Hi guys,
I picked up a used Alienware 15 which the seller described as not working. It didn't come with an AC adapter, so I wasn't able to get hands on with it until today. Anyway, I plugged in the AC adapter and the laptop wouldn't power on. I also tried disconnecting the battery to force the laptop to use AC power in case the battery was bad. Same problem.
I then noticed that when the AC adapter was plugged in, the LED light on it would turn off. Seems like there's a short or something that's triggering the AC adapter to cut power. I disassembled the laptop and tried connecting the AC adapter to the AC jack after disconnecting it from the motherboard. No problems, the LED stays on.
I read up on this issue a bit, and it seems like static discharges are a common problem with Dell laptops that are the cause of the AC adapter LED turning off problem. It seems there's a few components on the motherboard that can fry when this happens and to fix the problem, they need to be replaced.
And on that topic, here's a photo of the area of the motherboard, where the power components are suppose to live, see anything useful?
https://i.imgur.com/AmTBgZQ.jpg
Anyway, I had a bit of a poke around with a multi meter, testing continuity between the solder points of various components to check if they might be busted. They all seemed OK, but when I tested the MOSFET at PQ707, I was able to get continuity (in either the form of a beep or numbers appearing on the multi meter's screen) on all the legs except for the one on the bottom right (as seen in the photo above). I was unable to find continuity from this leg to any of the other legs of the chip. This MOSFET seems to get brought up a bit with Dells that have power problems, so have I found the cause of my problem?
You can also see that a number of components (and even a solder bridge) have visible corrosion. Have these parts gone bad?
Any thoughts on this problem guys?
I picked up a used Alienware 15 which the seller described as not working. It didn't come with an AC adapter, so I wasn't able to get hands on with it until today. Anyway, I plugged in the AC adapter and the laptop wouldn't power on. I also tried disconnecting the battery to force the laptop to use AC power in case the battery was bad. Same problem.
I then noticed that when the AC adapter was plugged in, the LED light on it would turn off. Seems like there's a short or something that's triggering the AC adapter to cut power. I disassembled the laptop and tried connecting the AC adapter to the AC jack after disconnecting it from the motherboard. No problems, the LED stays on.
I read up on this issue a bit, and it seems like static discharges are a common problem with Dell laptops that are the cause of the AC adapter LED turning off problem. It seems there's a few components on the motherboard that can fry when this happens and to fix the problem, they need to be replaced.
And on that topic, here's a photo of the area of the motherboard, where the power components are suppose to live, see anything useful?
https://i.imgur.com/AmTBgZQ.jpg
Anyway, I had a bit of a poke around with a multi meter, testing continuity between the solder points of various components to check if they might be busted. They all seemed OK, but when I tested the MOSFET at PQ707, I was able to get continuity (in either the form of a beep or numbers appearing on the multi meter's screen) on all the legs except for the one on the bottom right (as seen in the photo above). I was unable to find continuity from this leg to any of the other legs of the chip. This MOSFET seems to get brought up a bit with Dells that have power problems, so have I found the cause of my problem?
You can also see that a number of components (and even a solder bridge) have visible corrosion. Have these parts gone bad?
Any thoughts on this problem guys?
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