System board also know as motherboard
A system board also known as motherboard or mainboard is the main circtuit board in any laptop. Unlike desktop PC system boards, laptop system boards come in thousands of different shapes and sizes. Laptop motherboards are model-specific. In other words, you cannot remove motherboard from a Toshiba laptop and stick it into a Dell laptop. All parts inside a laptop are connected to the system board, either directly via a connector mounted on the system board or through a cable.
In a typical laptop the following ports and components are permanently attached to the system board and cannot be easily removed and replaced without soldering:
1. Hard drive (HDD) connector.
2. CD/DVD drive connector.
3. Memory (RAM) slots.
4. Battery connector.
5. Keyboard connector.
6. Audio (headphone and microphone) jacks.
7. Volume control wheel.
8. USB ports.
9. Eithernet (RJ45 aka network) port.
10. IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire) ports.
11. Video chip and some other components and ports.
System board, processor (CPU) and LCD screen are the most expensive parts in any laptop. In some cases, when one of these three parts fails, it’s cheaper to buy a brand new laptop than replace the failed part. But each case is different so do your research.
The system board is mounted inside the laptop base assembly. In order to remove or replace the motherboard, you’ll have to disassemble the whole laptop.
SYSTEM BOARD FAILURE SYMPTOMS.
When a system board fails, you may experience the following most common problems with your laptop. 1. The laptop is completely dead. There are no LED light activity when you press on the power button or plug in a known good AC power adapter. 2. The laptop starts but the video output on the LCD screen or external monitor is garbled. Most likely this is related to the VGA chip failure. 3. The laptop turns on without video on the screen and the power LED starts flashing. 4. The laptop works fine with AC power adapter but will not charge a known good battery. If that’s the case, most likely there is something wrong with the battery charging circuit or DC power jack.
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Thanks for potential cause.
I have also question, because I read that In my model, Compal, biggest problem is heat and graphics card (GF 8600 M). So assuming graphic card fried could that cause mobo to not start up? Or even if graphics card is fried led light fireup or fan starts?
August 18th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Talei,
If the motherboard gets power from AC adapter but the laptop appears to be dead (and it’s not faulty memory), most likely this is motherboard failure.
CPU failures are not common.
August 17th, 2010 at 6:57 am
Yes. I have 2 modules, 1GB each, Kingston. After swapping modules still nothing, and probability of two module malfunction is probably low.
Unfortunately I don’t have spare parts to pinpoint faulty component.
Anyway Thank You for reply, and If You have any other ideas I’m all ears.
Regards
August 16th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Talei,
Did you try replacing memory?
If you have two memory modules try removing them one by one. One of the modules could be bad.
August 16th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Hello. I have Compal FL90 that died on me suddenly. I went for the coffee to the kitchen (laptop was turn on, simply WEB page no CPU/GPU intense load) and when I came back it was turn OFF. When I press power button nothing happens! Fan don’t work, LED don’t light Up.
I was running Kubuntu at that time, with default drivers (not the nvidia one) and I notice intense Fan work (in this model fan is laud so I can hear it easy). Fan goes to the full speed on simply WEB browsing, so I assume that either CPU or GPU could fried.
Currently I disassembly laptop to basics elements and It seams that AC works fine, RTC works fine, some random resistors on the mobo have voltage (like 17V).
My question is where do I start pinpointing failure. Is there easy way to check if CPU or GPU is working or not?
Thanks for the reply
Regards.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:12 am
Kelvin,
Shuts off by itself without any warning? Probably overheating.
Try cleaning the heat sink and cooling fan with compressed air. After all dust removed try again.
August 9th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Kelvin,
The laptop shuts down on its own? Could be overheating.
Try cleaning the cooling fan and heat sink. Probably they are clogged with dust.
August 9th, 2010 at 1:42 am
i hve a Toshiba satellite any i put on the machine it goes off when it been on for awhile want to the problem.
August 7th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Harbeer,
This connector is available on eBay for about $7. Follow this link: Presario v3000 hard drive connector.
August 5th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Hi,
I had unique problem, my hp compaq pesario v 3000 mother board crashed two times. This time when i replaced it my tecnichian told me that the connector connecting the hard drive to the motherboard is missing. Can i find it in the stores? what does it look like because i can;t see it on any of your photos.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:44 pm
russell,
Could be memory failure. If you have two memory modules installed, try removing them one by one. Test your laptop with each module separately.
If you have exactly same problem with a known good memory modules and the laptop keep restarting on its own, probably this is motherboard failure.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:23 pm
khalif,
First of all, I would check memory modules. Maybe one of the memory modules is bad and the laptop will not start because of that.
Do you have two memory modules installed? Try removing them one by one. Test the laptop with each module separately. It’s unlikely that both modules are bad.
If one of the modules is bad, the laptop should start properly with the second one installed.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:17 pm
i have an acer aspire. i try to open press the power button but only 5 to 6 seconds starting sound then it will shut down and will try to open again by itself then shut down again not even seeing opening on the monitor.
July 17th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
i have a sony vaio pcg-7a2l. it will power on . the three lights that tell you that the numberlock and caps on light up and stay on.it never moves from this postion. neither logo or boot screen. the power led light is on , hard drive lights comes on and goes out. wifi light is on. nothing else happens.help
June 21st, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Nicholas,
It’s not very clear. Did you test his battery pack and adapter with your laptop or you tested your new battery in his laptop?