GIGABYTE AERO 15 OLED YB - Almost works

[SGDn00b]

HI everyone, I'm new here, so please tell me if I'm doing something wrong.

I bought a Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED model YB from ebay, spares and repairs, after talking to the seller and realising it ~mostly worked. Issues he pointed to:
- SSD intermittently cuts out, leading to booting to Windows Recovery Environment
- Battery doesn't work at all, possibly swelling

I have since realised a key piece was missing: this thing was dropped at one point. The location of the drop seems to have been the GPU side heatsink. The SSD was faulty and the battery isn't detected (but not swelling), but more concerningly, once I freshly installed Windows on a little test drive, many parts were not being detected. On opening it up to take apart and diagnose, one capacitor was loose, and came off in my hands with basically no force, accidentally, while removing the CMOS.

Original specs/model number:
Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED YB 10th gen
i9 10980HK
RTX 2080 Super Max Q
64GB DDR4 3200MHz (But I'm pretty sure the slots max out at 2933)
Pantone certified 4k HDR OLED panel

You can see why I want to fix this, it was basically top of the line at launch! But, I did buy it with the expectation I'd learn something about repair, and have fun.

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Motherboard model/rev:
GA-RP75YB Rev 1.1
It also says: "Assem: A0-11C" which I presume to be a factory code? But, you can know, anyway, in case it isn't.

The missing parts, in Windows:
- The GPU was totally undetected
- The wifi card did not work, but sent enough information to Windows to show up as a PCI Device, with an intel HW ID. Bluetooth was detected, and functional, which I understand is on the same card, but not the same rail?
- Ethernet did not work and was undetected.

What did work:
- USB ports, keyboard
- Bluetooth, as previously mentioned
- The CPU
- The panel
- The replacement drive, in both NVME slots
- Speakers

What I did not/could not test:
- USB C port
- HDMI port
- SD Card slot
- Headphone jack
- Mini DP

The Capacitor that fell:
It's labelled an M96H 15 25V, from a spot labelled 3CL2, it seems to be upstream of a MOSFET, and then a MAGIC 3R3, but I don't actually know much about this, so I could be totally wrong.

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What I'd like to know:
- First, any schematics would be totally appreciated! I found on the site some for related models, but none for specifically rev1.1 or model YB. I'm not sure how intercompatible these are? Considering mine says rev 1.1, probably it's not so reliable.
- I'm going to buy a replacement capacitor, what are the chances it's responsible for powering some sort of PCIe controller, leading to issues with a number of such devices?
- Since I'm pretty sure the GPU will have a direct line to the CPU, there should be some form of damage near it, and this particular capacitor is not. There is an empty... Diode? spot labelled Q1100, upstream of the GPU's VMUs, that could easily have been knocked off in the drop. Does anyone know what kind of part this would take? I've checked in the case and delivery packaging, and there's absolutely nothing rattling around, so I don't have this thing, whatever it was.

I can easily sub in new drives, replace batteries, or just run it on mains. I'm just looking for help getting started on trying to repair this myself! I have some very minor experience soldering onto laptop motherboards, but I'm still definitely a total newbie.

Any help welcome! I can post pics if anyone wants, too.

[SGDn00b]

Alright, found a boardview for a similar machine here https://www.badcaps.net/forum/troubl...88#post3216588 and had a look to see if there are any major differences.

At least from what I can see, the area in question is basically the same. Lots of parts labelled identically, positioned identically. According to this, the cap name should be 15U/FP/S/25V/64/55M, which I'm pretty sure means it's a 15uF part at 25V, with some more details I don't know the meaning of.

My current multimeter is extremely cheap and only suitable for continuity, so I've got an aneng 8009 on the way, that I'll use to measure an identically labelled cap on the board, and order something based on that. In the meantime I think it's going on the shelf.

[reformatt]

From that boardview/schematic, 3CL2 is a decoupling capacitor. It smooths out fluctuations on the on the +VBATA supply rail so it's not cause of your issues.

Faulty devices off eBay are a mixed bag. If it's from a refurbisher/repair shop, it will often have more than one fault since it will have been used to repair other laptops and faulty parts swapped into it. Resolve all unknown devices in Device Manager first before troubleshooting first. With regard to the GPU, if it's bad balls etc it should still be identified under display adaptors even if the driver isn't loaded. More likely to be something more fundamental but maybe a bit too involved for you.

[SGDn00b]

Yeah, I'm not sure the cap replacement is gonna fix everything, but it at least should bring it back to how it was before it fell off. At that point, I can poke and prod around a bit more to figure out exactly what's actually wrong. Then, I'll be able to check out more issues, like you said. It's still in the mail, unfortunately, so I'm still waiting before I can solder a replacement back on.

I bought it after talking with the seller, from what they said, it seemed a lot like it was just a fault SSD and battery, I only later found out about all these problems. Not that it's their fault, not everyone's technical enough to realise issues like this, mind. The seller was definitely not a repair shop, it was just some guy, who happened to want to get rid of a malfunctioning device. Just so happens I like fixing stuff, so I was ok with taking a risk. I was pretty sure it was just as described, but I'm not gonna complain about an opportunity to learn more.

What I'm worried it might be is a wide variety of missing/damaged parts. From a visual inspection, nothing seems obviously burnt or damaged, so my main idea after getting the cap back on is a number of missing parts, but there's a LOT of empty spaces on the board, and the schematic isn't this exact model, so I'm unsure which are supposed to be unpopulated. At least for the GPU, my assumption is it's probably got something to do with it not getting power, as other pcie devices at least appear as unknown devices in windows, but the GPU is totally radio silent. Once the good multimeter gets here, I'll see about trying to confirm the schematic's traces from the GPU VRMs to see if there's anything obviously missing at that point. I just hope it's not something that requires a hot air rework station, cause I've just got a decent soldering iron and nothing much more. That'd be a huge shame.

Still, though, much appreciated the info regarding the missing cap. I'd guessed it was part of the main power rail, from the 25v rating and the labels on the schematic, but knowing what it likely does is super helpful, for sure.

[SGDn00b]

Update: Resoldering the cap has enabled the machine to detect, run from, and charge the battery. It also now detects the wifi and the ethernet, although the wifi drops out after a short while, presumably due to heat. The GPU also shows up, but reports error 43 in windows. I did, in the process, accidentally drip solder near the VRAM, which has caused some issues in cleaning it up, but I think I've done about as fine a job at that as I can reasonably expect given my equipment and skill level.

I think the first thing is to investigate why the wifi drops out over time, very presumably because of the heat of the thing. I limited the power of the processor to 20% in Windows and sat it on a cooling laptop stand, and the wifi simply did not drop out after taking those measures. Considering that, maybe the wifi connector is slightly iffy, with microfractures or similar? But, considering the bluetooth doesn't drop, and that's contained on the same m.2 card, it might be some other component responding poorly to heat?