laptop, pwr entering mobo PCB, runs on battery only, no charging, no run off AC only
This is a story about laptop repair, not a help request. I just got a Gateway NX510S ( MA7??). The mobo about a year ago got its DC jack replaced by some teen (not me). It worked fine until a day ago. These symptoms are making me slam my head against the wall and leave me totally clueless until I pulled out a microscope.
With a volt meter I checked the solder bulb on the opposite side of the PCB, there was power on the solder bulb, so nothing wrong with the connector, and the mobo is getting power, right? Wrong.
By pure luck I decided to probe from the +/- of the connector to the PCB, just to make sure that the connector's power really does appear in the mobo, and its not a horrible optical illusion it work (power on the anchoring side of the PCB). I didn't find the +, except on the anchoring side, where all it does is go through 2 smt caps and a smt resistor to -/ground. I took the connector under a microscope and saw that the via between the 2 sides was destroyed (I think it came out with the old connector, that kid didn't use a desoldering iron and just pulled out the old connector, probably by force) and there was a thiner than hair crack where the solder touches the copper trace on the connector side of the PCB. I don't think the kid soldered the + lead on the connector side of the PCB b/c his iron was too big and he assumed it will be via-ed from the bottom side of the PCB somewhere. If I was short on I time I would make that assumption myself. BUtttt not with a Gateway's horrible engineering standard!!!!!!
No other vias connect the 2 sides.
Lesson of my story is, don't trust there to a be a via making a connection for you. And make sure the lead of the DC connector has continuity into the rest of the mobo (into the trace), on both sides of PCB.
Scraping away of the green enamel of the PCB to expose the copper trace near the crack on connector side of PCB and a tiny dab of solder for 2 seconds fixed the problem.
This is a story about laptop repair, not a help request. I just got a Gateway NX510S ( MA7??). The mobo about a year ago got its DC jack replaced by some teen (not me). It worked fine until a day ago. These symptoms are making me slam my head against the wall and leave me totally clueless until I pulled out a microscope.
With a volt meter I checked the solder bulb on the opposite side of the PCB, there was power on the solder bulb, so nothing wrong with the connector, and the mobo is getting power, right? Wrong.
By pure luck I decided to probe from the +/- of the connector to the PCB, just to make sure that the connector's power really does appear in the mobo, and its not a horrible optical illusion it work (power on the anchoring side of the PCB). I didn't find the +, except on the anchoring side, where all it does is go through 2 smt caps and a smt resistor to -/ground. I took the connector under a microscope and saw that the via between the 2 sides was destroyed (I think it came out with the old connector, that kid didn't use a desoldering iron and just pulled out the old connector, probably by force) and there was a thiner than hair crack where the solder touches the copper trace on the connector side of the PCB. I don't think the kid soldered the + lead on the connector side of the PCB b/c his iron was too big and he assumed it will be via-ed from the bottom side of the PCB somewhere. If I was short on I time I would make that assumption myself. BUtttt not with a Gateway's horrible engineering standard!!!!!!
No other vias connect the 2 sides.Lesson of my story is, don't trust there to a be a via making a connection for you. And make sure the lead of the DC connector has continuity into the rest of the mobo (into the trace), on both sides of PCB.
Scraping away of the green enamel of the PCB to expose the copper trace near the crack on connector side of PCB and a tiny dab of solder for 2 seconds fixed the problem.
