I think i have just blown my laptop gfx??

Biz.Kid09

Biz.Kid09

Biz.Kid09

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I just took the plate off the back of my laptop to get to the gfx and cpu cooler to apply some thermal paste. I wasnt paying attention and dropped a screw which landed on what looks like a little bios chip and it made a spark. So scrapped the thermal paste and put everything back together as i was afraid i had blown it.
Switched laptop on and my gfx is not detectable in device manager e.t.c, Is there anyway of fixing this?
I know this isnt 'General Hardware' but i am really scared at the moment
 
It turned on? That's fortunate. Not a chance we can do anything without much more information and preferably pictures.

How much is the laptop worth? Motherboard repairs are rarely cheap.

Next time, don't drop the screw. Don't worry too much about it, I think most people on here will have killed things while 'fixing' them.
 
What kind of information you need, Well nothing happened to the thing itslef ie no marks e.t.c it just sparked. Probably around £400-£500
It was switched off with the battery in, I didnt realise it was supposed to be taken out it was not plugged in though
 
No burn marks on the board is a good sign. It's very odd that it sparked if the battery had been removed, and I'm assuming you had taken the battery out before you started.

What does gpu-z think?
 
Oh. You're pretty screwed then, leaving the battery in was thick. I missed that in the above post, cheers super.

It's very likely that you've burnt out a couple of the traces on the board. This is repairable if you happen to know someone with the machinery required, otherwise it's new motherboard time.

I think you're very lucky indeed that it is still functioning as well as it is.
 
With the battery in place the board is "live", you have to take it out for the same reason that you had to unplug it. [thought, with 3 pin laptop cables it may be better to have them plugged in, turned off at the mains. anyone?]

Machinery you don't have, which will cost far more than a new laptop. The one I'm thinking of is the box at work which identifies and repairs bad solder joints, I'm unsure if it can cope with damaged traces. Shockingly can't remember its name either. You may well be looking at replacing the little "bios like" chip, as my current guess is you fried that and it's somehow related to the gpu. If so it's a case of finding the component and soldering it to the board, which isn't so bad. If its trace damage I don't know if it's repairable or not.

This thread suggests $189 from Asus for the board. This sounds about right, I can probably get you an accurate cost next time I'm at work (assuming this doesn't violate board anti-competitor rules? We don't sell computers, just fix them).
 
Thanks for that mate, So you can fix it for me? Please let me know a price if you can as i am interested. I dont have any soldering skills what so ever so i wont attempt to do it myself.
 
I'm fairly sure actively soliciting business is against the rules, so I'm afraid I can't help. The quote was intended to help you compare with local businesses, to avoid being robbed blind. There's a few quite immoral companies out there.

Speaking of which, if it's within warranty with Asus they might be worth the pitched battle. Or perhaps their rep speaks the truth and somehow it'll be a five day turnaround, stranger things happen. Good luck either way :)
 
to be honest, i rekon most people would not think they needed to take the battery out so dont beat yourself up about it. It really is a very unfortunate mistake but calling it 'think' is not warranted.

Hope you get it sorted, to be frank i would look at spending the repair money (which will be high) on a desktop. Unless you NEED the paptop in which case i completely retract that advice.

thoughts?
 
Biz.Kid09 said:
Oh ok mate thanks anyways, So what do i need replacing so i can phone up a few places including asus :mad:
Click to expand...

in terms of what needs replacing i suggest you speak with asus about it. I strongly suspect you simply need a new motherboard with the integrated graphics but the provision of one, plus postage costs etc will soon mount up.
 
if it were me mate - and i could afford it, i would do my research and get a new laptop. Tell you what, give us the spec of your current laptop and its original cost and then ill see what options are available to you in terms of an upgrade to a new laptop for similar cash to your original outlay. You will be surprised what you can get!
 
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