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    #1

    I love me a good challenge.

    As you know, things are expensive 'round here, and people don't part from their broken stuff easily. And since the nvidia GPU failure thing became public people have been advertising their broken laptops as "repairable" with prices of $200 to $300. They hardly sell in working condition for that price because the more educated buyers won't buy something that they know will fail. But every once in a while something real good pops up. I stumbled upon this for $60. Sammy P30. Specs as quoted:

    Pentium M 1.7G - 512MB RAM - 60GB - Ati 9000 64MB - DVD - Wifi - Firewire - Fingerprint reader - Good battery and original power adapter - Screen in pristine condition.

    Seller said it powered down during operation never to return again. Charge indicator lights up but not much else. He had it diagnosed at a service center, opened in front of him, quoted $120 for motherboard failure. He said the tech "measured a few points" and decided the mobo is dead. I wouldn't be so sure... That generation chipsets don't just die like the nvidias, so i'm guessing something wrong with one of the power supplies.

    Either way, the parts alone are worth more than $60, the screen alone goes for $150, it fits some Lenovos. The seller said that he simply doesn't have time to deal with selling it for parts.

    I left the good for last - it's a 15" 1400x1050 screen. You know, from the 4:3 days. Pic attached. And i thought this uni break is going to be boring (i have my last exam tomorrow). Plan is "fix it, upgrade it, sell it for big profit". And of course, use the money to buy more stuff to fix. Only it has a big potential of turning into "fix it, upgrade it, keep it" It's getting posted to me tomorrow, should be here in 3-4 days.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Th3_uN1Qu3; 01-31-2011, 03:16 PM.
    Originally posted by PeteS in CA
    Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
    A working TV? How boring!
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: I love me a good challenge.

    Oven reflow.
    "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

    -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

    Comment

      #3
      Re: I love me a good challenge.

      Originally posted by mockingbird View Post
      Oven reflow.
      I think you didn't read it. It's from before the whole leadfree thing. Done my share of oven reflows but i feel this one is gonna be a bit different. It won't be the first thing i'll try on it certainly.
      Originally posted by PeteS in CA
      Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
      A working TV? How boring!

      Comment

        #4
        Re: I love me a good challenge.

        Samsung P3x's are known to have chipset soldering issues..

        i had 2 of these here.. both with the same problem..
        it's not the solder's fault, but caused by flexing of the board (much like the problems the Thinkpad T4x series have..)

        Comment

          #5
          Re: I love me a good challenge.

          Mmm so you say i will have to reflow it after all. I have to do my dv9000 anyway, another one won't hurt.
          Originally posted by PeteS in CA
          Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
          A working TV? How boring!

          Comment

            #6
            Re: I love me a good challenge.

            Okay, it's here. Was packed nicely, looks decent, the case is scratched but the screen is fine. The insides leave a bit to be desired. It's missing the F2 key, and the hard drive is 6 (six) gigabytes. Actually, the specs he posted (copied from another site) said 6GB but i thought it was a typo... it seems it wasn't.

            As soon as i plugged the power supply into the laptop it started making a ticking noise. That sounds like protection kicking in. In sync with the ticking a LED in the front of the laptop (probably the battery charge one) flashes orange. It doesn't do much else. Sounds like a short in the charging circuit to me.

            Now, anybody got any bright ideas how to take the $^&@#&*@* thing apart??? I can't seem to figure it out.
            Last edited by Th3_uN1Qu3; 02-08-2011, 03:57 AM.
            Originally posted by PeteS in CA
            Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
            A working TV? How boring!

            Comment

              #7
              Re: I love me a good challenge.

              Looks like you're a little over your head on this one. I would refrain from such risks in the future.
              "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

              -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

              Comment

                #8
                Re: I love me a good challenge.

                Ah well you win some you lose some. I can sell the display and get my money back... and just smash the rest if i'm in the mood.

                Anyway. The keyboard was kinda iffy so i thought i was doing it wrong - nope, it came apart eventually. Inside, more bad news. Whoever was in here before me also stole half the RAM. Anyway... There has been no obvious intervention to the motherboard so it could be something simple. But first, i'll be cracking open that power brick. It's an AcBel so it could be good, it could be not so good.
                Originally posted by PeteS in CA
                Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
                A working TV? How boring!

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: I love me a good challenge.

                  I decided to remove the motherboard first. This model has a DC/DC converter that piggybacks on the motherboard. I removed that board and the clicking disappeared, main power supply up. There are some SO-8 mosfets on there, one or more are probably bad.

                  Edit: Got it. We have one of those buggers that fried. The top mosfet is shorted. Now, that'll be an easy fix... if i find a replacement to begin with. Farnell doesn't carry it, i'll look for an equivalent.
                  Last edited by Th3_uN1Qu3; 02-08-2011, 05:14 AM.
                  Originally posted by PeteS in CA
                  Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
                  A working TV? How boring!

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: I love me a good challenge.

                    so a new keyboard, ram, and hard disk should make it run again.
                    sigpic

                    (Insert witty quote here)

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: I love me a good challenge.

                      Well, the HDD, RAM and everything else are up for sale. I fixed the DC-DC (with a rather brilliant hack) but it only starts for a split second, i hear a short chirp from it, the fan twitches, and it goes back to sleep. Scoping the board confirmed that it only runs for a bit then shuts down. Other power supplies (like the USB for example) run for a little more then they too shut down. It charges the battery tho...

                      Same thing happens with the DC-DC board removed, minus the chirp. It's dead. Well, at least i'm not gonna run short of SO-8 mosfets anytime soon.
                      Originally posted by PeteS in CA
                      Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
                      A working TV? How boring!

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: I love me a good challenge.

                        Something else is bad as well.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: I love me a good challenge.

                          Well that was kinda obvious don't you think? There is only one set of main capacitors on the board that don't get voltage (they get a few dozen millivolts but that's it). Unfortunately i have no idea what they do.

                          I think the main 5v rail is dead as the hard drive doesn't even try to spin. Unfortunately the layout of the board doesn't make it easy on me.

                          I'll reflow my DV9000 first then have another go at it next week if no critical parts sell until then.
                          Originally posted by PeteS in CA
                          Remember that by the time consequences of a short-sighted decision are experienced, the idiot who made the bad decision may have already been promoted or moved on to a better job at another company.
                          A working TV? How boring!

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: I love me a good challenge.

                            Check tantalum caps or feed 1V from AAA battery into it and watch current.

                            I sometimes use a small linear regulator to boost-start converter.

                            Comment

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