Replacing a Sager/Clevo motherboard (NP8150/P150HM)

Hello,

I'm kind of at a complete loss here. A couple years back, I had a bit of beer spilled on my Sager NP8150/Clevo P150HM at a LAN. Since then, I've made do with alternative computing options and finally cobbled together a basic $300 desktop solution. However, it looks like I'm going to be moving across the ocean within a year and I'd rather not lug this setup with me. So I've resolved to try and repair my laptop, no matter the cost.

I took my laptop to a campus PC repair type place, but the guy at the desk basically told me to save myself the diagnostic fee and just replace the motherboard.

How do I go about doing that? I can open the thing up and look at it directly, but there's more than one sticker and I don't want to accidentally get the wrong thing.

I found a "CLEVO P150HM/P151HM (Sager NP8150) Motherboard V3" on eBay (Googling that string should get you right to it); can I just buy that and slap that in?

 

A little more information would be nice as to what is wrong with your computer(will it turn on, etc) and a few more specs.

The sort answer to your question is no, you can't just "slap that in there" the product that your looking at on eBay is just a "barebones" mother board. There is no CPU, ram, hdd, or GPU attached to it, so you'd have to transfer all of that over to the new motherboard (which is no easy task, if possible). However, since you spilled beer on your old laptop, you can't even be sure if any of those still function correctly. If I were you, I'd take it in and get it diagnosed, to see what parts of your laptop are no longer functioning, because if you buy a new motherboard and then transfer a nonfunctional cpu to it, your laptop won't be much use. unfortunately the odds are a significant amount of hardware will have been damaged though, since you just left it after you spilt your beer on it. Most Liquid contact is unfortunately technology's kryptonite.

Anyway, bring it in, get it diagnosed, See whats wrong, See the repair costs, and decide if you would better off repairing your laptop(if possible) or just buying a new one all together. Report back after the diagnosis if you would like a further opinion on which option you'd be better off doing.

Hope this helps!

 

If you got your machine through a reseller, I'd talk to them first; they could probably get you a MB or at least (hopefully) give you the exact part number you need. From there...well I guess ebay or another website.

 

The repairs will likely cost you more than the machine is even worth. You'll likely have to replace the motherboard, the video card, and the RAM at a minimum. You'd be better off buying a new machine like the NP7358 base model, for example.

 

If you are lucky , you won't have to replace anything other than the Motherboard ( the other components are on the right side of the moderboard, and beer hav'nt been spilled directly at it), i have personally spilled 0.5L of soda on my old MSI ( witch didn't appreciated it firstly), that lasted some more years..... ,
For the ebay one, it seems to be a good one, and the price is decent, if you are not affraid to tear apart ALL you computer, i would suggest to give it a shot.

Elipsus

 

I agree.

Err, no. Unfortunately it is the last component you want to replace, given the choice.

This the reason. When you've done this before it's an hour or two (it's Clevo, so better to repair/tinker than practically every other brand out there, especially the fruit-logo ones). If you haven't the experience, take a day or two instead.

Hm, for diagnosis you're looking at the same 2 hours, which is more than a new motherboard will cost. And if you're not replacing it yourself then that's another 2 hours and still paying for the new mb.

Have repaired a few waterlogged cases (not my own, honest ); the cpu & gpu trigger auto-shutdown routines and are physically separated via the keyboard&heatsinks and memory is sturdy stuff. Odds are that they're fine. If the motherboard is replaced you'll find out soon enough by the error-beep-codes, if indeed there are any.

Still, if you're new at his; this is not for the feint of heart. Though it's a heck of a start to acquaint yourself with repairing hardware ... most people begin by replacing a memory bank or hdd . It is the cheapest option:

1. make room
2. print service manual
3. take apart
4. use paper/tape/pencil to keep track of screws
5. look carefully for the greenish, corroded bits
6. deduct

There are several possible results:

1. If the mb is all that seems wrong; buy the new/refurbished/used one and replace (you've managed so far, putting it back together is easier).
2. If more components seem wrong (and can't test them on another system), make a new cost estimate and see if it's worth the effort.
3. If taking it apart didn't go all that well (but not fubar); someone else can put it together again (for a fee) and replace the mb at the same time; you're still only paying once.

Not very good at the keeping-track-of-screws part myself; always have a few left over ... must be akin to socks ...

Scratch that. Crikey, that thing's expensive! Brand new though, that explains it. If you can wait a little; stalk ebay for a refurbished one, it'll save you half.