Thursday 17 February 2011

Fix Laptop Screen By Yourself

We can certainly refer laptop repair manual guide to fix laptop screen.In case your laptop LCD screen is not displaying anything and is blank or that the screen is probably shattered, don’t worry as there is still some hope for you.It is not that difficult to repair lap top screen, it is much easier than you thought. If it is possible for you to handle a mini screw driver and read an easy diagram then you’ve gotten all the mandatory skills to fix your own laptop screen. A substitute or a replacement screen is necessary if your screen is shattered completely. A few things you might have considered trying to test when there isn’t any picture are the level of brightness in the laptops and whether the image displays when linked to an external monitor. The level of brightness is generally adjusted by a  key combination in the keyboard, dedicated buttons or on the BIOS. If ever the notebook shows video on being connected by an external monitor then almost definitely the LCD or perhaps a component within the LCD might be dead or faulty. So from will you get the parts? the best place to buy the parts is from ebay.
Certainly one of the easy and simple replacement screen options is to search for an entire laptop lid that features a functioning LCD screen. Now you take off your laptop lid, by taking off the plastic cover , and then removing the screws, and now you disconnect the cable out of your motherboard as well as in some cases the built-in wireless card antenna wire. Now you put the replacement lid. Another option that i see is to exchange only the LCD screen with the lid. This choice is a little more harder and involves dismantling within the lids LCD screen housing components. It normally involves removing the stickers that conceals the screw holes, after that you have to remove the screws and finally the plastic casing that covers the LCD screen. In case you are uncertain about dismantling your laptop many of the prime laptop companies provide, the servicing manuals along with diagrams easy method to dismantle the laptop.You can download it through the Internet.
When you make an ebay purchase don’t forget to read the listing details and make certain that the model of the laptop matches what the vendor is selling. If you want to buy from other place instead of ebay, then you certainly can but it will be very expensive, and only the parts of new models will be available. It is very difficult to get parts of the older models.You can also refer some Laptop repair manual for further instructions to fix laptop screen.

Laptop Monitor Repair – A Few Guidelines And Tips !

Laptop monitor repair can be done at home by simply referring a good laptop repair manual. Do you feel like there is something wrong with your monitor and there is no visual displaying on the LCD screen. Will you be able to imagine a worse circumstance than this? And suppose if your monitor screen is totally shattered? It sounds like a dooms day kind of situation for your laptop, doesn’t it? But don’t worry; it is probably not as hopeless as it may sounds. The answer is likely to be as simple as a tiny-screwdriver.
Get hold of a tiny-screwdriver as well as a diagram of the laptop. That’s it you are a self proclaimed laptop monitor repair technician. You ought to be able to repair your own personal laptop monitor. Needless to say, for the above mentioned shattered screen situation, replacing your notebook screen is the only alternative situation for you.
Laptop Monitor Repair Suggestions.
Let us take a look at the blank screen situation of your laptop monitor repair. You initially have to test the brightness adjustments of your notebook, just to make sure. In addition to that, examine the image by attaching your laptop to another monitor, to check if you receive any pictures. To check out your brightness degree of your laptop, you have to type a combination of keyboard keys, or a fixed button that you simply have to press to adjust the brightness levels. An alternative choice that I see is the settings from the BIOS. At this moment, in case your laptop gets an image when attached externally to an outside monitor, in that case your laptop’s LCD or an integral part of your LCD is gone or is working correctly. If that is so, then you have to visit the e bay store and then get the best deal on laptop parts.
The best deal will be to stumble upon a laptop lid with an LCD screen all ready to be installed. In that case you only have to take off your own personal faulty laptop lid with the hinge screws. Pull out the video cable out of your motherboard. A few laptop models will have to take some extra steps of removing the built-in wireless card antenna cable. After that comes the simple part. Take the laptop lid which you bought from e bay or any other store and assemble it in the precise opposite steps that you choose to took to detached the initial one.
For all those of you who prefer to complicate things a bit, you can actually just take out the LCD from the lid. You will have to remove the LCD screen out of the lid on both units. To get further details you have to visit the laptop manufacturer’s website and then download the service manual. Usually these kinds of service manuals have all the required diagrams to guide you.
In conclusion, I’d like to warn you that whenever you happen to be looking for parts to interchange, either on e bay or in a different place, at all times make certain that the part you are searching for matches the brand and model of the laptop, because many parts are not compatible with all kinds of laptops with each other, so t his will cause you more additional problems. Furthermore, if the model of your laptop is new you will get the parts directly from the manufacturer, but you will have to spend some money on it.
I personally repair my laptop without hiring a technician. I accidentally stumble upon a great laptop repair manual course. It’s an easy step by step guide with videos to help you repair you own laptop as well as you can start you own laptop repairing business with this. And on top of that it comes with a money back guarantee. You can check out the site here



                                                                                    by laptoprepairmanual

Laptop Battery Mod - Adding a Secondary Battery

From 1h 45m of battery life to 6 hours of battery life using some junk from my basement and a used Dell laptop battery.

This mod was done on an Asus Z7100 series laptop (Z71V to be exact). But the theory behind this mod should work on pretty much any laptop, notebook or netbook out there. It worked out better than I ever expected.

    Step 1: Open the Laptop Battery.

Asus A42-M7 70-N9Q1B1100 M7 M7V Z70V Z7000V Z7100V Z71V i5500S i5500V battery opened dissected modified hacked

Open Asus Z71V Battery Pack (Model No. A42-M7)

 
    Opening the battery pack is probably one of the more challenging parts of the project as most battery packs are sealed/glued/welded shut.
    I started mine by cutting into the seam at the corners of the battery pack with a utility knife. I managed to get a flat screw driver into the incisions I made with the knife and started to pry the case open. Be very careful to not push the knife or screw driver too far into the pack as you could damage the batteries or battery controller PCB. I pushed my screw driver in too far and knocked a tiny resistor off my PCB. Took me half an hour to get it soldered back on.
    Once you have the battery pack open, inspect how the batteries are wired up.
 
Asus battery 18650 cells

There are Eight 18650 Cells. A red wire for the + end of the series and a black wire for the - end of the series. white, yellow and orange wires for the intermediary charging points.

 
        It is an 8 cell battery that has 2 rows of 4 cells. The batteries inside are Samsung Lithium-Ion 18650 sized cells with an output of 3.7v at 2200 mAh each. They are wired in 2 parallel series' of 4. The specs on my battery state 14.8v with 4400 mAh. Since the batteries are 3.7v each and there are 4 batteries in each series, 4 * 3.7v = 14.8v. There are 2 of these 14.8v series wired parallel to each other. This gives us 2 * 2200 mAh for a total of 4400 mAh at 14.8v.
Asus A42-M7 70-N9Q1B1100 battery rating

14.8v and 4400 mAh (milliampere-hours)

 
    After around 3 years of use, this battery had degraded to around 28000 mWh according to Notebook Hardware Control (NHC). It only lasted 100 minutes or less; compared to 3 hours+ of runtime I used to get.
 
You need to acquire more batteries. Most people will probably have to purchase new batteries but I had some used Dell laptop battery packs lying around that I could cannibalize. I thought I would try one of them out first before buying new batteries.
 
Dell Inspiron 2650 Laptop battery about to be opened

A Dell Battery; Model# BAT3151L8. Note The "Do not disassemble" Warning :)

 
    I chose one that appeared to be in good condition, it was for a Dell Inspiron 2650 series laptop. It happened to have very similar specs to my Asus battery - 8 cells rated for 14.8v. I opened it up and verified that it was in good shape. More on this battery later.
    Most people probably don't have spare laptop batteries lying around, and you will get best results from new cells anyway. However 18650 cells are going to be hard to find at most stores and you will probably have to purchase these online. You can actually buy them for a very reasonable cost online from dealextreme.com, which is a huge online store with free worldwide shipping.
 
Blue TrustFire 2500mAh 18650Red UltraFire 3000mAh 18650

I personally like the Blue TrustFire 2500mAh 18650 cells and was tempted to try out the Red UltraFire 3000mAh 18650 cells.

 
    The amount of batteries you will need depends on your current battery. Always add additional batteries in an even multiple of the original amount of cells. If you have a 3 cell battery, you can add 3 more, 6 more, 9 more .... if it is a 4 cell, add 4 more, 8 more, 12 more, etc.
    Make sure the cells you buy provide the same voltage as the original cells in your battery pack are (usually 3.7v). You may go as high or low as you like for the mAh rating. The higher the rating, the longer the battery will last (theoretically). Some manufacturers exaggerate a bit on the mAh rating. Trustfire seems to be a safe choice.
    Also, stay away from "protected" cells, as your laptop battery controller already provides protection. The cells with additional built-in protection can cause the whole battery pack to stop working early if the protection on one of the cells gets tripped.
    If you are going to be using your newly purchased cells as a secondary external battery, you may also want a protective case to enclose them in.
 
18650 battery cases

Pretty much anything should work but DealExtreme.com has specially made 18650 battery cases for cheap.


Removable second laptop battery using molex connectors

For future expansion and portability reasons, I wanted the second battery to be removable.

 
    I though it would be a good idea to make the secondary battery removable instead of hard-wiring it in. There is a total of 5 wires connect to the second battery, but I couldn't find any 5 pin connectors around so I used two 4-pin molex connectors and just removed the 3 spare wires from one connector. I salvaged these connectors from some old computer fans. These are the 'male' ends of the connector.
Asus laptop battery mod wiring preperation

To bring the wiring out from the main battery I melted a small hole in the battery case with a soldering iron.

 
    I inserted the wires and cut them to length so that each wire could reach its intended soldering point.
wiring a second removable laptop battery

The wires should be inserted before you start soldering them to the battery.

 Carefully solder the wires to the existing solder points on the battery. I first attempted to solder the wires directly to the battery cells but the solder would not stick so I made use of the existing solder points and it is working fine.
Soldering battery harness

This is the + end of the battery series, I labeled this solder point #1. The - end was #5. The intermediary points were 2, 3 and 4.

 
    I placed the cells back in the battery case partway through the soldering process so I could keep the wiring as tight as possible. My battery case has very little room to work in so I needed to keep the wires as short as possible. Be sure to keep track of what wires you connect where, and mark the corresponding pins on the molex connectors.
 
Asus battery soldered and ready for expansion

All 5 wires soldered on. I labeled the molex connectors to correspond with which solder point they were connected to (You can't see this, they were labeled on the other side).

 
Fitting the battery back in the case

It is a really tight fit.

 
    The soldering points were originally covered by tape to prevent any accidental shorts with the PCB.
Closing the battery case

Before I closed the case I reapplied tape over these solder points.

 
Modified battery installed

I taped the battery shut instead of gluing it, mainly because this is much faster and easier.

 
    Now would probably be a good time to make sure it still works. My laptop powered up fine, so now I am ready to work on the second battery.
As previously mentioned, I will be using an old Dell laptop battery. You will probably get much better results if new cells are used, but I already had spare laptop batteries lying around so I thought I would try them first.
Inspiron battery opened

The battery controller will not be used. It should be removed.

 
    There is a total of 8 Cells; you can't tell from the picture but they are arranged in 2 parallel series' of 4 cells each. Exactly like the Asus battery. There are 5 wires a red +, a black - and 3 intermediary wires for charging purposes, blue, white and yellow.
removable secondary battery

The existing wiring removed and the 'female' end of the molex connectors soldered on.

 
    I salvaged some more molex connectors from an old computer power supply. I cut these wires to length and soldered them to the solder points on the battery. I made sure to keep the wiring the same as I had done on the asus battery. Positive going to Positive, negative to negative, and each intermediary charging wire going to their corresponding locations. If the wiring is messed up in any way, bad things will happen. The best case scenario would be that it simply doesn't work. Worst case scenario - there will likely be fires and/or explosions. Do it right, I am not responsible for any damage caused.

To be safe I taped over the contact points like I did with the Asus battery.

    This battery had much more room to work in compared to the Asus one. The project is almost complete, all that needs to be done is to close up the secondary battery and connect it.
 
 I taped up the secondary battery and attached it with some stick-on velcro strips I picked up for $1.25 (which is actually the only money I spent on this project). It holds the battery on very strongly, almost too strong ..... I almost couldn't get it off again!
Secondary removable battery added to Asus laptop

The finished product.

    At first there seemed to be no change in battery life, but after the 2nd rundown and recharge, NHC showed that the full battery capacity had increased to 36000 mWh.  After the 4th rundown and recharge it had increased to 46000 mWh, after the 5th, 54000 mWh, the 6th, 61000 mWh, 7th, 69000 mWh. The battery sensor is still calibrating but I am now getting a consistent 6 hours of battery life! This is almost double what I got with a single battery when it was brand new.
from 28000mwh to 61000mwh NHC screenshot

6 hours of battery life from two old laptop batteries.

  I believe the reason the battery life has increased beyond what I though possible is due to how some Lithium-Ion batteries work. The higher the resistance (amps), the lower the battery life (mAh). According to NHC, my laptop draws an average of about 17 watts from the battery. Watts = Amps * Volts. So 17w / 14.8v = 1.15a. With the original battery, The 1.15 amp load was divided into two 14.8v series (four 3.7v cells per series). This gave a load of 0.575 amps per series. Now the load is divided into 4 series of 4 cells each (16 cells total). This brings the load down to 0.2875 amps per series. I'm guessing that higher amp requirements caused these batteries to lose their mAh rating much faster than a lower amp requirement. With the amps now spread out between 16 batteries (0.072 amps per battery), this is allowing the cells to produce optimal performance. This idea comes from a chart posted in this thread (page 2). Note the results for the two 3000mAh cells.
I could be totally off on my theory, but whatever the reason is for the great battery life, I am very happy to have such great results.

adding more laptop batteries. 24 cells?

Next project..... adding a third battery!

    How will 24 cells work? 28 cells? I'm hoping to find out.
                                                                                 by sites.google.com

MacBook Air battery replacements take only minutes

Due to its ultra-thin profile, Apple's new MacBook Air was designed with an integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery that is not user-replaceable. Though this has caused some initial concern amongst potential adopters, AppleInsider has learned that the replacement process is quite trivial.
According to people familiar with the new-generation notebook, there are no special tools or knowledge required to swap out the MacBook Air's battery, which Apple has billed its "thinnest ever" in a product. Instead, the process requires a single size-0 type phillips screwdriver and some diligence.

Once flipped upside down, the MacBook Air's bottom cover is easily unscrewed and removed, providing immediate access to the battery cavity. From there, the battery can be unscrewed from the chassis with the same screwdriver and unplugged from the circuit board with a simple tug -- it's not soldered to the board.

The entire process, according to those in the known, can be completed by any service technician in as little as three minutes.

For its part, Apple has announced its intent to offer a MacBook Air Out-of-Warranty Battery Replacement Program, which promises authorized replacements for US $129. The mail-in repair process normally takes 5 business days, the company says.

Given the simplicity of the upgrade, however, it's possible that Apple will in time offer the service on-demand at its retail stores. Similarly, third parties could also offer in-home do-it-yourself kits should they be able to acquire battery cells that meet Apple's standard for the MacBook Air.

Macworld Expo 2008
More high-quality photos (1, 2) of the new MacBook Air.


There's no word, however, whether the latter process would void the notebook's warranty in Apple's eyes. In the meantime, the company recommends MacBook Air users follow these instructions for optimizing life span and battery life.
                                                                                                            by appleinsider