Logiq M76T

A client brought a laptop to me, saying his daughter had spilled a little bit of water on it, not a lot though. He said one of his dogs eat through the power supply cable and it is sellotaped up, but he said it does work on the charger. However, he came over with it, and I tried it with the charger plugged in, came on for about 10 seconds, no beeps or anything, could hear the hard drive and fan working, but then it went off again (worked on it in my conservatory). I took it in to my home office, tried it, didn't even start up! Not even the light saying it's charging! However, when I put the power cable in, sparks came off it. Because I am not very dexterous, my mate who normally helps me with these things is on holiday.
However, as he said it worked fine on the charger before, it's probably not the laptop. He also said that the laptop doesn't work without the charger plugged in.
Question now is: Should I get a new charger? (While transporting the laptop, a component in the psu might have gone)
It is a Logiq M76T,and is less than a year old.
(I got told the PSU's made in China don't last long!)

 

The sparks give a clue- with laptops, If the sparks come from the charger lead, then, yes, charger - ome of the chinese imports are very flimsy, and I had that problem with a brand new one, that I even got a small shock off of it, from the downvolted end!- (even that was felt)
When you originally managed to start it up, the battery probably had a little charge left in it- it could now be too low to give a start, as it can take 10-15 minutes with the charger on to take a bit of charge.
The other problem with charging is mostly with the actual power plug connection in the laptop. Modern laptops often have a lead connected inside the laptop to the motherboard, and they can be changed- but not all.
If it is the power socket on the laptop, then the water may have penetrated through, and be shorting out the inner terminal.
If you have a spare battery with even a little charge in it, you could check that way, if not, if someone had the same laptop, you could try their battery. Likewise with a charging unit- if a charging unit fits the plug on the laptop AND the votage is correct (15v, or, 19v, or, whatever , as original) it should work- just for the test.

 

Check,double check,then triple check the cellotaped connection,what
I thinks happened is the dog has chewed through the cable "I've seen this before" the wires have become bare but haven't broken through and are now short circuiting on each other but randomly when the power supply is in a certain position.

Don't connect the PSU to the laptop again,don't connect the PSU to the mains again,remove all the cellotape and inspect the wire if even the insulation isn't but you can see the bite marks in the wire you may need to repair it by cutting out a 6-12inch chuck of the wire then re soldering it back together and insulate with some heat shrink tube,obviously check with the voltage and polarity with a multimeter.

That's what I'd do then charge him for a new PSU.

Jking:-D

 

Rikky- These chinese one's have cables so feeble that I would not even try to repair them. I have seen loads of them fracture right at the plug in point, and when you try to strip the wires... so flimsy.They only sell for £7-to £12, new.As you indicated, it is hard to tell, until you strip them. If the obvious bit is repaired, it may still be breaking near the ends- chuck it in the bin.

 

I agree yeah, I like to explore every avenue before ordering parts "mainly cause I like getting my hands dirty" so yeah I would perform a repair on the cable and if its voltage,current and polarity was in tolerance after the repair I would use it test to see if there was nothing wrong with the laptop.

Ordering a new one is safest I suppose it can always be returned if the laptop still doesn't respond.

 

I've got new information that I wasn't told before:

The water wasn't actually spilled on the laptop, the laptop was sitting on the top alongside the water when it was spilled. So the water got under it.
I asked him what happened immediately after, he said she shook the laptop, and left it in the airing cupboard for a couple of days to dry! He said he doesn't thiink she took the battery out!

Also... her work on it isn't backed up!!!

 

Some laptops will not start up without a working battery- some.....
I would suggest that if you have a usb caddy to put the hard drive in, you remove the hard drive, and use the caddy to connect it to another laptop/pc, and copy of important data for them. Remove the battery before removing the hard drive.
Then, I would have a look at that charger, if you cannot get hold of another, and see if the leads can be separated, repair, and insulate it at the chewed area, and try it once- If it still sparks, you pull the mains plug immediately, and get one, otherwise, dead battery, and dead charger, you are wasting your time spending anything. If it was put in the airing cupboard, it is likely that it has dried out, if any water got inside-no guarantees.Otherwise you have to strip it and clean totally - and you still will not know if it is any good without a working battery, or, charger.

 

The laptop doesn't turn at all now, so I am going to try a new motherboard. Have you got any ideas of where to get one?

 

I would have said
1 charger
2-battery
3- if no luck with 1, or, 2, then look for motherboard, if you are going to go that way.
However, from the little I could find out, thi laptop looks to be made by Clevo, but the actual model number does not show on their site-

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/products/prodinfo_2.asp?productid=52
I found information suggesting that it is a barebone option, but could not really pin down the motherboard,name- it seems that Clevo do produce motherboards for others, possibly Advent amongst tehm- so you would need to closely examine the motherboard for names, and numbers- even then I don't think it will be easy.
http://www.finditcheaperuk.co.uk/Products/Barebone_LogiQ_Laptop_M760T_BlackWhite_154_Wide_WXGA

If it turns out that it is under warranty, worth a try, here.
http://eis0.clevo.com.tw/RMA_Schedule/

 

I agree with Baklogic ,it can be really hard getting a laptop motherboard they aren't things that are normally sold and they are all different, you will probably pay over the odds for one,its a pretty big job too.

What you need is the service number of the motherboard it will be printed on a sticker s/n 239399393 or similar,every single character has to match the the replacement motherboard,if one digit is out often something won't fit.

You could trawl the internet looking for a motherboard store that has one in stock but you will rarely find this so IMO the best thing to do is pick up the phone and phone up a couple of places and ask if the motherboard you want can be ordered,start with the manufacturers support contacts that Baklogic posted.

Ask them if they have a motherboard that will fit if you can't get the exact one,you need their experience because until you try to fit it you'll not know what problems will surface.

 

Tommy,

Stumbled across your thread and thought I'd throw my 2 cents in.

Guess what - I had this EXACT problem with this EXACT laptop.

It's the battery.

Here's what happened to me. One day, before I knew it, I got a "low battery alert". The charger had died. Tested the voltage, and the charger was completely dead.

No big deal, I figured. Bought a new charger online....it worked for all of 15 minutes, then boom. Second charger died as well. Now I was annoyed.

Bought a third charger off eBay. This time, I removed the battery before plugging in the charger and powering up the laptop. Worked perfectly, so I knew it was the battery. Bought a new battery off eBay, and had no problems since.

The most annoying thing was that I called up the company that I bought the laptop from, they told me to send in the original battery and they'd test it out and send me a new one. They then proceeded to tell me that the original battery was fine! I explained to them that the original battery was destroying the chargers and that I already bought a replacement battery which was working perfectly with the new charger I had bought! They weren't having it. So, I ended up shelling out from my own pocket for 2 new chargers and a battery, but what choice did I have?

Hope this helps!

 

Now, that is a very useful post- Also one I have not come across, before- just shows that my favourite saying is useful, too

Sometimes the obvious eludes us

 

I have still got the laptop, it still works, which I'm surprised at! (Windows works, everything works!)
It doesn't work on the battery - do you think that may have been caused by the water damage? Or do you think the motherboard has been damaged? If it has, will the battery work when the motherboard is fixed? I have ordered a new battery, maybe that's a bit too premature?
I ran a third-party motherboard test, and it passed!
What is odd as well is the display sometimes doesn't come on after boot!
Would a new power supply help?

 

I only ask if it's the PSU because sometimes the screen goes black after boot!

 

The laptop now works fine, apart from:

1) Sometimes the screen goes blank on startup.
2) Windows says the battery is charging but the laptop only works on the mains.

I am getting a replacement battery tomorrow.

I'm not sure what to do about the blank screen randomly on startup (it very occassionally happens when Vista needs UAC permission to do something).
It is an Intel GMA4500 card (it won't let me change the resolution!), I have made sure Windows and the graphics card drivers are up to date. Graphics cards testers all come up fine, so I don't know what to do!
I have been told it may be the backlight.

Should I give it back to my client and ask him to use it for a bit and report back?