any driver software for the device.Forgets CMOS, loses time? If your laptop keeps forgetting the time and the date, or gives you an error message about CMOS settings every time you power on, your RTC (Real Time Clock) battery has probably died. This<br />
battery is entirely distinct from the main battery that powers your laptop or the auxiliary battery some laptops featured for preserving memory in suspend states.It's a little battery mounted on the motherboard, usually a small disk like a wrist watch battery, and while they are widely available and inexpensive, gaining access to the motherboard to do the job can be a nightmare in some laptops. If you don't have a user’s manual with step by step instructions, search the web for a photograph illustrated guide for your exact model family. Boots w/o external connex? If the laptop boots up fine when you power up without any external connections, the problem is with the external device or with the software driver for it. External connections here include anything that isn’t part of the basic laptop, including: docking stations, port replicators, security devices, PC cards, USB devices, telephone and networking cables, an external video connection, speakers or a microphone. Don’t start trying to analyze why the device can’t affect boot in your case, just try without it.</div>

CPU RAM Motherboard Troubleshooting

CPU RAM Motherboard Troubleshooting Live screen? Does the screen show any signs that the laptop is alive and thinking? If it does,...

Repairing Keyboard, Pointer and USB

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Perhaps the most important thing you can learn about your keyboard, touchpad, and even your USB ports, is that they can all be bypassed. Most laptops offer either a PS/2 or proprietary port for an external keyboard and mouse (it may have to be manually enabled in CMOS Setup), and you can always buy<br />
inexpensive USB keyboards, mice, and other pointers to use.<br />
If all of your USB ports should fail (a very rare occurrence) you can buy a replacement USB adapter as a laptop PC card. If the problem is with the USB ports being mechanically broken inside the laptop by repeated abuse, you can still use the integrated USB through a port replicator or docking station. So the bottom line is, you don’t have to rush to replace your laptop keyboard or pointing device should the hardware fail or simply wear out.<br />
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You may notice a problem with your keyboard when some repeated characteristic spelling error appears, like you keep on leaving the letter “a” out of words. After a while, you figure out that you’re spelling them right, it’s just that hitting the “a” key doesn’t always result in an “a” showing up on the screen. The spills and crumbs that get into the keyboard and remain there often gang up with lint and hair to gum up the workings of certain keys.<br />
As long as the problem is with foreign matter gumming up the retaining clip that holds the key in place and not with the actual key contact, which is sealed within the keyboard membrane, you can fix it. That is, provided you can figure out how to remove the key with destroying the retaining clip, and you have good enough manual dexterity to put it back together again after you remove the built up crud.<br />
The difficulty of replacing the entire keyboard membrane (the keys come attached) varies from laptop to laptop, depending on whether you can easily access it from the top side, without messing with the hinges. If the keyboard disappears entirely from Device Manager it could indicate that that the motherboard controller has failed, in which case, investing in a replacement membrane is a pretty big risk.<br />
A warning in Device Manager may also indicate that the ribbon connector has come undone or failed, though that’s pretty rare unless you’ve had the laptop apart. The replacement membrane with keys usually costs less than $100, but if you normally use the laptop in one location and you don’t have any repair experience, it’s less risky to just start using a USB keyboard.<br />
Probably the handiest laptop accessory around is the USB splitter, which allows you to plug a standard mouse and keyboard into the laptop, rather than buying expensive versions with proprietary connectors from the manufacturer. More laptops come equipped with a touchpad than any other pointing device. Touchpads can take a while for new users to get used to, and they tend to come overloaded with shortcut commands.<br />
If you’re getting frustrated with your touchpad because it keeps launching applications when you’re just trying to move the pointer on the screen, you need to adjust the software settings.<br />
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 There may be a touchpad icon with all the options in the system tray, and you can always find it in Windows Control Panel. Many users are most comfortable with all of the extra functionality disabled, including tapping on the touchpad to click the mouse. If the physical buttons for clicking don’t work as you expected, their functionality can also be changed in the touchpad settings. If neither the buttons nor the touchpad work at all, make sure they are enabled in software. If Device Manager can’t see the touchpad, there’s a good chance the controller has failed or the cable has worked off.<br />
USB is one of the great successes of modern computer standards, allowing manufacturers to design tens of thousands of different products that can be attached to your laptop by one standard cable to a standard port. If it wasn't for the software, USB would be practically idiot proof. Unfortunately, the USB interface only provides the path for the laptop and the attached device to talk to each other, the software still has to be right for the conversation to make any sense.<br />
 The first step in troubleshooting USB problems is to simplify the setup. Plug the device directly into a USB port on your laptop, without daisy chaining through other USB devices, hubs, docking stations or port replicators. Once you get it working, you can try a more torturous cabling route and find out if there’s a problem somewhere in the middle.  The majority of USB ports on laptops in use today are either USB 2.0 or USB 1.1, a successful earlier version. USB 2.0 is much faster than USB 1.1 and handles power differently, so some devices sold for USB 2.0 will not be backwards compatible, and will work very poorly if at all. All USB 1.1 devices should work on USB 2.0 ports, and the new USB 3.0 ports should be able to handle all of the older devices as well.<br />
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The higher the communication speed of the device, the more important you use a quality cable. The USB port and cable wiring is actually quite simple, a ground, a +5.0 V power supply, and two signal conductors carrying a differential (plus and minus) signal for noise isolation. The main hazard to USB ports is that the cables end up end up all over the place and get yanked on. People can trip over them and you may jerk the laptop around moving your feet under the table. The worst punishment for the USB port is if you<br />
forget that you have a USB cable plugged into the laptop, close the lid, and trying to walk away with it. This abuse can lead to broken solder joints inside the laptop, and bent ports that only<br />
create the proper connection if you hold the cable just so. If the USB port feels loose inside the laptop, it’s broken. The whole laptop is put in danger if somebody trips over the cable and mpulls it off the table. The cables themselves are fairly bullet proof, normally inflicting more damage than they absorb, but a high heeled shoe or desk drawer can damage a cable and break the conductors. So you shouldn't assume a cable is good unless you've tested it with another device on your laptop, and remember that cheaper cables may work with older USB standards but not the new faster ones. Never try using a USB cable if the plastic spacer in the connector is missing. It can short out the port and damage the motherboard.</div>

Repairing Keyboard, Pointer and USB

Perhaps the most important thing you can learn about your keyboard, touchpad, and even your USB ports, is that they can all be bypassed. Mo...

Troubleshooting laptop power problems

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<b><span style="font-size: large;">How to repair laptop power problems</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">This article is only for the experienced people who know</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 22px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 22px;">well, how to assemble and disassemble laptops.I will explain the basic troubleshooting of the motherboard.</span>Because laptops are designed to be portable and function on battery power, they are engineered to run on the DC (Direct Current) power that batteries provide. But all of the power distribution networks in the modern world utilize AC (Alternating Current) because it’s a more efficient and economical way to move electricity long distances. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This means that laptops are shipped with an AC adapter that plugs into a regular outlet and converts that AC power into the proper DC voltage for the laptop. Most modern AC adapters for laptops can function on a power grid ranging from 100 to 240 volts AC. You should take a look at the label on the AC adapter, often called a “brick” before you go traveling around the world. All that’s needed to plug a variable AC adapter into a different power grid is a new end for the plug, purchased at a local hardware store for around a dollar.If your laptop doesn’t turn on when you hit the power button, the power system is a logical place to begin the troubleshooting process. The laptop power system can be viewed as three separate parts: The A/C adapter that gets plugged into a power outlet on one end and into the laptop on the other end, the laptop motherboard or power regulation daughter card that monitors and distributes power to the laptop components, and the battery.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The vast majority of laptops manufactured these days can operate without the battery installed. In some cases, the manufacturers will suggest that you remove the battery and store it somewhere cool if using the laptop in one location for extended periods of time, as in weeks or months. In all instances, it pays to read the owner’s manual on how to best extend the battery life for the particular model.One of the oddities about troubleshooting laptop power </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">failure as opposed to PC power failure is that the battery gives </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the laptop an independent power system for as long as the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">charge lasts. If the PC in your home is plugged into a bad power </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">outlet or its power strip is accidentally switched off you’ll quickly </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">figure out why. But if the power strip gets turned off while you </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">are operating your laptop, or a breaker trips, or the local power </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">grid suffers a brown out, you might not even notice until the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">battery runs down. That’s why it’s important to not jump to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">conclusions about laptop battery failures, and to try charging the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">battery under different conditions before giving up and buying a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">new one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Just because the battery didn’t charge while the laptop </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">was plugged in doesn’t mean the battery is bad. The power to</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the AC adapter may have been interrupted, the AC adapter or </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">cable to the laptop may have failed, the connector tip may have </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">been partially plugged into the laptop, or the battery may have </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">become partially unseated. There could also be something </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">wrong with the laptop charging circuitry or software. Running </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">out and buying a new battery before investigating all the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">possibilities will often mean a $100 or $150 mistake.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">New laptops should have a status LED in a visible </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">location on the front or keyboard surface of the laptop that tells </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">you when the power input is good. However, that doesn’t help </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">you determine where the failure is if the LED doesn’t light, or </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">isn’t lit steadily. A simple DC voltage meter can be used to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">confirm that the AC adapter is putting out the correct voltage, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">though it will usually read a little high since there’s no load on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the output. A harried technician may stick the DC connector on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">his tongue as a quick test to see if it’s live, but you can’t taste the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">difference between 12.5 volts and 18.5 volts, and you probably </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">shouldn’t try. Another crude check is whether or not the AC </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">adapter gets warm while it’s plugged into the laptop and a live </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">power outlet. It shouldn’t get hot, just warm to the touch if the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">battery is charging or the laptop is operating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Some AC adapters</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">are equipped with a status LED right on the brick that tells you </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">when the AC adapter believes it’s functioning properly. Don’t </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">forget to make sure that the cord from the wall outlet to the AC </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">adapter is firmly plugged into the brick.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Electronic devices often produce high frequency buzzes </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and whistles under regular operating conditions. Some people </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">can hear these sounds, especially young folks and women, while</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">older men tend to have very limited high frequency hearing. A </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">high frequency whistling sound may indicate a capacitor in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">AC power adapter is beginning to fail, but it will often whistle </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">while it works for years to come. You don’t have to replace the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">AC power adapter just because you can hear it, unless it gets </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">worse and worse over time or it gives you a headache. Because </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">AC adapters employ switching mode technology, they are more </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">likely to make noise when the battery is fully charged and the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">laptop is turned off. AC adapter bricks are usually glued shut </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and aren’t designed for consumer repairs, so unless you have </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">solid electronic troubleshooting skills and a source for parts, it’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a question of living with it or replacing it outright.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The real killer is when the connector inside the laptop</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">fails. Sometimes the center pin of the connector breaks off,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">sometimes the solder joints on the main board fail, sometimes </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">there’s a break between the connector contacts and the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">motherboard contacts. In all these instances, you or the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">technician has to gain clear access to the main board in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">laptop to make the repair. Even with clear disassembly</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">instructions, it’s a big job to attempt on your own and requires </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">decent soldering skills. It might be worth the effort if your only </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">cost effective alternative is replacing the laptop outright. The </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">replacement connector usually retails for less than $10 (and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">wholesales for pennies), but the repair charge can be several </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">hundred dollars for some models if you take it to a local shop.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Within the laptop itself, most components receive power </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by way of direct connection to the motherboard or through very </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">short cables. In this way, laptops are less complicated than PCs, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">where the drives and some power hungry video cards are </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">connected directly to the power supply by long cables with </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">multiple connectors. Because of this, power failure to the hard </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">drive or DVD player in your laptop is rare, and in most cases </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">would be corrected by reseating the drive in the connector. But </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">power failures can occur if the main board is damaged when the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">laptop is dropped or a foreign substance (like beer) is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">introduced. However, the laptop screen, its supporting hardware </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and any special features such as a web cam incorporated in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">lid, are powered by cables running through the laptop hinge. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When troubleshooting possible power failure to the components </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in the laptop lid, you have to eliminate cable failure in the hinge </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or at the cable connectors as a cause.</span></div>
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Troubleshooting laptop power problems

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