Fried laptop

[Shaun]

Just got home to find my laptop is bust.

For some unknown reason my alcoholic irish housemate decided to knock the voltage up on the laptops power pack, thus it now smells of burning.

What's the damage going to be and how much is it likely to cost to repair? It's a packard bell easynote.

Or should I just launch it through his face.

[CaNsA]

Go for the second option.

[Shaun]

Oh yeah, one other thing. The laptop did still switch on and function fine until the battery died when I got home.

The area round where the charger plugs in does smell of burnt something though, he's still not come home so not had chance to beat him yet.

I want to give him a price of what he owes me though, unless it's easier to replace than repair.

[TomCB]

i believe the charging circuit is built onto the motherboard.

so unless you fancy troubleshooting it and replacing components. he owes you a new motherboard.

what laptop is it?
____________________
Faldo: "Classic BCF. A thread about sky diving is NSFW on post #2."

[The Artist]

Once something gets fried internally in a laptop, it is usually not worth repairing due to the cost.

[Shaun]

It's one of these.

A Packard Bell MV51-120.

Genuinely hope I'm drunk by the time he gets home.

[FURBAR]

He's already fucked your laptop up, don't let him spoil your time ... warn him of what will happen if :

He does it again //

Does not pay for his folly ..
____________________
Fuk um !!

[tvchimp]

I'd get a external HDD caddy and use the HDD from your PB laptop as external for the new one he's gonna get you.

As The Artist(lol...Epic) said, it's not usually worth getting repaired, by estimates its a fairly old model? Might be hard to get the specific parts which are FUBAR (if you can figure out which ones might be gone, my guess - power board, mobo and possibly ram/cpu depending on how well the power board has done its job)..

It's a fucker. I'd be online and find a decent middle-range laptop he's gonna buy for you.


What made him mess around with the voltage settings anyway?
____________________
Bike: Currently Bikeless... Gahh

[Frost]

It might be fixed cheaply by opening it up and replacing what has blown. I would expect it to to be a case of blown fuse / capacitor / resistor rather than fucked up chips. Chances are though that most places will just be looking to sell you a new motherboard and charge you for labour, so it might get expensive.

IT stuff doesn't last or stay relevant for long these days, so if i were you i'd get a written quote from somewhere. If it's reasonable take them up on it and hold them to that price. If its not, get that amount of money off him and put it towards buying a new model. You can then sell the old one on ebay as a project for someone with some electronics knowledge.

[Serendipity]

You say he changed the voltage on the adapter? Sounds like one of those aftermarket replacement power supplies rather than the original?

If so, does it have the interchangeable plug at the laptop end to allow it to fit a variety of different models?

If it does, check it for melting. They can get very hot at that point even when using the correct voltage. Even hot enough to melt the plastic around the pins. Check the contacts for a good clean surface and see if that helps.

Either way you ought to check the charging with a known good power supply before you ditch the laptop.
____________________
2007 CBF1000 & 2016 CBF1000F - Commuter heaven | 1994 CBR600FR - Awaiting defibrillation

[Shaun]

[Flip]