Laptop won't turn on, battery doesn't hold charge, AC adapter works, anything I can do?

[Richdog]

Hi guys. I am not posting this in the laptop section as I consider this a general troubleshooting question that anyone experienced with PC hardware and electronics can likely help with.

A year or so ago I spilled a drink on my gaming laptop which caused part of the keyboard to malfunction (parts of it don't work) and also killed the batter from holding a charge. HOWEVER, with the AC adapter it has been working fine for months, and then the other day it just died.

I used a multimeter to test the AC adapter as this was my first suspicion, but the AC adapter is fine so logically it must be the laptop.

I am about to try opening up the notebook and removing the battery from the laptop completely in case it is causing the issue, but other than that I guess it could be the PSU inside the laptop (which I am guessing I can't do anything about.

Can I please have a few suggestions in addition to the above to see if I get any inspiration for how I can troubleshoot further? Data recovery is not an issue I am just looking to get it fired back up if I can so that I can last until Ampere is released when I will do a new desktop build.

 

[Jamin280672]

Hi guys. I am not posting this in the laptop section as I consider this a general troubleshooting question that anyone experienced with PC hardware and electronics can likely help with.

A year or so ago I spilled a drink on my gaming laptop which caused part of the keyboard to malfunction (parts of it don't work) and also killed the batter from holding a charge. HOWEVER, with the AC adapter it has been working fine for months, and then the other day it just died.

I used a multimeter to test the AC adapter as this was my first suspicion, but the AC adapter is fine so logically it must be the laptop.

I am about to try opening up the notebook and removing the battery from the laptop completely in case it is causing the issue, but other than that I guess it could be the PSU inside the laptop (which I am guessing I can't do anything about.

Can I please have a few suggestions in addition to the above to see if I get any inspiration for how I can troubleshoot further? Data recovery is not an issue I am just looking to get it fired back up if I can so that I can last until Ampere is released when I will do a new desktop build.

There is no PSU in the laptop, the psu is your external power brick, however, id be surprised if its taken a year for the fluid you spilt on it to kill it, I think its still down to the battery, id buy a new battery pack for it first and try that, im pretty sure the way a laptop works is the battery still supplies the power to the laptop, even when plugged in, it just has a constant flow of power when plugged in, if your battery has completely given up the ghost and is holding no power at all, it could be the cause.

 

[roger_37]

could it be the hdd,have you any way of testing it,to rule it out.

 

[Zefan]

There is no PSU in the laptop, the psu is your external power brick, however, id be surprised if its taken a year for the fluid you spilt on it to kill it, I think its still down to the battery, id buy a new battery pack for it first and try that, im pretty sure the way a laptop works is the battery still supplies the power to the laptop, even when plugged in, it just has a constant flow of power when plugged in, if your battery has completely given up the ghost and is holding no power at all, it could be the cause.

Nope, that isn't the case. Batteries would need replacing very often if that was how it worked. You can remove the battery from every laptop I've ever used and it will still work when plugged in.

I think it's either your power connector has gone (probably the number 1 cause of death for laptops) or the corrosion caused by the liquid has now reached an extent that it's interrupting the proper connection of motherboard components. There is a small amount of "power supply" circuitry within all laptop motherboards, bringing the 19v (or whatever it is on your laptop) down from there to 12, 5, and 3.3 or whatever your laptop uses. I suspect it's part of this circuitry that's corroded. You could do a lot worse than opening up the board very carefully and giving it a physical/visual inspection and a clean with IPA. As you own a multimeter there's a half chance you'll be capable of using it for fault finding on a board, so if you find corrosion or anything that looks less than pristine, give it a continuity test to see if the component functioning correctly.

 

[Richdog]

There is no PSU in the laptop, the psu is your external power brick, however, id be surprised if its taken a year for the fluid you spilt on it to kill it, I think its still down to the battery, id buy a new battery pack for it first and try that, im pretty sure the way a laptop works is the battery still supplies the power to the laptop, even when plugged in, it just has a constant flow of power when plugged in, if your battery has completely given up the ghost and is holding no power at all, it could be the cause.

Hi Jamin.

Yeah, you are right about the PSU, I didn't think that through. However in my experience, removing the battery has always allowed a laptop to be still powered up, it is not dependent on the battery being installed.

could it be the hdd,have you any way of testing it,to rule it out.

Hi Roger. If the HDD had a fault and the laptop still had power it would still boot to the BIOS, but Windows wouldn't load. Sadly there is no power.

Nope, that isn't the case. Batteries would need replacing very often if that was how it worked. You can remove the battery from every laptop I've ever used and it will still work when plugged in.

I think it's either your power connector has gone (probably the number 1 cause of death for laptops) or the corrosion caused by the liquid has now reached an extent that it's interrupting the proper connection of motherboard components. There is a small amount of "power supply" circuitry within all laptop motherboards, bringing the 19v (or whatever it is on your laptop) down from there to 12, 5, and 3.3 or whatever your laptop uses. I suspect it's part of this circuitry that's corroded. You could do a lot worse than opening up the board very carefully and giving it a physical/visual inspection and a clean with IPA. As you own a multimeter there's a half chance you'll be capable of using it for fault finding on a board, so if you find corrosion or anything that looks less than pristine, give it a continuity test to see if the component functioning correctly.

Hi Zefan. I have now removed the battery which was COMPLETELY borked (bulging and distorted) and checked over the circuitry and wires inside the case and I can't see what looks like corrosion, so I think that you may be right about the power connector being the cause. However, all the wires look like they are connected, nothing seems 'too' loose and I can't see anything obvious.

I think I will try and order a replacement power jack using the part number and then replace it myself... will be a good learning experience. If that works then I will also buy a replacement battery and install that.

I am definitely not buying a high-end gaming laptop again (I've had two and they have been good but just a pain if things go wrong with the hardware)... my next machine will be a desktop that is more maintainable with a longer component lifespan.

I will update the thread when I get further and thanks guys for taking the time to help.

 

[Zefan]

When I say board components I mean the tiny surface mount resistors/capacitors etc, which are connected by tiny motherboard traces. They, as well as surface mount ICs, can be quite upset by liquid damage corrosion. If you can't see anything it's unlikely you'll be able to realistically fault find it if there some somewhere

Hopefully it is just the connector, it's usually a very simple cable connected, secured by a screw job.

 

[Richdog]

Grr, bad news... I received the new DC-in port, removed the battery, hooked it up, pressed the power button and... the laptop still won't boot.

I confirmed the AC adapter was putting out voltage so I guess either the new port part is faulty which is unlikely... or more likely there is another component in the laptop that has failed.