HOT connection Evesham 8615 GTK

[skoda driver]

My wife`s laptop, Evesham 8615 GTK, has been playing up for a while... battery not charging, like an intermittent connection, (dry joint symptom), but eventually gave up the ghost last week. she called me in to say she saw smoke come from the computer exhaust vent, and a smell of burning plastic could be detected in the room...

Having some knowledge of electronics, and simple fault finding, I checked the psu, and it was OK... I checked the connection and found it to be too hot to handle.! (same as if a 13amp plug has a fault, and the pin gets hot)... also when the psu was plugged into the jack on the laptop, the green light on the psu went out, and the battery charging warning light (red) came on... The battery has sufficient power in it to start the boot process, but it fails before it gets to the "welcome" screen. I have taken it to a "technician" who has had the whole motherboard out of the casing, and can see no evidence of burning anywhere on the board...

There is no serial number on the bottom of the computer.... but the number 34081 followed by 3 or 4 0`s and a final figure 1 to 16, and a "made date" of 2007/06/15 appear on several parts of the machine. there is also a S/N on a couple of labels including the HDD and the DVD writer

Can anyone help to source a replacement, or a repair to this board?

 

[Anon_F]

Is it not be easier to buy a new Laptop?
After all repairing the current one the fault may happen again?

 

[skoda driver]

Yes, it will be easier, but I figure If I spend some money on repairing it, I can sell it on and recoup some of the loss of original money !... instead of just junking the whole thing. !

It may be a simple fix... or maybe expensive, but I want to find out first before the bin men come !

 

[floppybootstomp]

Can you tell if there any smoothing components before the voltage from the adapter reaches the battery? Obviously this will only apply if it's AC from the adapter, unlikely if it's DC. If there are, check them for faults, especially any large-ish electrolytics

Is it possible to power up the motherboard outside the case? If so, check the metal heat sink tabs of any large semiconductors, they're likely voltage regulators. If they're extremely hot to the touch, suspect they're faulty.

If you can't power the main board up, it may be worth removing any suspect regulators and checking them with a meter.

The battery itself could also be suspect.

And that's about all I can think of.

If you can't effect an easy and economical repair, sad to say but I think it would be more economical to junk it.

And next time I'd recommend getting a Toshiba, they definitely last longer than their peers.