Done watching, thank you very much for the informative repair video. I have learned significantly more troubleshooting & repair lessons in this tutorial video and to your other repair videos as well compared to my ENTIRE 4 YEARS OF COLLEGE due to the rotten & outdated standards of education here in the Philippines. I hope you will soon have a mini-series for Schematic & Boardview-free Voltage/Power Rail Tracing[12V/18-20V Main Voltage Rail, 5V, 3.3V, CPU/GPU Core Voltage Rail, DRAM Voltage Rail, IGPU Voltage Rail, System Agent/Northbridge Voltage Rail, PCH Voltage Rail, BIOS Voltage Rail, Battery Power Rail], Proper method of testing/checking of potentially faulty MOSFETs & ICs/Controller Chips, CPU/GPU/PCH Reballing and BIOS Bin File Editing.
Happy new year! Really appreciate the effort and the full diagnostic route; explanations were on point across the whole video and when the PCH lit up it was like "oh dang, gg, next pc" Keep this kind of content up!
Happy New Year, Graham. Having the infrared camera directly linked to the PC seems a good move. I guess you'll be investing in another arm on which to mount it.
Maybe. It occurred while editing that had I needed to move in close or zoom in for a good look at a hot-spot area, that would be a lot harder to do with a fixed camera.
I would simply inject 3.3V on that inductor and use thermal camera. It's the fastest way to know if anything is messed up downstream. Edit: oh lol, you did it at the end.
I don't think that your first round of tests prior to finding the toasted chip was a waste of time. Even tho the board turned out to be a "No - Fix", those tests are useful. Great autopsy! Hope your New Year is going well!
@@Nitty-GrittyElectronicsRepairs I have time to look and find electronics, but not as much to test, learn, and try & fix them! As a kind of hobby I look for electronics in dumpsters and curbside stuff! Thanks for the reply
Hope your New Year is going well! os mynn Duw [ in Welsh ] Dio Volente in Latin oxalá in Portuguese ojalá in Spanish Insha'allah in arabic God willing in English so Gott will in German
Following always your amazing in detail diagnosis, I have a question. Isn't it suppose to be the other way around? Low resistance on the output to the CPU which is very low resistance? Because in this instance the input measures 0.7ohm and then the output going to the CPU measures 7ohm?
I've seen something similar but it shorted through board layers and killed a number of components including the Super IO and left the board crispy around those vias
Ye, the main reason why I left the analysis of the regulator in during editing is that in this case it's not nearly as bad as it looks. If the PCH hadn't died, this would be totally fixable.
happy new year graham. thanks for your information ,i have a question did you think a repair has dying soon or have no future hoping your answer thanks
a fairly easy one if using android in scrcpy which you can just straight record into obs with a application capture. requires android with usb debugging turned on, and a usb cable (2.0 works, 3.0 or faster is better for higher framerates)
I had a 15” HP Pavilion with a 4000 series Ryzen 5 yesterday that didnt post, and the CPU got hot. ”Luckily” it did post if I pressed down on the CPU, so a reflow ”fixed it” Hate CPU faults :-/
Graham this might sound like a basic question but can I ask where you find schematics for all these laptops? I have purchased some for devices I own but I wonder if you use some sort of subscription service or something to have access to so many. Thank you
I have the same laptop, where one of the inrush limiter mosfets were shorted.(flea market pickup)This ended with a laptop that works only on its battery, while it is charged. The orange LED is on, saying that it is charging, but from my power supply, no current is being drawn. I replaced the mosfet, but now the laptop does not want to turn on at all. And the gate voltage is 0. What drives those mosfets?
The power management chip. Mostly BQ chips(as in they start with the letter BQ). if you look around or close to the battery coil(power inductor for charging the battery) you will find it there
@@alvinkirui9233 do I need to replace that chip? If I do, then do I need to reprogram the new one before use? Or I just need to get one, solder it onto the board, and that is it?
@@andrasszabo7386 The chip doesn't need programming ...just soldering it The chip also drives the (highside and lowside) MOSFETs for charging of the battery and in some laptops, the chip is enabled(ENABLE PIN on the chip) by the voltage from centre pin of the charger (like hp)
@@alvinkirui9233 OK, thank you. I can easily replace that if I can find a replacement chip. I will have to look it up though, as I am never going to install any used chips into that laptop.
Hello Can you offer me a solution to the following problem please? I work from home. I am using my own all-in-one PC’s monitor screen instead of the much smaller employer’s laptop screen. In order to sign in to work, I have to do the following: • Power on both laptop and PC • Press Windows key on own PC • Click on HDMI Input which is set at Standard • Click on Connect to HDMI • At this point I can now see, on my own PC’s monitor, my employer’s sign-in, etc screen and eventually my employer’s Desktop on the laptop. Further, I can safely close the lid of the laptop • However, when I sign off each evening from my employer’s screen, I want to revert to using my own PC again. It has been suggested to me that that is because my own PC is an all-in-one and that the problem/issue may not be possible to resolve. Had my PC had a separate monitor this problem probably wouldn’t arise. This is what I’m trying to find out: is there away round this?
Hi, GPU? I have no BSD or artifacts but when i turn on, the screen either has picture normal or totally black- tried hot and cold do diff. . I have swapped out CPU, Ram, PS (19V good anyway at mosfets) When it does work, Video plays normal for about 5 mins then gets jittery like frames dropping out. NO ERRORS or BSD. MB will stay on forever and fans spin as usual. Could it be PS around GPU or only GPU? Already changed paste, pads ect and heatsink was clear. Thanks
My first diagnostics before I even open the laptop is USB data lines if they are shorted I just say sorry PCH There are software for the thermal cam let me know and I can Email you the links :)
Yea weirdly I've not actually seen that many PCH fails, but they're starting to crop up - or maybe I've just got to the point where I'm fixing up to the stage of a dead PCH being in the way. But yes, I've got a USB breakout board and I'm going to solder some banana jacks to it so I can have a little plug-in multimeter for quick checking.
My comment may have been removed because it contained a link, but there's open source software for topdon cameras that apparently works with the P2 and allows colour imaging and spot temps, google is your friend if I'm not allowed to post links.
Yea posting a link will definitely set off spam bots - I've already been checking out other software options (this video was recorded before Christmas) but cheers anyway!
I was binging Louis Rossman's channel around 2016/017 when he was smashing out a lot of mac board repair videos, and I picked up most of the basics there. After that, it's mostly trial and error of just staring at boards and figuring it out based on what you saw other people doing. I'm planning on re-launching the Board Repair Basics series I did back then with a new primer on this topic, hopefully to make a modern "here's where to get started" series of videos.
@@nyanpasu64 If you can find a replacement (that's a big IF), you'll never know if it works before replacing it. If you replace it and it doesn't work, you'll never know if it was your fault or the seller fault. Often they are too expensive to gamble, considering also the fact you can't charge your client for a faulty replacement chip you ordered. It would be easier to replace the motherboard with a working one (and it would probably cost the same). Moreover, old laptops aren't worth it (that doesn't mean I agree with this consumerism world).
What sort of measurement would you expect to see there? Does it go low-resistance with a dead PCH as well? I kinda want to make a video that collects all the common dead-PCH symptoms to help people check for it.
Pin 8 of 25-series SPI ROM is connected to a power rail. So if there is a short to ground on that power rail, that pin will also measure shorted to ground. Nothing more, nothing less. On a motherboard, the SPI ROM that stores the BIOS is connected to a 3.3V or a 1.8V rail. There are multiple 3.3V rails, so which one it is exactly depends on the board. If it is the main 3.3V buck converter (which is common) then in the case shown in the video it would measure shorted to ground as well. Doesn't tell if the PCH or something else is shorted. Also a shorted PCH does not necessarily show up on that specific power rail, could show up on the PCH core power rail (1.05V), another 3.3V rail or even the RTC rail. RTC is a little bit more tricky because since it's (generally) behind a diode you won't immediately see a short to ground on one of the common power rails of the motherboard. And sadly there are also many cases where a PCH is bad without showing a short to ground anywhere. I had a few of these, recently I spent hours on a Latitude E6230 trying to diagnose it, basically it looked like BIOS was being read but getting stuck very early, and it had a strange behaviour (would restart without S0 rails after a few seconds, then restart again with S0 rails after several seconds and cycle like that continuously). I replaced the EC, the CPU and finally the PCH and only after replacing the PCH it started working (I put back the original EC which was fine, but not the CPU since it's a lot of painful work, I'm pretty sure it's working though).
CPU is replaceable with the right set of tools, skills and a replacement part. But definitely not worth it on this kind of machine. Can't justify spending several thousand dollars in equipment, a few hours of work (less if you're experienced, but everyone starts from 0), and the cost of a used CPU which may already be dead anyway (or with incompatible Boot Guard) on a machine that's worth like less than $250? And a used board is under $100. That's why almost nobody does this, you lose money. In fact even if you do that on machines that are worth it, the main issue is that you cannot source parts reliably, Intel doesn't sell you this kind of CPU. Also, CPUs with PCH on the same package were never socketed, always soldered, and before that the PCH was soldered to the motherboard anyway, so still needs BGA rework. At least a replacement PCH is cheaper and easier to replace. And interestingly enough, PCH (as well as CPUs) started becoming less reliable from that point onwards, when Intel started integrating the PCH in the CPU package for some series, and stop manufacturing socketed mobile CPUs (that's my own experience at least).
Platform Controller Hub. It's basically the main chipset for the motherboard that directs everything. On laptops with low-voltage CPUs, it's built into the CPU, which is why the chip has two dies on it. These built-in PCHs are notoriously fragile.
OMG your face when you seen the "problem" I need an emote of that lol 7:40
Happy New Year, and thanks again for sharing this video. Always interesting.
Done watching, thank you very much for the informative repair video. I have learned significantly more troubleshooting & repair lessons in this tutorial video and to your other repair videos as well compared to my ENTIRE 4 YEARS OF COLLEGE due to the rotten & outdated standards of education here in the Philippines. I hope you will soon have a mini-series for Schematic & Boardview-free Voltage/Power Rail Tracing[12V/18-20V Main Voltage Rail, 5V, 3.3V, CPU/GPU Core Voltage Rail, DRAM Voltage Rail, IGPU Voltage Rail, System Agent/Northbridge Voltage Rail, PCH Voltage Rail, BIOS Voltage Rail, Battery Power Rail], Proper method of testing/checking of potentially faulty MOSFETs & ICs/Controller Chips, CPU/GPU/PCH Reballing and BIOS Bin File Editing.
It's actually nice to see the failure try as well, the steps u went through etc. Thank u
7:40 "OH!" Love it when you make a discovery!
Happy new year! Really appreciate the effort and the full diagnostic route; explanations were on point across the whole video and when the PCH lit up it was like "oh dang, gg, next pc" Keep this kind of content up!
Happy New Year, Graham. Having the infrared camera directly linked to the PC seems a good move. I guess you'll be investing in another arm on which to mount it.
Maybe. It occurred while editing that had I needed to move in close or zoom in for a good look at a hot-spot area, that would be a lot harder to do with a fixed camera.
Read my post. @@Adamant_IT
Happy New Year! There's always something to learn from a failed repair as not everything is repairable.
I love this channel, especially when I am down. Thanks.
great video. full of knowledge. Big Thanks.
I would simply inject 3.3V on that inductor and use thermal camera. It's the fastest way to know if anything is messed up downstream.
Edit: oh lol, you did it at the end.
Excellent video !
I don't think that your first round of tests prior to finding the toasted chip was a waste of time. Even tho the board turned out to be a "No - Fix", those tests are useful. Great autopsy! Hope your New Year is going well!
I like your encouragement. Thanks on behalf of the creator
@@Nitty-GrittyElectronicsRepairs I have time to look and find electronics, but not as much to test, learn, and try & fix them! As a kind of hobby I look for electronics in dumpsters and curbside stuff! Thanks for the reply
Hope your New Year is going well! os mynn Duw [ in Welsh ]
Dio Volente in Latin
oxalá in Portuguese
ojalá in Spanish
Insha'allah in arabic
God willing in English
so Gott will in German
@@andrew_koala2974 well wlI wish our (US) food prices would come down! Thank you 🤓
Following always your amazing in detail diagnosis, I have a question. Isn't it suppose to be the other way around? Low resistance on the output to the CPU which is very low resistance? Because in this instance the input measures 0.7ohm and then the output going to the CPU measures 7ohm?
Good to see this one and wishing you Happy New Year Graham heres to 2024
It just a turn off when you diagnose a laptop for a while and then find out that the PCH is shorted. Happens to me quite a few times now.
I don't know why but this video in particular made my head hurt. 😁Happy New Year, sir!
thanks. great video
Thx man,very informative video.
I've seen something similar but it shorted through board layers and killed a number of components including the Super IO and left the board crispy around those vias
That thing looked FUBARed.
Hppy New Year and keep up the interesting skidmarks.
Once I saw the damage on the board I figured the board was not repairable but you did a remarkable job of trying to fix it anyway.
Ye, the main reason why I left the analysis of the regulator in during editing is that in this case it's not nearly as bad as it looks. If the PCH hadn't died, this would be totally fixable.
Thanks for another informative video and very prosperous New Year to you.
Where do you find all the schematics and boardview?
Replacement motherboards for this laptop are expensive, so probably not worth fixing. Which is sad.
thank you
happy new year graham. thanks for your information ,i have a question did you think a repair has dying soon or have no future hoping your answer thanks
Happy new year🥳
Nice one Graham happy new year
Great video!
Very nice case again, it went out with a bang i guess.
Great video, as always.
Can you share a link where I can buy this thermo camera?
Thx
Thermal cam is an Infiray P2 Pro, cheapest place to get it is Aliexpress: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DB5x7yd
sir lord adamant. happy new year.
Great job there
Regarding the thermal camera, you could mirror your phone on the PC. There are bunch of software out there.
a fairly easy one if using android in scrcpy which you can just straight record into obs with a application capture. requires android with usb debugging turned on, and a usb cable (2.0 works, 3.0 or faster is better for higher framerates)
I had a 15” HP Pavilion with a 4000 series Ryzen 5 yesterday that didnt post, and the CPU got hot.
”Luckily” it did post if I pressed down on the CPU, so a reflow ”fixed it”
Hate CPU faults :-/
Graham this might sound like a basic question but can I ask where you find schematics for all these laptops? I have purchased some for devices I own but I wonder if you use some sort of subscription service or something to have access to so many.
Thank you
Badcaps is my usual resource
I have the same laptop, where one of the inrush limiter mosfets were shorted.(flea market pickup)This ended with a laptop that works only on its battery, while it is charged. The orange LED is on, saying that it is charging, but from my power supply, no current is being drawn. I replaced the mosfet, but now the laptop does not want to turn on at all. And the gate voltage is 0. What drives those mosfets?
The power management chip. Mostly BQ chips(as in they start with the letter BQ). if you look around or close to the battery coil(power inductor for charging the battery) you will find it there
@@alvinkirui9233 do I need to replace that chip? If I do, then do I need to reprogram the new one before use? Or I just need to get one, solder it onto the board, and that is it?
@@andrasszabo7386
The chip doesn't need programming ...just soldering it
The chip also drives the (highside and lowside) MOSFETs for charging of the battery and in some laptops, the chip is enabled(ENABLE PIN on the chip) by the voltage from centre pin of the charger (like hp)
@@alvinkirui9233 OK, thank you. I can easily replace that if I can find a replacement chip. I will have to look it up though, as I am never going to install any used chips into that laptop.
Hello
Can you offer me a solution to the following problem please? I work from home. I am using my own all-in-one PC’s monitor screen instead of the much smaller employer’s laptop screen. In order to sign in to work, I have to do the following:
• Power on both laptop and PC
• Press Windows key on own PC
• Click on HDMI Input which is set at Standard
• Click on Connect to HDMI
• At this point I can now see, on my own PC’s monitor, my employer’s sign-in, etc screen and eventually my employer’s Desktop on the laptop. Further, I can safely close the lid of the laptop
• However, when I sign off each evening from my employer’s screen, I want to revert to using my own PC again. It has been suggested to me that that is because my own PC is an all-in-one and that the problem/issue may not be possible to resolve. Had my PC had a separate monitor this problem probably wouldn’t arise. This is what I’m trying to find out: is there away round this?
Of course it blew up near a Varta battery ;-)
Oh...
Hi, GPU? I have no BSD or artifacts but when i turn on, the screen either has picture normal or totally black- tried hot and cold do diff. . I have swapped out CPU, Ram, PS (19V good anyway at mosfets) When it does work, Video plays normal for about 5 mins then gets jittery like frames dropping out. NO ERRORS or BSD. MB will stay on forever and fans spin as usual. Could it be PS around GPU or only GPU? Already changed paste, pads ect and heatsink was clear. Thanks
Way above my motherboard knowledge, would love to have you work on my pcs if I ever have a similar problem.!
Keep up the good work 😝😝
My first diagnostics before I even open the laptop is USB data lines if they are shorted I just say sorry PCH
There are software for the thermal cam let me know and I can Email you the links :)
Yea weirdly I've not actually seen that many PCH fails, but they're starting to crop up - or maybe I've just got to the point where I'm fixing up to the stage of a dead PCH being in the way. But yes, I've got a USB breakout board and I'm going to solder some banana jacks to it so I can have a little plug-in multimeter for quick checking.
After a long time bro
My comment may have been removed because it contained a link, but there's open source software for topdon cameras that apparently works with the P2 and allows colour imaging and spot temps, google is your friend if I'm not allowed to post links.
Yea posting a link will definitely set off spam bots - I've already been checking out other software options (this video was recorded before Christmas) but cheers anyway!
Brother, what is that thermal camera? bmv amazing video ! so much to learn there!
InfiRay P2 Pro
@@Adamant_IT ok than i am happy to I am saving money for purchase that camera. Tnx bro
Can’t win them all ….. very interesting. I wonder if it actually released the smoke !!
happy new year. oh and stupid pch. :D
RIP PCH
That was intersting non fix but was good thanks
Where did u learn all this?
I was binging Louis Rossman's channel around 2016/017 when he was smashing out a lot of mac board repair videos, and I picked up most of the basics there. After that, it's mostly trial and error of just staring at boards and figuring it out based on what you saw other people doing.
I'm planning on re-launching the Board Repair Basics series I did back then with a new primer on this topic, hopefully to make a modern "here's where to get started" series of videos.
That would be great, as you have the teacher gift. Any ETA on that series?
i want to learn more
Good sfuff
Did the capacitor or PCH fail?
PCH failed first, and that overloaded the 3.3v regulator, the fireball from that killed the capacitor.
@@Adamant_IT Oh that's an interesting sequence of events. Is it practical (or not cost-effective) to replace/reball the CPU?
@@nyanpasu64 If you can find a replacement (that's a big IF), you'll never know if it works before replacing it. If you replace it and it doesn't work, you'll never know if it was your fault or the seller fault. Often they are too expensive to gamble, considering also the fact you can't charge your client for a faulty replacement chip you ordered.
It would be easier to replace the motherboard with a working one (and it would probably cost the same). Moreover, old laptops aren't worth it (that doesn't mean I agree with this consumerism world).
Hi, how much does a computer technician earn in the USA?
How the hell would we know, we live in a developed country
example how much to charge to format your PC?@@shaunmorrissey7313
Well there's ya problem!!! Rotfl!!!!😅
Game over😂😂😂😂😂
Intel board with an AMD GPU? WTF is that about.
Just check 8 pin on BIOS chip bro :)
What sort of measurement would you expect to see there? Does it go low-resistance with a dead PCH as well?
I kinda want to make a video that collects all the common dead-PCH symptoms to help people check for it.
Pin 8 of 25-series SPI ROM is connected to a power rail. So if there is a short to ground on that power rail, that pin will also measure shorted to ground. Nothing more, nothing less.
On a motherboard, the SPI ROM that stores the BIOS is connected to a 3.3V or a 1.8V rail. There are multiple 3.3V rails, so which one it is exactly depends on the board. If it is the main 3.3V buck converter (which is common) then in the case shown in the video it would measure shorted to ground as well.
Doesn't tell if the PCH or something else is shorted.
Also a shorted PCH does not necessarily show up on that specific power rail, could show up on the PCH core power rail (1.05V), another 3.3V rail or even the RTC rail. RTC is a little bit more tricky because since it's (generally) behind a diode you won't immediately see a short to ground on one of the common power rails of the motherboard.
And sadly there are also many cases where a PCH is bad without showing a short to ground anywhere.
I had a few of these, recently I spent hours on a Latitude E6230 trying to diagnose it, basically it looked like BIOS was being read but getting stuck very early, and it had a strange behaviour (would restart without S0 rails after a few seconds, then restart again with S0 rails after several seconds and cycle like that continuously). I replaced the EC, the CPU and finally the PCH and only after replacing the PCH it started working (I put back the original EC which was fine, but not the CPU since it's a lot of painful work, I'm pretty sure it's working though).
When it is hybrid, so PCH is on the same chip, low res. on 8 pin of SPI is 90% PCH. U can give 1V to 8 pin SPI and PCH will got hot.
@@Adamant_IT a short on the 8th pin is a PCH short because that chip usually is 1.8v or 3.3v and directly connected to the pch
You are a great mechanic, but the biggest mistake in repair is going in with your mind made up.
But that happens to the best sometimes.
yea if the PCH is part of the CPU and that fails the motherboard is toast because the CPU isent replacable on laptops anymore
CPU is replaceable with the right set of tools, skills and a replacement part. But definitely not worth it on this kind of machine. Can't justify spending several thousand dollars in equipment, a few hours of work (less if you're experienced, but everyone starts from 0), and the cost of a used CPU which may already be dead anyway (or with incompatible Boot Guard) on a machine that's worth like less than $250? And a used board is under $100. That's why almost nobody does this, you lose money.
In fact even if you do that on machines that are worth it, the main issue is that you cannot source parts reliably, Intel doesn't sell you this kind of CPU.
Also, CPUs with PCH on the same package were never socketed, always soldered, and before that the PCH was soldered to the motherboard anyway, so still needs BGA rework. At least a replacement PCH is cheaper and easier to replace. And interestingly enough, PCH (as well as CPUs) started becoming less reliable from that point onwards, when Intel started integrating the PCH in the CPU package for some series, and stop manufacturing socketed mobile CPUs (that's my own experience at least).
@@piernov what I ment was it wasent socketed cpu
GG,
What is a PCH?
Platform Controller Hub. It's basically the main chipset for the motherboard that directs everything.
On laptops with low-voltage CPUs, it's built into the CPU, which is why the chip has two dies on it. These built-in PCHs are notoriously fragile.
PCH dead