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.
Need spare parts for your laptop?
If you are looking for spare parts for your laptop you can find brand new and used parts here. Just search by the part name and laptop model.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
i have a dell m1530 and its ethernet port is busted is it possible to replace the ethernet port in this ? or will i have to replace the whole motherboard?
May 19th, 2009 at 7:26 am
phil,
Apparently the water went down to the motherboard and damaged it. It’s necessary to disassemble the laptop and take a closer look at the damage. Most likely you’ll have to replace the motherboard.
May 18th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
turns out the other day, accidently got water into my laptop..i let it dry and was able to get it working, it worked for about an hour till it cut off. now i’m able to charge and start it up, but nothing seems to be showing on the screen. i hear the computer running but seems to stop making any noises after about 15 seconds. help me out?
May 9th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Manda Yugana,
It’s hard to tell what’s going on. I don’t know what they did with the AC adapter, maybe it’s not working properly. The only way to find out is testing the laptop with another known good AC adapter. If you still have the same problem, there is something wrong with the motherboard.
You can find a new AC adapter for your laptop if Google one of the following part numbers: K000037400, K000041650, K000040330, K000043540. The all work with Satellite M105 laptops.
May 9th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Repair Man : Did they repair or replaced the adapter. I don’t think that you can repair this adapter because it’s sealed unit. The adapter is not designed to be repaired.
Manda : They repaired and resealed it. Some capacitors replaced and small part of circuit removed.
Repair Man : Did this light work before they repaired the adapter?
Manda : Yes, the light worked before and sometimes after. But then it didn’t work at all.
Repair Man : Does it actually charge the battery when the laptop is turned off (even though the power indicator light is off)?
Manda : No, even though there is electricity in laptop’s metal part (I test it with a test pen).
Repair Man : Can you start the laptop from the AC adapter when the battery is removed?
Manda : Here’s the detail.
1. If I plug the adapter when the laptop is turned off (w/ or w/o battery), it doesn’t work (and doesn’t charge the battery)
2. If I turn on the laptop (w/ battery) then plug the adapter, it works (and also charges the battery)
3. No (2) + then turn the laptop off, the battery will be charged.
4. No (2) + then remove the battery, the laptop will remain on.
It looks like the adapter needs a “help” from the laptop power to work. After the laptop is turned on, everything works fine.
May 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Manda Yugana,
Did they repair or replaced the adapter. I don’t think that you can repair this adapter because it’s sealed unit. The adapter is not designed to be repaired.
Did this light work before they repaired the adapter? Does it actually charge the battery when the laptop is turned off (even though the power indicator light is off)?
Can you start the laptop from the AC adapter when the battery is removed?
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