New Mother Board for Laptop

So my Laptop recently went bang. well actually it just went ........... and did nothing....

seems that the mother board is gone... and its going to cost me €512 just for the part (its out of warranty). i could buy a new laptop for that.. albeit a cheap one...

so my question is... do i have any other options... dell were not very helpfull in that department. Can i buy a generic mother board for a Dell Inspiron 5150? How hard is it to change the board? I took the whole thing apart last week just to see if it would start working when i put it back together again (it didnt). It seems fairly straight forward... but i didnt go near the processor...

anyone know where i can get a cheap new board? i'll go trawling accross the net later when i get home from work but if any of you guys have any ideas it would be sweet.

cheers

A

had this problem myself dude with a works one...........

buying a new board from dell is not worth while at all, it would cost you lots indeed.

Best bet is to look at the used laptop sites as they often sell spares etc. Big companies upgrade laptops and sell there old ones out i found, there are a number of 2nd hand sites out there.

Saying that i found it really difficult to find the exact match and model for less than £200. - but i did in the end. Cant remember the site name as this was over a year ago.

try here for example.......... still over 200 pennies though.

good luck

ok there is three main ways you can solve this (i had to deal with this while i was working at the school) laptops would go and it would be my job to fix thinsg like screens, mice, keyboards and so on.

So you an buy a brand new one, either from dell, or you could look at dells refurbished outlet shop
http://www.dell.co.uk/outlet/

this is where they sell off the repaired and refurished dell machines and hardware for lower prices, some good deals can be found....

you could purchase the spae part, and repair your old one

you could buy a new laptop, a low spec one, and use the parts out of yoru old machine as spares and so on, ie add the old ram from your dell into your newlaptop to give it more memroy, buy a 2.5" external drive case, and put your old laptop hard drive in that, and use it like a 40GB memeory stick

or

if youhave acidental house insurance, claim on that, and they will replace your laptop, andyou can keep your old one and use it for spares......

ooo yeh - i forgot about accidental accidents...... they work well

on tvs too!

they work on most stuff

however, i ned to claim for my remote that i di actually sit on, while i was smooching up to sophie, that was not good

it was a maraznt multi lcd display remote, i loved that remote!

Cheers guys

Strugz, that was indeed a very helpfull link. I had no idea that it was possible to buy parts like that. Never ocured to me

You too mech. I spotted a cheapy laptop on dell that i might be able to buy for spares... if its compatable.... have to wait and see

nota problem dude,

you cuold be really anal as i have done before, strip the machine, and remove,a nd re-purchase the 50p little diaboded and capasitors that you have blown?

ohhhhh.

that sounds like much more fun...

how did you know which one would blow. and what would i need? a soldering iron and some solder and flux +........

I've got a Latitude D800 that I "fixed" the power connector on (it's going to go for good sometime), so I've been looking into this. You can get a new motherboard on ebay for about £150-£200, and probably less for a refurbished one.

It shouldn't be too hard to replace, and dell have service manuals online (yay!)

I think its the power connector on mine too. but i took it apart and coundt see anything wrong..

but then.. i dont really know what im looking at.... can i disconnect it and replace it?

and yep. dell really has some uber handy manuals for the old DIY techy jobs.

you should be looking for cracks, or little black marks on things

if you dont know what your looking for you might miss it....

Scortch marks (black or brown singeing of components) is a good thing to look for.

thats what i mean by little black marks, you could also check the fuse in your psu...

The power connector on the dells is notoriously bad. On my laptop:

- it isn't a problem with the connector coming away from the board, as all the joints are good.
- it isn't a problem with the powersupply, as known good power supplies also don't work (and the little green light on the power supply goes on)

It looks like it's something internal in the socket on the motherboard. Mine is working at the moment because I have a little scrap of paper pushed into the hole[1] which puts just enough pressure on something that it connects. It's not going to last forever, and when it finally fails

- i can't find a replacement part
- you can't just use a 2 way dc adapter, as the dell supplies have a cunning middle pin which lets the motherboard know what the adapter is rated for.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to put in it's place.

*Update - just found a replacement, which I think is also right for yours (assuming that it is your power socket):
http://www.laptopjacks.com/view_part.php?id=DL111500
(but check the ridiculous price )

[1] I'm assuming your connector is like mine, in that it has a circular channel that the plug fits into. If so, I put a 3mm strip of paper into the channel, with one end sticking out, so that when the plug went in, the paper was on the outside of it. I can try and write a better description if that doesn't make sense...

Right

So the action plan is...

Take out the board. Inspect it for scorches and burns and broken bits.

Check the Power connector. Nice idea with the paper dave. The lights do funny stuff when i plug it in and out so it might be that...

I have a feeling it might be someting to do with power supply somewhere. The PSU is working by the looks of it. and i have some green lights on the front of the machine. it tells me the laptop is plugged in. But when i try to boot. The fan comes on for a second. the lights flash and it goes dead again...

I'll keep poking at it and see what happens.

Dell really are mean and nasty with their hardware. I replaced my dvd. And the bezel didnt fit. I inquired about a new board and was told that dell ones may or may not be custo fit too...

grrrrr

If it's coming on for just a second then it's most likely that something on the motherboard has shorted other than the power supply, and is letting more current through than the power supply's safeties allow. Could be something inside a chip though which is dificult to see, as they're already black. The most obvious is when there's a hole burned in the top, but it could be the writing is a little bit harder to read than it was, so you won't know unless you've opened it up before and remember what all the chips look like.

The best option for fixing laptops is finding parts from other broken ones on eBay (from laptop repair shops with feedback of at least 500 as opposed to individuals with a few untested bits). I managed to get a screen for mine for £80, when a new one from sony would have been £300. It did take me a couple of months to find one though. If you do some hunting on google you should be able to find service manuals and detailed instructions for repairing things yourself, and you'll probably find it easier than I did as Dells are more common than Sonys. It's a lot less hassle than you'd think so long as you use an anti static wrist strap to keep from frying anything else inside.

Hardware from big companies like Dell, Apple, Compaq/HP and Sony is always crap. They make everything themselves and cut corners all over the place to save money. When you build yourself you know you're getting top parts, and all the bits from different companies will work together as they stick to standards.