You'll all be pleased to know that the squeaky chairs have been replaced this week! I bought rigid stools this time, because I'm sick and tired of buying the gas lift ones that fail after 6 months like clockwork.
Please don't think that the less technically interesting stuff isn't actually as interesting to we the viewers. It's your commentary that makes the difference. You are instructive, educational, and engaging. Have you taken a look at The Hoof GP channel? Who would have thought that trimming cows' hooves would be so interesting? With both channels it's the commentary that makes all the difference. Keep up the good work.
One worthwhile move you didn't mention . When you've got power but a black screen try turning up the screen brightness from the keyboard. Had this happen to me once, all ok but screen extremely dim👍
I had no idea that a flat RTC battery could make a computer not to post! Well, you always learn something new every day, thank you! 😄 BTW, I missed the proper before and after cleaning! 😅
Thank you Graham, while I might NOT be going into the repair business meself (too old, too scared, and no business sense whatsoever) I do find myself learning a thing or two. Good luck to you and please keep them coming!!
Old computers can still be just fine! If it's at least a Core 2 then it's going to be good enough for most uses. That said I still have and use an old 1ghz pIII IBM. I use it mostly for old games, but also have it on my network and sometimes watch youtube while doing other things. I just don't understand the idea of something being too old to be worth fixing. So long as it still has a use then it's worth fixing.
I have an old MSI that just decided not to turn on one day about 2 years ago. The one laptop guy in my area (yes, I'm in a very rural place) wanted what came down to over $60 a screw just to open the back with a wait of up to 6 months to decide if anything else needed done, so I just let it be since that laptop isn't the only PC I have. After watching one of your videos a few weeks ago, which may have been an older one, where you encouraged having a look I cracked it open. Couldn't see anything obvious, but found the clear cmos button hidden away so I gave it a good pressing. So far it's still working again as if nothing happened. I doubt I would have tried anything myself if I hadn't watched that video, so thanks! Good luck was certainly on my side, but I think I'll still give the credit to you 😁
Well, thanks to your instructional videos I just fixed a 49” Samsung Qled gaming monitor that was given to me for free. The issue? A minute resistor was cracked in half, which I was able to identify by using a cheap usb microscope. Just removed it and shorted it with a drop of solder, which was the real challenge giving its size. I am pretty sure it will go out again since I noticed several more resistors “bubbled” and with cracks. But at that point I am just going to replace the board. Keep up the excellent instructional videos. Many of us are learning a ton from them!
thank you thank you thank you for lower the volume on the motorized screwdriver! ^_^ i remember it being a little painful in some of the older videos, but i'm oooookay knowing that it's better now :D
I had the charger issue before. Customer brought in a Dell Alienware with an aftermarket 90watt charger. Battery would only get 7% to 14% charge. Bios wanted a 120watt charger. Told the customer to purchase an oem charger or equivalent. Worked like a charm.
My standard troubleshooting plan for "no power" laptops is to remove the potentially shorted battery and to try to power it up without the battery. That often solves the problem.
A small FYI on the dell chargers. They are actually pretty advanced. They have been standard across all the models for years and years now. The way they work, Is the the outside of the barrel is minus, the inside of the barrel is your positive. The center pin is a wattage sense system. The adapter has a chip inside that uses this center pin to tell the laptop the wattage of the adapter. Note: it will work if this center pin is broken, However the BIOS will throw an error that it cant sense the wattage, hit F1 to continue. These adapters have been made in wattages from 45watts, on up into the 230watt range. This is the major offense of the Chinese adapters on dells. The are not only cheap, but LIE through their teeth to the laptop. I had one someone bought tell the laptop it was a 210watt, yet the thing was lighter then a 45 watt.... yeah. You are right, never ever ever even plug in one of those adapters. The barrels on those cheap chargers are often out of spec size wise, and could have damaged the DC jack.
In my experience, the aftermarket power supply for the Inspiron could have been the cause for the weak physical connection on that barrel connector, too.
Those 2032 bios batteries can sometimes deceptively indicate having 3.0 volts when testing with a volt meter, yet still fail to provide sufficient amperage to function normally. At least, that's what happened with a 2032 battery inside of a garage door opener. A volt meter indicated it could supply 3.0 volts, but was still unable to provide enough oomph to enable the radio signal to operate the garage door opener. Replaced with a fresh battery, and operation back to normal. That DDR2 laptop's 2032 battery is probably at least 15 years since it was manufactured.
the same batteries are in my VW car key fobs and I got some replacements from a market stall that were useless - the alarm kept going off! bought more from local high street and no problem. I guess if they are years old they may degrade with age even if NOS.
I bet ya they broke the jack trying to get the non working adapter to work. They saw the light go on and thought it was a bad connection when the light it went out. Wiggled the jack till it broke which doesn't take much with that port.
Great video Graham on the Dell laptop. Newer Dell laptops need to detect that a valid charger is attached before it will charge the battery. What you are seeing with the white LED turning off when the laptop is turned on is the laptop telling you the charger can't be identified. It's why when you use a real Dell charger that the LED stays on. If you were to have powered the laptop with the generic charger, you should have see a BIOS message telling you that the charger can not be identified and that the battery won't be charged. I just went through this with a couple of Dell 5598 and a bad charging port. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for on ebay.
@@TheSpotify95 The computer says there is a way to disable it but I was not able to find the setting. I don't have the computers here anymore so I can't go to the BIOS.
Maybe... the customer reported that this charger had been working fine up until the problems, so I think it was reporting its ID to the laptop in some way or another. An XPS I have in for repair at the moment has a mobo fault on the OneWire (charge detect) circuit, so it can't detect _any_ charger, but will still turn on and work, just not charge.
I fixed the same model packard bell for a friend - broken plastics, hinge and power button - parts got from poland via ebay. I was quite impressed by the feel and build quality and would happily use one today though core2 duo is not very fast these days. Were PB laptops not made by Acer or Asus and what happened to them!
I did not know that about the rtc battery, I didn’t think it affected post. Must have written off a few older laptops which may have had this issue. Thanks learn something everyday!
Big same. I've been fixing laptops professionally for fifteen years, but I honestly feel like it's only the past five where I've really started learning to do it right.
eBay is littered with those fire hazard, knockoff chargers. I've seen knockoff MagSafe chargers destroy Macbooks and self-immolate. ChiCom knockoff batteries and chargers are a menace.
Exellent video graham,well done again,may i please ask you graham,what is the make and modell of youre electric skrewdriver,that you use in youre videos.thanking you most kindly.stephen.
With the economy as it is there really isn't much of an option for a lot of folks. You get what you can afford or do without. Any laptop that can run Windows 10 without dragging will do.
Apart from electrical issues, the non-OEM charger probably has a plug that doesn't comply with specifications and may have mechanically damaged the socket in the laptop. Even something simple like the centre pin being slightly too wide can do this.
Various flavours of Linux runs perfectly on low powered laptops, you can also extend the ram by running zram (so that compresses the contents of your ram). It is the perfect PC for home automation, it uses very little power (just run it in powersave mode), is much more powerful than a raspberry pi and has decent IO to attach a SSD and HDD. I also has built in keyboard, mouse and screen. Why on earth would someone throw it out? I love these old DDR2 laptops, they are exceptional good value for money.
Yeah, I have helped a few friends and family and found both a bad DC jack and charger. I think the charger goes bad and then the DC jack gets beaten up when the user thinks the connection there is the problem. So they often come in pairs.
The number of laptops I've fixed by these two methods must be over 100 by now. I've been fixing PCs and laptops for 3, nearly 4 decades - in fact before laptops were laptops and just portable computers with monochrome plasma or LCD displays. So, it's not overly common for this to happen, but it does happen often enough to be aware of it as a factor in fault diagnosis and repair. DC input sockets do seem to fail on Dell more than other makes.
Thank you so much. Your video really helped. Would it be possible to show a video on repairing broken screw holder under hindge for Dell inspiron 14 5000 laptop. Thanks
Someone actually brought in a clean laptop, it amazes me how people don't take care of their computers. I've had filthy laptops brought in with bugs crawling out of the keyboard.
That's my guess. The connector was probably a little bit over-sized and pressing the contacts back too much. Or the laptop had been dropped onto the old charger, breaking it and damaging the jack - that's a common one too.
I always find people seeing that a no name charger is new and think it will last better than an original Dell used charger and go for it, or simply does not know that on the used market how easy it is to find these really standard Dell chargers. Most of the time you only need a Dell charger of the right connector size and is at least as high of wattage as the one that came with the laptop to work. Even if you have an vintage Dell Latitude D800 from 2003, a big charger from an off the shelf Dell Alienware or G series laptop works perfectly fine. Though some lower end machines may not like its sense pin if you stick in a far too overpowered one (My Inspiron 1440 will not charge with a 180W charger but charge fine with a 65 90 or 130W)
I don't if its right or not but i think you should make some playlist where you just fixing stuff in a short amount of time, cause its fun watching other people fixing
Dell and their Special Power Controlling Chip. (years ago) Never knew when i had issues, even shoppe didn't tell me. Chip in power supply & computer Must Match in order to charge battery. Even 'good' third party power supply will Not let it charge. Now, i must check Jack. Thanks!
Great videos and really enjoy your content. You post a video and disappear for a few days and I really miss your content, maybe you’re too busy or something but I’d love to see a PC build if you get a chance.
On the Dell laptop before unmounting you could try to power the laptop with a USB-C charger - that helps rule out both faulty charger and faulty jack (I think this laptop can be powered with USB-C).
This is a good option, yea. I have two 135w Dell Chargers in the shop, so in this case I was 100% certain that the charger was good, but plugging in a type-c would've been a good idea if I wasn't sure.
Why did you not mention the HP centre charger Pin that locks you into paying twice as much for HP spares, for just like Apple they use a detection circuit to keep brand 'loyalty'? through electronic locks.
It's not an electronic lock. It's just communication from the charger to tell the laptop what rating it is. By this method, the laptop _can_ use under-sized chargers at reduced performance, where as any other laptop will simply not work with an undersized charger. I'm all for 3rd party alternatives, but for chargers, 3rd party alternatives suck. The vast majority of them are just fire hazards waiting to happen. Type-C PowerDelivery will be a good solution to this, as it's a nice standard that allows for cross-compatibility, which means it's financially viable for the good 3rd party brands to make actually good chargers.
I have a similar Dell Inspiron, and I have a spare DC jack on hand for just that eventuality. However, the problem that recurs is actually in the charger plug. The centre pin is the 0ne-wire connection to the ID chip in the charger, and the wire to tip connection is prone to breakage. The laptop then says it can't identify the charger and refuses to charge the battery. I'm getting well practised at the repair!!!!
Yup, I've got an XPS in the shop where the one-wire circuit is damaged on the board itself. It's delayed due to waiting on parts, but the video will be a look at what's going on at the mobo-side as well :)
tbh these simple fixes would properly help the average guy out more than the complicated ones and from my own personal experience its usually simple stuff that causes systems not to post, in my cases half the time a memory reseat fixes the problem
Yeah some Dell OptiPlex Desktop PCs that I worked on and messed around with have that same annoying thing that happens if you have a dead CMOS battery it won't post and I freaking hate that about Dell and other OEM manufactures that have that stupid feature.
RE: DELL Jack: Designers who continue to create situations where "objects" are plugged into laptops (anything really) that "protrude" and are "inflexible" need to find another vocation. I cringe every time I see a PWR PLUG or USB DEVICE (and a 1000 other objects) jetting out of "delicate" jack, port etc. It's pure insanity. Putting it another way.. MORONS. What were they thinking? It's a guaranteed, premature failure mode. I don't know what the fix is. But we have to start using our gray matter and not creating the situation in the first place. Don't even get me started with mini-USB, micro, 3.5mm etc. It's a crime against humanity (well, almost:). Good show. Cheers from the US.
I've been looking for a notebook or board-level repair book or online course for quite some time now. Would you recommend anything like that for a beginner that has some basic knoledge of analog electronics and computer science? Do you know any such course or book?
Nothing specific, although I am planning to revisit my Board Repair Basics series in the future, and try to re-imagine it for the broader, more practical stuff I now see daily.
Yeah, you can quickly check 19v on the charger with it removed but thats with no load and it can fail or sag when plugged in and made worse when you have a 3 pin type such as ASUS charger. Of course i try to repair the quality chargers as lot of time its just weak output caps if weak under load or has a lot of AC junk on the output. ALWAYS check the basics and even the jack and fuses just to be sure they are developing resistance even if they work fine and clean them so you dont have to go back again and you know the board is getting full Amps available and clean DC power from the supply. Any Laptop i get to service, i clean and switch out the CPU ect paste. fans clean and check the input parts that they are sound and not loose too and hinges screws ect and thats as much as you can do till a actual real fault happens..
Yea, the bit I was checking for there was if the charger would supply voltage while the sense pin was disconnected (the answer was yes) - but you're absolutely right about voltage sag under load, I've seen that a few times and forgot to specify that in the video.
@@Adamant_IT Hi, yeah sorry it wasnt a criticism, just something i do from all my past electronics repair then onto computers and laptop and PS's are why most Desktop fail and are thrown out unnecessarily. You channel is excellent and your methodical approach and KISS principal of checking the basics, i have leaned plenty too. You could mention that sag stuff when checking the jack for 19v approx as nothing worse than thinking the PS is ok and pulling apart a LT only to finally find its ok, having a sub PS on hand to double check the LT is best way to know before opening and time and cost. Thing about LT compared to DT is that you cant put any MB or screen into them, so when they fail, you have to repair or replace them and its expensive and also the CPU is usually soldered in to as well as ram on some so very inflexible to swap out bits and get it going again on the cheap or fast.. Cheers..
PACKARD BELL?!?! wtf??? My first computer was a Packard Bell legend supreme 133mhz intel, 8mb edo ram, 2gb ide hard drive, 33.6k modem. lol that computer cost 3500 with the 15" CRT in 1997! lol
They should be good for 10 years in theory, so most of the time they last the life of the device. This laptop is certainly old enough. But also it's not uncommon for them to fail early, so always worth checking.
I know those cheap power supply's are noisy as feck, because of poor shielding. But other than that, they look to be decent enough. I'd much prefer to use one of those, than the bare bones wall warts there supplying laptops with now!
I've had them go bang in my hand, leaving black soot marks up my arm where the 240v flex blew open where it enters the casing. 9/10 times when a customer comes in with one of these and a laptop that doesn't turn on, it's the charger. Don't use them!
@@Adamant_IT Yea, I suppose there mains cables aren't the best quality, probably a little thin on the copper, but if treated with care and wrapped up properly, they can last. Easily repaired also. You just gotta know what you're working with, when it comes to these.
That's common behaviour, yea. The RTC circuit should have something like a dual-diode coming in from a 3v rail to power it when charger/battery power is available, but some devices don't, so no RTC battery = no RTC.
Must be very disheartening to come across such old stuff like DDR2 RAM and I am surprised that there are still some machines with low specs still around.
@@TheSpotify95 Yes, mate, I guess that is ok as long as you want to take the risk of running Windows 7 given that there is no support. Personally, it was my favourite OS of all of them and was sad to see it go as I could take part in the Windows 7 forums with more confidence something that I am not able to do with Windows 10 in its present form.
@@TheSpotify95 Yes I agree with you mate and my concern now is how long is Windows 10 going to last despite the rumour that it will last longer than 2025 and also how long before Windows 11 on my Ivy Bridge will last. Of course, you now have the spectre of Windows 12? hanging in the wings and for me, the pleasure of computing really has been thoroughly disappointing given the changes Microsoft are making now.
Basically a zombie brand for overseas kinda like how Wal-mart is leasing Gateway from Acer and using their ONN hardware. If you buy an Wal-Mart it's basically a ONN laptop just with a different name.
Yea, Acer bought Packard Bell a long ways back, this laptop is basically an Acer with a modified chassis. I don't think they're selling any PBs these days though, or at least I haven't seen anything newer than this.
I absolutely cringe whenever I've seen where someone has lost the original factory supplied charger to their cell phone or whatever device and they go out and get the cheapest knockoff charger to use. I'm thinking how long will that last before this cheap charger will send rogue voltages to their device destroying it beyond repair. Quite often the person can find the correct OEM replacement charger on eBay for a fair price.
Always inspiring to watch you work. I'm from Quebec Canada and would like to send you my 14 year old son's alienware 13 r3 if i could. would love to see you working on it. Plug in power supply and light goes out. Let me know if you would be willing.
Slightly off topic; can anyone help me settle a bet? A friend of mine thinks one can image an m1 mac from his old x86 mac. I think not. Anyone ever tried this? Hes insane, right?
New haircut looks good on you! Keep these videos coming, it's quite interesting to learn how to analyse and reverse engineer a fix to these hardware issues.
I'm going to try and vary it. Recently, the longer videos pull in way more views and engagement, but also I respect that not everyone has the time for 1hr RUclips videos, so I'll try and get the short ones in as well. 20-30minutes is my ideal target.
You'll all be pleased to know that the squeaky chairs have been replaced this week! I bought rigid stools this time, because I'm sick and tired of buying the gas lift ones that fail after 6 months like clockwork.
Question Graham: at what point do you tell people with old laptops it’s not worth investigating and repairing their laptop?
Please don't think that the less technically interesting stuff isn't actually as interesting to we the viewers. It's your commentary that makes the difference. You are instructive, educational, and engaging. Have you taken a look at The Hoof GP channel? Who would have thought that trimming cows' hooves would be so interesting? With both channels it's the commentary that makes all the difference.
Keep up the good work.
I've been buying older (cheap) laptops to learn on so I don't care if I mess up, and this was very educational. Keep it up!
One worthwhile move you didn't mention . When you've got power but a black screen try turning up the screen brightness from the keyboard. Had this happen to me once, all ok but screen extremely dim👍
your explanations are very simple and easy to understand. it was literally awesome
You are a fine teacher for repairing when there is a new video out I always watch these you always explain it to the point.
Thank you.
"these are trash don't use them, lets plug it in" love it lol
I had no idea that a flat RTC battery could make a computer not to post! Well, you always learn something new every day, thank you! 😄 BTW, I missed the proper before and after cleaning! 😅
Nice work, great to see the old tech still going and kept going.
Thank you Graham, while I might NOT be going into the repair business meself (too old, too scared, and no business sense whatsoever) I do find myself learning a thing or two. Good luck to you and please keep them coming!!
Old computers can still be just fine! If it's at least a Core 2 then it's going to be good enough for most uses. That said I still have and use an old 1ghz pIII IBM. I use it mostly for old games, but also have it on my network and sometimes watch youtube while doing other things. I just don't understand the idea of something being too old to be worth fixing. So long as it still has a use then it's worth fixing.
I have an old MSI that just decided not to turn on one day about 2 years ago. The one laptop guy in my area (yes, I'm in a very rural place) wanted what came down to over $60 a screw just to open the back with a wait of up to 6 months to decide if anything else needed done, so I just let it be since that laptop isn't the only PC I have. After watching one of your videos a few weeks ago, which may have been an older one, where you encouraged having a look I cracked it open. Couldn't see anything obvious, but found the clear cmos button hidden away so I gave it a good pressing. So far it's still working again as if nothing happened. I doubt I would have tried anything myself if I hadn't watched that video, so thanks! Good luck was certainly on my side, but I think I'll still give the credit to you 😁
Good job! Always worth taking a pot shot at the simple stuff, it works more often than not!
Well, thanks to your instructional videos I just fixed a 49” Samsung Qled gaming monitor that was given to me for free. The issue? A minute resistor was cracked in half, which I was able to identify by using a cheap usb microscope. Just removed it and shorted it with a drop of solder, which was the real challenge giving its size. I am pretty sure it will go out again since I noticed several more resistors “bubbled” and with cracks. But at that point I am just going to replace the board. Keep up the excellent instructional videos. Many of us are learning a ton from them!
Please never stop to make videos. You are very good in training !:)
That's a nice looking Packard Bell Laptop.
All your Videos are good, any combination of situations are a learning experience for us, but your right about chargers.. a broken charging jack.
Thanks for the video, even the simple ones are great! Keep them coming!
You've won my subscription mate. Thank you.
So, your smug initial response was vindicated after all! I love it dude!
I really enjoy your vids. Thanks for sharing! Great job!
thank you thank you thank you for lower the volume on the motorized screwdriver! ^_^ i remember it being a little painful in some of the older videos, but i'm oooookay knowing that it's better now :D
I had the charger issue before. Customer brought in a Dell Alienware with an aftermarket 90watt charger. Battery would only get 7% to 14% charge. Bios wanted a 120watt charger. Told the customer to purchase an oem charger or equivalent. Worked like a charm.
Graham, I laughed out loud at 17:15 when you pulled the hard drive caddy out, only to find no hard drive at all. Punked again!
My standard troubleshooting plan for "no power" laptops is to remove the potentially shorted battery and to try to power it up without the battery. That often solves the problem.
Congrats on the 300th video.
The hair looks nice. Another great video thank you.
Wow 🤩 going through some of your back catalogue as it appears RUclips has decided not to send me notifications about ~10 videos😱😢
A small FYI on the dell chargers. They are actually pretty advanced. They have been standard across all the models for years and years now. The way they work, Is the the outside of the barrel is minus, the inside of the barrel is your positive. The center pin is a wattage sense system. The adapter has a chip inside that uses this center pin to tell the laptop the wattage of the adapter. Note: it will work if this center pin is broken, However the BIOS will throw an error that it cant sense the wattage, hit F1 to continue. These adapters have been made in wattages from 45watts, on up into the 230watt range. This is the major offense of the Chinese adapters on dells. The are not only cheap, but LIE through their teeth to the laptop. I had one someone bought tell the laptop it was a 210watt, yet the thing was lighter then a 45 watt.... yeah. You are right, never ever ever even plug in one of those adapters. The barrels on those cheap chargers are often out of spec size wise, and could have damaged the DC jack.
In my experience, the aftermarket power supply for the Inspiron could have been the cause for the weak physical connection on that barrel connector, too.
Those 2032 bios batteries can sometimes deceptively indicate having 3.0 volts when testing with a volt meter, yet still fail to provide sufficient amperage to function normally. At least, that's what happened with a 2032 battery inside of a garage door opener. A volt meter indicated it could supply 3.0 volts, but was still unable to provide enough oomph to enable the radio signal to operate the garage door opener. Replaced with a fresh battery, and operation back to normal. That DDR2 laptop's 2032 battery is probably at least 15 years since it was manufactured.
the same batteries are in my VW car key fobs and I got some replacements from a market stall that were useless - the alarm kept going off! bought more from local high street and no problem. I guess if they are years old they may degrade with age even if NOS.
I hope you set up the BIOS to set the clock, disable unneeded stuff, including boot priority and disable PXE boot.
I bet ya they broke the jack trying to get the non working adapter to work. They saw the light go on and thought it was a bad connection when the light it went out. Wiggled the jack till it broke which doesn't take much with that port.
Great video Graham on the Dell laptop. Newer Dell laptops need to detect that a valid charger is attached before it will charge the battery. What you are seeing with the white LED turning off when the laptop is turned on is the laptop telling you the charger can't be identified. It's why when you use a real Dell charger that the LED stays on. If you were to have powered the laptop with the generic charger, you should have see a BIOS message telling you that the charger can not be identified and that the battery won't be charged. I just went through this with a couple of Dell 5598 and a bad charging port. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for on ebay.
@@TheSpotify95 The computer says there is a way to disable it but I was not able to find the setting. I don't have the computers here anymore so I can't go to the BIOS.
Yes my inspiron does exactly that and I have chargers at both my offices to overcome this annoying problem.
Maybe... the customer reported that this charger had been working fine up until the problems, so I think it was reporting its ID to the laptop in some way or another. An XPS I have in for repair at the moment has a mobo fault on the OneWire (charge detect) circuit, so it can't detect _any_ charger, but will still turn on and work, just not charge.
@@Adamant_IT Exactly. The computer will always take power to run. In my case, the charging port was reason for the lack of detection.
I fixed the same model packard bell for a friend - broken plastics, hinge and power button - parts got from poland via ebay. I was quite impressed by the feel and build quality and would happily use one today though core2 duo is not very fast these days. Were PB laptops not made by Acer or Asus and what happened to them!
I did not know that about the rtc battery, I didn’t think it affected post. Must have written off a few older laptops which may have had this issue. Thanks learn something everyday!
Big same. I've been fixing laptops professionally for fifteen years, but I honestly feel like it's only the past five where I've really started learning to do it right.
I like to also check with and without the KB before a complete re-assemble. I've seen a stuck key trip up the BIOS before.
THANK YOU BEST TEACHER
Nice. I have been surprised by a flat cmos causing strange boot behaviour until finally no boot.
eBay is littered with those fire hazard, knockoff chargers. I've seen knockoff MagSafe chargers destroy Macbooks and self-immolate. ChiCom knockoff batteries and chargers are a menace.
That junk porwer supply may have killed it
Exellent video graham,well done again,may i please ask you graham,what is the make and modell of youre electric skrewdriver,that you use in youre videos.thanking you most kindly.stephen.
With the economy as it is there really isn't much of an option for a lot of folks. You get what you can afford or do without. Any laptop that can run Windows 10 without dragging will do.
Apart from electrical issues, the non-OEM charger probably has a plug that doesn't comply with specifications and may have mechanically damaged the socket in the laptop. Even something simple like the centre pin being slightly too wide can do this.
Various flavours of Linux runs perfectly on low powered laptops, you can also extend the ram by running zram (so that compresses the contents of your ram). It is the perfect PC for home automation, it uses very little power (just run it in powersave mode), is much more powerful than a raspberry pi and has decent IO to attach a SSD and HDD. I also has built in keyboard, mouse and screen. Why on earth would someone throw it out? I love these old DDR2 laptops, they are exceptional good value for money.
Thanks Graham, I can now show the customer what was wrong with his laptop!
Yeah, I have helped a few friends and family and found both a bad DC jack and charger. I think the charger goes bad and then the DC jack gets beaten up when the user thinks the connection there is the problem. So they often come in pairs.
Hi, Thx for the tips With the 3V battery. I didn't know that could cause, no power up on a laptop.
Nice video, great tips.
I'm jealous. When I see an AMD laptop from 2008-2010, it *always* has a dead RS780/RS880 northbridge.
the visable enjoyment when you say "so I get to be really smug..." :) its not nice but it feels good
The number of laptops I've fixed by these two methods must be over 100 by now. I've been fixing PCs and laptops for 3, nearly 4 decades - in fact before laptops were laptops and just portable computers with monochrome plasma or LCD displays. So, it's not overly common for this to happen, but it does happen often enough to be aware of it as a factor in fault diagnosis and repair. DC input sockets do seem to fail on Dell more than other makes.
Thank you so much. Your video really helped. Would it be possible to show a video on repairing broken screw holder under hindge for Dell inspiron 14 5000 laptop. Thanks
Very interesting, thank you
You did throw the crap charger ....
No wonder it didnt work lol
Someone actually brought in a clean laptop, it amazes me how people don't take care of their computers. I've had filthy laptops brought in with bugs crawling out of the keyboard.
the DC jack probably failed because of the 3rd party charger. User fiddeling with the cord
That's my guess. The connector was probably a little bit over-sized and pressing the contacts back too much. Or the laptop had been dropped onto the old charger, breaking it and damaging the jack - that's a common one too.
I always find people seeing that a no name charger is new and think it will last better than an original Dell used charger and go for it, or simply does not know that on the used market how easy it is to find these really standard Dell chargers. Most of the time you only need a Dell charger of the right connector size and is at least as high of wattage as the one that came with the laptop to work. Even if you have an vintage Dell Latitude D800 from 2003, a big charger from an off the shelf Dell Alienware or G series laptop works perfectly fine. Though some lower end machines may not like its sense pin if you stick in a far too overpowered one (My Inspiron 1440 will not charge with a 180W charger but charge fine with a 65 90 or 130W)
I have a Toshiba Satellite that's built very similar to that.
Big chunky thing that creaks like a worn out bed.
I don't if its right or not but i think you should make some playlist where you just fixing stuff in a short amount of time, cause its fun watching other people fixing
Dell and their Special Power Controlling Chip. (years ago) Never knew when i had issues, even shoppe didn't tell me.
Chip in power supply & computer Must Match in order to charge battery.
Even 'good' third party power supply will Not let it charge. Now, i must check Jack. Thanks!
Great videos and really enjoy your content. You post a video and disappear for a few days and I really miss your content, maybe you’re too busy or something but I’d love to see a PC build if you get a chance.
On the Dell laptop before unmounting you could try to power the laptop with a USB-C charger - that helps rule out both faulty charger and faulty jack (I think this laptop can be powered with USB-C).
This is a good option, yea. I have two 135w Dell Chargers in the shop, so in this case I was 100% certain that the charger was good, but plugging in a type-c would've been a good idea if I wasn't sure.
Why did you not mention the HP centre charger Pin that locks you into paying twice as much for HP spares, for just like Apple they use a detection circuit to keep brand 'loyalty'? through electronic locks.
It's not an electronic lock. It's just communication from the charger to tell the laptop what rating it is. By this method, the laptop _can_ use under-sized chargers at reduced performance, where as any other laptop will simply not work with an undersized charger.
I'm all for 3rd party alternatives, but for chargers, 3rd party alternatives suck. The vast majority of them are just fire hazards waiting to happen. Type-C PowerDelivery will be a good solution to this, as it's a nice standard that allows for cross-compatibility, which means it's financially viable for the good 3rd party brands to make actually good chargers.
I have a similar Dell Inspiron, and I have a spare DC jack on hand for just that eventuality. However, the problem that recurs is actually in the charger plug. The centre pin is the 0ne-wire connection to the ID chip in the charger, and the wire to tip connection is prone to breakage. The laptop then says it can't identify the charger and refuses to charge the battery. I'm getting well practised at the repair!!!!
Yup, I've got an XPS in the shop where the one-wire circuit is damaged on the board itself. It's delayed due to waiting on parts, but the video will be a look at what's going on at the mobo-side as well :)
tbh these simple fixes would properly help the average guy out more than the complicated ones and from my own personal experience its usually simple stuff that causes systems not to post, in my cases half the time a memory reseat fixes the problem
Yeah some Dell OptiPlex Desktop PCs that I worked on and messed around with have that same annoying thing that happens if you have a dead CMOS battery it won't post and I freaking hate that about Dell and other OEM manufactures that have that stupid feature.
where did you get that hand screw driver at?
RE: DELL Jack:
Designers who continue to create situations where "objects" are plugged into laptops (anything really) that "protrude" and are "inflexible" need to find another vocation. I cringe every time I see a PWR PLUG or USB DEVICE (and a 1000 other objects) jetting out of "delicate" jack, port etc. It's pure insanity. Putting it another way.. MORONS. What were they thinking? It's a guaranteed, premature failure mode. I don't know what the fix is. But we have to start using our gray matter and not creating the situation in the first place. Don't even get me started with mini-USB, micro, 3.5mm etc. It's a crime against humanity (well, almost:). Good show. Cheers from the US.
I need that power screwdriver you have. Can you kindly post a link for it please? Love the videos.
SQ-ES126 Smart Screwdriver (affiliate link) - sequremall.com/collections/screwdriver/products/electric-screwdriver?ref=fl20o11jut
Nice theoretical knowledge for beginner.
YES... YES IT WAS THE JACK!!!!!
What electric precision screwdriver do ya use ? and what is the best one ?
NEW CHAIR NOW!!!!
Darn, it was the charger.. I guess mom, was right check the basics..
I am going to miss that long hair.. but I do understand. My hair at shoulder length, can be a problem.
I've been looking for a notebook or board-level repair book or online course for quite some time now. Would you recommend anything like that for a beginner that has some basic knoledge of analog electronics and computer science? Do you know any such course or book?
Nothing specific, although I am planning to revisit my Board Repair Basics series in the future, and try to re-imagine it for the broader, more practical stuff I now see daily.
@@Adamant_IT I have watched those and it really helped. Looking forward to it. Thanks.
Yeah, you can quickly check 19v on the charger with it removed but thats with no load and it can fail or sag when plugged in and made worse when you have a 3 pin type such as ASUS charger. Of course i try to repair the quality chargers as lot of time its just weak output caps if weak under load or has a lot of AC junk on the output. ALWAYS check the basics and even the jack and fuses just to be sure they are developing resistance even if they work fine and clean them so you dont have to go back again and you know the board is getting full Amps available and clean DC power from the supply. Any Laptop i get to service, i clean and switch out the CPU ect paste. fans clean and check the input parts that they are sound and not loose too and hinges screws ect and thats as much as you can do till a actual real fault happens..
Yea, the bit I was checking for there was if the charger would supply voltage while the sense pin was disconnected (the answer was yes) - but you're absolutely right about voltage sag under load, I've seen that a few times and forgot to specify that in the video.
@@Adamant_IT Hi, yeah sorry it wasnt a criticism, just something i do from all my past electronics repair then onto computers and laptop and PS's are why most Desktop fail and are thrown out unnecessarily. You channel is excellent and your methodical approach and KISS principal of checking the basics, i have leaned plenty too. You could mention that sag stuff when checking the jack for 19v approx as nothing worse than thinking the PS is ok and pulling apart a LT only to finally find its ok, having a sub PS on hand to double check the LT is best way to know before opening and time and cost.
Thing about LT compared to DT is that you cant put any MB or screen into them, so when they fail, you have to repair or replace them and its expensive and also the CPU is usually soldered in to as well as ram on some so very inflexible to swap out bits and get it going again on the cheap or fast.. Cheers..
Holy squeaky chair batman lol
What's happened to the q and a's?
PACKARD BELL?!?! wtf??? My first computer was a Packard Bell legend supreme 133mhz intel, 8mb edo ram, 2gb ide hard drive, 33.6k modem. lol that computer cost 3500 with the 15" CRT in 1997! lol
What CMOS battery overheat
You had a haircut ...just thinking would you cut you beard off for £1000 lol
Beard is part of his branding, goat repair shop
Question "how long does a RTC button battery last in a desktop pc" 🤔
They should be good for 10 years in theory, so most of the time they last the life of the device. This laptop is certainly old enough. But also it's not uncommon for them to fail early, so always worth checking.
@@Adamant_IT Thank you for the reply I will check mine over the weekend 👍
I know those cheap power supply's are noisy as feck, because of poor shielding. But other than that, they look to be decent enough. I'd much prefer to use one of those, than the bare bones wall warts there supplying laptops with now!
I've had them go bang in my hand, leaving black soot marks up my arm where the 240v flex blew open where it enters the casing. 9/10 times when a customer comes in with one of these and a laptop that doesn't turn on, it's the charger. Don't use them!
@@Adamant_IT Yea, I suppose there mains cables aren't the best quality, probably a little thin on the copper, but if treated with care and wrapped up properly, they can last. Easily repaired also. You just gotta know what you're working with, when it comes to these.
happy haircut
I was kinda surprised that laptop didn't boot with default settings, even with a dead cmos battery
That's common behaviour, yea. The RTC circuit should have something like a dual-diode coming in from a 3v rail to power it when charger/battery power is available, but some devices don't, so no RTC battery = no RTC.
i heard something queaking at 16:23, sure this wasn't the hard drive...:)
i work on older models all the time -- mostly my own units hahahahaha
Must be very disheartening to come across such old stuff like DDR2 RAM and I am surprised that there are still some machines with low specs still around.
@@TheSpotify95 Yes, mate, I guess that is ok as long as you want to take the risk of running Windows 7 given that there is no support. Personally, it was my favourite OS of all of them and was sad to see it go as I could take part in the Windows 7 forums with more confidence something that I am not able to do with Windows 10 in its present form.
@@TheSpotify95 Yes I agree with you mate and my concern now is how long is Windows 10 going to last despite the rumour that it will last longer than 2025 and also how long before Windows 11 on my Ivy Bridge will last. Of course, you now have the spectre of Windows 12? hanging in the wings and for me, the pleasure of computing really has been thoroughly disappointing given the changes Microsoft are making now.
Packard Bell made laptops? In the US they went broke long before laptops were a thing.
Basically a zombie brand for overseas kinda like how Wal-mart is leasing Gateway from Acer and using their ONN hardware. If you buy an Wal-Mart it's basically a ONN laptop just with a different name.
Yea, Acer bought Packard Bell a long ways back, this laptop is basically an Acer with a modified chassis. I don't think they're selling any PBs these days though, or at least I haven't seen anything newer than this.
@@Adamant_IT yeah it appears to be a Europe/Asia thing. No such animal in the states.
I absolutely cringe whenever I've seen where someone has lost the original factory supplied charger to their cell phone or whatever device and they go out and get the cheapest knockoff charger to use. I'm thinking how long will that last before this cheap charger will send rogue voltages to their device destroying it beyond repair. Quite often the person can find the correct OEM replacement charger on eBay for a fair price.
Always inspiring to watch you work. I'm from Quebec Canada and would like to send you my 14 year old son's alienware 13 r3 if i could. would love to see you working on it. Plug in power supply and light goes out. Let me know if you would be willing.
I would if you were in the UK, but I don't take anything from overseas now I'm afraid - international customs and shipping is too much of a minefield!
@@Adamant_IT Perfect thanks for the reply and all the fantastic content
Customs should not be a problem nowadays when you fill out the apropiate form.
Now i get to be Really Smug....lol
Slightly off topic; can anyone help me settle a bet? A friend of mine thinks one can image an m1 mac from his old x86 mac. I think not. Anyone ever tried this? Hes insane, right?
Even though you don’t like or trust the dell aftermarket charger it’s not your property it belongs to the customer so why are you throwing it around .
New haircut looks good on you! Keep these videos coming, it's quite interesting to learn how to analyse and reverse engineer a fix to these hardware issues.
Your chair need a drop of oil. It's squeaking just like the old laptops you're fixing ;-)
I would like to see your videos short not too long please :( in breif plz
I'm going to try and vary it. Recently, the longer videos pull in way more views and engagement, but also I respect that not everyone has the time for 1hr RUclips videos, so I'll try and get the short ones in as well. 20-30minutes is my ideal target.
@@Adamant_IT thank you very much. Keep going :)
Eyy
u needa new chair