Calling all chip-level laptop repair techs !

[NYJimbo]

How many of you are doing at least DC jack repairs?. What about fuse, power controller, video repairs?.

I am trying to find people who are really getting into the ugly and see what we can share amongst eachother. This includes people who are just starting out, but honestly trying to do lower-level stuff, meaning you are buying hardware/software to get the job done.

"pm" me if you dont want to be public about this. I would like to start a forum on this elsewhere (as a extra to Technibble) if we cant do it here.

 

[14049752]

I currently do power jacks and have done a variety of other connectors and recently repaired a board where network controller managed to fall off of the motherboard... I've also done popped caps for desktop boards and televisions...but that's rare.

I keep telling myself that I'm going to go further with it, but we've been really busy for a long while now. Step one, for me, is learning how to consistently make a correct diagnosis...

 

[frostbyte5014]

I have done it all with laptops through the years. Now I don't even do the DC jack repairs. I make much more doing other repairs then I do on laptop repair. I know that's not the case for everyone and I know we have some great laptop repair tech on Technibble. It was just a bottleneck for me. I will continue to send my laptop repairs off instead of doing them myself.

 

[LunchBox]

I've successfuly done a couple of DC jack.

JimBo, Isn't this site for helping each other? Not everyone that is here will want to learn component level repair and there will be other that want to but will not have the nerve to do it.

Technibble is for sharing.

 

[NYJimbo]

JimBo, Isn't this site for helping each other? Not everyone that is here will want to learn component level repair and there will be other that want to but will not have the nerve to do it.

Technibble is for sharing.

Yes, but I was hoping to find people who wanted to share about this.
I guess it doesnt belong here, so we can just forget it.

 

[LunchBox]

Yes, but I was hoping to find people who wanted to share about this.
I guess it doesnt belong here, so we can just forget it.

I think it belongs here. Maybe not enough people, or the correct people seen this thread yet.

Me personally, I would be interested but it seems that you would probably be more knowledgeable than me in this area.

For instance. I know that is a laptop turns on but I do not see any video but when I connect an external monitor I do then its probably the LCD or inverter. But if there is not video on the external monitor it would be the motherboard or if it had an nvidia or ati video it could be one of them and that is where I would be able to stop becaus swapping those things is beyond what I can do. Although it would be something I would like to learn though.

 

[vontreigo]

I've don't dc jacks, lcd replacements, inverter replacements, usb jacks, pop cap replacements.

I'd like to get into lcd repair so that i can offer a repair of a cracked screen instead of a costly replacement.

 

[LunchBox]

I've don't dc jacks, lcd replacements, inverter replacements, usb jacks, pop cap replacements.

I'd like to get into lcd repair so that i can offer a repair of a cracked screen instead of a costly replacement.

Do you replace all CAPs or only the one you see as being bad?

 

[studiot]

Coming from a hardware background myself I welcome the opportunity to effect hardware repairs.

Studiot T operates on general small instrumentation, audio-visual equipment as well as small computers.

Or sometimes 'bodges' as I remember having to make do with what was to hand when I was in the desert or offshore 20/30 years ago.

However, sadly these days more often than not, I have to say to a customer

"In all honesty I can tell you which board contains the fault and I would like to repair it, but a new board is cheaper than 1 to 2 hours of my time so simple economics dictates that I just replace it."

This trend has been spreading in all areas of electronics repairs ( and many other activities such as auto repair) for the last 40 years and is deliberate design policy by manufacturers.

I think it is a crying shame that all we are left with now is replacing DC jack sockets, and even then some laptops require pretty well full disassembly to get at the connections.

The CompucolorII, Commodore PET/700 series and the BBC micro were the last computers where I regularly did repairs and modifications 'under the hood'.
Up to about 1999 it was worth doing component level repairs in peripherals like monitors, but even that is becoming increasingly dubious.

There is one area still available to hardware enthusiasts.

Interfacing circuitry.

Where computers are used as control devices for church bells, chicken feed dispensers, christmas light displays............the list just goes on and on.

 

[Doctor Micro]

I do dc jack repairs, inverter & ccfl replacements and have repaired two video cards with bad caps. They're not my favorite types of repair jobs, but it's still money in the till and customers are happy to have their laptop working again. The Dell laptop I take with me onsite was originally a repair job that the owner didn't want to pay for. I bought it from him for salvage, replaced the inverter, soldered in a new DC Jack, bumped the memory up to 1GB and had a perfectly good laptop for under $150 all in.

 

[vontreigo]

Do you replace all CAPs or only the one you see as being bad?

mainly just the ones that are puffed or popped.
The most i replaced was 5. (1000uf 6.3v) after that the mobo worked fine.

Of course I change out the psu too.


why do you change out all ??

 

[angry_geek]

I would love to replace caps and what not. I do a few jacks. The problem I find with working on other components is the time involved. I can usually replace a mobo cheaper than tracing and replacing bad pcb components.

 

[LunchBox]

mainly just the ones that are puffed or popped.
The most i replaced was 5. (1000uf 6.3v) after that the mobo worked fine.

Of course I change out the psu too.


why do you change out all ??

I was just asking because I came close to replacing the CAPS but the client saw that he keeps spending money on the same old PC. Although not to my benefit, I had him save his money so he can purchase a reburb.

The main reason is because I read that sometimes caps look good on the outside but the inside is not good and there is not way to test the CAP unless you have specialized equipment. Although I haven't had to replace the caps yet my dilemma is when I replace the ones that are visibly had but the PC is still acting out.

I have seen packs of caps for MOBO which includes all the caps.

 

[vontreigo]

I was just asking because I came close to replacing the CAPS but the client saw that he keeps spending money on the same old PC. Although not to my benefit, I had him save his money so he can purchase a reburb.

The main reason is because I read that sometimes caps look good on the outside but the inside is not good and there is not way to test the CAP unless you have specialized equipment. Although I haven't had to replace the caps yet my dilemma is when I replace the ones that are visibly had but the PC is still acting out.

I have seen packs of caps for MOBO which includes all the caps.

I don't mess with old pc caps just the newer ones, just duel core mobos and high end vid cards,

yeah it is 50/50 on whether or not it would work. some times I quess the mobo has taken component (chip) damage.

a tester huh... hmmmm any links to them?

 

[Larry Sabo]

The Capacitor Wizard ESR Meter is popular and relatively inexpensive. Back in my monitor repair days, I used to use one built from a kit, designed by Bob Barker. It worked great. I see Bob has a newer version available now at a still very reasonable price. AnaTek has a comparison of several ESR meter versions, with pros-cons.

 

[LunchBox]

The Capacitor Wizard ESR Meter is popular and relatively inexpensive. Back in my monitor repair days, I used to use one built from a kit, designed by Bob Barker. It worked great. I see Bob has a newer version available now at a still very reasonable price. AnaTek has a comparison of several ESR meter versions, with pros-cons.

WOW Larry you really use those cools? I guess having them makes troubleshooting easier when caps look good but are not.

 

[MrUnknown]

the issue with testing capacitors is you need to remove them to properly test them. Seeing how you removed it, you might as well put a new one back on.

 

[Larry Sabo]

WOW Larry you really use those cools? I guess having them makes troubleshooting easier when caps look good but are not.

ESR meters are the best thing since sliced bread, especially in monitor repair. PC and power supply repair, too. I just finished opening a system that won't power on and found 2 leaking caps on the MB and another in the PSU. I'd like to check the others to be sure that's all; hate to fix those and find there are others that under-perform.

the issue with testing capacitors is you need to remove them to properly test them. Seeing how you removed it, you might as well put a new one back on.

Not true at all, as far as ESR is concerned. True if you want to measure leakage, but even then you can usually just unsolder one lead then test it. The above meters don't test for leakage anyway. I used to use a very high resistance checker built from a kit to do that, the very few times I had a need. Commercial ESR+leakage+capacitance meters are way too expensive and rarely needed. Leakage is not usually a problem.

 

[balkazar]

I have done many dc jacks, lcd replacements, inverter replacements and a few broken off USB ports...I dont care for doing any of it...but it seems to be everyones problems these days.....

 

[trapped]

I have done DC jacks, broken LCD screens (no inverters yet) and keyboards on laptops. Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy doing these repairs and the money is decent.

I have a standard LCD monitor in at the moment to replace the Caps. It is the first one I have done, but it seems pretty straight forward.

From what I have read if you are in there you might as well replace all the accessible caps.