15 R3 Motherboard Upgrade Woes - Please Help

Hi all, I bought my 15 R3 as a 7700hq/1060 6GB model secondhand a while ago and since then, having removed the motherboard to repaste it before, decided to upgrade the board to a 7820hk/1070 8GB board I got a great deal on. I've done plenty of computer work so it wasn't a big deal.

When installing the board, everything went perfectly fine, just that when done, my R3 was running just a tad bit warmer than I'd like, likely due to the quick paste job I had to do as I was heading out of town right after. Before repasting this new board, I did test all functions to be working 100% and was super happy with it.

Later on, I repasted it successfully, and the R3 had never ran cooler - the old 1060 board always had fans at full speed, even when doing literally nothing, now this new 1070 one seemed to be silent unless gaming, and even then they didn't seem to be at full blast anymore. Super happy with it.

But then I noticed...there's no audio from my built-in speakers. Took me a bit to notice, as I always use a headset. I tried everything possible software-wise (driver reinstalls, clean OS install, etc.) to no avail, and contacted the seller. The seller stated there is a screw close to the HDD area that, if overtightened or not tightened enough, could possibly short the speaker audio. I tried adjusting this screw and got nothing. The seller sent me another board and sure enough, the audio worked great, but this second board blasts the fans like my old 1060 one. I re-did the paste job, put it back together and.....no speaker audio again. Fans still like to run crazy too.

Obviously, this is something of my own error and I am not expecting the seller to exchange again. Just wanting to know if anyone else has experience with something like this and what I could try, or if this board is shot. I just find it ridiculous that this one screw could permanently damage the audio like that.

Any help would be so appreciated.

 

@iunlock @DeeX @rinneh

 

Does your audio plug have a green wire loop on it? It's likely that your speakers are of a different revision than the new mobo. There are a few different variants of the audio on AW's...

Can you take a Pic of the audio wire plug and the audio plug slot on both of the mobo's?

Usually the audio slot is black or light tan.

 

Sure, here's a pic of the plug, the socket, and the supposed screw location of what the seller thinks caused the shortage. I only have this mobo to take pics of, I no longer have my 1060 board or the first 1070 I tried. My speakers do not have the green wire loop as I've seen on some when searching eBay, do you think that could be an issue? They did work fine on this board, until I decided to repaste it one more time, so I would think they were compatible with this setup. I'm really just hoping there's something I'm missing, rather than I somehow shorted the board.

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I dont see how a screw can damage it. I have taken apart these laptops of these type more than 20 times. If routed normally, no screw comes near them.

 

See, that's what I was wondering too. I have no idea how it happened, but it did happen to both 1070 boards I received. But I had taken apart the laptop at least 2-3 times with the 1060 board alone (just to repaste) and never had this happen. It makes sense in a way but I'm not sure how one would know what to do to avoid this.

I just checked with the seller and they told me that in the end, the 1070 board I returned was a loss for them because the technician determined the audio chip was fried from this. But then I don't know why my headphone jack still works fine, unless there's a separate chip for the speakers only.

Now, I'm curious if there's a repair place I can send it to that can/will replace the audio chip. The warranty for this board expired on 06/10/2019, but even if it hadn't I'm sure there's no way I'd get it covered under warranty. Dell is great with their repairs but I don't expect them to help me out lol.

 

If the headphones audio works then the audio chip itself wont be dead. Couldnt it just be the speakers itself not working?

The only other thing i can think off are mayne some caps that act as an audio amplifier. How do the cables from the speaker modules look?

 

The speakers and the cables both look perfect. It's weird to me that they would initially work and then not after another disassembly, on both new boards. I thought about buying a pair that have the green loop wire that iUnlock mentioned, but if my own speakers were the real issue then the 1070 board I returned should have worked with the seller's test unit when they got it back, which they stated it did not and that some chip was fried.

 

Did they provide proof that the chip was fried? Because if the headphones work.....the audio chip itself cannot be fried.

 

Exactly what I'm thinking. They didn't show any proof, but they were very helpful in diagnosing the issue with me before I sent the first board back. I haven't heard back since asking for them to explain which chip it was specifically in a picture. So I really have no idea which component needs to be replaced if any.