I returned from a clients home, last week,  with his laptop. It would not power on or charge the battery. I put my multimeter on the AC adapter before I left, and saw it was putting out the correct voltage. He agreed to let me take it with me to explore the possibility that the DC jack was malfunctioning.  Well, after I got it back to my “shop” and removed the many screws in the bottom, and top, and sides, I was able to reach the leads from the DC jack and determine power was indeed getting to the motherboard. I noticed a little discoloration.

The discoloration inside the red circle was not noticed on first inspection. This little area was hiding under a some accumulated dust. I looked around for the fuses and found 2. The multimeter revealed  none of them were blown. Having already removed the keyboard, I continued to remove screws from the top of the bottom, some other small plastic parts, the screws around the PCMCIA slots, and anywhere else that was needed. I was going for the motherboard. As I leaned in for a closer look I noticed the distinct smell of burnt electronics.


Now that all the necessary screws and pieces have been removed, I could lift out the motherboard to investigate the burnt smell. Take a look at what I found.

Here is what the motherboard looked like from the bottom. No wonder I was smelling burnt electronics.

And the bottom of the case underneath the motherboard.

Upon further investigation I discovered streak marks on the case bottom, indicative of something having been spilled and dried, which was obviously the reason for the short and burning.



The laptop is an older P4 1.9 single core IBM T30. Replacing the motherboard and possible the daughter board that had all the rear ports attached would have cost more that the laptop was worth. Sadly this is the case with most laptop damage. People I implore you! Please be careful with liquids of any kind around a laptop. It does not take much, and the laptop does not even have to be on. If anything is spilled on it or into it, the best thing is to take it remove the battery immediately, disassemble and clean the laptop to avoid damage. Yes, it will take the untrained hand all day, but it could very well save you having to replace your computer.

Filed under: Hardware, computer repair