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Troubleshooting >Repairing a laptop's motherboard - The notebook won't turn on

Repairing a laptop's motherboard - The

notebook won't turn on
Category: Troubleshooting

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Absurdly it may seem the most complicated fault while the reality is the one that is most likely to be repaired as
the fault is almost always in the first part of the power supply, to be clear that which goes from the power
connector on the motherboard to the first control mosfets.

In these cases forget that the problem is due to a processor or RAM that does not work, in these cases the laptop
would turn on. Some cards have fuses or inductors (coils) that do the same function and are the first thing to
check with the tester, below in the picture (click on it to enlarge it) you can see an example of this part of the
circuit (this is a 'HP dv9000), remember to first remove the battery and power the card with the power supply:

The input voltage (usually at 19 volts) enters the 'A' connector and then passes through the 'B' coils which also
function as fuses, so check that you still have voltage. The 'C' diodes serve as a protection against short circuits
and / or polarity inversions, this thing is very frequent when universal power supplies are used instead of the
originals and the polarity of the power supply is mistakenly reversed.
The 'D' mosfet only serves as a switch between the 'C' point and the 'E' (VIN) point where you will need to find the
voltage (19v) that will power the subsequent sections of the power supply (next photo).
This mosfet is one of those that frequently break in these cases, sometimes it happens to find them physically
burned, so if on the point 'E' you don't find tension, with a tweezer create a bridge on the two sides of the mosfet
(therefore between drain and source ) and try to press the power button. Obviously if the laptop shows signs of
life the mosfet is interrupted and has to be changed, you can also use an equivalent mosfet.
Attention , the downstream part of the mosfet (point 'E') could be shorted to ground and therefore the mosfet
could be broken for this reason, if you make the jumper with the tweezers you risk to blow up the power supply,
then with the board off check if the 'E' point is grounded and adjust as follows.

Another reason for which the notebook could be "dead", it could be due to the presence of a short circuit
somewhere on nutrition, this usually happens if some capacitor is in short , and then switched off tab verified
with the tester if for example in points 'B' or 'E' this condition exists. This capacitor in short is a problem mainly
due to their bad quality, if you have this doubt you must necessarily raise at least one terminal (desoldering) of
each capacitor present on the voltage line in question and check every time whether the short has disappeared.
For example, returning to the previous photo, if the VIN is shorted to ground, you should check the 3 capacitors
present at that point, ie those highlighted by the green arrows, I remind you that the inductance PL7 (coil) present
between VIN and the capacitors PC36 and PC37 has a resistance equal to a few ohms and is to be considered in
all respects as a track, so the aforementioned capacitors are practically in parallel with the PC113. Attention,
further capacitors in parallel to the voltage line you are examining could be drawn on other pages of the diagram,
so use the search function in the pdf to find all the points where that voltage is reported and verify the presence of
other capacitors, furthermore it is very convenient to try to dissect the various power supply parts by lifting the
inductances in series (eg see PL30 in the photo below) to avoid checking areas that are too large. Finally in the
search it is useful to remove the processor as it has a low resistance on its power supply and can mislead making
it seem short.

Another way much faster, but not for all, to search for capacitors or MOSFETs in short is to use a bench power
supply with current limiter and short-circuit protection to power the shorted part, this serves to "warm up" the
component to find and then find it very quickly, you have to proceed in this way always referring to the part of the
diagram you see above:
identify the voltage line shorted to ground (for example point 'E') and weld the positive of the power supply on that
point (perhaps on the PL7 pad), set up the power supply with a voltage of 19 volts and a current of 1-2 Ampere
(therefore limited), turn it on and check with your finger which component heats, you have found the one in short.
If you still can't hear the component that heats up try to increase the current of the power supply, sooner or later it
will become hot or smoke.
I explain to the less electronic because this method works: the component (for example the PC113 capacitor) in
short circuit has practically a resistance equal to zero, this means that all the current that tries to supply the power
supply passes through that capacitor that discharges it to ground (because it has a head connected to it) and
therefore due to this excessive current the capacitor heats up.
Warning : the shorted component heats up a lot and you could burn your fingers, so okkio ;-)
If the voltage line in question is very large, you can also dissect the parts by lifting a few reels or some mosfets so
as to search for narrower parts, always consider looking at the notebook's electrical diagram. If the line is of a
lower voltage, also lower the bench power supply because, for example, when the component melts, there will be
no short to ground and the voltage will return to the level at which you set it and could break other components.
If you are not experienced enough or don't have a benchtop power supply, avoid this procedure as it may break
other components on the motherboard.

In summary we have checked the input voltage at 19 volts and we have seen that (for example) it arrives
correctly up to the point 'E' (VIN), now looking in the pdf we find another typical section present in all the laptops,
you see it here below in photo (click to enlarge)

This is a typical DC / DC converter managed entirely by the integrated 'B' a MAX8734A, this makes it possible
starting from 19v (VIN - point 'A') the generation of voltages + 3v (point 'D') and + 5v ( point 'E').
The integrated circuit drives two pairs of mosfets (marked with 'C') with appropriate gate voltages (DH3 and DL3)
so that the upper mosfet (connected vs 19v) and the lower mosfet (connected vs mass) are open and closed in a
“targeted” manner and can generate the required voltage, guaranteeing a considerable driving current. If one of
these voltages is missing, in addition to the possibility of the usual capacitor shorting on the input line 'A' or on the
output ones 'D' and 'E', the operation of the mosfets can be checked because maybe interrupted or check the
presence of gate voltages if the integrated circuit which drives them has been broken. These components that I
have mentioned are those that experience more often break, of these configurations (integrated + mosfet) you will
find others in the scheme of the laptop.

For now I will stop here, if I forgot something I will update the article in the coming weeks, for any doubt write in
the forum and we'll talk about it.

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Next items:
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Magur

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