BodybyFisher Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 Yesterday afternoon, my laptop shut off suddenly, it just blacked out. It started up immediately as usual. This has happened a few times before and I have blamed it on it overheating. About a month ago I took the bottom cover off and cleaned the cooling fan, it was clogged with dust. I was using it hard yesterday and it felt hot. Last night I carried it down to listen to streaming audio while I make dinner and it freaked out, it started buzzing, the mouse froze, and the screen was flashing and has three vertical bars flashing. I held the on/off button and turned it off. When I push the button now, I get a light, the fan works for about 15 seconds, the hard drive light lights for about 15 seconds and nothing else. No bios screen, no post, not hard drive spin up, etc. It just sits quietly. If this were a desktop, I would say the power supply died. I smelled it, and didnt smell any electrical burning smell. Took the bottom off, and removed the cooling fan. The cooling fan sits next to a heat pipe that runs to the processor. Between the heat pipe and the fan was about a 1/2" thick layer of dust/crud that was stopping the fan from cooling the heat pipe effectively. I did not remove the cooling fan last month, just blew it out with compressed air, I should have removed it. So I found my over heating problem, the cooling fan was clogged. Taking one of these laptops apart is like taking a watch apart, I removed as much as I could before I thought, time to stop.... Is anyone familiar with laptops? do they have separate power supply modules? Today I ordered a 2.5" EIDE laptop drive adapter to allow me to connect the laptop drive to my desktop so I can retrieve the data. I also ordered a wireless card for my desktop. Is this 2.5 year old laptop junk now? Thanks, Mike Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadillac Jim Posted October 3, 2008 Report Share Posted October 3, 2008 I would try putting it back together without the fan felt and trying it. My experience with laptops is that there isn't a standard for internal parts such as power supplies or motherboards, only for memory and HD. You might be better advised to put the HD in an external enclosure for laptop drives that hooks to another computer with a USB cable. -- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data -- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Nunnally Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Sorry to hear your laptop died. We have been very happy with the Dell Vostro 1520 laptop we purchased earlier in the year when they had them on sale. Seems like everyone has everything on sale lately, so good time to be a buyer I guess. My Wife also got me a Dell Mini 9 netbook for my birthday. I plan to post a full review on it once I have used it for a bit. It just came in a few days ago. Basically a 'netbook' is a very light, mini notebook with a 9" display and 16GB solid state memory instead of a disk drive. So it is very easy to grab and carry with me for mobile posting etc. Without the cord it weighs 2.3 lbs. Bruce 2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing Follow me on: Twitter Instagram Youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDK Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 BBF, Since you don't have much to loose... (after you get the hard drive out for its data). Remove all components; Battery, hard drive, DVD, modem card - but leave the memory installed. The keyboard and mousepad are usually taken off aready via their resppective thin, flat ribbon cables to the motherboard. It they can stay on great! You could remove the monitor cable, but that can get tricky - if it is not obvious. If it is removed, then you will have to hook an external monitor to it to see the bootup and may need to have the video switched with the keyboard (Fn F5 ?) at some point You should be able to carefully tap the on/off button withe case off. Just remember which one -if they are in a row of buttons. Lay the motherboard on its back (ideally it can still be in the case's bottom-half), or if need be - on a clean, dry cardboard away from any metal, grounding, etc. Look for any tiny blown fuses, thermal reset buttons or jumpers. Note, I could not find ANY service manual info on this laptop. Insert the AC-adapter power into the motherboard. Tap the on button and good luck. If it actually boots to a bios with some errors, great! Power down and add the keyboard/mouse if possible. Power back up / down and keep adding equipment. You might get lucky ! I would guess the motherboard fried. I could not find any replacements, and those are usually $150 - $200 anyway, (if they actually work). Good luck. Add power to leave problems behind. Most braking is just - poor planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BodybyFisher Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Thanks for the info. I ordered a 2.5" HD to 40 pin adapter today from Directron.com for $4.99, can't beat that. I will save my info to my desktop. IF, my PROCESSOR is fried because of bad cooling would the system act this way? If my processor was bad what would occur? As I noted, I had about 1/2" of packed dirt and dust blocking the heat pipe from the processor. I get no post at all.. Is there a separate power supply board or is it incorporated into the motherboard typically? Thanks for you help Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BodybyFisher Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Sorry to hear your laptop died. We have been very happy with the Dell Vostro 1520 laptop we purchased earlier in the year when they had them on sale. Seems like everyone has everything on sale lately, so good time to be a buyer I guess. My Wife also got me a Dell Mini 9 netbook for my birthday. I plan to post a full review on it once I have used it for a bit. It just came in a few days ago. Basically a 'netbook' is a very light, mini notebook with a 9" display and 16GB solid state memory instead of a disk drive. So it is very easy to grab and carry with me for mobile posting etc. Without the cord it weighs 2.3 lbs. Thanks Bruce, no laptop for me for awhile. I ordered a wireless card for my desktop to day. I will try to fix the laptop if I can. I am in the process of helping a friend set up a home network and bought him a Lenovo Thinkpad they are very cheap, it gets delivered to me on Monday.. It has Wireless N, and I got him a 19 inch LCD, to extend his desktop. Need to set it up next week. Im rebuilding his desktop also, the operating system got fat and slow and needed a reinstall. The hard drive was 4 years old, so I bought him a Seagate Baracuda 80 gig for $46, can you imagine? Thanks Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadillac Jim Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 If the processor itself fried you would have a brick. That's not what happened at first because you had some weird sound and screen action, which seems to indicate that the sound and video chips were getting over temp. If you have a brick after cooling down and trying again, the processor itself is a candidate. The power supply is a good candidate too, and it and its components are likely on a separate board, or at least on a separate part of the board that does not intermingle power supply components with the computer components. The power switch just puts a signal on the motherboard and doesn't go to the power supply. Follow the battery leads. There are some large transistors, IGFETS (or MOSFETS) that need to be cooled, and they may have gone South. However, it's a long shot, and any repair of a surface mount board is dicey, and you are shooting blind without a repair manual or something like a Sams Photofact (aftermarket repair manual). The processor on most modern laptops is a surface mount chip that is soldered in with hundreds of contacts, most of which are under the chip and not accessible. They are assembled with a wave solder machine that heats the whole board to melt the solder through everything for a tiny amount of time, just enough for everything to bond. Compaq and others offer repair and data recovery services for laptops, and you might try that. I would get the data off the HD first because part of the process may involve reformatting the HD, or you may even have it come back with a new HD, or if they deem it unrepairable the whole thing may just go away. -- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data -- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BodybyFisher Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 Once I recover the hard drive, I will slowly disassemble this thing. A quick Google search did not turn up much in the line of parts, so I don't know what I am going to do if I do find a bad power supply. Jim, yes I had a weird screen and sound, turned it off, immediatly turned it on and had nothing at all. Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cadillac Jim Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 I did a web search using dogpile on "Acer Travelmate 4200 parts" and turned up too many good links to repeat here. -- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data -- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Nunnally Posted October 4, 2008 Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 TI had a Travelmate series also, which may have been the same laptops, just shared production/branding. It may have been a much older series though now that I think about it. Bruce 2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing Follow me on: Twitter Instagram Youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BodybyFisher Posted October 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2008 I did a web search using dogpile on "Acer Travelmate 4200 parts" and turned up too many good links to repeat here. Thanks Jim, Ill check that out, the search that I did, turned up stuff like monitors and batteries, if I can get replacement boards that would be great Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1 >> 1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/ Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.