WOO HOO! I ROCK!!!

[Fierce Critter]

Actually, at first, I majorly sucked. The AC connection on our laptop motherboard was coming loose. Made it worse trying to "fix" it, and thought the whole thing was toast.

With the help of some copper wire, solder, epoxy, and this GREAT website on circuitry repair, it's green light go again.

Waiting 24 hours for the epoxy to set before I know for sure, however. But I think we're back in business. The new connections seemed pretty damned tight.

Note to self: in the future, leave the laptop repair to the professionals. Just because you lucked out and got the thing for $30 doesn't mean you should treat it like a $30 laptop.

[DisturbedMania]

Yay for you!

[nodrew]

Good job. Be glad you didn't pay someone else. They woulda charged you $200 to do what you just did. It's funny the little things you can learn to do that save sooo much money.

[Head Wreck]

indeed

lil bit of a dressmakers pin and some solder saved me £60 on a new imobiliser remote from the manufacturer (and i go of trade price)

[Fierce Critter]

I still suck. :

Before I made the repair that got the laptop to the point it is now, I had to remove some epoxy from a previously failed repair attempt. In scraping away at the dried epoxy, I accidentally lopped a part off the board. Don't know if it's a diode or what (it was a tiny black square of plastic that had been soldered on the board), but it was in the area of the PS2 connection. I had high hopes that would just make the PS2 not work (we use a USB mouse anyway), but it appears it was more important than that.

The power light comes on when you plug in the AC now. And if I hit the on switch, that light comes on, too. But the hard drive doesn't kick on, nor does the fan, nor does the DVD door switch operate. So I really don't know what the hell to do now, except take it to a repair shop that'll rape me major.

Sigh. I think the most angry I can possibly be is when, in fixing one thing, I break something else worse.

I'd love to just find a replacement part and see if I can fix it myself. I looked at the area where the piece was broken off from, and it basically solders on at 2 points. But I don't know if these things are directional or not, or if that's even the whole of the problem.

This sucks so bad. :

[nodrew]

Its probably not directional. Depends though. If you've still got the old one, you may be able to get a part number off of it. If so, some place like radio shack prolly has it or can order it.

[Fierce Critter]

I don't have it anymore - threw it out with trash. But it's identical to any of many dozen other ones that are still on the board.

At this point, though, I'm not sure I'm willing to mess with it anymore. I've put out a plea on a local board I'm on for reference to anyone who repairs this sort of thing, hoping to find someone who will work with me.

And still keeping an eye out on Ebay for replacement motherboards.

AN almost identical laptop went out on Ebay last night for around $180. The only difference was it was a slightly faster processor, and no DVD. We put in a bid, thinking we could switch out the DVD & Hard drive from this one, but were out bid by a particularly tenacious bidder.