Monday 9 May 2011

How to disassemble Acer Aspire 5745 laptop


Saturday 16 April 2011

How to fix hardware problems without taking apart the laptop


Here’s how you can fix, or to be precise, work around some hardware problem without taking apart the laptop.
1. Network port failure.
In most laptops the network port (aka RJ-45 port) is soldered directly to the motherboard. If for some reason the network port fails (I’m talking about hardware, not software failure), the whole motherboard has to be replaced.
Instead of replacing the motherboard, you can use a PCMCIA network card (aka LAN PC card). You plug this card into the available PC slot in your laptop and get a network port instead.

How to recover files from computer with crashed operating system

In this guide I explain how to recover files from a laptop (or desktop PC) with crashed, failed, damaged operating system.
WHEN CAN YOU USE THIS RECOVERY GUIDE?
1. The guide will work if your operating system damaged but the laptop (or desktop PC) hardware still works fine.
2. The guide might work if the hard drive has some minor damage, like a few bad sectors.

Friday 1 April 2011

How to replace LCD screen on HP G62 or Compaq Presario CQ62 laptop

In this guide I show how to remove and replace LCD screen on HP G62 or Compaq Presario CQ62 laptop.
You can use these instructions for the following repairs: replacing failed or broken LCD screen, replacing bad video cable, replacing damaged hinges, etc…
The display panel has to be separated from the laptop base. You can follow steps 1-21 in thisHP G62 or Compaq Presario CQ62 disassembly guide.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

How to Repair a Laptop Screen

For those that own a laptop, one of the most common problems users experience hardware-wise is a broken or malfunctioning laptop screen. Laptop screens are essential to anyone using their laptop computer.Laptop screens can be incredibly delicate pieces of hardware,however, they are surprisingly very easy to fix- even if you are not a technical person.

Replace Your Laptop Screen

Broken notebook display? Popping in a new one is easier than you might think.What's more distressing than the sound of your laptop's screen cracking as it hits the floor? The voice of a tech-support rep telling you it will cost close to $1,000 to replace it. With little more than a screwdriver, however, you can replace the screen yourself and save a bundle. Read on to see if a new LCD will fix your ailing laptop, and if so, how to find and install a new screen.

Monday 14 March 2011

Laptop Computer Repair Tips

Guys, don’t undertake laptop computer repair without reading this first. I’ll guide you away from making costly mistakes that could render your laptop computer useless.

First of all have a good understanding of what it is you need to do and what you might need in the way of tools. A big mistake people make is to sit down with a part and their laptop and use whatever they have around to open up the laptop and replace the part.

Laptop Keyboard Repair

Laptop keyboard repair is one of the more common jobs performed on laptops, it's also one of the easier repairs to carry out providing the following hasn't happened.

A spill of anything but water on a keyboard will 9 times out of 10 leave you in a situation that involves replacing the keyboard all together.

Keyboards are manufactured in such a way that leaves little to no room to clean out messy spills.


Basically any liquid containing sugar (soft drinks, beer, wine, coffee or tea) are bad news...

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Accessing notebook hard drive using USB enclosure

If for some reason your notebook fails to boot and you need to access data on the hard drive (I assume there is nothing wrong with the hard drive itself), you can use an external USB enclosure. This method is very simple and could be very useful when you need an emergency access to your data on the hard drive.
First of all you’ll have to buy an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives. These enclosures are inexpensive and usually you can buy them in any local computer store. You also can find a wide variety of external enclosures on the Internet. Make sure to buy a correct one, enclosures for ATA and SATA hard drives are different (the connector inside the case will be different). Usually the enclosure includes the case and the USB cables.

How to recover files from computer with crashed operating system

In this guide I explain how to recover files from a laptop (or desktop PC) with crashed, failed, damaged operating system.
WHEN CAN YOU USE THIS RECOVERY GUIDE?
1. The guide will work if your operating system damaged but the laptop (or desktop PC) hardware still works fine.
2. The guide might work if the hard drive has some minor damage, like a few bad sectors.
PREPARING FOR RECOVERY
For this recovery I’ll be using a Ubuntu CD (Linux OS). Also, you can create a bootable Ubuntu USB stick and use that instead of the CD. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a Linux guru for that. The interface will be very similar to Windows OS.
You’ll need another working computer to download and create a bootable Ubundu CD or USB stick.
1. Download the latest version of Ubuntu OS here. When you click on the download button you’ll start downloading an ISO image.
2. Burn this ISO image on a CD or create a bootable USB stick. It’s explained on the same Ubuntu download page, just scroll a little bit down.
3. Find the target drive where you going to save recovered files. You can use an external USB hard drive or USB memory stick. The target drive can be formatted with any common Windows file system: FAT, FAT32, NTFS.

DATA RECOVERY PROCESS
STEP 1.
Boot your laptop from the Ubuntu CD or USB stick. Simply insert the CD or USB stick and restart the computer.
If the laptop (of desktop PC) keeps trying to boot from the internal hard drive, you’ll have to enter the BIOS setup menu and change the boot order. Set your CD/DVD drive or USB stick as first device in the boot order. Safe changes and restart the computer.
From my experience, Ubuntu OS works fine with most laptop and desktop PC hardware and you shouldn’t have any problem booting it to the desktop. It may not work if your computer hardware is too new.
STEP 2.
The computer will start booting from the CD or USB stick.
Now read carefully!
After some time a welcome screen will pop up. On this screen you can choose your language and choose between two options: Try Ubuntu and Install Ubuntu.
Select Try Ubuntu. In this case Linux OS will run directly from the CD or USB stick without changing any files on the hard drive.
STEP 3.
Ubuntu OS will continue loading and after a while you’ll boot to the desktop, as it shown on the following picture.

STEP 4.
In order to access the internal hard drive, you click on Places in the top toolbar. You should see your internal hard drive in the drop down menu under the Computer.

STEP 5.
When you click on the internal hard drive a new window will open up. In this window you’ll see all files located on the hard drive.
Files on hard drive
STEP 6.
Now plug in your target drive: external USB hard drive or USB flash drive.
Another window will pop up. In this window you’ll see files located on the external drive. In my case I have no files on the external drive, that’s why the window is empty.
You can move windows same way you do it in Windows OS. Arrange both windows as you like.

STEP 7.
Finally, drag and drop needed files from the internal hard drive to the external drive.
After the transfer is done, you can unplug the external drive and use it on any other computer.

IF YOU HAVE FAILED HARDWARE
In case if your laptop (or desktop PC) has faulty hardware, you should try recovery with external USB enclosure.

                                                                                        by laptoprepair101

Friday 25 February 2011

How to disassemble HP Pavilion tx2000 Tablet PC

 


In this guide I explain how to disassemble a HP Pavilion tx2000 Tablet PC and remove the motherboard. I’m removing the motherboard in order to repair failed NVIDIA chip.
Before you start, make sure the laptop is turned off and battery removed.
STEP 1.
Loosen five screws securing hard drive, memory and wireless card covers.
Remove all three covers.

STEP 2.
Lift up one side of the hard drive by the black tab to disconnect it from the motherboard.

STEP 3.
Remove the hard drive assembly.
By the way, it’s a regular 2.5″ notebook SATA hard drive. There is an adapter connected to the hard drive. That’s why the hard drive connector doesn’t look like a regular SATA connector.

STEP 4.
Both memory modules can be accessed though a door on the bottom of the laptop.
Remove both memory modules.

STEP 5.
Disconnect two antenna cables from the wireless card.
Remove two screws securing the wireless card.

STEP 6.
Pull the wireless card from the slot.

STEP 7.
Unlock the DVD drive and remove it from the laptop.

STEP 8.
Remove four screws securing laptop keyboard on the bottom.

STEP 9.
Carefully lift up the keyboard from the laptop case.

STEP 10.
Now you can access the keyboard cable connector which is located underneath the keyboard.

STEP 11.
Before you can remove the keyboard cable, you’ll have to unlock the connector.
On the following picture the connector shown in the locked position.
In order to unlock the connector, lift up the right side of the brown clip at a 90 degree angle.

STEP 12.
On the following picture the connector is shown in the unlocked position.
Now you can pull the keyboard cable from the connector.

STEP 13.
Remove the keyboard.
New replacement keyboard for HP Pavilion tx2000 laptops available here.

STEP 14.
Remove four (red) screws securing the hinge cover.
Remove three (yellow) screws securing the display hinge and cable cover.

STEP 15.
Under the cover you’ll find two display cables.
Disconnect both cables from the motherboard.

STEP 16.
Turn the laptop display and start removing the hinge cover.

STEP 17.
The hinge cover removed.

STEP 18.
Disconnect LCD cable from the motherboard.

STEP 19.
Remove two screws securing the display hinge.

STEP 20.
Lift up and remove the display assembly.

STEP 22.
Remove screws from the bottom of the laptop.

STEP 23.
Remove two screws securing the top cover.
Disconnect two cables from the motherboard.

STEP 24.
Remove the top cover assembly.

STEP 25.
Disconnect two cables from the motherboard.

STEP 26.
Make sure the Express Card slot cover removed.

STEP 27.
Carefully lift up the left side of the motherboard.

STEP 28.
Remove motherboard from the laptop base.

STEP 29.
The motherboard has been removed.
On this side of the motherboard you can access the CMOS battery.

STEP 30.
On the other side of the motherboard you can access and remove the cooling module (heatsink with fan).

STEP 31.
Remove four screws securing the heatsink assembly.
Disconnect fan cable from the motherboard.

STEP 32.
Carefully lift up and remove the cooling module.
New fans for HP Pavilion tx2000 laptops available here.

If the heatsink is clogged with dust, you can blow it off using compressed air.

STEP 33.
After the cooling module is removed, you can access and remove the CPU (processor).


                                                                                     by insidemylaptop

How to fix laptop motherboard with failed NVIDIA graphics chip

 

In this post I explain how you can fix a laptop motherboard with failed NVIDIA graphics chip. This repair might apply to some HP/Compaq laptops and probably some other laptop brands. If this repair works for your laptop, please mention the brand and model number in comments after the post. This will help other readers with similar laptops.
By the way, I just fixed my son’s Xbox 360 with red ring of death (error 74) using exactly same technique.
MOST COMMON PROBLEM SYMPTOMS
1. Laptop turns on with garbled video on the internal laptop screen and external monitor.
2. Laptop turns on as normal but there is no video on the internal laptop screen or external monitor.
MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROBLEM
The NVIDIA graphics chip soldered to the motherboard. When the laptop gets very hot, the NVIDIA chip separates from the motherboard and laptop video fails.
HOW TO FIX FAILED NVIDIA CHIP
I have previous posts explaining how I fixed same problem by baking the motherboard in an oven or bubble-wrapping the laptop. But today I’m going to fix the motherboard using a heat gun. Basically, I’m going to heat up the NVIDIA chip with a heat gun to solder it back to the motherboard (reflow). I think this method is more reliable and the repair should last for a while.

WARNING!
There is no guaranty this method works all the time. While doing this repair you may damage the motherboard and make it unrepairable. Also, you may damage the laptop while taking it apart.
Proceed at your own risk and don’t blame me if you turned your laptop into a very expensive door stop. :)
If you don’t feel comfortable doing this repair, take your laptop to the repair shop.
HOW I FIXED THE MOTHERBOARD
First of all, you’ll have to disassemble the laptop and remove the motherboard. You can find laptop disassembly procedure in the service manual. If you having trouble finding the manual, leave a comment and maybe I can point you to the right direction.
In my example I’m using a motherboard removed from HP Pavilion tx2000 laptop.
In most laptops the graphics chip located under the CPU heatsink (and it has NVIDIA logo on it), so there shouldn’t be a problem locating the chip. The chip has a glossy top surface.

For this repair I’m going to use an Ecoheat heat gun EC-100.

In order to figure out how to position the heat gun and for how long, I tested it on a penny with a small piece of solder on the top.
The Ecoheat heat gun has a switch on the handle. There are two positions for the switch. Position 1 – slow. Position 2 – fast.
I used position 1 – slow.
I positioned the heat gun about 1 inch away from the penny and turned it on.

After about 40-45 second the solder started melting. After 50 seconds the solder melted completely.

To protect the motherboard from the heat I used a regular cooking aluminum foil. I cut off a piece of aluminum foil and folded it a few times to make my protection shield thicker. After that I cut off a square opening right in the middle, same size as the NVIDIA chip.
After I removed the heat sink, I had some old thermal grease stuck on the NVIDIA graphics chip. You can remove old thermal grease using alcohol swabs. It’s not necessary to make it perfectly clean. Just make sure there are no large chunks of thermal grease on the chip.

UPDATE: Some people mentioned that I should have applied some liquid flux underneath the NVIDIA chip for better results. I didn’t do it this time. I’ll definitely do it next time if the motherboard fails again. I found this video explaining how to apply liquid flux under the GPU chip. This video was made for Xbox 360 motherboard but should apply to any laptop motherboard too.
Liquid flux for GPU reflow available on eBay.
Finally, I positioned the heat gun above the NVIDIA chip about 1 inch away and turned the heat gun into the position 1.

After 50 seconds I turned it off and let the motherboard cool down for about 20 minutes.
Don’t forget to apply new thermal grease on the NVIDIA chip when you install the heat sink.
Some laptops use thermal pads instead of grease. If that’s the case with your laptop, make sure the thermal pad positioned correctly.
After I assembled the laptop back together, the video started properly!
The NVIDIA graphics chip problem fixed!
Will it last for a long time? I don’t know. Still testing.

READ THIS BEFORE REPAIR
Make sure to visit The NVIDIA GPU Litigation site.
It’s possible that your HP/Compaq laptop qualifies for a free replacement. Here’s a quoted from the site:
If you have an HP or Compaq notebook computer, you may be eligible to receive a replacement computer. A repair remedy is not available for HP/Compaq computers because replacement parts are not available. Replacement computers will be shipped 6 to 8 weeks after a claim is approved.

                                                                         by laptoprepair101

Monday 21 February 2011

Toshiba Satellite A75 failed power jack workaround

Today I received an email from Tony Sakariya (tsakariyaATyahooDOTcom) who was experiencing a problem with the power jack on his Toshiba Satellite A75 laptop. He’s been able to fix the problem by relocating the power jack outside the laptop case away from the system board.

I would like to share with others a tip for repairing their Toshiba A75 laptop for the DC Jack and battery charge problem.
I have a Toshiba A75-S209 for a year now. After the first 3 months it developed the exact same problem. Battery would not charge and I had to twist and turn the power jack to make the connection. Since it was in warranty, I returned it and they repaired and sent it back to me. The problem recurred again after about 4 months and I sent it again and they repaired it and worked fine for 5 more months and it failed. This is a design flaw with Toshiba. Now that I am out of warranty, I decided to repair it myself. Your guide for dismantling A75 was awesome. Thanks for the info. Now here is what I want to share with others. Resoldering the power jack with a new one does solve the problem for a while but it will reoccur. Hence I decided to bring out a wire with the Jack outside. Of course it looks dirty but it is a permanent solution. I am attaching the photo of the repair I did. I got the DC jack from ebay and insulated it with a electrical insulation tape. Now it is working fine, I do the connection and disconnection on the dangling power jack outside the laptop and hence no chance of breaking the soldering outside.


Laptop failed power jack fix

• Coil the pair of wire one round through the ventilation grill before taking it out as shown in the picture above. This is to prevent any external shock or force being directly transmitted to the soldering joints.
• Now we need to connect a new DC Jack to other end of the wire. I purchased the new DC jack from here for a price of $6. Shown in the picture above the white wire is the positive terminal (+) and hence must connect to the inner ring of the DC Jack. Similarly the blue wire being the negative terminal (-) should connect to the outer ring of the DC jack. Refer the picture below on how the wires are soldered to the DC Jack. Be careful not to short the leads as they are very close.
Power Plug Fix
• Now neatly wind a round of insulation tape over the wire and especially on the exposed DC Jack exterior. This will prevent any short-circuit and also give a better appearance.
New Power Jack Assembled
Toshiba Satellite A70/A75. Disassembly guide with pictures.
Valued Comments.
Submitted by Binney:
The workaround relocates the jack externally. When I did this, a short occurred between the metal casing on the top cover (the one removed with the guitar pick). This happens if the solder repair is too tall. I covered my repair with electrical insulation tape and that fixed the problem. It took me quite some time to figure out where the short was and would like to save others the headache.

Comments #282, 286 submitted by Jake and John:
Size N: DC Power Jack #274-1576 from radioshack works perfect and looks great. Costs $2.99, easier to solder, snugger fit, 5.5mm O.D. x 2.5mm I.D.
Here are some pictures of the end result of the repair with
the Radio Shack type jack. I added one of those quick release
key holder that I had lying around as a retention holder.
Here is what it looks like unplugged: Power tip unplugged.
Here is what it looks like with the adapter plugged in and
the key holder reattached: Power tip plugged.

                                                                                   by laptoprepair101