- Messages
- 20,160
- Location
- Springfield, Missouri
So a while back I gave my daughter an old laptop I had around so she would be able to get on the internet at her apartment. Well my daughter can break just about anything without even trying. This laptop got dropped on the back side with the power plug still in it, which destroyed the power jack. I decided I had nothing to lose by tearing this thing apart and seeing if I could fix it.
About 90 screws later, I finally have the main board removed and seeing that it's $5 for a new jack I go ahead and get one.
Got it back together last night with the new jack, and only had 3 mystery screws, success! Well, after about a half hour, it shuts off and smells HOT. I'm thinking one of the screws must be important, so back apart it comes. Ten minutes later once I get to the heat sink, it's still too hot to touch! I do find where the screws go, but notice right behind where the power jack mounts, something looks wrong. Closer inspection shows that one of those tiny little surface mounted components was knocked off during the impact. It's marked C7, but the part is long gone.
After some looking around, I realize that I don't really need a modem in this laptop. So I pull it off and locate a similar sized "C" component on it, do some quick measurements of the remaining components (as the missing component was a pair). A quick de-solder and solder, we've got the laptop reassembled and running, much cooler without the voltage spike.
Now I've got a new laptop to run the CNC router. I loaded up EMC2 (free linux software) to use for the controller.
More to come on that this weekend hopefully.
About 90 screws later, I finally have the main board removed and seeing that it's $5 for a new jack I go ahead and get one.
Got it back together last night with the new jack, and only had 3 mystery screws, success! Well, after about a half hour, it shuts off and smells HOT. I'm thinking one of the screws must be important, so back apart it comes. Ten minutes later once I get to the heat sink, it's still too hot to touch! I do find where the screws go, but notice right behind where the power jack mounts, something looks wrong. Closer inspection shows that one of those tiny little surface mounted components was knocked off during the impact. It's marked C7, but the part is long gone.
After some looking around, I realize that I don't really need a modem in this laptop. So I pull it off and locate a similar sized "C" component on it, do some quick measurements of the remaining components (as the missing component was a pair). A quick de-solder and solder, we've got the laptop reassembled and running, much cooler without the voltage spike.
Now I've got a new laptop to run the CNC router. I loaded up EMC2 (free linux software) to use for the controller.
More to come on that this weekend hopefully.