The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Broken laptop when modding.

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jisaac, Sep 8, 2008.

  1. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    OK, so basically ireplaced the hard drive in my laptop with a compact flash card using a cf to ide adapter.... Unfortunately dismantling my laptop (asus s6f) is an extremely hard task compared to most other laptops,as it requires u toremove and unplug all the circuit boards etc.... remove the screen. So anyway i successfully replaced the hd, and evrything was working fine... unfortunately soon later i'd realised that one of the mobo plugs wasnt plugged in properly which waswhy the status led lghtswere not working... so i tried to push it in with (wait for it) .... a pen knife lol,, it was 5 in the morning ad ididnt know what the hell i was doing.. all i could think about was playing sc lol. The pen knife totally severed the cable... and my laptop ceased to work... have a look at the pic.. and tell me if thre are any quick fixes (ie alternative ways to start the laptop) or if there is anywhere i can find replacement parts or how much a repair shop would charge to repair it ....
    thanks
    [​IMG]
     
  2. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Jissac your picture is not clear. What was damaged exactly, the cable? connector/plug? or both?
     
  3. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    yeh soz my webcam's a bit crappy .... the cable is basically cut in two.. the connector/plug is fine
     
  4. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    And it is cut close to the plug? right?

    What type of plug is that? how many wires?

    may be you could buy laptop speakers and use their cable/plug to rapair yours?
     
  5. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    or those of a fan maybe?
     
  6. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    its a wide flat wire about 1cm wide... so i'm pretty sure it cant be repaired... i mean my computer wont even turn on.... help please!!!
     
  7. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
  8. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    yeh sorry that was the term i was looking for, its an ffc
     
  9. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

    Reputations:
    4,412
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    205
    jisaac,
    is there any extra length in the wire.
    You are probably not going to be able to find the exact cable for sale on the internet, but what you can do, is very lightly sand or cut the plastic coating off one side of the (assuming its a ribbon cable) and than get to the point where the copper wires are showing. You will need to do this to both sides where the break was. Then very gently and carefully solder short thin wires to connect the two. You will have to do this for however many wires their are. Its a very tedious process, but it should work for you. After the solder dries, grab some hot glue and cover the connections so that the adjacent wires do not cause electrical interference or shorts.

    Good luck man, you need to learn when to stop cause patience is key to computers. The second one pushes it something can go wrong.

    K-TRON
     
  10. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    So why not get an FFC and just replace yours.

    I had to replace on in my gateway in the beginning of the year. this cable connected the power board with the motherboard. in my case it had four flat wire and two of them broke.

    The cable I used for replacement had six wires. I just cut the extra two wires at both end soI could plug the replacement FFC.
     
  11. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Thanks guys for your help.... i however found my own fix :) i had to split the attached ffc cable into the top and bottom parts, to expose the metal wires... i then just inserted this into the connector on the mobo. Luckily i bothered trying this can't believe it actually worked lol neways stopped me from wasting anymore money on buying an eee pc
     
  12. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    cool .... :D
     
  13. N00d13s

    N00d13s is too legit to quit!

    Reputations:
    185
    Messages:
    842
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    what laptop was it? i have to send my gateway 6860 in cause the power button doesn't work, i tried, but couldn't tell if it was a bad cable.
     
  14. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    It was the MX3050b. The power board is fixed in the LED cover. This power board had a blue LED that lights up the power button when the laptop was ON. Anyway, when I moved the LED cover a bit while the laptop was ON, I noticed that the Blue LED was turining ON and OFF.

    One day the laptop refused to turn ON, and the Blue LED refused to switch ON too, so I opened the MX3050 and used a tester to check the FFC. I didn't find any resistance in two of of the four wires composing this flex cable.

    P.S.
    Now I have a newer Gateway laptop (MX3101) and the power board is integrated with the motherboard, and hence no more flex cable, appart from the one connecting the touch pad.
     
  15. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Spoke too soon :s ... ok when fiddling with the ffc cable i think it touched the motherboard - and the laptop was still plugged in (stupidly)... smoke came out from the mobo... and i noticed several burn marks. I however with a bit more fiddling was able to boot xp (how i was able to i dont know)... but only when plugged in to AC power. The ffc cable atm is totally broken- could this be the reason that the laptop wont turn on when not plugged in to AC - or could one of the components necessary for transferring power from the battery to the mobo be broken -
    thanks i just need to know cos if the mobo is burnt then i'll just get a new laptop, but if its the ffc cable i'll just get a new cable.
     
  16. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    bump bump.....
     
  17. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    smoke is not a good signe... you may have burn something...wait for a confirmation from the others.

    If you battery is flat, or the circuitery that allows your laptop to power from the battery has burn, you would not be able to power from the battery. This would explain why you could power using the AC only.

    Jisaac I know that repairing anything in the UK (London in particular) is way too expensive do to expensie labour. I think instead of going for a complete new system, you should look in ebay for a low spec intel based laptop (preferably one with a Celeron M, 512 ram) with a broken screen, and then recover all the good part from your broken laptop to the one you will be getting from ebay.
    Or you could try to look for a mother boards replacement for your system.

    I mean we all want to hae a tiny laptop like the EeePC but power-wise the EeePC is very limited, in particular compared to your laptop.
     
  18. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Jisaac what laptop do you have?

    Off topic;

    did you try to vLite all the versions of vista so you have a vLited CD/DVD that contain all versions but vLited? or did you do that in one version only?
     
  19. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    doubt the battery is flat since i just replaced it.

    i would lol but i love my laptop.. and considering it cost me over $3000, i'd rather not...

    An asus s6f...

    nah i did 'rebuild one' only, to make my iso as small as possible :)
     
  20. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Jisaac what C2D did you manage to overclock to 2.8ghz? and how did you do it? using something like setFSB?

    could you confirm that your harddrive is an IDE drive?
     
  21. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    fraid thats my desktop pc :s
    lol i've bought two ffc cables online just now -one's a failsafe... even if it doesnt work with a battery, at least it wont be completely useless.
     
  22. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    UPDATE:
    ok the two ffc cables arrived yesterday.
    the first cable i broke cos i was rushing lol.
    the second cable i successfully split (there was 32 connectors but i only needed 15), and the replacement seems to have worked. Unfortunately the power button does not work, and I can turn on the laptop but only by unplugging the power adapter, and then plugging it back in again. I cannot turn on the laptop running on battery power, or even with the battery plugged in on ac power. I guess the power connectors/components on the mobo got fried or somethin... neways i'll have to get an eee or somethin cos i cant rely on ac power in lessons etc... at least its actually usable though. :)
    thanks all x
     
  23. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

    Reputations:
    4,412
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    205
    You can always replace the buttons cant you?
    Usually the buttons are pretty standard 2 stage surface mount buttons. You can probably buy replacement ones and solder them on.
    You can check to see if the power button does work, by using a voltmeter and checking for resistance.

    Maybe one of the wires in the FFC cable is not connected all of the way preventing the power button from working.

    K-TRON
     
  24. jisaac

    jisaac Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    306
    Messages:
    1,141
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    well the power button is working cos when i press it when my laptop is powered on my laptop just turns off instantly... i'm pretty sure the ffc cable is pushed in fully so i must have burnt some components on the mobo...
     
  25. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56
  26. naton

    naton Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    806
    Messages:
    2,044
    Likes Received:
    5
    Trophy Points:
    56