M18x r1 plugin not charging

First i apologize english my second languages but i really need your help since my knowledge about computer are little.
M18x r1 plugin not charging before this happened i smelt burning plastic from my m18x r1. I also experienced low fps while gaming too so i decided teardown my laptop to check my graphic cards and they looked fine to me but i found burnt parts called PQ12 PQ15.

My questions is
What PQ 12 15 ? Are they causing problems listed above ?
Are they fixable ? Or i have to replace a new motherboard ?
What parts i need for the replacement. Any suggestions where to buy them safely?

 

Presuming that two components are the cause and not just a symptom, and that nothing else went bad, replacing those two components should fix it.
If you cold read the markings on that 2 chips that would help us determine what they are exactly.

 

From the markings, looks, hook-up and location they're power mosfets (PQ = power transistor, example). Low fps are to be expected if they've (partially) failed; not enough juice. Fortunately these are as big as components go, so fairly easy to solder. If, as maxslo mentioned, you've managed to read the markings then you could order replacements from mouser or the like. Shouldn't be more than a few bucks and if nothing else has failed in the chain then it'd be a cheap fix, unlike a new mb ...

Mind that they've failed for a reason (oc'ing, worn gpu?), so perhaps it'd be wise to undervolt and/or buy the replacements with higher maximum ratings.

 

Bad mosfets can be diagnosed with a multimeter. If you are not familiar with soldering or testing, take it to an electronics repair shop. They should be able to test them and replace them. Should cost a few dollars for the parts and service.

 

This is what i zoom out


Honestly i dont know how to solder or test these components. They're melted and burnt pretty bad but im glad that there is an option to fix these for few bucks rather than buy a new mobo which is costed around 200-300

 

Hmm, maybe if you clean off the residue, the markings can be visibile enough to tell what mosfets you need. If not, there should be a schematic for M18x R1 motherboard somewhere on the internet
As a last resort, i'm sure some1 with a working motherboard can check what markings do these mosfets have.
As far as replacing goes, it's pretty trivial and shouldn't cost you much.

 

Yeah, they are definitely fried. No need to test. I hope they didn't do any further damage to other components. It looks like the solder cracked as well because it looks like there's some solder debris lying around. You should clean that off so there aren't any short circuits. Personally I'd look to replace the motherboard, but that's just me. You can try to replace those mosfets.

 

Those are burning mark and cannot be clean

Thank you so much for all your replies
I'm thinking replace a new mobo too. Hopefully it's not too complicated
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alienw...740451?hash=item2a677aff63:g:-moAAOSwInxXMJFB Is this the right part ?Good deal ? What else do I need for a replacement ?

 

Pretty hefty ... check AliExpress for a better deal. You wouldn't need anything else, except a few hours of your time for the tear-down and rebuild.

Found the mosfet's part nr., btw; Alpha & Omega AOD403. They happen to have a nice article on thermal scenarios:



Looks familiar, eh ? Anyway, couldn't find an exact match on mouser, but this Infineon IPD90P03P4-04 is available and can handle more power as well. Two would cost a little over $3 + $20 for the repair shop's fee, assuming you'll have them order the items and perform the soldering.

 

I just wow on what u found and very interesting informations. Probably it's going to take me a long time to understand. Talking about aliExpess. Have you ever been shop there ? I heard their products no good and shipped from China...

 

They're the same items and, often, sellers on ebay. All 'US based' items are just transitional, hailing the parts from China themselves, except with an extra markup. Don't forget that almost every component in your laptop was build either there or in Taiwan and the benefit of ordering from China directly, apart from lower cost, is that the sellers will mark the item 'gift' or vastly undervalued ($20 or less), saving you import duties, if applicable to your country.

Either way, why not take laptop 'as is' to an electronics repair shop (not necessarily laptop/pc repair), hand them the part nrs. and ask them for a quote? If the price is acceptable to warrant a shot, they'll likely have to order the chips. Once they've received them it's a 5-10 minutes, done-while-you-wait repair and you could test it straight away. It could save some money and hassle since the motherboard can stay in place, whereas a swap requires a dozen screws and ribbon cables to remove and disconnect. Lastly, if this'll fix it, it'll be better than before, having higher rated components.

 

I have a motherboard for an m18x r2 if you are interested in going from the r1 to the r2. It's a system pull.

PM me if interested.

 

I just ordered the parts from Mouser electronic and spoke to a guy from repair shop near me. He said he will not responsible if the motherboard will work or not but he change them for me. I'll give it a shot see how they go then take the second option replace new motherboard.

 

Happened to me some months ago, fixed it by replacing the two mosfets with new ones. Here is the topic with that: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/laptop-about-to-burn.783775/#post-10135241

I tried desoldering the burnt mosfets myself (no soldering experience) but ended up just making it worse (mosfets came out with the copper part of the MB). After that I tried to ask around college for any professor or lab staff that might be able to help me but no dice. At the end, I just went back to Peru and had a street market shady electritian do the soldering for me for a couple of bucks.

Laptop working great since then.

 

That's no coincidence; three systems all failed at the exact same spot/components. The photo gallery is worth a look, also shows a nice repair job on a seemingly catastrophic failure, much more so than the OP's. Clearly a design fault or defective ICs. Whichever the cause, they've exceeded their design specs., but that'd mean they self-heated well over 175°C ... pretty scary, even if safely below melting point of pcb solder.

Good thing the replacements are a lot better; 70W vs. 45W power dissipation at 100°C (ability to cool down, loose heat) and 90A vs. 70A drain current at the same temperature (maximum load it can handle).

ps.
Anyone with an R1 that's still running would do well to fetch some thermal adhesive or epoxy and attach a heatsink to these things. It'd prevent a heap of trouble ...

 

Good new. Replacing the 2 mosfets worked like a charm...plugin able to charging now....specially thanks to t456 that i can save alot of money from getting a new mobo...here is the photos.


i experience high idle temp gpu 90 degree. Is this happen because i tear down the laptop. All i did was remove the heatsink to check anything get burn then put it back . I cleaned up the old thermal paste and waiting for the new one.

 

Great news .... Yeah i wouldn't use the laptop without thermal paste applied to gpu and cpu :/

 

Ah, right ... so the cpu heatsink is ~1cm away from those 100°C/100%-rated mosfets ... brilliant ... just brilliant .

CPU heats up -> cooling fins get to 80°C -> heats up ambient temperature around mosfets -> mosfets can't dump heat effectively (air's already too hot) -> thermal runaway mosfet.

Good thing the replacements are better (dissipating 85W vs. 60W at 80°C), but do make sure to repaste asap. If you want the absolute best, use liquid metal types. Really, you'll not want to go back to anything else.

Thanks for that, it's nice to have a thread concluded .

 

Grab one of these triple-pipe heat sinks while you still can. They are getting hard to find. Helps with CPU temps a ton. Then use Liquid Ultra (metal paste) and you'll have zero CPU cooling problems. You don't have to have an XM CPU to benefit from using it, but you should grab an XM on eBay one of these days. You'll be glad you did.

Triple Pipe CPU Heatsink for M18x (for XM series CPU) | HIDevolution.com

Yeah, those MOSFETs are a common point of failure. I had a customer with an M18xR2 motherboard that blew them out and it was only three month old motherboard. And, he was not an overclocker, just a gamer. I overclocked the crap out of mine for years and never had any trouble. I think perhaps they had a run of them with defective MOSFETs.

I had the SoundBlaster Recon3Di amplifier for the external audio jacks catch on fire on one of my on though. And, there have been a number of reports in our forum of customers that had an Alienware laptop catch on fire during normal use.

Alienware M18x Fire Hazards Photo Album | Mr. Fox Imgur