Electrical Surge to my Laptop! Need new Logic Board?!? for $800?!?!?

Hello:

My laptop was hooked up to a surge protector, but somehow, through the
USB cord, the laptop seems to have gotten fried! We were hooking the
USB cord from the laptop to the cable modem and a big spark and poof!

It worked for a day on battery power, but now it won't turn on thru
the battery or directly thru the A/C adapter.

Compusa told me that the adapter is working fine, but I need to
replace the "Logic Board" (part # 152600-001) and that it would cost
me about $800!

Any help from anyone would be so darned appreciated!

 

Seems pretty damn fishy to me that it worked on battery power afterwards
but needs an $800 "logic board" now to run. If you can find another AC
adapter to try out or another battery with a good charge for the laptop
just to test with, it'd be worth a shot. But for $800 I'd be thinking of
a whole new laptop. The most similar case I'm familiar with was when the
internal plug for the AC adapter got knackered in a fall and wouldn't
let the charger charge the battery anymore or work directly off the
adapter. A lot of taking the laptop apart and putting back together and
about a spoonful of epoxy fixed the problem.

 

OK, so you have fried the bespoke switch mode
charger/convertor in the laptop.

You could look out for an identical laptop with a duff
screen in the free ads or Ebay. That may be the cheapest way
of getting the laptop working again.

The charger/convertor may be repairable at component level.
It may be as simple as an internal fusible link has blown. A
corner tv repair shop may be a better bet, if you have that
sort of shop in your area.

What make model is it? I have 3 laptops with broken screens
that otherwise are working fine... (One sat on, one poorly
packed in a suitcase and the last attacked by the dog..)

 

Dog food? or rival for yr affections?

 

an electrical storm and a direct lightning strike on the house where it
surged through the wires, (especially phone lines,) and knocked out my
laptop's modem, I just collected my $2000.00 from the Insurance then
went shopping for a nice laptop...good luck!

 

The laptop may have been using an AC with a surge protector, but probably
not the device connected to it on the USB port. Also, if you want to protect
your investment, you should be running all your computer gear on a UPS, not
a low cost alternative to protect things.

If there are differences between the grounds, or the neutral in the AC
driving your devices, this can cause damage from the power source.
Brown-outs can also do extensive damage, and this is one of the things a
good UPS will protect against.

--

Jerry G.
=====


Hello:

My laptop was hooked up to a surge protector, but somehow, through the
USB cord, the laptop seems to have gotten fried! We were hooking the
USB cord from the laptop to the cable modem and a big spark and poof!

It worked for a day on battery power, but now it won't turn on thru
the battery or directly thru the A/C adapter.

Compusa told me that the adapter is working fine, but I need to
replace the "Logic Board" (part # 152600-001) and that it would cost
me about $800!

Any help from anyone would be so darned appreciated!

 

That surge protector worked just as manufacturer claimed. A
dirty little secret is that plug-in protectors protect from a
surge that typically does not exist. Therefore it can be
called a surge protector. Manufacturer wants you to *assume*
the protector works for all types of surges. As demonstrated
- it did not. This should be common knowledge among the
computer literate. They typically destructive surges are not
stopped, blocked, or absorbed by any plug-in surge protector.
They manufacturer does not even make that claim. But myth
purveyors do make that claim for the manufacturer.

Furthermore, a plug-in protector can even provide a surge
more paths, destructively, through your computer.

Now for a more serious problem. If the spark was between
cable modem and computer, then you may have a far more serious
problems that would even damage the new laptop. For example
and also for surge protection - the cable must first make a
direct connection to the same earth ground that AC breaker box
connects to. This even required by National Electrical Code
for human safety reasons. If AC electric and cable share same
earth ground, then that spark would not have happened. That
single point earth ground serves many purposes. One is human
safety. Another is transistor safety. You have transistor
damage and this would explain why.

Cable to the single point earth ground also is the surge
protection. The effective protection that a plug-in protector
does not want to mention (if they mention earth ground, then
you will discover their little 'lie by telling half truths').

To have surge damage, first the electrical path is fully
conductive. Electrical path may be incoming on CATV wire,
through USB wire, through laptop motherboard and power supply
controller (that also recharges battery), then out via laptop
power adapter to AC mains. Only after electricity is passing
through everything in that circuit, does something in that
circuit fail. Sounds like the power and battery controller
circuit on motherboard is the part of that circuit that
failed. Same thing can happen again if you don't discover why
a voltage difference exists between cable wire and AC
electric.

Again, that voltage difference must not exist if building
was properly wired. Again, AC electric and incoming cable
must both connect to same earth ground where both enter
building at service entrance. Had this been done, then no
spark on USB cable would exist to also damage the new laptop.

 

The below cited post demonstrates how myths are promoted.
For example, the recommended UPS has same electrical
protection component used in the power strip surge protector.
Notice both units even rate their same circuit using the same
parameter - joules. So why would the same circuit inside a
UPS provide any better protection?

Noted elsewhere, a plug-in protector claims to protect from
a surge that does not typically exist. That is also true of
the UPS recommendation since UPS uses same circuit. Typical
UPS connects AC electric directly to laptop when not in
battery backup mode. So where is laptop isolation from AC
mains? It does not exist. Manufacturer does not even make
those claims. A myth was being promoted.

How to identify ineffective surge protectors. 1) No
dedicated connection 'less than 10 feet' to central earth
ground and 2) avoids all discussion about earthing. Concepts
of successful protection are based the the same principles
demonstrated by Ben Franklin in 1752. Even Ben Franklin
understood the importance of earthing. Suddenly a plug-in UPS
is going to stop or block what miles of non-conductive air
could not? Suddenly a direct electrical connection to AC
mains via a plug-in UPS will do something miraculous that a
power strip (using same circuit) could not? It is called
promoting myths because the poster neither learned the
underlying science nor what Ben Franklin demonstrated.

This is fundamental. No earth ground means no effective
surge protection. Even the plug-in UPS manufacturer avoids
all discussion about earthing so that others might promote his
product using myths.

Now for some other myths. Brownouts only cause computer
damage where the human is so technically ill informed as to
buy inferior power supplies. Even 30 years ago, a brownout
would not damage electronics. After all, what is a power
down? AC power cuts off. Electrolytic capacitors slowly
discharge into brownout. Computer sees voltage slowly drop
eventually to zero. Normal power off is a brownout followed
by a blackout. If brownouts damage a computer, then power off
also damages the computer.

Anyone claiming that brownouts damage electronics is
promoting more myths.

Protection that works at the computer is already inside the
computer. Furthermore, a laptop needs no UPS. A laptop
contains it's own UPS. But again, demonstrated is how myths
are created. Another would recommend a UPS to protect a
laptop even from brownouts? What is that battery inside a
laptop for? Decoration? Should we grow flowers on that
battery? One first learns basic electrical knowledge BEFORE
posting technical advise. Otherwise we all suffer from the
promotion of myths.

That UPS recommendation is foolish, flawed, and based upon
insufficient technical knowledge. Anything that is going to
work at that laptop was already inside the laptop.
Furthermore, the UPS would not stop a problem created by
unearthed incoming cable wire. Why? First learn why all
incoming utilities must be earthed.