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Electronics Repair (sci.electronics.repair) Discussion of repairing electronic equipment. Topics include requests for assistance, where to obtain servicing information and parts, techniques for diagnosis and repair, and annecdotes about success, failures and problems. |
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#1
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not
start. It's this one: http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. |
#2
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:35:37 -0000, "tg"
wrote: I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not start. It's this one: http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. -- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA |
#3
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 17, 6:35*pm, "tg" wrote:
I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not start. It's this one:http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. The symptoms suggest a short on the mainboard, the PSU aren't able to regulate so their protection circuits are cycling them off as best they can (at the price-point of the design). There isn't much you can do at this point except strip the mainboard down as much as possible. Disconnect hard drive, optical, memory, CPU (except if you take the heatsink off and it was heatsinking the chipset, you must put that heatsink back on and ensure it makes good contact with the chipset still), card reader, screen, inverter board. See if it will then "seem" (since you have no screen, watch the power LED(s)) to stay on. It may not, without a processor and memory. If necessary put those back in and retry. If it stays on, reconnect screen but not the backpanel lighting inverter yet. If it turns on and stays on, see if there is output to the screen by shining a strong flashlight on it. If it works this far, an inverter failure is a common cause. If it didn't work at all up to this point, mainboard probably needs replaced. If it works up to some point in the middle, suspect the part (s) you added at that point. These days such a problem is typically handled by replacing the mainboard at a repair shop, then if that doesn't work they replace the next part and so on, till it's fixed or the customer refuses to pay for their diagnosed problem since often the laptop cost little more than the total repair cost. |
#4
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article , Rich Webb
says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#5
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 17, 7:16*pm, Conor wrote:
In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams What did you think they used for capacitors in the power supply? |
#6
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
Conor wrote:
In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. Google is your friend.... |
#7
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 18, 12:33*am, "hr(bob) "
wrote: On Feb 17, 7:16*pm, Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams What did you think they used for capacitors in the power supply? In the external AC-DC brick/wart, yes there are certainly electrolytics. In the interior of the notebook, only a cost-cutting design would have any, so yes it is possible but no better notebook would have any. |
#8
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 18, 1:09*am, jakdedert wrote:
Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. *Google is your friend.... Yes, but, although surface mount caps can be electrolytic, in a notebook (none at all if it's a good design), very few caps are electrolytic, if any, except in the external brick AC-DC PSU. |
#9
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article 23249f90-8ab6-4d4f-b2d2-4de755ce52f5
@l37g2000vba.googlegroups.com, hr(bob) says... What did you think they used for capacitors in the power supply? Grasping at straws. That's not remotely related to the problem is it? -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#10
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article , jakdedert
says... Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. Google is your friend.... I wouldn't buy any laptop using electrolytics other than in an external power brick. -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#11
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:54:47 -0000, Conor
wrote: In article , jakdedert says... Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. Google is your friend.... I wouldn't buy any laptop using electrolytics other than in an external power brick. The battery (or external supply) sources one voltage. The main board and peripheral components require multiple, regulated voltages. Therefore, somewhere there are several DC-DC converters to supply those voltages. Those regulators will likely use tants or low ESR aluminum electrolytics. The OP is having problems with a "laptop power fault," therefore *something* is likely wrong in a power stage. Capacitors in the power stages are rather more likely to fail than inductors or (properly rated) semiconductors, therefore it's worth examining them for no other reason than crossing them off the list. -- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA |
#12
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
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#14
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:54:47 -0000, Conor wrote:
In article , jakdedert says... Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. Google is your friend.... I wouldn't buy any laptop using electrolytics other than in an external power brick. I guess you'll never own one then .... |
#15
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 18, 6:20*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 18, 1:09*am, jakdedert wrote: Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. *Google is your friend.... Yes, but, although surface mount caps can be electrolytic, in a notebook (none at all if it's a good design), very few caps are electrolytic, if any, except in the external brick AC-DC PSU. That's complete nonsense, of course a laptop uses electrolytics, and lots of them to filter power throughout the unit. As jakedart said they're surface mount units. Take one apart sometime & look. * * * * Jerry I have, several times. They use mostly if not entirely solid, (usually chip) caps, and ceramics with good reason. Electrolytics wear out too fast inside modern laptops because of the elevated temps, not to mention their height being a problem when engineering something as thin as reasonably possible. Here's a picture of both sides of a quite typical HP laptop mainboard, under two years old and quite similar to what they're still using. Point out the electrolytic caps on it and BTW, this is the whole thing there is no separate power board: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/961/bottomsmsf5.jpg The solid caps are black, and yellow. The ceramics of course are tan. There are plenty more pictures from 3rd parties available with a google search if you can't accept the above pics are typical: http://images.google.com/images?q=laptop+mainboard |
#16
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 12:19*am, wrote:
... BTW, this is the whole thing there is no separate power board: By that I meant no internal power converter board that's separate, it does have a separate input jack board (also without caps, it's only a strip big enough to hold a couple jacks), and the brick AC-DC adapter separate as with practically all laptops in the last several years. |
#17
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 18, 9:06*pm, rebel wrote:
On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:54:47 -0000, Conor wrote: In article , jakdedert says... Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. *Google is your friend.... I wouldn't buy any laptop using electrolytics other than in an external power brick. I guess you'll never own one then .... False. The only place a typical modern laptop has electrolytic capacitors is in the AC-DC brick, and there typically 2 or 3. There might be one of those old build-your-own PCChips kits still running that has 'lytics, but that's because PCChips makes cheap junk and it was huge for what it was, IIRC. |
#18
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 18, 6:25*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 17, 6:35*pm, "tg" wrote: I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not start. It's this one:http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. The symptoms suggest a short on the mainboard, the PSU aren't able to regulate so their protection circuits are cycling them off as best they can (at the price-point of the design). There isn't much you can do at this point except strip the mainboard down as much as possible. *Disconnect hard drive, optical, memory, CPU (except if you take the heatsink off and it was heatsinking the chipset, you must put that heatsink back on and ensure it makes good contact with the chipset still), card reader, screen, inverter board. See if it will then "seem" (since you have no screen, watch the power LED(s)) to stay on. *It may not, without a processor and memory. *If necessary put those back in and retry. *If it stays on, reconnect screen but not the backpanel lighting inverter yet. *If it turns on and stays on, see if there is output to the screen by shining a strong flashlight on it. If it works this far, an inverter failure is a common cause. *If it didn't work at all up to this point, mainboard probably needs replaced. *If it works up to some point in the middle, suspect the part (s) you added at that point. *These days such a problem is typically handled by replacing the mainboard at a repair shop, then if that doesn't work they replace the next part and so on, till it's fixed or the customer refuses to pay for their diagnosed problem since often the laptop cost little more than the total repair cost. Had a problem like that with an old Dell laptop. Measuring the resistance across the power input jack showed a direct short. After disassembling the unit I found an electrolytic across the power lines, after the rf filter & fuse that was shorted. Removed it and the laptop now works fine (so much for no electrolytics in laptops). * * * * Jerry Now you know one of the reasons why they don't typically put electrolytics in laptops anymore. I never suggested no old laptop ever had any, but this is a pretty modern laptop not some ancient Dell. |
#19
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4-
: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. There are almost certainly others but resolution insufficient. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. -- bz 73 de N5BZ k please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an infinite set. remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap |
#20
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article , rebel says...
I wouldn't buy any laptop using electrolytics other than in an external power brick. I guess you'll never own one then .... There speaks someone who knows **** all about electronics. If you did, you'd know why electrolytic caps in a laptop is generally considered "A Bad Idea". -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#21
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article 39, bz
says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#22
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
"Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. David |
#23
Posted to sci.electronics.repair,uk.comp.sys.laptops
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article , David says...
"Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. Beat me to it. Was just going to post a link to a piccy of a tantalum. -- Conor I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams |
#24
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 10:57*am, "David" wrote:
"Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. David Nope. There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. |
#25
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 7:35*am, bz wrote:
wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. ?? You have not indicated any electrolytic caps (but that's to be expected since there aren't any). There are almost certainly others but resolution insufficient. Other caps yes, but not electrolytic. I made that picture on a scanner, how high a resolution can you handle? Think these are 600DPI, roughly 6000x6000 res. so I'd recommend not trying to open them directly in a web browser. ~ 11MB Top Scan http://69.36.166.207/usr_1034/Top.jpg ~ 7MB Bottom http://69.36.166.207/usr_1034/Bottom.jpg I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Caps yes, tantalum or other solid types like niobium. I suppose I should clarify that sometimes I'll see people calling solid capacitors, "solid electrolytic" but that is a misnomer, electrolytic implies a liquid electrolyte. Perhaps they really meant solid aluminum (can). Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Practically all (on that example board scan) that aren't ceramic are over 10uF, none of which are electrolytic. Certainly years ago this would have been near impossible at any reasonable price, but great gains have been made in solid capacitors in the last 8 years or so, give or take. |
#26
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
wrote in news:d972e65d-ba83-4734-b5b7-
: Nope. There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor Take a look at the pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...d-polarity.jpg Check your laptop and make sure you DON'T have any of the mugs in the shot. If you are saying that 'modern' laptops don't have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...ectrolytic.jpg then you are right but modern laptops DO have other types of electrolytic. The defining part that makes a capacitor an electrolytic is the presence of an electrolyte and the electro-chemical reaction that forms one of the electrodes in 'very close proximity' to the metal electrode which can be aluminum or tantalum or some other metal. I used to make ceramic capacitors, so I am not really an expert on electrolytic but you seem to have a mistaken idea as to what constitutes an 'electrolytic'. -- bz 73 de N5BZ k please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an infinite set. remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap |
#27
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In sci.electronics.repair Conor wrote:
In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. Any cap over .1 uF or so will probably be an electro. Jerry |
#28
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Feb 19, 10:57*am, "David" wrote: "Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. David Nope. There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. A tatalum cap is a type of electrolytic. Specifically the dielectric is formed by electro-chemical action. Jerry |
#29
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Feb 18, 6:25*pm, Jerry Peters wrote: In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 17, 6:35*pm, "tg" wrote: I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not start. It's this one:http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. The symptoms suggest a short on the mainboard, the PSU aren't able to regulate so their protection circuits are cycling them off as best they can (at the price-point of the design). There isn't much you can do at this point except strip the mainboard down as much as possible. *Disconnect hard drive, optical, memory, CPU (except if you take the heatsink off and it was heatsinking the chipset, you must put that heatsink back on and ensure it makes good contact with the chipset still), card reader, screen, inverter board. See if it will then "seem" (since you have no screen, watch the power LED(s)) to stay on. *It may not, without a processor and memory. *If necessary put those back in and retry. *If it stays on, reconnect screen but not the backpanel lighting inverter yet. *If it turns on and stays on, see if there is output to the screen by shining a strong flashlight on it. If it works this far, an inverter failure is a common cause. *If it didn't work at all up to this point, mainboard probably needs replaced. *If it works up to some point in the middle, suspect the part (s) you added at that point. *These days such a problem is typically handled by replacing the mainboard at a repair shop, then if that doesn't work they replace the next part and so on, till it's fixed or the customer refuses to pay for their diagnosed problem since often the laptop cost little more than the total repair cost. Had a problem like that with an old Dell laptop. Measuring the resistance across the power input jack showed a direct short. After disassembling the unit I found an electrolytic across the power lines, after the rf filter & fuse that was shorted. Removed it and the laptop now works fine (so much for no electrolytics in laptops). * * * * Jerry Now you know one of the reasons why they don't typically put electrolytics in laptops anymore. I never suggested no old laptop ever had any, but this is a pretty modern laptop not some ancient Dell. Considering the size it was probably a tantalum, which is a *type* of electrolytic capacitor. Considering the Dell is by now probably 12 years old I'd say it's doing quite well. Jerry |
#30
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
In article vVjnl.387314$Mh5.177109@bgtnsc04-
news.ops.worldnet.att.net, lid says... In sci.electronics.repair Conor wrote: In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. Any cap over .1 uF or so will probably be an electro. Nah, ceramics up to (and including) 10uF are common. I use bunches of 'em. There's quite an overlap (both have their use). |
#31
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
wrote:
On Feb 18, 6:20Â*pm, Jerry Peters wrote: In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 18, 1:09Â*am, jakdedert wrote: Conor wrote: In article , Rich Webb says... Perhaps the plague? No, not THAT one, THIS one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague Worth eyeballing since you already have the main board exposed. Didn't think laptops used electrolytic capacitors... They're surface mount, so you might not recognize them. Â*Google is your friend.... Yes, but, although surface mount caps can be electrolytic, in a notebook (none at all if it's a good design), very few caps are electrolytic, if any, except in the external brick AC-DC PSU. That's complete nonsense, of course a laptop uses electrolytics, and lots of them to filter power throughout the unit. As jakedart said they're surface mount units. Take one apart sometime & look. Jerry I have, several times. They use mostly if not entirely solid, (usually chip) caps, and ceramics with good reason. Electrolytics wear out too fast inside modern laptops because of the elevated temps, not to mention their height being a problem when engineering something as thin as reasonably possible. Here's a picture of both sides of a quite typical HP laptop mainboard, under two years old and quite similar to what they're still using. Point out the electrolytic caps on it and BTW, this is the whole thing there is no separate power board: http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg There are six visible in fz3.jpg http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/961/bottomsmsf5.jpg and four, possibly five in sf5.jpg The solid caps are black, and yellow. Those two are tants and I think the others are too ! The ceramics of course are tan. There are plenty more pictures from 3rd parties available with a google search if you can't accept the above pics are typical: http://images.google.com/images?q=laptop+mainboard -- Best Regards: Baron. |
#32
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
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#33
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 3:24*pm, bz wrote:
wrote in news:d972e65d-ba83-4734-b5b7- : Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. *In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor Take a look at the pictures.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...d-polarity.jpg Check your laptop and make sure you DON'T have any of the mugs in the shot. |
#34
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 4:13*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 19, 10:57*am, "David" wrote: "Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. David Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. *In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. A tatalum cap is a type of electrolytic. Specifically the dielectric is formed by electro-chemical action. * * * * Jerry There are types of wet tantalums that are electrolytic caps, but the solid tantalums are not. Where are these urban myths coming from? |
#35
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 4:10*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair Conor wrote: In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. Any cap over .1 uF or so will probably be an electro. * * * * Jerry No. You can easily see on cap manufacturer datasheets that almost all chip caps are not electrolytic, and even ceramics now go up to 20uF. The chip tantalum, niobium, and other solid polymer caps you'll often find in laptops typically go up to about 470uF, there have been great strides in the past few years in this respect. |
#36
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 4:16*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 18, 6:25*pm, Jerry Peters wrote: In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 17, 6:35*pm, "tg" wrote: I have a Compaq laptop Model Presario, service tag C300EA that will not start. It's this one:http://www.microdevices.lk/images/Laptop.jpg the motherboard is an IBL30 LA-3324P and they retail for about £125. ouch The problem is when I plug a power supply into it and press the on/off button the power led flashes rapidly for a few seconds and then cuts out. I then have to wait about a minute before it will light up again. I've tried three different power supplies, one of them coming from a battery/voltage converter and all three power supplies produce the same fault on the laptop so it's not the power supply. It acts the same with or without a battery fitted. When the power supply is plugged in I did notice the battery icon flickers all the time with no battery in. I also connected an amp meter to the power supply and when the power light does flicker there is virtually no current draw into the laptop. I split the chassis to take a look and saw that the power socket wires go straight onto the motherboard. There is no power board or daughtercard as such.. does anyone have an idea if there's a known component that causes this problem? or is it a case of new motherboard? thanks for any pointers. The symptoms suggest a short on the mainboard, the PSU aren't able to regulate so their protection circuits are cycling them off as best they can (at the price-point of the design). There isn't much you can do at this point except strip the mainboard down as much as possible. *Disconnect hard drive, optical, memory, CPU (except if you take the heatsink off and it was heatsinking the chipset, you must put that heatsink back on and ensure it makes good contact with the chipset still), card reader, screen, inverter board.. See if it will then "seem" (since you have no screen, watch the power LED(s)) to stay on. *It may not, without a processor and memory. *If necessary put those back in and retry. *If it stays on, reconnect screen but not the backpanel lighting inverter yet. *If it turns on and stays on, see if there is output to the screen by shining a strong flashlight on it. If it works this far, an inverter failure is a common cause. *If it didn't work at all up to this point, mainboard probably needs replaced. *If it works up to some point in the middle, suspect the part (s) you added at that point. *These days such a problem is typically handled by replacing the mainboard at a repair shop, then if that doesn't work they replace the next part and so on, till it's fixed or the customer refuses to pay for their diagnosed problem since often the laptop cost little more than the total repair cost. Had a problem like that with an old Dell laptop. Measuring the resistance across the power input jack showed a direct short. After disassembling the unit I found an electrolytic across the power lines, after the rf filter & fuse that was shorted. Removed it and the laptop now works fine (so much for no electrolytics in laptops). * * * * Jerry Now you know one of the reasons why they don't typically put electrolytics in laptops anymore. *I never suggested no old laptop ever had any, but this is a pretty modern laptop not some ancient Dell. Considering the size it was probably a tantalum, which is a *type* of electrolytic capacitor. Considering the Dell is by now probably 12 years old I'd say it's doing quite well. * * * * Jerry Yes that's a great life for a laptop but at what point do you have to build your own battery packs because even the new stock is several years old stock? It was not likely a tantalum, you do realize they explode, not vent, when shorted or reverse polarity? Not sure about the wet ones (probably not), but there's no reason they'd use something that exotic on the DC power inlet filter. |
#37
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 3:24*pm, bz wrote:
wrote in news:d972e65d-ba83-4734-b5b7- : Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. *In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor Take a look at the pictures.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ca...d-polarity.jpg Check your laptop and make sure you DON'T have any of the mugs in the shot. |
#38
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
wrote in news:58f338af-65bf-42a4-b96e-
: On Feb 19, 3:24*pm, bz wrote: wrote in news:d972e65d-ba83-4734-b5b7- : Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody use s ..... The defining part that makes a capacitor an electrolytic is the presence of an electrolyte and the electro-chemical reaction that forms one of the electrodes in 'very close proximity' to the metal electrode which can be aluminum or tantalum or some other metal. I used to make ceramic capacitors, so I am not really an expert on electrolytic but you seem to have a mistaken idea as to what constitutes an 'electrolytic'. ..... This is a good example of why we can't trust the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The pictured caps aren't all electrolytic. The first two from the left are, and the rest are not (not 100% sure about the 2nd from the end on the right side). Electrolytic requires liquid electrolyte. READ the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor I see no mistakes in it. YOU are mistaken in your idea that electrolytics require a liquid electrolyte. You will find that the essential action that produces an electrolytic is the formation of the dielectric 'oxide' layer by the electrochemical action. There is no point in arguing over a definition. One either accept the commonly used definition and communicates with the world or insists on using a different definition and is frequently misunderstood. [quote] Electrolyte: An electrolyte is a substance that will dissociate into ions in solution and acquire the capacity to conduct electricity. The electrolytes include sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and phosphate. Informally, called lytes. (The clue to the word electrolyte is in the lyte which comes from the Greek lytos meaning that may be dissolved.) [unquote] If you look up "solid electrolyte" you will find that there are many compounds that are considered electrolytes that contain no water and some are even solids. The SM chip left of C34 is probably an electrolytic, as are the two above the marking C518 on the topside picture. On the bottom, the two chips I mentioned before are just to the right and above the marking R678, another is above the marking 07/03/17 on the heat pipe in your bottom picture. But we have wandered far afield of helping the OP fix the problem with his laptop. -- bz 73 de N5BZ k please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an infinite set. remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap |
#39
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 7:16*pm, bz wrote:
wrote in news:58f338af-65bf-42a4-b96e- : On Feb 19, 3:24*pm, bz wrote: wrote in news:d972e65d-ba83-4734-b5b7- : Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody use s .... The defining part that makes a capacitor an electrolytic is the presence of an electrolyte and the electro-chemical reaction that forms one of the electrodes in 'very close proximity' to the metal electrode which can be aluminum or tantalum or some other metal. I used to make ceramic capacitors, so I am not really an expert on electrolytic but you seem to have a mistaken idea as to what constitutes an 'electrolytic'. .... This is a good example of why we can't trust the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The pictured caps aren't all electrolytic. *The first two from the left are, and the rest are not (not 100% sure about the 2nd from the end on the right side). Electrolytic requires liquid electrolyte. READ the article.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolytic_capacitor I see no mistakes in it. YOU are mistaken in your idea that electrolytics require a liquid electrolyte. You will find that the essential action that produces an electrolytic is the formation of the dielectric 'oxide' layer by the electrochemical action. There is no point in arguing over a definition. One either accept the commonly used definition and communicates with the world or insists on using a different definition and is frequently misunderstood. [quote] Electrolyte: An electrolyte is a substance that will dissociate into ions in solution and acquire the capacity to conduct electricity. The electrolytes include sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and phosphate. Informally, called lytes. (The clue to the word electrolyte is in the lyte which comes from the Greek lytos meaning that may be dissolved.) [unquote] If you look up "solid electrolyte" you will find that there are many compounds that are considered electrolytes that contain no water and some are even solids. The SM chip left of C34 is probably an electrolytic, as are the two above the marking C518 on the topside picture. On the bottom, the two chips I mentioned before are just to the right and above the marking R678, another is above the marking 07/03/17 on the heat pipe in your bottom picture. But we have wandered far afield of helping the OP fix the problem with his * laptop. -- bz * * *73 de N5BZ k please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an infinite set. * remove ch100-5 to avoid spam trap Electrolytic is not about manufacturing as some mistakenly claim, it is about the end result product. If a cap has no liquid electrolyte in it, only ignorant people would call that electrolytic in this day and age. |
#40
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laptop power fault: compaq presario C300EA
On Feb 19, 4:13*pm, Jerry Peters wrote:
In sci.electronics.repair wrote: On Feb 19, 10:57*am, "David" wrote: "Conor" wrote in message ... In article 39, bz says... wrote in news:f8d97d59-d8dc-4594-8cd4- : http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/5075/topsmfz3.jpg Two light tan, near left bottom corner, ~1/4 distance to top edge and ~1/8 distance to right edge, with brown polarity bands, opposite polarity, bands out. Without part numbers, it's meaningless. I see at least 3 on the bottom view, one near the top edge center and two near the bottom edge center, partially hidden by a wiring bundle. Any cap over 10 uF will probably be electrolytic. Wrong. -- Conor Actually most laptops use tantalum polarized capacitors which are a type of electrolytic capacitor. What they avoid are the more common aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Ceramics are available in low voltages at quite high capacitance values, but I have yet to see one over 10 uF. David Nope. *There are wet tantalum capacitors (that exist), but nobody uses those in laptops. *In laptops you find surface mount dry tantalums among other solid types, not electrolytic at all... again, this refers to semi-modern laptops, not something really ancient. A tatalum cap is a type of electrolytic. Specifically the dielectric is formed by electro-chemical action. * * * * Jerry Which is never what the majority calls an electrolytic cap. The industry doesn't describe based on process, it differentiates based on end result (except for ignorant marketing departments). |
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