Laptop Repair

Silenced · 15 Feb 2011 at 14:18

Hey OcUK,

After having a laptop that had been water soaked I bought a new motherboard, it came with the CPU and HSF, so I put it in the old case, put in the old working RAM + new CD Drive and I seem to be getting no display, I do hear the fans going inside though.

I've tried a CMOS clear

Silenced · 17 Feb 2011 at 23:04

Bump, hoping someone can help.

Thekwango · 17 Feb 2011 at 23:39

there are any number of problems that could have happened, water damaged laptops can be extremely hard to diagnose and even harder/expensive to repair.

anyways, the inverter for the screen could be gone, might be worth checking that. when you power it on, tilt the screen at a few random angles and see if you can make out the 'shadow' of a picture in the screen

Matt-Page · 17 Feb 2011 at 23:50

Have you tried plugging in an external monitor and powering it on? There should be a VGA out. Might need to use the Fn key + and F key to change the display mode.
If you get a display, then it's likely to be the inverter at fault.

shannowdr · 17 Feb 2011 at 23:51

Brave trying to repair a laptop.

Only thing i can think off would be to connect an external monitor up and see if a picture appears or connect a voltage meter up and check to see if the laptop is drawing enough power to power more than a couple of fans.

Silenced · 18 Feb 2011 at 00:25

I've trid plugging it into an external monitor, although I haven't pressed the change display buttons as I'm unsure the keyboard is working, although I may not have waited for windows to load.

electronic_matt · 18 Feb 2011 at 04:32

Silenced said:
I've trid plugging it into an external monitor, although I haven't pressed the change display buttons as I'm unsure the keyboard is working, although I may not have waited for windows to load.

Try disconnecting the keyboard, optical drive and make sure there are no bent pins on the screen cable connection (if it has pins, as some use a slide in type connector) I had a samsung R60 in for repair and the keyboard was liquid damaged, once the keyboard was disconnect the system booted ok.

Can I ask the laptop make and model?

Silenced · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:01

It's an Acer Aspire 5536, it's really worth fixing, 2.2GHz with 4GB of RAM and I was given it freely by my mums friend.

The optical drive will be fine as it came with the mobo I purchased.

Silenced · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:04

Right, I've just tested with no keyboard, and then with no keyboard and touchpad, still nothing displaying.

But the CD Drive is opening when pressed, so that must be a slightly good sign.

d_brennen · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:06

Where did you get the replacement? I guess it was used as it came with CPU and other bits. It's entirely possible that's goosed too (been there, done that...). Sometimes laptop repair is an exercise in hair loss

cammy5477 · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:08

as others have stated .....very brave to try and fix a water damaged laptop

hats off to you and good luck with the fix

Silenced · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:12

My dad decided to buy one from ebay, and yeah d_brennen, came with the CPU and etc.

HardwareGeek · 18 Feb 2011 at 10:33

I used to work in insurance replacements for IT stuff and water damaged laptops were insta replaced no attempt to diagnose or fix them at all.

Good luck tho

electronic_matt · 18 Feb 2011 at 17:01

Silenced said:
It's an Acer Aspire 5536, it's really worth fixing, 2.2GHz with 4GB of RAM and I was given it freely by my mums friend.

The optical drive will be fine as it came with the mobo I purchased.

The board you bought could be faulty may be, or the CPU?

I would just run the board out of the laptop, with just the cpu, ram and an external screen attached first, and power button board (unless the power button is onboard idk) and see what happens?

Silenced · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:21

I think the CPU could be a chance of being dead, the ebay page said the mobo was fully working, unsure about the CPU (Yes, I know I can't fully trust this)