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    Surface Laptop 1 only turning on when hot

    Hi,

    I've got a Surface Laptop 1 first gen that I've been working on for a few days now. I've been diagnosing it and I've been stumped.

    When you turn it on, you get the Microsoft logo for 2 seconds, then it reboots, same thing, a total of four times before it turns off and the LED on the charger blinks, indicating a reset. I got the schematics for it (and initially worked with the SL2 schematics) and checked all the powerrails: everything except VCORE and VCC_GT was working fine, and it was constantly rebooting, therefore pulsing all the powerlines. The CPU also wasn't heating up at all.

    At my latest attempt of diagnosing, I didn't wait long enough before plugging it in after using my hot air gun and: suddenly VCore was there and the CPU started heating up!

    So the device ONLY stays on without bootlooping 4 times and then turning off if the CPU power management IC (Intersil) is heated up. Not sure if it would turn on past that, as I have yet to try more. I've already tried replacing the crystal oscillator that drives the SAM (KBC), thinking that the SAM is constantly powercycling the device before VCORE can be established.

    My current running theory is that the CPU oscillator might be shot, and I do have an identical spare, but I am having issues desoldering the original, it just won't come off the board.

    Does anyone have any other ideas?

    EDIT:
    I did some more testing and it seems like VCORE appears if I heat the CPU up for 3-ish seconds
    Last edited by hutchinsane_; 08-29-2021, 09:38 PM.

    #2
    Re: Surface Laptop 1 only turning on when hot

    Swapped the Crystal, nothing. I did however test, with the crystal removed, the board bootloops even if I heat it up. I've now measured the data lines going to the bios chip, some seem stable, some don't go to 3.3v before it bootloops, and some don't seem to come at all.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Surface Laptop 1 only turning on when hot

      Generaly, when there is difference of working with heat, it is a bad solder somewhere. But with SMD, components I have no experience. You can play with heat (and cold bomb) to locate zone of bad solder. And maybe you could press on zones of motherboard or chips and see if it’s start.

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        #4
        Re: Surface Laptop 1 only turning on when hot

        Thanks for your reply! I've swapped all the crystals now and the issue is still the same. I agree, I think it's a bad solder joint on the SoC somewhere.

        Regardless, I'm pretty sure I've managed to kill the power IC now. 🤣 Now even with my little trick there is no more vcore... I might order a new power IC just to try it out, but I've already ordered a new motherboard a while ago anyway, this was just for fun. Maybe next time I'll succeed!

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          #5
          Re: Surface Laptop 1 only turning on when hot

          Bad CPU. Seen it so many times it's not funny anymore.
          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!

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