Another dropped laptop

[marleyuk]

I have a work laptop that someone dropped. Its a sony viao, not bad specs but since the accident its had a problem. I think its failing to boot, every so often once the on button is clicked it turns on and works but most of the time i spend hours clicked the power button on and off, the harddrive light comes on but the screen doesnt, its also not very loud and cant remember what it sounded like when it booted originally so i dunno if when the light comes on its booting or not, its like a really low powers on but noones home sound. Theres no beeps and ive swapped the memory around to no avail. Anyone any ideas?

 

[Ian]

Might be a loose connection, so the only way would be to get someone to take a look at it (costly) or have a look inside yourself and see if you can find anything obvious. Not an easy one to fix unfortunately

I had a laptop that was dropped before I got it (about 4 years ago), and the power socket had come loose from the laptop mainboard - resoldered is using some high-temp solder and it worked fine afterwards

 

[marleyuk]

yeah i got mad scientist on the situation and started unscrewing holes but its hella hard to get inside. I dont wanna apply to much pressure to the base either cause the monitor might fall off

 

[V22]

If your going to start to repair your laptop a good book to look at for guidance is this one - Upgrading & Repairing Laptops by Scott Mueller, a bit expensive, but not as much as damaging a laptop. May be able to get it from your local library.

 

[TriplexDread]

If your looking for Cracked solder joints a very important tool is a small hand held magnifying glass. Some of those cracks can be so small you wont see them with your eyes however they make all the difference with SMD (Surface Mount Devices). Also joints that look very dull, this is called a dry joint and can be fixed by just heating it up with a decent iron and applying a little solder.

Look for discolouration on the board around the componants aswell this can be caused by overheating from transistors or a multitude of other things shorting out and what not.