Re: Can You Tell Before Resoldering If Motherboard Is Damaged?

On Dec 19, 4:37 pm, mute...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Bill, this is what a "real" computer repairman told me. (I mean
"real" as "in person".) I insisted the jack was the right one (from
among the various generic tips to choose from), but he insisted that
because an adapter tip powered on the laptop didn't mean it was the
correct one. Man, I could not figure this out, and still don't
understand how a contact failure could have fried the board.

One, under-voltage (auto-sensing range was incorrect),
Two, over-voltage (auto-sensing range was incorrect),
Three, under-amperage (not feeding enough current to meet demand),
Four, over-amperage (adapter-tip fits, but creates enough of an
impedance to slow capacitor-response to amperage demands, thus feeding
in excessive power; some may dispute this is not possible but I've
seen it happen in certain circuits),
Five, the adapter may have not been the right length to create a firm,
solid seat on the plug, thus applying improper tensions--then over
time, jiggling results in tiny, tiny shorts or breaks in current flow;
internal capacitors in the on-board power-converter filter these for a
while, but eventually the circuitry breaks down,
Six, similar to five but think bigger--damage happens within the multi-
layered circuit board, from the jiggling--rather than the power-jack's
soldering, as is more common.

Anyway, I still have it ripped apart. I know it'll never work, which
is why I...washed it.

"washed it" ? As in, threw in the towel, it's a wash, washed it, or as
in, soap-and-water washed it? :)

Yep, could not stand looking at that dust a
single moment longer. The upside is I finally know what the guts of a
laptop look like and feel called upon once again to attend some
computer repair school! FWIW, the repair guy agreed that the people
who do the actual repairing of laptops at service centers/depots are
minimum wagers off the street. Nothing wrong with that, but you have
to ask why folk who manage to find schools that actually teach old-
fashioned soldering are forced to go into business for themselves.

Well, it's hard to stay in business doing soldering--possible as a
side-job, but most people just aren't willing to pay professional
rates for computer repairs, as it can quickly exceed the advertised
cost of a cheap PC.
Service-centers, depots, and manufacturers themselves hire the
cheapest labor available and teach them just enough to do a gets-by
job on a small portion of a larger task, so that the person does not
become too generally skilled to be kept in a bottom-of-the-barrel
payroll position. Read "The Six Sigma Way" and think about it, and
you'll have a very good idea of how GM and Motorola screwed themselves
royally by applying it, until they renounced its teachings. (And yes,
they both did adopt it and failed badly until renouncing it, and yes,
most of corporate America subscribes to it "because the big-boys do".)

So I'm gonna keep sniffing around for a DC jack. Thanks again for the
useful feedback.

Good luck!
.

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