(OT) good laptop hardware repair group or forum

[Tim Judd]

On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 4:55 AM, Chris Whitehouse <cwhiteh at onetel.com>wrote:

> Glen Barber wrote:
>
>> Hi, Chris
>>
>> On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Chris Whitehouse <cwhiteh at onetel.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all
>>>
>>> very sorry for this OT post, does anyone know of a good usenet or other
>>> forum to ask about laptop hardware repair? My quite expensive and now
>>> out-of-warranty HP laptop has suddenly become very dead and I'm in shock
>>> :((
>>>
>>>
>> Even though it's (OT), maybe some of us could be able to help.  What's
>> the problem?
>>
>>  I will try the HP support forums as suggested but...
>
> It's a nc6320 (RH383ET#ABU) and was in good condition not too much used and
> has never given trouble. It was booting, with mains and battery plugged in,
> when it suddenly and instantaneously lost power. Now it is completely dead,
> no LEDS. It made a couple of clicks as it died, one of which might have been
> the hard disk head parking.
>
> The power supply is showing what looks like the right voltage. The battery
> has 6 connectors, I tested between all combinations of pairs but all were
> zero voltage. I also tested between all pairs of battery connector pins in
> the back of the laptop with the power plugged in, also zero voltage.
>
> I am suspicious of the battery showing zero, I think it might need wake up
> power from the laptop. Does anyone know if this is the case and what pins
> need power?
>
> I left the power supply plugged in and it and an area on the underside of
> the laptop were mildly warm after some time so some current is flowing.
>
> That's all I can say. I will take the hard disk out and test. Luckily it
> didn't have critical data on it. I'm also competent to dismantle the laptop
> if anyone can suggest a fix.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris
>

My grandmother had a HP that just died too.  My brother took the first stab
at it, describing it as a likely "DC-DC converter" problem, and I was seeing
indication of a bad seat on the CPU.  It was working just fine and for the
CPU to become unseated is not likely.  I tore that machine apart until I
couldn't figure out how to get the top or bottom plate off that surrounds
the motherboard.  I didn't fix it, but we all gave up and she went and
bought another system.


The DC-DC converter is what takes the 18V (or whatever) the mains/battery
supplies, and breaks it out into the 3.3V, 5V, 12V, etc needed to power all
the various components.

We never ordered one and tried it.  We just replaced the machine.