N850HK No Power

The PSU is putting out 19.5v but the H850HK laptop shows no power connected and battery is draining.
Any ideas?

 

A dead PSU can give out 19.5v at no load then drop massively when you try to load it. Does it have a light on your PSU? Does it stay on?

 

Unfortunately, no light on the PSU. I took off the bottom and looked at the power plug on the motherboard, it looked fine. This laptop has had some issues so it's not reliable any more.
I bought another laptop and can try the PSU with the Clevo.

 

If you are VERY careful you could measure the voltage on the input when plugged in. Again be careful.

 

I repair aviation electronics, so I'm pretty familiar with PCB damage. The PSU may be defective, I'm not in a position to remove the mobo and test it right now. The laptop has started blue screening, the camera has died and a USB ports are not working. Might not be worth the effort to try and repair.
This was my first Clevo and it's been somewhat of a disappointment. Overheating problems out of the box has limited performance, I paid a premium price for higher end components I was unable to use. USB ports ran slow or stopped working. Camera died and hinge broke. The laptop only lasted about two years with moderate use. The display was nice, i7 CPU and 1050Ti GPU were fine. All those great components riding a POS motherboard to the landfill.
This time, I'm back to a "name brand" laptop. I may get less hardware, but I can actually contact the manufacturer, who has a functional website with support options. I considered another Clevo from a different reseller, but too much hoop jumping. The last Clevo left me hanging, I don't have weeks to wait for another computer.

 

This is why picking the right reseller with the support you need is important, the reseller takes that responsibility. If you go with one who passes the buck it can lead to a bad situation.

Removing the back should allow access to the side of an inductor and the input ground.

 

You are 100% right about who you buy a computer from, especially in this situation of a number of vendors selling, more or less, the same computers.

I despise wasting things so, even if it's more than a bad PSU, I'll try to fix it. I think I have schematics for it. It stopped working suddenly, so something is probably broke/burnt.

 

So long as the PCB is undamaged there is hope.

 

If it is not the PSU, my sight unseen guess would be a bad solder joint close to the power plug on the PCB.
If it can be repaired as a backup rig, maybe I'll look around and see if I can make some improvements.

 

The camera not working might be due to the broken hinge pinching/cutting the usb cable that goes to the camera, and the USB port not working, might be also related to the hinge/usb cable that goes to the camera as well.

 

That's a reasonable deduction as to why the camera isn't working. The USB ports are on the motherboard so it's two distinct problems.

I checked the PSU on another laptop and it is good. The problem is with the computer, for sure. I have a new laptop so the Clevo is scheduled for open case surgery. Hopefully, it can be repaired.

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

A couple of pretty poor solder joints on the power plug. Easy to spot and repair but a pain removing the board.
Can these boards stand a reflow?

 

I would not unless its required.

 

Kind of what I figured.

 

A visual inspection should be enough with any issues rectified.

 

In my work as an aviation electronics technician, I had every diagnostic tool available, at least 50-75% of the problems were detected by visual inspection.
At least it's fixed for now.

 

Aviation equipment usually goes through much harsher temperature swings and vibration ti cause that extra stress on the solder.

 

Yes, the quality standards for aviation are high because mistakes cause crashed aircraft. Multiple layer PCBs and RF circuitry are levels above the circuit boards in computers, which are actually fairly basic. The cause of many computer, and other device failures, is the lack of quality control. Reducing quality control is the easiest way to save money, companies use customers to test products. Pretty good deal for business, not so much for customers.

 

Yet if we held consumer goods to aviation standards they would be much slower and no one could afford them.

Engineering is always about the balance.

 

Couldn't disagree with you there.

 

The best engineers can fudge the numbers slightly and find the perfect balance at the same time given the current spec. That's the goal.