N56JN motherboard replacement?

I got this lovely laptop as a refurb a couple of years> It was cheap here in the UK because it's a non UK machine.

It worked well for ages, then it just died and it's been diagnosed as having a dead motherboard. I've seen a few other instances of similar fates befalling this model. It's a shame to see it die, with extra memory and an SSD, it was a great machine and I'd love to bring it back to life.

I've seen a few replacement motherboards for sale in the US, but they want silly money. I'm not paying 400 USD for a 3 year old motherboard.

So what are my other options? Can we identify the european equivalent model and install that motherboard? Is there an alternative, affordable supplier of the proper US version? Should I just sell it for parts and forget it?

Thanks,
Paul

 

It's $250 on Aliexpress and $225 on ebay (you might also check with Zandparts). Since it's a bga-cpu + bga-gpu + bga-ram board that means the cost is at least twice that of a socketed equivalent, there's no way around that; you're buying four components instead of just the mb. Only option is looking out for used/refurbished samples. The bga variants of the N56JR might fit, but these aren't much cheaper.

Would try baking first; it's dead now anyway and with all the bga parts there's a good chance it's merely a bad solder joint.