Just say no to crack chips, because this little capacitor brought this massive gaming laptop to its grave. A subscriber sent me this Alienware after two shops told him that the motherboard needs to be replaced. Well, let's see if we can fix this motherboard instead. The first thing I see is that it won't turn on and the light turns off on the charger. I will need to pull this motherboard out and get it under the microscope in thermal camera. Using my multimeter, I find that there's a dead short on the main power rail. I will inject one volt and monitor the thermal camera for a shorted component. There, did you see that light up? This tiny capacitor on CPU VCore is cracked and shorted the ground. I will replace both of these here to prevent a future failure. Okay, the short is gone, will it turn on? Boom! Sweet success! If you need a repair, link is in our bio.
New day, New Alienware to repair. This time, this mail in laptop repair was damaged by the customer who said they disassembled the machine to access and clean the fan and heatsink. Then the screen went black and started displaying an error code. It doesn't take me long to see that there's a bad burn on the motherboard. Let's take a closer look under the microscope. I can see that the chip was destroyed which is part of the LCD backlight circuit. And looking at the LCD connector, I could see that the customer bent a pin and shorted out the LCD cable when reassembling it. Chips that are burned this badly are basically welded to the board. Let's remove the chip and see how bad the damage is. Well, it's pretty bad! We'll need to replace these solder pads. This will give you an idea of how small these pads are. Okay, the new pads are in, time to install the new chip, and will it fix it? No. Unfortunately, there was catastrophic damage to this laptop.
Oh my god. This is what happens when you dump coffee into a laptop. The corrosive growth in this laptop is next level, and I'm surprised the laptop turns on, but at least the aroma is quite lovely. But this is a spill. So can this laptop be saved? Well... maybe... The laptop will need to be stripped down completely, so we could start the cleaning process. So I will need to enlist the help of my tech travisty on this one. With everything removed on the board and under the microscope, we start by cleaning all the corroded areas with isopropyl alcohol. Some of the components will need to be reflowed and replaced. So after the manual cleaning, time for a quick dunk the ultrasonic cleaner and an alcohol bath. Then it is dried in the oven. Well now this motherboard looks new, but does it work? BOOM if you need to repair, link is in our BIO.
DEAD DEAD DEAD DEAD. All of these laptops have the same issue with different causes. They all short out the charger when plugged in, and we're told by a repair shop that the motherboard needed to be replaced. But what were the causes? First up is an Alienware 17 R4 and the cause was a shorted MOSFET on CPU V-core that powers the processor. Up next is an XPS 9520 and it had a whole burned straight through all the layers of the board; I couldn't fix this one. Moving on to another, queue the haters, Alienware 17 R4 with a shorted MOSFET on GPU V-core powering the NVIDIA graphics chip. And the last one was a Precision 7720 that had a crack capacitor that was shorted on the main power rail. All these laptops were mailed to my shop as a last resort, because they knew that a bad motherboard doesn't always mean replacing the motherboard. Let me know what you think. Why do you think this happened? Heat? Age?
New day, new laptop repair. This laptop was mailed in to our repair shop, because the battery would not charge. The customer said they tried three different chargers and I could also confirm with my charger that the AC adapter is unknown which means the laptop could not communicate with the charger. The common solution for this issue is to replace the DC charge port, but that would be too easy. And it was. After measuring the PSID communication pin at 0 volts, this means the issue is the motherboard. Well... let's remove it and get it under the microscope and see if we can fix the issue. Finding the cause of this fault can be difficult for some, but not for the greatest Dell technician, What do we have here? The 33 ohm resistor is burnt and lucky for me, I keep a roll of these for this such occasion. After I replace this tiny chip, I'll get this Dell XPS reassembled. This customer is lucky, I was able to fix the charging issue and saved another motherboard for the landfill. If you need a repair, link is in our bio.
I got another mail in laptop repair. So let's see what's wrong with this one. This subscriber sent in this 17 inch Alienware gaming laptop, because it's shut off while they're playing a game and never came back on. This looks like another dead motherboard, because it shorts out the charger when it's plugged in. Time to open it up. Now I will use my multimeter to measure all the power rails to check for a short. I can see a dead short on the main 19 volt power rail. Time to see if I can fix this motherboard. I will need to pull out this board and get it under the microscope. To find the shorted component, I will inject voltage into the 19 volt power rail, but I will limit it to one volt just in case. Well uh oh, there's a short on the integrated NVIDIA graphics card. One of these all-in-one MOSFET driver ICs are shorted to the main 19 volt power rail; sending all the power straight to the GPU. This GPU could be dead, but let me replace this bad MOSFET package here and see if I can get this laptop to turn on. Okay, the short is done, will it turn on? Yes. I was able to run the FurMark GPU stress test for more than an hour. This shows that the protection circuits did their job and kept the GPU safe. This repair was only two hundred bucks and I earned another happy subscriber.
Oh no, there's been a blackout! This could be because this gaming laptop was covered in black duct tape, but this customer brought in their laptop for a repair. They said they heard a pop and smelled smoke, and then the laptop went dark. Well, I could already tell that this umm... Dell G5 is going to be a fun repair. Let's open up this heavily gamed machine and take a look inside. Well, okay. I can see a blown capacitor here. I will need to remove the board and get it under the microscope. It looks like these capacitors are the only burnt components. These are near the input DC jack and handle a lot of power. On newer versions of this board, these ten microfarad ceramic capacitors were upgraded to fifteen microfarad electrolytic capacitors, like on this donor board. I'm going to upgrade them, so he won't see this issue again. Okay. Now that they are replaced, moment of truth. Success!
12 years old. That's the age of this monster relic that was shipped to me. Back in the day when it was cool to have a, hey, look it has JBL audio. This laptop shorts the AC adapter and is really not worth fixing, but the customer begged me to take a look at it. So, I removed the motherboard and I started to smell the magic smoke. All signs pointed to; why am I wasting my time? But now that I could see the spill that caused the magic. I think it should be a quick fix, because most of the damage is on this 10 dollar daughterboard. But first, let me clean up this connector and check it under the microscope. Yep, I think it looks good. So I will grab a new daughterboard from the warehouse. But before I connect it, I plug in the motherboard and test it, and yeah, this really happened. But this did not make me quit for some reason. I said, I could just replace the connector, and so I did. But now the thermal camera finally tells me to stop the madness, because there are still more burnt chips and the laptop is.
I got another mail in laptop repair and it's a huge Alienware gaming laptop. This customer said he was trying to replace his keyboard and ripped the LCD ribbon connect. This happens quite often on this board, because of where the connector is located. Let me take a look. Yep, this connector is completely damaged and the board will need to be replaced. Let me grab a new one from the warehouse. But wait, what fun is that? Let me show you how I replace these connectors. Okay, it's time to remove the board and get it under the microscope. First, I will remove the old connector completely and clean the contacts, and then I will prepare the pads for a new connector. All right. Now that the connector is on, time to test. Awesome. I save this guy 400 bucks.
Have you ever seen a water cooled laptop? This Dell G15 wet edition is displaying a common issue that happens with these? The laptop will no longer turn on when put in water dumped on keyboard mode. Well, that's exactly what this customer did. This one year old gaming laptop is three weeks out of warranty and got drenched with H2O crap. Can I repair this motherboard or is it too much for me? Umm... probably. But I unscrewed the screwed motherboard and hope for the best. The corrosion is of the Gordon Ramsay source variety. To actually fix a water damaged board, you would need to clean and replace all the corroded components, which are everywhere. Forget it! This board is hosed. I gave the customer a few options. I could replace this motherboard and keyboard palmrest assembly for 450 dollars. Or I found the same laptop on Ebay for 550, so he could replace the entire thing. I also sent him some cyber monday deals I found for him. What do you think be should do?
It's a new day, a new Dell laptop repair. Let's see what's wrong with this one. Okay. Well, this doesn't look good. Can you see the bulge in this palmrest? This has got to be a swollen laptop battery. Let me open it up and take a look. Whoa! The case is pulling itself apart, and I could barely get these screws out. This battery is about to go thermonuclear. Has this ever happened to you? I'm going to go grab a new one and you can compare the size difference. This is crazy. I'm glad to replace this battery now because this could cause some real damage. Once the new batteries installed, the palmrest went back to a normal shape, which is great. This could have ended the disaster, but I was able to get the battery replaced and sent back the same day.
Okay. I got another mail in laptop repair. Let's see what's wrong with this one. Well, okay. I think I see the problem here. The customer's notes said that they were trying to replace their LCD screen and ordered the wrong one and then broke their LCD cable in the process. Well, don't worry. I can get this all fixed up for you. The LCD cable is pretty mangled, so let me go grab a new one. And while back here, I'll grab the correct LCD screen. Replacing LCD screens are usually pretty straightforward, except if you order the wrong one. I was able to fix this customer's failed repair for 180 dollars. Do you think that was a good deal?
This was an easy fix. This laptop came with a note that said the laptop powers on, but just shows the Dell logo. Let's try it out. Okay. I can see the Dell logo. Well, it's been a few days and I'm back to working on this laptop. I guess it's not going to boot up. Let me perform a CMOS reset. After opening it, I unplugged the main battery in the CMOS battery. And with no power of the system, I will press the power button. Now I'll reconnect the battery in power. Perfect! It boots up now. It just needed a CMOS reset. But I'll run a test on the whole system just in case, and also make sure the hard drive is functioning perfectly. Yep, no other issues and that's how.
I got another mail in laptop repair. This one should be an easy fix, right? I just need to perform a CMOS reset according to the customer's notes. Well, not so fast. This laptop shorts the USB-C charger, which is bad, real bad! I opened it up, and installed a different battery, but still no worky. Looks like there's a short on the motherboard or a bad charge IC. Well, before I get to soldering, this laptop looks like really new, so let's check to see if it has a warranty. Yep, Dell will have to fix this one. Our customers should not have to pay for this. I'll reassemble it and get a send back to them. Do you think I did the right thing?
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