Dead laptop

[Prosperi-Tees]

Dead again, that lasted about five minutes

[Frog]

Are we sure that your power supply/charger is putting out what it should be?

[Prosperi-Tees]

I'd say I don't know but I did replace the charger a couple months ago because the grounding plug snapped off.

[Shawn (EIP)]

I thought my HP plug would work in my new Dell, nope. I'm with Frog I bet its your power source.

[Chadwick]

As was mentioned, the only thing of real value is your data.
If it's not keep messin' around with no regard for consequence.

However, I would guess it is, so, since you don't sound like you
know exactly what yer doin', I would take it to a computer repair shop,
and get them to backup your data for you.

Just sayin man.

Broken ground plugs and all..

[Prosperi-Tees]

Yeah it started working again for the past hour so I think I'll have computer geek look it over.

[Chadwick]

Ah.
Just don't touch it anymore.
Let someone fix it for you.

[royster13]

While laptops are convenient they are much more prone to failure than a desktop......Unless you get into the "enterprise" grade of laptop....The ones where the price scares you....Good luck....

[Gilligan]

Computer guru here, sorry I'm late to the party... anyone feel free to PM me for urgent issues. 

I have NEVER seen a laptop that needed a battery to work.  I usually pull mine out because I rarely ever go on battery and they just generate heat, can be a fire hazard and will just go bad faster if you constantly leave them plugged in.

Depending on the type of plug they now have an extra amperage probe on them.  The larger thin cylinders with the "needle" like center pin are the ones I refer to.  The laptop can tell how strong the PSU is and won't perform all task depending on what is plugged into it.  Sometimes if that pin is gone it will still work but won't charge and such.  One of my tech's recently had to replace his and he ordered one too small so it would complain that it wouldn't charge it but would run it with that PSU.  Sometimes they don't even give you that much.

Not sure if that is what is going on in any case.

If it's not the screen/inverter (it should still work on an external monitor) then it is one of two things.  Dead mother board/video card (usually one in the same).  Basically better off getting a new laptop unless it's one of those badass ones that Royster was referring to.  I'm cheap and I charge $150 + parts (another $100-$150) to fix that.

The other thing and this maybe the case with yours... the nvidia graphics chip on your laptop may be of the batch they had a while back that didn't get soldered onto the board very well.  Have you ever heard of the "ring of death" on an xbox 360?  Same thing essentially.  They can be fixed in a similar matter essentially also.

I've fixed one by simply wrapping it up in a blanket and over heating it (running it for a day or so) and hoped that it fixed itself.  In this case it did... she was able to use her laptop until someone stole it out of her car.  I tried it with another one that came in the other day and it worked for a while, but not it's giving issues again.  I've watched some vids and read about flowing some liquid flux under the chip and putting a heat gun to it and I will over him that solution today actually.  This should work "better" but no promises.  Still requires disassembly of the entire laptop and I would charge $150.

If you have an nvidia graphics card that is likely what is going on... if not, then your mother board is probably failing, or your power jack is screwed up in the laptop itself... still looking at a PITA and possibly some soldering to fix it ($150 + parts again).

[Prosperi-Tees]

Thanks for the reply Gilligan, I am at the shop today and have a different power supply here and we will see how it goes today. I have a feeling it is the power supply/ cord because when I plug in the one at the shop it says it is charging the battery and the one at home will say plugged in and fully charged regardless of how long its been off the charger. We'll see how it goes today but so far so good.

[ScreenFoo]

Hopefully it is the PSU, usually is on desktops, that's for sure.

Interesting info on the GPU's though--I remember hearing something about how nearly half of those original 360's had bad solder joints...  I'd just point out that the vast majority of VLSI chips are incredibly fragile when it comes to heat--the people who do this type of work use something similar to a conveyor oven--called a "wave soldering" machine that, on the fancy models, can literally track the temperature of multiple chips as it goes through the machine.  The vast majority of chips will break down if subjected to the temperature that will melt solder paste.  The trick is, these leads, and the traces connected on the boards, have far less thermal inertia than the chips 'package', and so the leads and traces 'fuse', while the package is still many degrees cooler.  (sound familiar?    )A great trick is to use a piece of metal (small angle iron works well)  the same size as the chip, and hold it on with a pair of pliers--then a small soldering pencil or smaller than normal heat gun can hit the traces that are iffy, reflowing the solder joint--without heating up the package, or more importantly, the die housed inside.

If the things trashed anyway, you might as well make it into a science experiment, right?   

[Gilligan]

ScreenFoo... I'm with you on the fact this seems silly.  BUT, it's done all the time.  One article I read the guy took a heat gun to piece of solder on a penny and timed it.  This is how he calculated how long he needed to hold the heat gun on the chip.  Obviously not very scientific but the average person doesn't have a work over station with that kind of gear.

My buddy has done the overheat trick with several 360's (including mine) and it has worked... this also included adding some bolts to the heatsink and cranking on them while hot.

The idea of this flux is to get the solder flowing faster, I know it works with regular solder as I have used it there... but that is a paste I've used, this stuff is a clear liquid that you "drizzle" under the chip.

Crazy but in the end, if your unit is fried, you got nothing to lose.  My only problem is that I hate charging someone so much with no warranty on if it will work for longer than a day after.  I'm just upfront as I can about it and if they want me to try then I try... I hope in the end it works otherwise I run the risk of looking like a swindler.

[broadway]

I have used the Apricorn universal drive adapter to  transfer files from a dead computer. Very simple to use.

[Chadwick]

Yeah I've heard of baking PCB boards before.
I say go for it,

BUT!
As I said before,

Back up your data!
Then have at it.