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.
Laptop parts | Repair Man | 
December 26, 2008 3:45 pm
299 Responses to “System board also know as motherboard”
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Pages: « 12 … 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 [3] 2 1 » Show All
May 9th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I have Toshiba Satellite M105 S3002 laptop.
My AC adapter was producing noise when it charges the battery, so I took it to a repair center (not Toshiba Authorized Service).
After my AC adapter had been repaired, the noise is gone, but the AC adapter only works if the laptop is turned on. If the AC adapter plugged into the laptop when it is turned off, nothing happens (even the power indicator light).
My friend said that the power chip in my mainboard has been broken.
Is it true? Is this problem caused by my repaired AC adapter?
May 5th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
hey
well ….Thanks man
I guess its better to buy a new laptop than replacing the main board,
Thanks anyways…keep in touch
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
Biruk,
Sorry for a bad news, but if your laptop shutdown while updating the BIOS and didn’t finish the process, most likely the BIOS is corrupted. You’ll have to replace the motherboard.
You cannot reflash the BIOS again because the laptop doesn’t start after it failed.
If you have important data saved in that laptop, you get recover it.
1. Remove the hard drive. I believe you have an IDE (not SATA) hard drive installed into your laptop.
2. Purchase an external USB enclosure for notebook IDE hard drives and install your hard drive into the enclosure.
3. Connect this enclosure to another working computer – laptop or desktop.
4. The new drive will be detected automatically and you can access data.
Again, if the laptop failed while updating the BIOS, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
May 1st, 2009 at 3:28 am
Hi
I have a Satellite M40 (PSM40).While I was flashing the Bios from windows it shutdown automatically before finishing.Now when i press power button,Noting happens for a few secs(slower than usual) power on for a few sec and turns back off,fan spins but No display.I’ve tried to reflash it using TOSHIBA traditional BIOS Update but notting seems to work.what do u suggest I do with it next?pls help cos my project is in that laptop.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
may it be possible that improper voltage supply the motherboard has got damaged.??????
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 am
Actually waht happened in the morining i remove my battery and put it again. but the way i put the battery back was not proper…means it hinges were out and the place where battery fits n supplies power was in. so my laptop gave 3-4 beeps while i was working. but i did not realize that something may be wrong with batteries. system worked normally. but when i again stated my sutem in the evening eveything has gone bad…. means the usual boot up screen which is usaually blue and black in most systems was now florescent green…i tried alot by turning my sytem on and off…but problem was not resolved. later i realized that batteries were not properly placed. i replaced it properly but sytem could never recover till now.
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:11 am
shilp,
I’m just curious. How can you damage the video card in a laptop by improper battery placement?
Nope, you cannot replace the chip. If it’s bad, you’ll have to replace the motherboard (I assume the video chip is integrated into the motherboard).
April 22nd, 2009 at 4:14 am
Due to improper battery placement (my mistake) the display of my syatem has gone bad… through your article i can guess that the video card of the system is corrupted. can you tell me if the video chip of the system can be repaired or replaced. I have Compaq v6000 notebook model.
I will appreciate your help.
Thanks and Regards
shilp
April 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Scott Pulido,
When you replace the motherboard it’s not necessary to erase the hard drive. If they said they replaced the motherboard, they did so.
They say as a precaution. In some cases it is necessary to reinstall software but apparently not in your case.
They replaced the motherboard and it fixed your original problem, so they didn’t reimage the hard drive.
I think you’ll be fine, just make sure to test the laptop properly. Most likely they installed a refurbished motherboard, so make sure everything operates properly before it runs out of warranty.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Hi. I was just curious about my motherboard. I just sent my computer back to HP. I had a horrible experience with their customer service and repair department. In short, don’t buy a HP. But they have sent me back my computer and it now at least turns on. My question deals with the fact that I still have all my information from before I sent it in. Did they really replace the motherboard as they said? I was told by customer service that my Data would be lost and so I backed it up on my portable HD. Just curious to see if I got taken for a loop and need to send it back asap. Thanks for the info and help. Appreciate it. Scott
April 6th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Murphy,
Sounds like a problem with the motherboard, apparenlty it’s been damaged when you spilled a liquid. Most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
Before you do that, you’ll have to remove the top cover and take a closer look inside the laptop. It’s possible some other parts have been damaged too.
April 5th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Okay, so heres how it is. I accidentally spilled a liquid on my laptop and it completely shut off. I cleaned it up but it still does not work at all. When i press power key, the power light turns on for about one second then turns off again. My model is an HP Pavilion dv6000. If you could email me to see if you know what the problem is that would be great!
March 31st, 2009 at 8:04 pm
ram,
1. Try entering the BIOS setup menu by pressing Esc, or F1, or F2, etc… (I don’t know your laptop model). Can you enter the BIOS?
2. Could be bad hard drive. Take a look at the hard drive LED light. Is it on all the time? You can remove the hard drive and try booting the laptop from a live Linux CD. I use Knoppix. Can you boot from the Linux CD?
3. Could be bad memory. Try removing memory modules one by one and start the lapto with each memory module separately. Can you?
March 30th, 2009 at 3:13 am
i had on acer laptop, when power on the display shows logo screen and than hanging. but the cpu cooling fan is running. what will be the problem pls. guide me
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Thanks we took it all apart and put it back together and now it works…thanks a lot
March 17th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
rgarcia1965,
I guess it’s a Satellite 1415-S173 (not SS173), right? Yes I know. It’s an Agere Systems MiniPCI card. Toshiba part number is P000339520. Google the part number and you’ll find it.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Brooke,
It’s hard to tell what is wrong. Could be just a loose connection somewhere inside.
When I receive a dropped laptop for repair, first of all I open it up and reseat all internal cables, cards and connectors. Make sure the CPU and memory are seated correctly.
If you have nothing to lose, you can open it up (as it explained in the service manual) and try reseating internal cables and cards.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Do you know what type of mini pci wi-fi card I can use to install in my Toshiba 1415-SS173?
March 17th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hi, I have a Dell XPS 1330. It had been working fine until it was accidentally dropped from a bed. After it was dropped it would not power on and the battery is fully charged and the power cord is also working properly. I have tried taking the battery out and powering it that way and such and I have not had any luck. When I push the power button it does not turn on or make any noises as if it even wanted to power on but there is a flicker on one of the side lcd lights. Do you think it is the motherboard??
Thanks
March 7th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
qua,
Usually a laptop starts acting like that when there is a problem with memory or motherboard.
So, you tried removing RAMs one by one and testing the laptop with each RAM module in different slots and it didn’t help. That tells me that most likely you have a bad motherboard.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Hello, I apologize for the long post. I just wanted to describe the problem thoughrougly. I have (had??) a Toshiba Satellite M65 S9092. I normally used my laptop without the battery unless I really needed it. A week ago I needed the battery and used the battery until it is completely discharged. First problem occurred at this point. I was using a Linux system (first time with the battery)and although the power manager settings were set to hibernate when the battery charge levels are critical, it did not. My laptop just turned off as if I plugged the AC cord when on AC power only. Later when I tried to turn it on without the battery, I could not. The power led turned on for about 5-10 seconds and the fan starts working but noting else, then the fan and the power led turns off. After a number of tries I could boot with no problem. When I put the battery in there was no problem with the start up either. Once it worked, restarting was never a problem, it was as if the computer did not start when it cooled down. Then gradually it became harder to turn the laptop on even with the battery and finally it never turns on now. Just lights on, sometimes fan spins for a couple of seconds and occasionally there is the usual noise from the DVD drive. Then everything goes off. There is no problem with battery charging either because I can see the color coded led changes according to charge status. I disassembled it following your guide suspecting some dust/dirt in cooling system but no chance. So I suspected the motherboard. I removed all parts except cpu, graphics card, RAM (also tried removing the RAMs and changin slots etc.) and power cable (and the stuff on the motherboard that I could not remove like usb,PCI and so on). The sympom is the same, lights fan and nothing. I am still hoping there is some kind of a battery problem and not the motherboard since gradual increase of the problem resembled a battery dying. Please tell me there is a reason for this you can think of and of course a solution. My machine is still disassembled waiting for your reply:) Thanks in advance.
March 6th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Confused man,
So, when you push on the power button, do you see any other LEDs lighting up? Or the power LED light is the only one working even after you push on the power button?
March 6th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Hi,
My laptop totaly dead. I already fix with the dc power jack, the result LED for power is on, but still the laptop can’t on after so many time i push the on button. Can u help me in this matter?
Thanks..
March 4th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
gautam kumar,
I doubt that you can find a laptop motherboard PCB design layout. Usually, laptop manufacturers do not share information like that.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:05 am
hello sir,
I need a laptop motherboard pcb design layout through which i can identify the signal flow for each component and each circuitry.tis will help me to find the fault and to rectify the problem.
kindly give me some suggestions on laptop motherboard component testing.
also help me with the websites.
gautam kumar