Razer blade advanced 2020

[Themi]

Hi all

Repairing a 2020 Razer blade advanced, 10th gen intel + 2080 max q. Originally had a destroyed charging port (soldered to the board type) which I've replaced and then found out it was missing the 20v rail which loops around the board.

Found a 3r030 mosfet which was shorted gate to drain so replaced that and now have 20v rail, 3.3v, 5v but still unable to power on successfully.

When powering on there's no activity at all. The PCH gets hot but nothing else. At this point I gave up last night to attempt again today with fresh eyes.

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas of what might be worth inspecting next. I feel like the PCH isn't firing up the cpu for some reason but I haven't properly checked for a 1v rail yet. I was also thinking of putting the board under the thermal camera just to check for any other areas of activity when attempting to power on.

If anyone wants images for voltages measured just ask and I'll post them here.

[mon2]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

Check the resistance to ground of the coils near the CPU / PCH. From the assorted posts and readings, if the PCH is getting hot then it is game over as the CPU (with the PCH) needs to be replaced. Unless you have a proper SMD reflow station, the replacement of a massive part like this is difficult. We have such a tool but openly little free time to proceed with this learning task. Hope to do so before the end of the year. The tool has worked very well to remove TQFP / BGA devices. It is from Seamark (China) and is able to support down to 0.5*0.5mm devices with an automatic placement / removal process.

Large BGA devices will demand a proper underside heater.

[Themi]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

Check the resistance to ground of the coils near the CPU / PCH. From the assorted posts and readings, if the PCH is getting hot then it is game over as the CPU (with the PCH) needs to be replaced. Unless you have a proper SMD reflow station, the replacement of a massive part like this is difficult. We have such a tool but openly little free time to proceed with this learning task. Hope to do so before the end of the year. The tool has worked very well to remove TQFP / BGA devices. It is from Seamark (China) and is able to support down to 0.5*0.5mm devices with an automatic placement / removal process.

Large BGA devices will demand a proper underside heater.

Thanks for the info. I do fear this might be the case as usually once the 3.3, 5 and 20v rails are active things are looking up. This is the first Razer I've worked on where these rails have been active yet the machine won't power on. Re the resistance measurements between coils near the cpu/pch and ground I have previously done the same measurements on other Razer blades and the resistance has been very low (almost seeming like a fault) yet those laptops have worked fine. I am guessing possibly because they are very low impedance lines?

Nevertheless I'm out at the moment but once I'm back I'll make these checks and see what the readings are.

[Themi]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

One side note, bit of a long shot. Could a corrupt bios be causing a failure to power on? Behaviour when attempting power on is nothing happens at all. No fan spin when plugged in, no activity when power button pressed. Holding the power button for an extended period causes the charging led to flash white, once.

[mon2]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

Yes, low voltage rails like CPU / GPU / PCH will have low resistance readings to ground. We had a macbook (a1398) that was with a 1 ohm resistance to ground, yet worked fine.

Yes, a corrupt bios (like politicians) can impact the operation. There is the main bios and perhaps the local bios for the KBC controller (not my area of experience - KBC virgin you could say). Wait on others to comment. You should always backup your original bios before erasing your original and confirm with 110% confidence on the Vcc voltage of your BIOS. Not all bioses are 3v3 style so you must be sure your programmer can handle the assorted variety that may be on your board (ie. 1v8 style).

[dellxps15]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

if u google for razer blade flash after 10 second power botton press it's full of dead razer notebook..
about your notebook, the green led on the front turn green?

3,3 and 5 volt on new notebook models shoud comes on only after power botton is pressed (not sure). check if u get other voltage with 3,3 and 5 volt. check bios volts.

3r030 mosfet u have replaced was inline with what power rail? cpu gpu pch... anso check what volts it has in and out... probably if it get 20volt it has destroyed the entire line...

wait for update.

hot pch mean terrible hot or just a bit warm ?

[Themi]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

Yes, low voltage rails like CPU / GPU / PCH will have low resistance readings to ground. We had a macbook (a1398) that was with a 1 ohm resistance to ground, yet worked fine.

Yes, a corrupt bios (like politicians) can impact the operation. There is the main bios and perhaps the local bios for the KBC controller (not my area of experience - KBC virgin you could say). Wait on others to comment. You should always backup your original bios before erasing your original and confirm with 110% confidence on the Vcc voltage of your BIOS. Not all bioses are 3v3 style so you must be sure your programmer can handle the assorted variety that may be on your board (ie. 1v8 style).

Lol politicians!. I may try the bios at some point this week because I cannot find anything else that is wrong. It appears all the power rails are operational but the machine refuses to start and appears dead. I will backup before hand and find an alternative bios to write. Reader wise I have a CH341A. I'll have to check if this supports the bios ICs I have.

Is the IC to the left of the battery is the bios? I see two others around the PCH.

[Themi]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

if u google for razer blade flash after 10 second power botton press it's full of dead razer notebook..
about your notebook, the green led on the front turn green?

3,3 and 5 volt on new notebook models shoud comes on only after power botton is pressed (not sure). check if u get other voltage with 3,3 and 5 volt. check bios volts.

3r030 mosfet u have replaced was inline with what power rail? cpu gpu pch... anso check what volts it has in and out... probably if it get 20volt it has destroyed the entire line...

wait for update.

hot pch mean terrible hot or just a bit warm ?

no green light when attempting to power on
only the single white light flash when holding the power button for around 10-15s

3.3 and 5 do come up after the power is pressed. I'll check the bios volts but I'm not actually sure which is the main board bios. I've posted an image above of 3 that are likely candidates.

the 3r030 is inline with a 20v circuit that loops around the board, various components pull from it though and convert to lower voltages. I do hope it hasn't destroyed everything but can't rule it out tbh

hot PCH as in terribly hot. I'll measure the heat off it tonight but it's going to be well into 70c however on this model it's heatsinked so not sure if it naturally runs hotter in this model

[dellxps15]

Re: Razer blade advanced 2020

bios must be a 25 something 128 or 64, depending on bios size.. 16mb or 8mb...