Tickle your brain with this one...(Notebook)

[Dorfeater]

Ok... so about 6 months ago my dell laptop took a crap on me. I believe it overheated and fried the cpu. It randomly reboots, sometimes it will make it into windows, sometimes it wont even make it past the boot screen. I had thought that the warranty on it was still good, but turns out I was wrong. Now... How can I fix it? I have no exp with laptop repair or anything of the nature.

If I just fried the CPU how easy would it be to replace? It's an Intel Pentium M... I think, I dunno, the laptop hasnt come back to me yet from overseas.

Is it even possible to replace the whole mobo if that may have fried also?

Any tips would help a ton, this is a very nice laptop and I want to try and salvage it... it's my only gaming rig :(

[rabb1t]

If I just fried the CPU how easy would it be to replace?

I'd think it would be harder to actually get to the CPU than it would be to swap it out.

Is it even possible to replace the whole mobo if that may have fried also?

Um... the 'whole motherboard' is the majority of the system. :rolleyes:

Plus, to my knowledge, no one sells laptop motherboards, as above, that's the majority of the system.

Any tips would help a ton

I'd say the first step would be to see if you can open it up and visually inspect it to see if anything has been jared loose or looks obviously damaged. Could be something as simple as that the ram is partly popped out or something and pushing it in firmly will fix it.

Then again, it could be fragged completely. :p

the laptop hasnt come back to me yet from overseas

My Chaotic Evil side would ask if you mentioned the laptop was non-functional to anyone, particularly the shipper, before shipping the laptop. Who is to say the damage didn't occur during shipping? :twisted: :p

[Dorfeater]

My Chaotic Evil side would ask if you mentioned the laptop was non-functional to anyone, particularly the shipper, before shipping the laptop. Who is to say the damage didn't occur during shipping?

Hehe... oh how I wish, unfortunatly it's coming back from Iraq... in a container that I put it in, so it's not really being "shipped" per say.

I never opened it up and checked it out, because I still thought it was under warranty and sometimes if its been opened it voids the warranty. But I'm pretty sure its not just a simple 'loose component' because of how it happened. I left the room for an hour or so, and left it on, on my bed, which had flannel sheets... so I'm thinking that heat was the culprit :(

But who knows... I've heard stories of people coming back from Iraq with broken laptops, and them magically being fixed just from plugging it into a 110v outlet here in the states.

-or-

Do you think that maybe compusa or some other computer repair store might be able to do something? Cause like I said... I'm broke, I'm stuck with a shi**y laptop to play games with (14fps max woot) and I'm dieing, lol.

[rabb1t]

Oh I'm totally sure if you throw money at someone they will look at it. The question is, how much money will that be compared to getting a new one.

[Ryun]

I dunno that doesn't sound like you fried the CPU... I don't have a lot of experience with laptops, but I know that my brothers would reboot if you put it on a bed for too long. If you put it on a wooden table though, it worked fine. Not to sound too much like a science geek, but I'm sure wood has a higher specific heat than a bed sheet, and ergo keeps the laptop cooler. Also, isn't Iraq on the hot side? If anything it sounds like you might have had the CPU fan chip, or melt on you. You'll havta verify with Rabb1t or Fozzik, but the fried CPU hypothesis doesn't sit right with me.

If it does turn out to be the CPU, and you get a new one (or your old one is repaired) you might want to invest in something like this: http://www.evercool.com.tw/products/np-601.htm

Anyway, good luck with your laptop.

[Dorfeater]

Yeah I was hoping it was just the bed... but it wasnt. Put it on wood, hold it in the air... same problems, lol. It's not the fan either, they are all still spinnin. It was in a air conditioned room so yeh. Oh well... I gotta wait like another month before I even attempt to figure it out.

[Gargen]

Sounds like bad RAM to me. Does it do the full RAM check when it boots up?

[Dorfeater]

No clue.

[Fozzik]

Working inside a laptop is no fun. They make it as difficult as possible to do things like swap the motherboard. Depending on the laptop, some will make it sort of easy to change the CPU...but it still usually requires removing a lot of screws and fasteners, and often some things which are glued or stuck in place with tape. Not fun, and often difficult to get it back together exactly the way it was before.

You may be able to get a CPU from Newegg that you could swap in and try...but if the motherboard or graphics chip also got fried...it could be trouble. The mobo you can probably only get replaced from the manufacturer, and then you are likely talking big bucks.

Having anyone else look at it (like CompUSA) is going to be very expensive.