Dell XPS M1330 power problems?

[G3n1us]

I was just wondering, if anyone has cracked this yet? Ruling out all possible issues with broken wires/plugs, it seems to be quite common for the m1330 to develop a short, forget how to communicate with the charger or to simply roll over and die.

I for one have 3 of those machines sitting in the "i'll come back to it" pile. One of them only works off the battery and doesn't want to know anything about chargers. One of them is shorted and I can't figure out for the life of me where from. And one of them powers up and doesn't boot after getting a taste of a broken charger.

On all three of these I've followed the circuits from the DC jack to the power controllers and everything seems to be according to spec and electrons do flow. My guess is that either the MAX8731 or SMSC ECE5021 that fails in random magnitudes. Haven't tried replacing them, since it looks like a PITA of a job to ensure there won't be any cold joints after soldering.

So has anyone had any success in getting these boards to work after charger troubles?

(Schematics for the board with Intel graphics, if anyone wants to take a look:http://search.4shared.com/postDownlo...chematics.html)

(Interesting read on what and how the board identifies the chargers: http://www.laptop-junction.com/toast...r-id-chip-died)

[mattbrad2]

Re: Dell XPS M1330 power problems?

Replacing those charging management IC's isn't as hard as you think it is. Takes practice, sure but what doesn't in this line of work? Hot air gun and flux is your friend here (and a pre-heat plate to warm underneath helps out). The problem with the shorted board can be traced using a regulated power supply. Something that can regulate 1-19v at at least an amp. Simulate "charging" the laptop with this power supply starting at 1v, then slowly move to 5v at 1A. Have a IR gun on hand to run across the board the check for heated components. The path of least resistance will be whatever component is shorted and absorbing all the current. Probably a cap. Maybe a mosfet hidden from your meter (likely in the buck controller). If nothing else - then the power management / charging IC is very likely the culprit.