Saturday, December 1, 2007

A new surgeon!

Things of mine to see:

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Yes, that's what I will call this journey. Allow me to explain.

My father has had an HP/Compaq laptop computer for several years now. Within the last year, the power jack had become excessively loose and barely ever made contact with the plug. Just recently, he bought a new Gateway laptop. He said that the laptop is now essentially mine (finally) and that if I really wanted to, I could try to fix it. So here's how I did just that.

Yesterday, I had found my old USB wireless NIC and decided to try to fix it by soldering the connector back on. (The computer that used it fell on it and snapped the connector off.) I managed to solder wires onto the circuit board and then onto the connector, but I could not get the connector straight on the pcb. Anyways, I got the multimeter and tested for continuity and jumpers, which returned pleasing results. I tested it, but it didn't work because the electronics were probably smashed when it suffered the accident.

Anyway, today, I tried to use the laptop again, and I had the plug in the "sweet spot" for about 10 minutes before the computer switched to batteries and subsequently died. (The batteries are a crapshoot in this laptop.) So I googled up the service manual for this little item. I'm dangerous, I know.

After several attempts at opening it and turning back for fear of breaking it, I finally got to the motherboard level. I found the screws the manual mentioned, and I eventually got the board out. After staring in awe at myself for doing this, I decided that I might as well go the whole way.

I took the board upstairs into the dining room, plugged in the soldering iron, and proceeded to correctly solder the jack to a point where it wiggles a lot less and makes contact about 95% of the time, while I didn't know that at the time. I took it back downstairs and placed it on the case. After asking myself several times "What have I just done?", I put the motherboard in the case and screwed it down. This begins the next set of problems.

First, I forgot a screw on the motherboard which I didn't notice until I was about 805 done with reassembly. Then it was the monitor output port, then the touchpad, and later, I forgot to screw the CD drive down. Eventually, however I got the thing the rest of the way assembled, and I was ready for the most nerve-racking part of this excursion.

Testing. I plugged it in. Orange flashing power LED. Good sign. Played with the plug orientation a little, and the light just kept going. So far so good. I booted it up, and I was nervous when the fans were running full speed. Apparently, since it lost all power, I runs at full speed for a little after it boots again, probably just in case its been stored and that way it clears the fans of dust. I think that our desktop does this too. Anyways, after I saw the Windows loading screen, I gave a HUGE sigh of relief.

Whatever it is that I did, I did right!

So, since this is such a small work area, I'm calling this a "surgery." This is the only surgery I know where there's pretty much an undo button!

By the way, this is being posted from the laptop I did all this work with. :)

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