:| LAPTOP DIED

[SYPHADIUS]

Should have gotten a Dell.

Anyway, you definately need to call them up first and be sure to tell them that the AC adapter light flickers now. That is important. I would blame the AC adapter except it does not work with the battery either, telling me it is the MB. But just to be sure, unplug the battery and AC adapter and leave it off for an hour, then test it again.

maybe he couldn't afford it! or maybe it was a gift! or MAYBE that's all that was available to him at that time!

Dell is NOT always the anwser!

its like telling someone to get a BMW instead of a honda! I mean come...

on the flip side, old compaq laptops are notorious for there power boards to fail... and yes the m700 series is part of that.

[tkyoshi]

IF you do get service from HP/Compaq they are usually very good about repairs.

Most units are fixed within 1 day (in Canada) and then overnighted back to you paid both ways. Total time is about 3 days (Overnight paid to them, fix, Overnight back to you). I've always received excellent service from them. Only thing though is they seem to have more idiot tech's on the phone now since they merged with HP and sometimes it's hard to authorize service as they keep giving you canned answers. But if you call back and get a more knowledable tech they will authorize service right away.

I dropped my iPAQ and the headphone jack broke and they replaced it for me for free :D

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate trouble, hopefully the repair won't be too much. And yes Dell is not always the answer, they can break too as well, some of the models have poor venting systems *pull air from under) causing the system to overheat on warm conditions.

[d3monn]

Yes, I have known Dell systems to be not so... great. My cousin had one, and so did my friend Julia. She had it replaced twice and it still kept overheating, and she kept having drive issues. My cousin just didn't like his system. I've never had a problem with this laptop before besides software issues on my part. The hardware has never failed me until now. :( I'm going to have to wait till I get back to my home out on the East Coast before I send it out for repair. I don't have too much cash on me here, and I don't get paid as much out of town, since I'm not doing as much. Thanks for all your help and if anyone else has any ideas what might be the issue, I'll still check up on the thread.

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

If theres a small box on the power cable then thats the box with the transformer in it... it just steps the voltage down from 220V to aroun 10~20V

Since that is external and the laptop doesnt work with the battery then its most likely that there not the fault!

Inside the laptop there will be a small piece of circuitry to split the power up to the individual components. I believe your problem lies there.... either that or the power button is broken.

Firstly take the panel off where the power button is and use a piece of metal to bridge the switch.... its usually 2 terminerals on the board... just try connecting those together with some metal and see if it works. if its wires then cut them and tap them together.... i wud think a tap wud do as there not normal switches

If that fails then ur power board is probabily died.... These usually arnt to complex so can often be fixed quite easily but i'm no electrician so i cant tell you how to find dead electronic parts.

[d3monn]

update::

Well, something IS fried on the motherboard.. or the transformer. Someone is going to take a look at it (hes also profficient with computer hardware) so he's going to find out.

Here's a pic of a resistor that fried after i fiddled with the power supply and it stopped blinking (it went back to a constant glow). 3 seconds later (i didnt turn on the power) and smoke was coming off of this part... Wish me luck on repairs guys!

EDIT: If anyone here might know anything, drop a line, it would be greatly appreciated.

Edited August 1, 2004 by d3monn

[Brandon]

could u take a pic that is zoomed a little more out?

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

is that inside the power supply on ur power cable or inside ur laptop? again a zoomed out photo so we could catch our bareings would be helpful.

Unfortually looking at that.... i'm guessing if its the power board in the laptop then its probabily toast.... i wud recon its repairable as long as its not part of the mainboard or hasnt fried anything on the mainboard

[d3monn]

The pic was a picture of the laptop's mainboard itself. I was told the part was a resistor, so there may not be any damage elsewhere except for the part thats causing the board to draw in more power than it's supposed to.

Here's a wider pic.

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

photo isnt much better.... since its the mainboard i recon it could be difficult to repair.... just depends on exactly how much is dead

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

see that green thing with a silver top... top of the pic.... there capacitors.... do u see any of them that look like there buldgeing or leaking anything... there tops should be perfectly flat?

maybe a pic of the enitre mainboard would help as that one still doesnt really give us much.... we have 2 detailed now so 1 of the entire mainboard

Scott

[d3monn]

Here is an image of the mainboard. None of the capacitors seem to be leaking or damaged at all... the only visible damage is the bit of charred circuit on that resistor (thats what I was told it was from a techie ((non-HP techie)).

The image can be found at:

Mainboard

If you guys need more pics, lemme know, ill take em.

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

I hope u werent trying to run that system without a heatsink on the processor!!!....

Apart from that 1 part of the mainboard everything looks normal although looks can be decieving.....

I think your best option is to find some clever little electrician and see if they can replace some of the parts.... not an any thing to with the size of em so it may be a little pricy

Whats that brown makr in the bottom left of the picture? harddisk?

[+s55 Subscriber¹]

See where that fan is and u see that black and bronse thing going out.... that the power plug isnt it?

find someone with a voltmeter (DMM i believe they call these things) and take a reading of the voltage and current thats comeing from the little black box on the power cord.... Dont take a reading of the 110~220Vside that hurts :p... anyway u might find tht ur power cord is trying to push too much power into the laptop possibally. Just a thought.