Laptop fell from table. Won't power on. Charger light goes out when plugged.

Hey you guys,

Computer: XPS 15 L502X

• I tripped on the cord and the laptop slid off the table, crashing flat on the floor. (Laptop won't power on with just the battery, nor without the battery.)
• Blue light on charger plug goes out when plugged to the motherboard. (Both DC jack and charger are fine. Blue light goes out when DC Jack is connected to the motherboard.)

Motherboard is shorting the charger. Laptop's out of warranty, so before I buy a replacement motherboard, I'm asking for any advice or experience you can share about successful motherboard repairs (reflow, reball?). I've read forum threads about computer technicians successfully fixing a motherboard by literally "baking" it in the oven. I'm still searching for computer repair shops but it seems that most of them only know how to replace motherboards and not repair them.

 

The baking thing only works for failed Nvidia 7k and 8k series GPUs which had a BGA issue. Yours is probably physical damage to the motherboard from the impact, and I highly doubt there's an easy or even possible fix.

 

I would open it and look at the connector where the ac adaptor plugs in. It probably got yanked loose, and maybe that is where the short is. If so, straighten things out and resolder it.

 

If you are not able to see the damage, then possibly hard drive could be damaged. You could scan on your drive and observe either any bad sectors come up.

 

Baking is a no-no in this circumstance. As someone else already mentioned, the baking method is to reflow the solder that holds the GPU on the motherboard. Your problem is completely different.

If there's nothing broken on the exterior, I would say try reseating the memory. Also, you should stick the charger plug into the laptop and see if you can wiggle it around. If there's a lot of play, then you're going to have to open up the computer and see the extent of the damage.

 

First try another working charger and see what that does power on or no power. Then I would remove memory, hard drive and cd drive and reinstall them again and power up to see what happens also get a ext sata adapter for your hard drive and attach that to another computer and see if it can read it to check for read faults or if it can see the hard drive to check if it is still working. Then put all hardware back and power on and see what happens with a working adapter not the old one. Then report back to us what happened. You first need to do this test before taking things apart which is a large under taking to do.

 

I never expected anyone to reply after a few days of silence, and now I see more than I ever hoped to get so thank you so much guys.

News: I sent my bare motherboard + processor to brickfence, so I'll report what happens after a week maybe.

Thanks Commander and sorry for not seeing your early reply sooner ... I've read two success stories on reviving a shorted out motherboard that required borrowing thermal imaging equipment from their friends in the fire department.

Thank you ajnindlo. If that were the case, then shouldn't the motherboard work with just the battery?

Thank you Rentalplus. Most computers can run without a hard drive nowadays, and if it were either ram, processor, or video card, I would be hearing beeps. I'm really all out of luck in this one ):

Thanks StockDC2. Already stripped the motherboard bare and sent it for repair. I followed Capitan Kasar's instructions and examined any physical damage on the board, but I couldn't see anything. Also, the DC jack seems fine, because the charger only dims out once I connect the plugged DC jack to the motherboard.

Thank you StormJumper. Yes, I already tried another charger (we have two of the same laptop) and both chargers behave the same. At the moment I'm more concerned with the motherboard than with the hard drive, which I was planning to replace with an SSD anyway.

If brickfence can't fix it I will have to get a new one on Black Friday, preferrably with IPS FHD this time. What really hurts is that I was saving my money to pre-order this beautiful $650 piano ...

 

Ouch....that hurts....but let be a learning lesson for all of us SECURE you laptop on whatever surface you use it on don't think it can drop and still work. I myself mess up to when open/cleaning a laptop I break or damage a part and have to fork money to replace it but tonight I damaged a M1730 board...big "OUCH"....now I have to spend my savings that I saved for something else to get a new board....not my day that I call fun......but this mistake I should've been more careful disassembling it. Now I look twice how something comes apart.