[CLUE-Tech] Re: Repair or Replace Laptop??

[jim feldman]

Laptop mainboards tend to have more layers, narrower traces, and more
mechanical stresses put on them than your typical MB.  Microscopic
cracks can cause traces to open and flake out a laptop.  These often
occur near commonly used ports where connectors such as rj45, rj11 and
power are soldered right to the board.  That being said, I'd try and see
if you could find a MB on ebay with a DOA guarantee (or better), but I
wouldn't spend more than $125-150 tops.  Both ubid and tech4less would
have more current refurb models with a warranty.  In fact, my
recommendation is to part this out yourself, find a newer model and pay
a little more for a lot less heartburn.

Your battery is most likely fine, unless a low resistance load (short)
was put across it and cooked the cells.  As someone else mentioned, a
controlled deep cycle of a laptop battery is often recommended to erase
a charge "memory", even for NiMH and Li-ion cells.  If you find a
cluefull clerk at a Batteries-Plus, they may be able to test the packs
(new and old) for you to see if they're still good.
jim
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> Hi Everyone -
> 
> I have the typical question to ask.  I have a Compaq Presario 1694 =
> laptop (450MHg) that was having problems powering on.  Thinking it might =
> be the ancient battery (over 3 years old), I invested another $125 in a =
> new battery - but the problems continued.  Finally, I took the machine =
> to a service rep who diagnosed the problem as a "micro-crack" in the =
> motherboard - he also indicated that because the battery had been =
> completely drained that my new battery was probably also now bad.
>