Michael Kennedy wrote:
Hmm.. Something doesn't look right at C488.. It is just above and right of
the 3rd smallest IC which says japan on it upside down in the pic. It is
also just right of the crystal that says 4.00MT on it. Looks as if the
capacitor that was there exploded.

I respectfully disagree.

If there was a component there and it fell off, there would either be bits of
capacitor contact pad or a capacitor pad shaped depression in the solder on
the pad. If the component had exploded, there would be some visible damage to
the PCB (and probably the tell-tale "something was here" indications on the
pad). The solder on those pads is slightly convex - exactly the sort of
profile you'd see if you melted solder onto a bare PCB pad.

If I was troubleshooting that laptop, I'd do a continuity check on that 6.3A
picofuse with my ohmmeter. If it read as an open-circuit (infinite
resistance), I'd replace the fuse, put the machine back together and try to
power it up.

The inductor underneath the picofuse appears to serve as a power filter, based
on its position in the circuit -- the input connector is wired to the inductor
(with some pretty hefty tracks) and the other side of the inductor goes to
what appears to be an internal ground plane and the picofuse.

--
Phil. | Kitsune: Acorn RiscPC SA202 64M+6G ViewFinder
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