James Sweet writes:

Paul M wrote:
Hello,
My friend's laptop died several months ago during an
electrical storm. He gave it to me after he bought
another one. Being a little tight on budget, I would really
appreciate any help with bringing the laptop back to life.
The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron 4150 (model
number PP01L). Absolutely nothing happens when I press
the power button. No lights, no sounds, nothing.
I did some searching on the web and the newsgroups,
and it seems there is a slight hope I might be able
to save the laptop if I replace the power board.
I haven't opened up the laptop yet so I really don't
know if the laptop has a separate power board (i.e., not built into
the motherboard).
Also, in order for me to more specifically diagose the
problem I need to get a (digital) mltimedter.
Here are my questions:
(1) What are the chances of saving this laptop by
replacing the power board (if any)?
(2) Could the BIOS have fried, or maybe some other
electrical component on the motherboard?
(3) Can someone please recommend a multimeter for
this kind of work? (Some of the decent multimeters
on the market cost above $100 and a lot more, like
the Fluke models.)
(4) How can I use a multimeter to determine any
dead electrical components on the motherboard?
(5) Any general comments or recommendations?
Thank you for any help and guidance.
Best regards,
Paul

First, check the AC adapter and make sure it's putting out the correct
voltage, ideally into some sort of load. If the laptop still doesn't
work, you could open it up and look for anything obvious, but honestly
your best bet is to watch Ebay and find a laptop in the same series
with a cracked screen and then swap parts around to get a good one.

The power adapter is about the only hope. If it wasn't connected to
the phone line at the time of the lightning strike, that may be all
that blown out.

There really isn't anything else that would be relatively easy to
troubleshoot, especially if it was caused by lightning.

I bet many of the experienced repair people on this newsgroup would
rather go to the dentist than try to repair a lightning damaged
laptop.

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