friend killed laptop

Hey guys not sure if i am posting this in the right place and sorry if its not but here goes gave my friend a loan of a laptop and when he gave it back to me after a few months i left it in the bag for a couple weeks and last night i decided to use it so i plugged it in and pressed the power button nothin happened the first few times and then i held the power button down for a few seconds and white smoke came from the vent in the back and theres a bad burning smell. i tried to turn in on again and the screen started to flicker and it would not come on. Can anyone shed some light on what might be wrong with it and what i need to replace to get it working again. (FRIEND will be paying for parts) oh ya and its an acer aspire 3690 laptop thanks in advance for the help guys

 

Hmm you should check the CPU it sounds like it burned out for some reason.
Did your friend do anything inside the laptop?

 

no he barely knows how to use it and the laptop is practically new (over a year old) but i hardly used it before i gave it to him. I am waiting to find out whats wrong with it before i talk to him about how much he owes me.

How would i check the cpu and also would anything else have been damaged if the cpu burned out

 

anyone any ideas?

 

You would need to open the laptop up to look for some physical signs of damage, if it is the cpu, you would need to remove the heatsink to inspect it, but not sure how easy it is on your model. With there being smoke coming out and the smell of burning, i'm sure there will be some tell tale signs once you open the thing up.

Inspect the motherboard for burn marks, cpu, fan, the power jack basically the whole of the inside.

 

tried all this doesnt seem to be any burn marks and the cpu looks ok but the burning smell does smell the worst around the cpu and around where the power jack goes in. the screen flickers repeatedly now when i plug it in i dont even have to press the power button jus plug it in and the screen goes mad. wont boot up or anything

 

To me, i'd definatley say the motherboard is fried (someone else may say otherwise), and if this is the case it may have damaged some other components, but you would need to test them.

Can you post any pics????

 

can probly get pics sorted tomo what you need pics of. and if the mobo was fried how would i know would there be burn marks everywhere or somethin?

And how would i test the components?

 

Pics of the CPU and heatsink mainly.
BTW are you using the same power adapter that came with the laptop?

 

yep same power adapter. And do you want pics with the heatsink off ya?

 

If you post pics of the areas you said smell real bad, also of the power jack area. With you saying when you plug the power jack in it just turns itself on, this would be the suspect area to me and the power button.

To test the other components you would need to test on another laptop.

If your friends paying for it, it may be worth taking it into a service centre and getting them to have a look at it!!!

Would be good, maybe one with the cpu taken out of the socket.

 

well theres not really anywhere around my area i can send it to get fixed and this guy gave me back the laptop in a bit of a state so he obviously did not look after it i suspected he spilled beer on it or somethin.
So i am wanting to do the work myself and basically put better parts back in to it and charge him double cos he is being a bit sneaky about it saying he didnt do anything to it.

Anyway i will get pics tomo night and post them and see where we go from there and thanks a lot for the help i appreciate it

 

No problem, that's what we're here for

 

No warranty left on the notebook?

 

The problem is definitely not cpu related. I can tell you that as a fact. When cpu's die they do not smell at all. They simply stop working. The core is self contained, and when it dies, even from overheating, it will not cause white smoke or anything like that.
The problem is motherboard related. That white smoke is a toxic gas. It is a gas used inside of capacitors, and thermoresistors. These can be replaced, but you need to target them and replace them accordingly. You unfortunately need to know the spec code for the parts which burned out, but that can be found through the service manual. You will just need to get a copy of one. (That is not an easy task, the manufacturers generally do not release them).

K-TRON

 

basically make him buy you a new laptop.