son of a...

Fox_Mulder · 04-10-2005, 02:02 AM

It all started when the little clip on the laptop connecting it to the docking station broke. Now I bought a replacement back cover for th elaptop to replace this clip, but whilst unscrewing the mainboard, screw driver slips and cuts a deep scratch in the mainboard. Unfortunately this was a fatal wound as the laptop no longer powers up. Looks like my car puter is dead. Add this to my current lilliput touch screen problem and it almost seems like a waste of money! Now gotta get a job so I can return to the scene (I've taken enough money off my parents!). I will probably get a via mainboard or soemthin', unless a) I get an IBM X20 system board or b) another broken laptop comes my way.

Ah Well, hopefully I get some cash soon, I was looking forward to a carputer!

Chairboy · 04-10-2005, 02:06 AM

Don't give up, you might be able to repair the scratch. If it just cut a trace, you can reroute around it with solder and wire.

Fox_Mulder · 04-10-2005, 02:23 AM

I tried doing that, but unfortunately nothing. It did once power up, but nothing came up on the screen. Apparantly these boards have like 4 layers in them, I might've cut through 2 or more layers.

Rafster · 04-10-2005, 03:28 AM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...757847482&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...758633889&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...759162628&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...758236265&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...758368959&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...758659249&rd=1

These are not too bad. I'm not affeleated with these sellers at all!

Peace,

Rafster

Fox_Mulder · 04-10-2005, 03:35 AM

Thanks for the auctions!
However my dad said he is bringing a laptop from nauru (island somewhere in the pacific!) and it has a broken screen. Apparantly it was due to a defect in manufacturing, but if for some reason Toshiba doesn't do the repair for free (the whole screen is buggered) I might be able to lay my hands upon it. If I do, it should fit perfectly in my current system - As it doesn't need a docking station to wire up a power button because the power button is an actual button on the machine unlike how the IBM power buttons are combined with the keyboard. And it will work with my Targus Auto/Air Adaptor. It is a Toshiba Satellite 1730.

[edit] Wow lots of auctions, however I foudn an auction for just a system board for buy it now AUD$93 on ebay, but I'll probably wait until I see if I can get this Toshiba.

LagunaICE · 04-10-2005, 04:12 AM

About a month ago, I was reparing my sub notebook Dell Latitude L400 (damn that thing is tiny). It happened I have had broken one ofe plastic screen holder so I had to fix it with hot melting glue. You know, my range of tools to repair anything consists of hammer, sharp knive and fix/it/all power tape so you see this time I went a little too far

It turned out I had to cut some part of glue with very sharp knive and I had to cut it near by flat cable connecting mainboard with LCD. What do you know, I have made a very nice cut into it causing laptop (was running because I was intalling some stupid updates) to shut down immediatelly. I started panic, coz it of course did not power up again. Looking at the cut whitch went across at least 4 conductive wires I was all about to smash that laptop against the wall. Then, in the end, all it needed was to unplug it from wall, took off the battery and wait a couple of secs to let capacitors to discharge. Laptop powered up again and everything works fine again since then despite everything was looking so hopeless. Dont give up.

Yuriy · 04-10-2005, 04:34 AM

Some tips as I have fried about 5 laptops and am a self-proclaimed laptop guru on these boards:

1. disconnect the main plug
2. disconnect the battery
3. remove the cmos battery
4. press the power button a few times and go have some coffee
5. come back, plug only the power cord in and try to boot
6. if it won't boot, put the cmos battery back in and try to boot again
7. if at this point you have not booted up, you're in trouble

My buddy was driving down the parking lot and hit a bump, his laptop shut down and would not come back to life. Turns out his cmos battery was knocked out of place for a second and caused some error. We took it out and but it back in and now his laptop works like usual.

I personally shorted just about anything in my laptops and came to a conclusion that it's very hard to really fry one, or break by cutting something for that matter. These things don't just fail all at once, usually they are modular and will still boot even of video card or pcmcia controllers or some similar BS is damaged.