Laptop died, anyone good with hardware?

[Myrddraal]

Last night my laptop died on me. I was working on it and it just switched off all of a sudden.

This has happened to me before when the laptop overheated. Indeed, I noticed that the right back side of the laptop was very hot, so I thought I'd do as I usually do: unplug it, take the battery out and let it cool off a while.

But, as you might have guessed, it doesn't restart. When I press the button there is no indication that the computer has done anything at all. No noise, no lights, nothing.

I then noticed that the power adaptor light was flashing. Usually the light on the power adaptor is always on, whether the laptop is connected to it or not, but when I connect it to the laptop it starts flashing, almost as if it's tripping out and restarting continually.

So I unplugged the laptop and left it. I came back to it later and noticed that it was making a clicking noise (even though it's turned off). I picked it up and again the right back corner of the laptop was very hot. So I quickly whipped the battery out and the clicking stopped.

I'm a bit worried that there's a short circuit somewhere inside the laptop. It's past it's warranty. Do any of you know if there's anything I can do or am I royally screwed? This is the laptop on which I keep all my work, and I've been predictably lazy with backups, the last backup being a couple of months old...

[Tellos Athenaios]

Check your manual & do you have a spare battery? If it's just the battery that's deep fried you ought to be able to sort it by swapping it for a new one. (Check the model number/ site of manufacturer to see what battery you'd need to swap it for.)

[Myrddraal]

I have got a spare, I'll try that thanks.

[Myrddraal]

No luck. On inserting the spare battery the laptop starts up the same clicking noise as before. I took it out again asap...

I'm going to take the back off the thing and see if I can identify the source of the heat. Maybe it'll lead me to the component which is likely to be broken.

[caravel]

I then noticed that the power adaptor light was flashing. Usually the light on the power adaptor is always on, whether the laptop is connected to it or not, but when I connect it to the laptop it starts flashing, almost as if it's tripping out and restarting continually.

What make and model of laptop?

Usually a flashing PSU LED indicates that the PSU itself has failed. Replacing it should sort that out.

The overheating may be caused by blocked/obstructed vents.

[Myrddraal]

It doesn't flash until I plug it into the laptop, and I get the same problems (clicking when switched off, heating up) even when it's just got the battery in.

The power supply is brand new, I just replaced a broken one.

The laptop is an Acer Travelmate C1000 I think (not 100% sure of the model number).

[caravel]

Can you run it on mains ok with the battery removed? If not then I'd suspect that the PSU is faulty?

Are you sure you have the correctly rated PSU? Is it original or a 3rd party one?

It may be short on the motherboard, as you have suspected, if so you will need to get it serviced.

[Myrddraal]

It doesn't run in any combination. Main + battery, battery + no mains, mains + no battery. The only constant is that whenever there is a power source it gets hot, without being turned on.

[caravel]

It doesn't run in any combination. Main + battery, battery + no mains, mains + no battery. The only constant is that whenever there is a power source it gets hot, without being turned on.

It does sound like a short... is it still under warranty? Either way it will need return to base service.

[Myrddraal]

Thanks for you continuing advice Asai Nagamasa. It's past its warranty, so I figured I'd take it apart, plug it in and see if I could identify the source of the heat. I've done this (being careful not to touch the motherboard. As soon as I connect it to the mains, there's very quickly smell of solder from a component right next to the power plug on the board. Definately something shorting out. Unfortunately the heat seems to come from underneath a piece of electrical tape, which I haven't yet dared to remove.

[Myrddraal]

Well I removed the tape, and there are several small components under there. I can't really tell precisely where the heat is coming from without touching them, which I'm a bit worried about doing. The problem is, everthing there is soldered to the board. I think that means I'm at then end of the line. Am I right in saying that if there's a problem with a component soldered to the motherboard, it's going to be very difficult/not worth it to repair?

[Myrddraal]

Although interestingly, with all the components removed and the power connected, the power adaptor no longer flashes.

[Tellos Athenaios]

If something has shorted on the motherboard then you are pretty much out of options. Laptops do not lend themselves to swapping motherboards -even if you have the technical skill to do that:

1. the motherboard is unlikely to be sold to customers as retail item;
2. even if you do find a (different model) replacement motherboard you will likely find that the layout is all wrong for your case or
3. that the socket type is wrong and requires a different CPU, or
4. that you own a DDR2 laptop and the new motherboard is for DDR3, or
5. that the thermal design of the motherboard does not at all work right for your laptop, or
6. that you didn't have a dedicated graphics chip but rather an integrated one with dedicated memory or something to that effect and your new motherboard has a different configuration (purely integrated graphics/purely discrete/ or both).

So even if by a miracle all those things do work out you are likely to spend less on a brand new replacement laptop -- especially if you can `save' a few components like hard disk (OS/files), network card, (and less likely: RAM).

[Myrddraal]

Well, the bright side is I guess I'm going to get a new toy.

Thanks for your help all

[naut]

So I unplugged the laptop and left it. I came back to it later and noticed that it was making a clicking noise (even though it's turned off). I picked it up and again the right back corner of the laptop was very hot. So I quickly whipped the battery out and the clicking stopped.

The clicking noise is your harddrive. The same happened to my Ipod, it wouldn't turn on and would simply make a clicking noise while trying to start. The rest of your machine may be fine. It is hard to tell. Can you extract the harddrive in anyway and try to attach it with IDE-to-USB cable to another machine to see if it is working?

Edit - Although I have heard of cases where the PSU may make a clicking noise, did you pinpoint where the noise was coming from? Hopefully it is your PSU, as you will be able to salvage your HDD if that is the case.

[caravel]

The clicking noise is your harddrive.

Not necessarily, but usually the case. In this cause, though I'm guessing it's the internal speaker emitting the click sounds? (or that's what I've perhaps wrong assumed?)

I've seen this on a lot of laptops, where the power, battery and HDD lights flash and the speaker emits regular clicks or makes a strange "siren" sound (even with the HDD removed) to signify a motherboard short or other serious hardware failure. Failed/failing HDDs can make a similar sound, or a scraping ticking sound but are usually not accompanied by the flashing lights or overheating symptoms. With an HDD failure it will ususually run ok for a while then fatal error on boot with a primary disk failure or hdd controller failure (or to that effect). Or you mat notice bad sectors and the OS failing to boot.

BTW: Congratulations on your moderatorship Rythmic.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Or it makes an almighty racket if the HDD is seriously broken. Clicking HDD's means that the HDD has trouble coming `online' (the disk itself might be fine, but the motor doesn't turn on properly).

In any HDD or similar expendable case you'd get a POST screen, because the BIOS still ran properly (which is on a flash chip on the motherboard). Whereas if the motherboard dies you cannot turn on the machine at all; and if the motherboard was shorted you should get the symptoms Myrddraal mentions: heating up of the power supply phase circuitry (capacitators), failure to do anything more meaningful, and on closer inspection a pugnent smell of burnt electronics.

[Myrddraal]

You have to remember that all of this is happening when the computer is switched off. I would have thought that the hard drive wouldn't click if the computer wasn't turned on. The clicking noise was happening when the computer was turned off (I doesn't turn on) as soon as I connected the power supply.

did you pinpoint where the noise was coming from?

Just for you, to try an identify where the clicking noise was coming from, I tried connecting the motherboard to the power again. This time, I got an nice spark, a puff of smoke, and a very strong smell. The hard drive was disconnected and no battery was connected. It seems to me a disconnected motherboard shouldn't draw very much current (enough to charge a couple of capacitors maybe), and yet there was enough to cause that spark, so I'm increasingly convinced this is a short circuit on the motherboard.

Do any of you know anything about salvaging parts from laptops? I'm doing some reading online but it seems hard to find very definite information. I may be starting a thread on it soon

[Tellos Athenaios]

Well if there wasn't a short; now there certainly will be.

Salvaging parts is basically removing expansion cards (i.e. wireless internet adapter/card), hard disk, sometimes memory. Expansion card and memory will (very likely) be located in the same compartment as the motherboard; hard disk is usually a different compartment.

EDIT: You may (likely: will) need a precision screw kit because some of the jumpers used to snap the cards/memory in place are far too fiddly to operate with your fingers (unlike their counterparts on standard ATX motherboards).

[Myrddraal]

Salvaging those parts is (relatively) easy. I'm talking about salvaging the LCD, which from what I've read, is rather more complicated and can be expensive, the problem being one of Analogue to Digital controllers.

Ideally, I'd like to salvage the LCD screen and the active digitizer (tablet pen) and get this into some format which can be connected as a second screen to another tablet.

Failing that, I'd like to salvage either one (the digitizer or the LCD, either can be useful independent of each other)

If it takes a lot of effort, I'm keen. If it takes a lot of money, I'm not so keen, but it's worth investigating.

The screen model is:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Item Specification

Vendor & model Name
12.1XGA TABLET HYDIS
HT12X21
-------------
Mechanical Specifications

display area (diagonal, inch)
12.1

Display technology
TFT

Resolution
XGA (1024x768)

Supports colors
262K

----------------
Optical Specification

Brightness control
keyboard hotkey

Contrast control
No

Typical White Luminance
180

Contrast ratio
450

Response time (msec)
40 (Tr+Td)

--------------------
Electrical Specification

Supply voltage for display (V)
3.0 (Min.), 3.3 (Typ.), 3.6 (Max.)

Viewing Angle Range
80 (left/right/down/up)

Found this info on digitalview.com

HT12X21-230 BOE Hydis 12.1 1024x768 180 450 3.3

Back

Digital View's Engineering Department has performed a preliminary assessment of this panel.
In addition to the controller solutions above, we believe the following panel connection kit will work:

ALR-1400, SP-1600, SVH-1920, DVS-1600 & HE Series controllers: Use LVDS cable P/N 426492200-3. Select LVDS data "mapping B" dip switch settings.

Please refer to the user manual for specific jumper settings.

Please review the Digital View user manual for important configuration instructions.

Which means very little to me right now, but hopefully will soon mean more...

[naut]

Good luck, Myrddraal. I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to remove from the casing, etc. except the wiring may be an issue in un-attaching.

BTW: Congratulations on your moderatorship Rythmic.

Thanks.