P170HM wont turn on and smoking, need some advice on what to do next.

Hi guys, I bought my Malibal P170HM about 2.5 years ago and today it just shut itself down while I was playing CS:GO.

When I tried to turn the computer back on, Nothing happens except I occasionally hear what sounds like a clicking sound. After a minute or so, smoke started coming out of the bottom vent for the gpu. I then unplugged and removed the battery from the laptop.

After I opened it up, the GPU side smelled a little burnt, but I was not able to see anything that was obviously melted or black. Also, upon plugging the power cord back in, I noticed that the indicator lights for the battery and power do not turn on.

Anyone have any thoughts on what the problem is and/or what I can do to find the problem and maybe fix it?


One other thing, I have 2 hdds in Raid 0 config. If I was to get a new laptop, would I be able to place the 2 hdds in the new one and get all of my data back?

 

That could have started as either a PSU or Motherboard failure, but after seeing smoke, there's really no way to know what, if anything is still alive. I would almost guaranty that best case, the motherboard is shot. However, chances are there was other damage as well (GPU seems likely to be damaged, aand maybe ram or something as well, you just never know). If you are going to try to repair it, the first step would be a new motherboard, but I don't know that it's worth repairing at this point, especially not knowing what the extent of the damage is.

All that said, the hard drives themselves are probably fine, as they tend to be pretty robust. However, I'm not aware of any way to read information off of a RAID array without the original computer.

 

Best thing to do now is contact Malibal and ask for a quote on the price for inspection. They need to check what the damage is and then you will have more options on the table.
If the mobo is fried, then amazon or ebay could be the answer (or the sellers forum here on NBR).

The most important component is your hard drive, as it contains all your stuff and as TriBeard said, im positive it will be 100% working, so that's that.

Generally, my advice would be for you to get a new laptop altogether. Replacing a motherboard can cost way too much sometimes.
You can sell the components which are intact (again, Malibal needs to check every component to see what's working and what is broken) and after selling the machine for parts, you will have a good enough amount of cash for a new laptop. Just pray the GPU is okay, it will fetch the highest price second hand.

P.S. if your warranty is done, then you may ask other resellers to do the diagnostics as well. It wont hurt to quote everyone here on the forums per PM for their price on diagnostics, so you will have the best option available. Might even price-match with some of the guys here

 

Darn, I guess its time to go computer shopping again.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

Most of the time, it's not worth it to fix a laptop, especially when you see smoke. At this point, your parts are worth more than the laptop as whole.

You may want to considered selling your laptop (less the hard drive, of course) as is, either in this forum or on ebay. There are people who will still want to buy it as parts (keyboard, memory, screen, CD-Rom... etc). Maybe you can still get $100 or something.

 

Agreed with mighty_benduru post.
Unless you have technical expertise there is no point trying to identify the cause. Could be battery could be a diode on motherboard and then even if you identify it parts could be an issue and desoldering motherboard could be a nightmare.
I am all for salvaging but when there is smoke i tend to think more than one electronic component has fried.... Aka kfc on planet earth