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Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 3

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Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 4

Table of Contents
Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10
Important notice for your Safety ----------------------------------------------------- 11

Part 1
Tools and Testing Equipments
Types and Functions

Repair Tools to Troubleshoot Laptop ------------------------------------------------- 13


Cleaning Tools ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14
Screwdrivers Tools ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 14
Soldering Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
Bios I/O KBC Programmers -------------------------------------------------------------- 18
ESD Safe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19
Inspection Tools ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20
Electronic Measuring Tools -------------------------------------------------------------- 21
Laptop Battery Tester --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Gripping Tools ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23
Other Tools ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23

Part 2
Laptop Parts Tour

Basic Laptop Hardware To----------------------------------------------------------------- 26


Laptop Case ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26
Motherboard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27
RAM Memory Cover Door ----------------------------------------------------------------- 27
DVD/CD-RW Driver -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28
Battery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29
Power Adapter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30
KeyBoard --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31
Laptop Memory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 31
Hard Driver ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 34
Touchpad/Trackpad ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 36
Mouse Buttons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37
Laptop Screen --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 37
Screen Inverter ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39
Screen Cable ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39
Web Camera ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 5

CPU Fan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 40


CMOS Battery -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41
CPU Central Processing Unit -------------------------------------------------------------- 42
LID Close Switch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42
Front Bezel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 43
Cover-Lid with Wi-Fi Antenna ------------------------------------------------------------ 43
Wi-Fi Cards ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 44
Hinges Rails ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44
Hinge Covers ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 45
SD Card Reader ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 45
Power Button Board ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 46
Other Hardware Parts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 46
Motherboard Overview -------------------------------------------------------------------- 47

Top 10 Youtube Channels Tech Laptop Disassembly ----------------------------- 50

Part 3
Basic Electronics

What is Electricity? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 52


What is an Electron? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 52
Voltage Pushes Electrons ------------------------------------------------------------------ 54
Current Flows --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 54
Resisstance Reduces Current ------------------------------------------------------------- 55
Types of Current ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 55
How do we Measure Electricity? -------------------------------------------------------- 57
Effective Resisstance ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 59
Binary Number system --------------------------------------------------------------------- 62
Bits and Bytes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Logical ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 64
Logic Gates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 65
AND Gates Check for Tow True Input --------------------------------------------------- 66
OR Gates Check for One True Input ----------------------------------------------------- 66
Not Gates Flip Inputs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
A Bigger AND Gates --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 67
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 6

Part 4
Electronics Components

The Main Electronic Components in Laptop Motherboard ---------------------------- 70


Capacitor --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71
Capacitors Testing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 81
Resistor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 84
Resistor Testing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 89
Inductor – Coil -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 96
Inductor Testing ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 98
Fuse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 99
Fuse Testing ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 100
Diode ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 101
DiodeTesting --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 104
Zener Diode ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 105
Testing Zener Diode ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 106
Transformer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 107
Crystal Oscillator ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 108
Transistor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 110
Intergrated Circuit (IC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 126
The most important integrated circuits are in laptop motherboard ---------------- 128
EEPROM --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 129
Super I/O -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 133
Clock Generator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 134
Voltage Regulator ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 135
PWM Controller ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 138
Microprocessor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 140

Part 5
Identifying of Common Components of the Laptop Motherboard

Capacitors (C) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 142


Inductor – Coil (L) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 144
Fuse (F) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 146
Diode (D) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 147
Zener Diode (ZD or PD) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 147
LED ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 148
Crystal (X or Y) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 148
Resistors (R) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 149
Mosfet (Q) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 150
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 7

Transistor (Q) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151


Bios IC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151
FAN Connector --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 151
Bios ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 152

Part6
Documents Related to the Laptop Motherboard

User Manual --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 154


Service Manual ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 154
Schematic Diagram ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 155
Block diagram ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 155
Datasheet ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 156

Part 7
How to Read Datasheet

How to Read DataSheet? ---------------------------------------------------------------- 158


Pin Configuration ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 159

Part 8
Motherboard Part Numbers

What is laptop ODM? ------------------------------------------------------------------- 162


How to get the schematic diagram? -------------------------------------------------- 163

Part 9
How to Read Laptop Schematic?

What’s the schematic diagram? ------------------------------------------------------ 167


Important Part Schematic Diagram -------------------------------------------------- 167
Understanding Basic of Schematic --------------------------------------------------- 170
4-1 Schematic Path and Connection Between Circuits ---------------------------- 171
4-2 Information -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 175
4-3 Finding signs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 177
4-4 Related Search ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 178
4-5 How to deal with schematics that don't have the power sequence -------- 183
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 8

Part 10
Signal

Explanation of common signal names -------------------------------------------------- 188


Signals --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 188
The Power good signal -------------------------------------------------------------------- 188
The open signal ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 190
Reset Signal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 191
+5VALW +3VALW signal ------------------------------------------------------------------- 192
PWR_S5_EN --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 192
Clock signal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 194
Chip Select Signal --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 194

Part 11
The Architecture of the LaptopMotherboard

Power supply and signal ------------------------------------------------------------------- 197


The AMD single bridge architecture (A70) ---------------------------------------------- 198
The Nvidia architecture double bridge (C51M) ---------------------------------------- 199
High-level and low-level signals ---------------------------------------------------------- 201
The architecture of Nvidia single bridge (MCP67) ------------------------------------- 204

Part 12
The Basic Knowledge You Must Know Before Starting to Repair Laptop

What is a short circuit? --------------------------------------------------------------------- 214


Finding a short ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 215
What is a voltage divider? ----------------------------------------------------------------- 216
What are System Power STATES? -------------------------------------------------------- 218
What is a DC to DC boost circuit? --------------------------------------------------------- 219
What is a feedback? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 220
Diagnostic method for laptop power supply circuit failure --------------------------- 221
Laptop motherboard power supply ------------------------------------------------------- 222
Protection isolation circuit ----------------------------------------------------------------- 222
Charging control circuit --------------------------------------------------------------------- 223
standby circuit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 227
Analysis Linear Regulated Power Supply Type Standby Circuit ----------------------- 228
Switching power supply type standby circuit -------------------------------------------- 229
CPU circuit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 233
CPU core power supply circuit -------------------------------------------------------------- 236
Memory circuit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 238
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 9

Part 13
Dictionary for Technicians

Name Components Code tabl --------------------------------------------------------------- 242


The motherboard common signal definition --------------------------------------------- 244
SIO pin description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 247
Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 248
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 10

Introduction:
Welcome to this training on laptop motherboard repair and maintenance, Laptop
technology has become one of the fastest growing technologies in the world,today
people use Laptop to stay in touch with friends and family.

This widespread ownership and use of laptop have created a need for
professionals who can repair and service Laptop,this E-Book has been developed to
address that need,the E-Book targets people who would like to start and run a
laptop repair and servicing business, By the end of this E-book you should be able
to diagnose the problem and service and repair a laptop motherboard with the
help of proper tools and instruments.

This E-Book is provided through distance learning and we trust that you will find
the material useful both for studying and as future reference,please take the time
to read this E-book in its entirety, then re-read it again to ensure you get a clear
understanding of all its content. I also recommend that you purchase our training
to Learn laptop motherboard Repair release entitled:

Laptop Motherboard Repair Step Two A Guide For Intermediate.


Laptop Motherboard Repair Tutorial

We welcome your feedback on any issue relating to this E-Book and wish you all
the best.

Happy Learning!

www.LaptopRepairSecrets.com
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 11

Important notice for your sefety

Please remove covers and other parts in a safe place, away from all personnel,
while you are servicing the laptop motherboard.

Keep your tool case away from walk areas so that other people will not trip over it.

Do not wear jewelry, chains, metal-frame eye glasses, or metal fasteners for your
clothing metal objects are good electrical conductors.

Wear safety glasses when you are hammering, drilling, soldering, cutting wire,
attaching springs, using solvents, or working in any other conditions that may be
hazardous to your eyes.

After service, reinstall all safety shields, guards, labels and ground wires. Replace
any safety device that is worn or defective.

Use only one hand when working with powered-on electrical motherboard and
keep the other hand in your pocket or behind your back.

Do not use worn or broken tools.

Before the laptop is powered on after replacement any part, make sure all screws
and other small parts are in place and are not let loose inside the laptop. Verify this
by shaking the laptop and listening for rattling sounds.

Metallic parts or metal flakes can cause electrical shorts.

Some standby batteries contain a small amount of nickel and cadmium. Do not
disassemble a standby battery, recharge it, throw it into fire or water or short
circuit it.

If the LCD breaks and the fluid from inside the LCD gets into your eyes or on your
hands, immediately wash the affected areas with water at least for 15 minutes.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 12
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 13

Part 1
Tools and Testing Equipment
Types and Functions
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 14

Repair tools to troubleshoot laptop


To troubleshoot and repair laptop systems properly, you need a few basic tools. If
you intend to troubleshoot and repair systems professionally, you may want to
purchase many more specialized tools as well, these advanced tools enable you to
more accurately diagnose problems and make jobs easier and faster, here are the
basic tools that should be in every troubleshooter’s toolbox…!!!

The basic tools you need to work on a laptop are shown here
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 15

Cleaning Tools:
These tools used to clean dirt on PCB motherboard and other Components of
laptop like Fan and Keyboard …etc

Screwdrivers Tools:
Most laptop systems use numerous small Phillips or Torx screws, so those drivers
are the ones you’ll be using most frequently. The screwdrivers that come in some
standard tool sets may be too big, so you’ll want to purchase a good set of
miniature screwdrivers, or a set of miniature screwdriver bits and a handle.
If slotted screws are used on a system you are working on, you need to be very
careful because it is easy for the flat-blade screwdriver head to slip off and possibly
damage the system.

It has several screwdrivers of different shapes and sizes to disassemble and


assemble a laptop.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 16

Soldering Tools:

Soldering Iron Gun


Used to solder small components like Used to heat devices and melt solder.
capacitor, resistor, diode, transistor
etc. A 50 watt soldering iron is good
enough for most laptop repairing job.

Jumper Wire Soldering Station


Used to connect one point to another It has option to control temperature
point on a PCB on the track of a depending on the heat requirement of
laptop during repair. the soldering job being done. The
soldering iron is attached with the
soldering station.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 17

Solder Wire Cleaner Ball


Used to solder electronic components. Used to clean soldering iron tips.

Flux BGA Rework Station


Used for cleaning metal surfaces Specialised tools used to pick up and
before soldering them together. position often tiny components.
Because any oxides that remain on a Rework is the term for the refinishing
metal surface can result in poor. operation or repair of an electronic
printed.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 18

Kapton Tape Solder wick


Heat high temperature resistant To desolder electronic components
Adhesive gold tape for electric task. and to remove excess solder from
PCB Track.

Solder Sucker BGA Reballing Kit


Solder pump, is a mechanical vacuum Used to reball and repair Ball-Type
pump. It sucks the solder away from IC.
the solder joint.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 19

Bios I/O KBC Programmers:

EEPROM Programmer BGA Rework Station


MiniPRO TL866CS USB universal Designed for writing and reading
flash EEPROM programmer used to multicontrollers like KB9012
reprogram ic‟s (bios). and KB9010, NPCE388…

Laptop screen EDID EEPROM cable Adapter for 1.8V SPI Flash
Designed for writing and reading Designed for reading and
EDID EEPROM in LED-LCD 30 and writing 1.8V SPI flash W25Q32FW,
40 pin, you can fix white screen error W25Q64FW, MX25U6473f & other
and brightness control errors. compatible like a 3,3V SPI flash.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 20

ESD Safe Tools:

ESD Wrist Strap ESD Gloves


Used to prevent electrostatic Gloves provide general protection of
discharge by safely grounding a products in massive particulation and
person working with electronic electrostatic sensitive work areas.
equipments or at an electronic
assembly facility.

Silicone Desk Mat Anti-Static Mats


Several hole location to set screws, IC Anti-static mats have a high electrical
chips and small parts. resistance. They allow ESD to flow
across the surface at a slow rate
which neutralizes the ESD.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 21

Inspection Tools:

Illuminated Magnifier Table Lamp Magnifying Glass


Magnification lens makes seeing tiny To get magnified view of PCB and
parts easy. components.

USB Digital Microscope HDMI Digital Microscope


Gives you a live image that is very Allow you to view live images, as
similar to what you would see with a stand alone monitor watching the
traditional dissection microscope. enlarged views on the built-in LCD.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 22

Electronic measuring tools:

Fluke Digital Multimeter Oscilloscope


An electronic measuring device that Is an instrument that is used as a
has the ability to measure voltage, graph displaying device of an
current and resistance. It is used to electrical signal. The graph will show
test and check the readings of various how signals change over time.
parts and components of a laptop.

Tweezers Digital Tester Capacitor


Designed to accurately measure small Used to measure capacitance and
chip components. help us to determine if a capacitor is
functioning at the right value.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 23

Laptop Battery Tester


Laptop battery tester which is a very important tools in laptop repairing, it can be
used to test and charge any laptop batteries and check capacity, voltage, current of
brand laptop battery.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 24

Gripping Tools:

Tweezers BGA Rework Station


Used to hold electronic components Used to pick up manipulate small
(ICs, jumper wire etc) While parts electronic components.
soldering and desoldering.

Others Tools:

Laptop DC Power Adapter Kits Digital DC Power Supply


DC plugs power converter, match Supply DC electricity we used to
with external laptop DC power. Detect Shorted component in
motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 25

Solvent Bottle Thermal Paste


Spills & evaporation of alcohol and Application of thermal paste is
cleaning solvents. essential to keep the processor cool.

IR Thermometer :
Used to Measures surface temperatures that are out
of reach or too hot to touch.

You now know the main tools that are used to repair a laptop motherboard.
In the next part we shall take tour discuss laptop hardware.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 26

Part 2
Laptop Parts Tour
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 27

Basic laptop hardware tour


Hardware is the Laptop’s physical part, the stuff you can touch, the software
consists of instructions that makes the hardware to do stuff.

The various parts of a laptop are the Hinges (LCD display stand), Camera cable, Wifi
antenna, Speakers, Palm rest or Top cover, CPU and GPU cooling fan and heat sink
assembly, AC Adapter, Hard disk caddy/case, DC power jack, CMOS battery, Finger
print reader, CPU socket, Battery release latch, USB mini board cable, USB mini
board, mini PCI wirelessboard, Modem board, LED board, VGA board, Bluetooth
board, Infrared board, LCD backlight inverter board, Power button board, Audio
board.

Laptop case
The laptop case serves mainly as a way to physically mount and contain all of the
actual components inside of a laptop, like the motherboard, hard drive, optical
drive, floppy disk drive, etc.

Cases can come in many different sizes. The size and shape of a laptop case is
usually determined by the form factor of the motherboard, since it is the largest
component of most laptop.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 28

Motherboard
The motherboard also known as the Mainboard or Logic Board or System Board,
the motherboard is the main circuit board inside the laptop which holds the
processor, memory and expansion slots and connects directly or indirectly to every
part of the laptop, laptop system boards come in thousands of different shapes
and sizes.

Laptop motherboards are model-specific, you can’t remove motherboard from an


Acer laptop and stick it into a HP laptop.

RAM memory cover door


Plastic cover door, RAM Memory Cover door used to protect RAM.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 29

DVD/CD-RW drives
Removable media drives known as an Optical Disc Drive which allows it to read
and write data from or to a CD/DVD disc, all laptop CD/DVD drives are shaped the
same but they all have different face plates know as front Bezels, there are three
types of optical drives: Compact Disc (CD), Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) and Blu-
Ray Disc (BD).

Different types of connectors found in modern CD/DVD optical disc drives, One drive
has a SATA and the other one has an older slim ATAPI connector and other with IDE
connector.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 30

Battery
Laptop has a battery pack which provides power to the laptop while it‟s not connected
to the wall-plug through AC/DC power adapter, laptop batteries come in many
different shapes and they are model-specific, the laptop battery life depends upon
many conditions and circumstances: screen brightness, intensity of running programs,
the temperature of the working environment, etc.

Current batteries have aperiod of between 2 and 10 hours.

Types of Batteries
Different types of batteries use different types of chemicals and chemical reactions
Some of the more common types of batteries are:
Lithium-ion battery: These batteries are found in laptop, call phones and other
high-use portable equipment.

Nickel-Cadmium: (NiCad) batteries were the first type of battery commonly used
in laptop and older laptop sometimes still use them, they have a life of roughly two
hours between charges, but this life decreases with each charge based on the
memory effect, gas bubbles form in the cell plates, reducing the total amount of
available cell space for recharge.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 31

The only way around this is to discharge the battery completely before recharging
it. The other drawback of NiCad is that if the battery charges too long, it can
explode.
Nickel-Metal Hydride: (NiMH) batteries are the bridge between NiCad and the
newer Lithium-Ion (Lion) batteries. They last longer between charges than NiCad
but overall have a shorter total lifespan. They suffer from the memory effect, but
to a lesser extent than NiCad batteries.

Power adapter
AC adapters provides converts the high voltage AC power from a wall outlet into
the low voltage DC power needed for laptop. The AC/DC adapter provides power
for the laptop and charges the battery.

It‟s very important to use the right adapter for laptop, the output voltage must be the
same, the amperage could be the same or higher than on the original power adapter.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 32

Keyboard
Keyboard which is used to enter commands, text, numerical data and other types
of data by pressing the keys on the keyboard.

The palm rest is the top cover for the laptop which is responsible for holding the
laptop's keyboard and touch pad.

Laptop memory
it is used most often to identify fast, temporary forms of storage. If your laptop's
CPU had to constantly access the hard drive to retrieve every piece of data it
needs, it would operate very slowly. When the information is kept in memory, the
CPU can access it much more quickly. Most forms of memory are intended to store
data temporarily.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 33

The CPU accesses memory according to a distinct hierarchy. Whether it comes


from permanent storage (the hard drive) or input (the keyboard), most data goes
in random access memory (RAM) first.

Types of memory

Read-only memory (ROM) ROM is non-volatile, meaning it holds data even when
the power is ON or OFF.

Random access memory (RAM) RAM is volatile, meaning it holds data only when
the power is ON (only while the laptop is running). When the power is OFF, RAM's
contents are lost.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 34

Some laptop had RAM installed in the motherboard as individual chips.

We have different varieties of RAM in laptops and they can be of DDR1, DDR2,
DDR3 or DDR4 types and they all come under the SDRAM category. When you
want to know the laptop RAM difference, you must understand that though all the four
types of RAM do the same function in providing the memory support to your laptop
during its operation they have some vital differences both in physical design and
performance design.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 35

DDR
Old DDR 1 work with
2.5 VDC or 2 VDC

DDR 2

DDR 2 work with 1.8 VDC

DDR 3

DDR 3 work with 1.5 VDC

DDR 4

DDR 4 work with 1.2 VDC

Hard drive
Older laptops use IDE hard drives, newer laptops use SATA and SSD hard drives,
SATA, SSD and IDE drives are not interchangeable. Hard drives are manufactured
with different interfaces that are used to connect the drive to the laptop.

mSATA SSD IDE Hard Drive

SATA Hard Drive

SATA 3 SSD Drive


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 36

Connection interface on the drive must be the same as the controller on the
motherboard.

Hard Drive Caddy's with Connectors

Some common drive interfaces:


Solid-State Drives An SSD is flash storage. It has no moving parts. So unlike on a
traditional mechanical hard drive.

Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) also called Advanced Technology Attachment


(ATA) is an early drive controller interface that connects computers and hard disk
drives. An IDE interface uses a 40-pin connector.

SATA Serial ATA refers to the serial version of the ATA drive controller interface.
SATA interface uses a 7-pin data connector.

Storage chips (No mechanical


parts)

An SSD fromSanDisk
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 37

Difference between SATA and IDE drive

SATA drive IDE drive

TouchPad – TrackPad
A TrackPad or (Touchpad) is a touch-sensitive interface surface that allows you to
manipulate and interact with your laptop through finger gestures, as laptops typically
do not include mice, the TrackPad provides an alternative way to move the cursor
around the screen, select and open applications or programs, highlight text, interact
with web browsers and more.

TouchPad - TrackPad
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 38

Mouse buttons
A mouse button is a micro switch on a laptop mouse which can be pressed (clicked) to
select or interact with an element of a graphical user interface.

Laptop screen
A laptop screen displays an image generated by the laptop video card. The laptop
screen receives data signal from the video card through the LCD cable, laptop screens
come in many different sizes and resolutions.

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology has been used in laptops for some time.

LCD - CCFL Screen does need an inverter

A backlight lamp also known as CCFL bulb is the main source of light in any LCD
screen.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 39

LED Display (light-emitting-diode display) is a screen display technology that uses


a panel of LEDs as the light source.

LED Screen

Some new laptop have touch screen

Touch Screen
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 40

Screen inverter
Laptop inverter boards know as LCD inverter, FL inverter, screen inverter,
backlight inverter come in different shapes and sizes.

Inverter

The inverter board works as a Power Supply for the backlight lamp mounted inside
the LCD screen, The inverter board converts low voltage DC power supplied by the
motherboard to high voltage AC power needed for the backlight lamp.

When the inverter board works properly the backlight lamp gets power and the LCD
screen lights up. As a result, the image on the screen is bright.

Screen cable
A laptop LCD cable known as Video Cable, Display Cable or Screen Cable, this
cable transfers data signal from the motherboard and video card to the LCD screen.

Video Cable with Webcam Cable Video LVDS Cable


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 41

Web camera
Web camera is another input device, new laptop come with a build-in web camera also
known as webcam. The web camera is located on the top of the display panel.

Web camera

CPU Fan
A CPU cooling fan is a dedicated fan which cools down the heatsink and eventually
the CPU (Processor), usually the CPU cooling fan comes as a part of the heatsink
assembly a metal part drawing heat from the CPU chip, in addition to the CPU cooling
fan, some laptops have a dedicated GPU Graphics Processing Unit fan which cools
down the GPU chip.

The CPU and GPU cooling fans connect directly to the motherboard via a cable
running from the fan, when CPU and GPU chips get hotter the cooling fan spins
faster.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 42

FAN - HeatSink

CMOS battery
The CMOS battery connects directly to the laptop motherboard and helps to retain
important BIOS settings such as system time, date, BIOS configuration while the
laptop is turned off or even when the main battery is removed, the CMOS battery
is rechargeable and it’s getting charged when the laptop is plugged into the mains.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 43

CPU Central Processing Unit


The processor is the main brain or heart of a laptop system. It performs all of the
instructions and calculations that are needed and manages the flow of information
through a laptop.
Both Intel and AMD, the largest microprocessor manufacturers in the world, have
introduced several types of computer processor, each processor type is different
from the other in performance and technology.The latest Intel Core i Series
processors: i3, i5, i7, i9 and AMD Phenom family processors are among high-end
CPU’s.
AMD CPU

Intel CPU

LID close switch


The lid close switch is a small button that locates close to the display hinges. On
some newer models there is no button, because the switch is magnetic. You can
set up your laptop to go to a hibernation mode or to a standby mode when the
LCD is closed. It’s done through power management software. These modes are
triggered when the display is closed and the lid close switch is pressed down.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 44

Front bezel
Screen bezel is the area of a display that surrounds the screen. Thinner bezels help
maximize the screen real estate of a laptops.

Cover-Lid with Wi-Fi Antenna


The Wi-Fi antenna is located in the top or the bottom of the LCD display housing. It
consists of two elements, fed by two cables, a white main designated on the Wi-Fi
card by a white triangle, and a black auxiliary designated on the Wi-Fi card by a
black triangle.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 45

Wi-Fi cards
The Wi-Fi card acts as both a receiver and transmitter. It receives the wireless
signal and communicates with the wireless network, enabling you to access the
Web with your laptop.

Hinges rails
Two pieces of metal that are cut in specific patterns are fit together and have a
round pin where they connect that allows them to rotate against each other in a
limited way.

The hinge needs to avoid stressing the plastic lid at the points where it is screwed
in, but different companies have different ways of handling this.

Hinges Rails Right and Left


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 46

Hinge covers
Laptops have a plastic cover that hides the hinge mechanism.

SD card reader
Card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card. Built-in card
reader in a laptop is the best option if you often copy files to and from a SD card.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 47

Power button board


The power button used to power a laptop (on) and shutdown laptop (off).

Other hardware parts

USB - HDMI - Audio - DC Jack - Power Button - IO Boards


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 48

Motherboard overview
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 49

North bridge
chip
AMD CPU

VGA Chip

RAM Slots
VGA Memory Chip
Memory Chip
CMOS Battery

South bridge
chip

VGA Memory Chip


Memory Chip

RAM Slots

VGA Chip

CPU Socket
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 50

Super I/O

EEPROM (BIOS IC)


South bridge

VGA Memory Chips


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 51

10 YouTube Channels to Follow for Tech Laptop Disassembly


10 of the Best YouTube Channels for learning disassembly laptop
selected from 100 of channels on YouTube and ranked based on
YouTube channel subscribers and popularity.

1 365 Laptop Repair

2 LaptopRepairHelp

3 Parts-People.Com, Inc

4 LaptopScreencom

5 Laptop disassembly

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Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 52

Part 3
Basic Electronics
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 53

The goal of this part is to provide some basic information about electronic components.

What is Electricity?
Electricity is a form of energy caused by charged atomic particles. It can build up in
one place or move from one place to another. When it’s not moving it’s called
“static electricity” and when it is moving it’s called “current electricity” or electrical
current.

What is an Electron?
Everything you see around you is made of Electron
atoms, which are particles so small you can’t Proton
see them without a special type of
Neutron
microscope. But atoms are made of even
smaller particles, called protons, neutrons, and Nucleus
electrons.
Protons and neutrons forman atom’s nucleus
(its center), and electrons orbit the nucleus
like planets orbiting the sun.
Protons and electrons are both electrically
charged: protons have a positive charge, and
electrons have a negative charge. That’s why Atom
the electrons stick with an atom in the first
place. The positive and negative charges act like opposite sides of a magnet and
attract each other.
Certain materials are conductive, which means that if you apply energy to them
(like the energy stored in a battery), the electrons will start moving from one atom
to the next!
The filament inside your light bulb is made of a conductivemetal, meaning it’s full
of electrons just waiting for a push to move them.

Current:
Given an appropriate external force, the movement of electrons is from negatively
charged atoms to positively charged atoms. This flow of electrons is called current
(I). The symbol I is used to represent current. The amount of current is the sum of
the charges of the moving electrons past a given point.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 54

An electron has a very small charge, so the charge of 6.24 1018 electrons is added
together and called a coulomb (C). When one coulomb of charge moves past a
single point in one second it is called an ampere (A). The ampere is named for a
French physicist named André Marie Ampère (1775-1836). Current is measured in
amperes.

Voltage:

When there is an excess of electrons (negative charge) at one end of a conductor


and a deficiency of electrons (positive charge) at the opposite end, a current flow
between the two ends. A current flow through the conductor as long as this
condition persists.

The source that creates this excess of electrons at one end and the deficiency at
the other end represents the potential. The potential is the ability of the source to
perform electrical work. The actual work accomplished in a circuit is a result of the
difference of potential available at the two ends of a conductor. It is this difference
of potential that causes electrons to move or flow in acircuit.

The difference of potential is referred to as electromotive force (emf) or voltage.


Voltage is the force that moves the electrons in the circuit. Think of voltage as the
pressure or pump that moves the electrons. The symbol (E) is used in electronics to
represent voltage.

The unit for measuring voltage is the volt (V), named for Count Alessandro Volta
(1745–1827), inventor of the first cell to produce electricity.

Electrons flow in a circuit because of the difference of potential.

Difference of potential

Load
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 55

Resistance:

As the free electrons move through the circuit, they encounter atoms that do not
readily give up electrons. This opposition to the flow of electrons (the current) is
called resistance (R). Every material offers some resistance or opposition to current
flow. The degree of resistance of a material depends on its size, shape,
and temperature. Materials with a low resistance are called conductors.
Conductors have many free electrons and offer little resistance to current flow. As
previously mentioned, silver, copper, gold and aluminum are examples of good
conductors.

Materials with a high resistance are called insulators. Insulators have few free
electrons and offer a high resistance to current flow. As previously mentioned,
glass, rubber and plastic are examples of good insulators. Resistance is measured
in ohms, a unit named for the German physicist George Simon Ohm (1787–1854).
The symbol for the ohm is the Greek letter omega (Ω).

Voltage Pushes Electrons:

When you attach a battery to the light bulb, you’re applying a voltage across the
filament inside. Voltage pushes electrons through the wire and is measured in volts
(V). The higher the voltage, the more electrons will flow through the wire.
Think of a wire like a tube filled with marbles: when you put a marble in on one
side, a marble pops out on the other side at the exact same time, with no delay.

Voltage
electrons

The more marbles you push in one side, the more pop out of the other. That’s how
electrons be have inside a wire, when a voltage is applied to them.

Current Flows:

Current is the number of electrons flowing through a wire,and it’s measured in


amperes (A), which we usually shorten to amps. You might have also heard the
word current used to describe a river, as in “This river has a strong current.” That
means there’s a lot of water moving down the river.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 56

Electrical current is similar: a strong current means there are a lot of electrons
flowing through a wire. When you increase the voltage in a circuit, the current also
increases.

Just as water flows downhill due to gravity, electric current flows from the positive
battery terminal toward the negative battery terminal. Actually, the electrons
themselves flow in the opposite direction, from the negative side of your battery
to the positive side. But when we talk about electrical current, we say that it flows
from positive (+) to negative (–).
Current

Electrons
Positive Negative

Resistance reduces current:

Voltage pushes electrons to form a current, and resistance restricts the current. It’s
like playing with a garden hose: if you squeeze the hose, you add resistance to the
flow of water so that less water comes out. But if you turn the tap more (like
increasing the voltage), the pressure increases, and more water flows even though
you’re still squeezing the hose in the same way. Resistance in electricity works just
like this, and it’s measured in ohms (Ω).

Resistance

Resistance
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 57

Types of current:

There are two types of current.

Alternating current (AC) refers to an electrical charge that moves back and forth
through circuits at a specific rate.
It usually has much higher voltage and is much more dangerous.

AC is used by anything that plugs into a wall outlet. Remember, don’t experiment
with alternating current from a wall outlet or power strip-it can seriously hurt you!

AC currentsymbol

Direct current (DC) flows in one direction. Typically, anything that is powered by a
battery or has a circuit board inside, such as your cellphone and laptop uses DC.

DC currentsymbol
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 58

How do we measure electricity?


Electricity can be measured in these three ways:

Current

Measured in amps (A), current measures the amount of charge in a circuit over a
period of time. The symbol for current is (I), which comes from the French
intensité de courant (meaning “current intensity”).

Voltage
Measured in volts (V), voltage measures the force causing the electrons to travel.
Stated differently, it measures how much potential energy exists between two
points in a circuit.

Resistance
Measured in ohms (OH-mms) (Ω), resistance measures how hard the electrons
have to be forced to move through a circuit.

Ohm’s Law:
The current that flows in a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage and
inversely proportional to the resistance. This relationship is called Ohm’s law and
can be expressed in a formula as I = V / R. This is the most important and basic
property in electric circuits.

For example, if a voltage of 120V is applied to a resistance of 120Ω, the current will
be I = V / R = 120/120, and 1A of current will flow. Whenever you know two values
among the current, voltage, and resistance in a circuit, you can use Ohm’s law to
calculate the valueyou don’t know.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 59

Power (P) Voltage (V)


The total work Electrical force or
performed by a pressure
current

Current (I) Resistance (R)


The number of Resistance to the
electrons passing in a flow of current
single point
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 60

Effective Resistance:
There are two basic methods of connecting electrical components. Let’s look at
them both with respect to resistance. When there are multiple resistances in a
circuit, we can consider them as a single effective resistance.

The method of connecting resistances in a line is called a series connection. We


calculate the value of the effective resistance in a series connection by totaling the
individual resistance values.

Effective resistance = R0 = R1 + R2 + ... + Rn

In this connection the size of the current that flows in each resistance is the same.
The power supply voltage is voltage divided by each resistance.

Effective Resistance

R0 = R1 + R2+ R3 + … + RN

Series Connecton R1 R2 R3 RN

V1 V2 V3 VN

Power supply voltage

Calculate power supply voltage by dividing voltage


the sum of the resistances

Series connection and effective resistance

If two light bulbs of the same size are connected in series to a power supply, the
current will be halved, and the brightness of each bulb will be dimmer than it was
when just a single bulb was connected, because the effective resistance is doubled.
At this time, the voltage at both sides of each light bulb will be half the value of the
power supply voltage.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 61

Two bulbs connected


in series

Current Current

Bulbs now shine more dimly,


because current to the bulb
is half what it was.

Series connection of light bulbs

The other basic method of connecting resistances is called a parallel connection. At


this time, the value of the effective resistance can be obtained by calculating the
reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of each resistance.

1
Effective resistance = R0 =
1 1 1

R1 R2 RN

The total resistance when two resistances are connected in parallel can be
obtained as follows.

R1 * R2
Effective resistance = R0 =
R1 + R2

In a parallel circuit, the voltage applied to each resistance is the same, because the
current branches and flows to each resistance.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 62

Current branches Parallel


to each resistance connection

Effective resistance
1 Current
R0 =
1 + 1 + 1 +…1
R1 R2 R3 RN
Voltage applied to each
resistance is the same.

Power supply voltage

Parallel connection and effective resistance

If two light bulbs of the same size are connected in parallel to a power supply, the
brightness of each bulb is the same as it is when there is only one bulb. Since the
current flowing to each bulb is the same as the current flowing when only one bulb
is connected, the total current is doubled.

One light bulb Two bulbs connected in parallel

Current Current

Bulbs now shine with the same


brightness, since total current is doubled.

Series connection of light bulbs

The 220V electric appliances that we use in our homes are connected in parallel to
a 220V power supply. If we increase the number of electric appliances connected
to the power supply, the total current flowing also increases.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 63

Binary Number System:


Normally, when you talk about numbers, you use decimal numbers, which are in
the base-10 number system. In base-10 numbers, a digit can have one of 10
possible values, from 0 to 9. But digital circuits can work with only two voltages
(high and low), so they can understand only binary numbers.
Binary is also called the base-2 number system, and a binary number’s digits have
only two possible values: 0 and 1.

Here’s how you’d count to 10 in both decimal and binary:

Decimal Number Binary Number


0 0
1 1
2 10
3 11
4 100
5 101
6 110
7 111
8 1000
9 1001
10 1010

What’s going on here? The number 2 in decimal is 10 in binary and 4 in decimal is


100 in binary!

You can figure out the value of any number in any system using the digits and their
position. The right most digit always gets multiplied by 1. Going left from there,
each position’s value equals the base times the value of the previous position.

In decimal, the base is 10, so the second position’s value is 10, or 10 × 1; the third
position’s value is 100, or 10 × 10; the fourth position’s value is 1000, or 10 × 100;
and so on. Here’s an example:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 64

Multipy by 10
Multipy by 100 Multiply by 1

181
100x1 10x8 1x1

100 + 80 + 1 = 181
In the number 181, the first digit is 1, the second digitis 8, and the third digit is 1.
Once you multiply those digits by their position values, you can add the resulting
values toget 181. You don’t need to use this method to figure out decimal
numbers, though. It’s pretty clear that 181 equals 181!
But this method is very useful for finding the value of binary numbers. Binary
follows the same rules, but it uses a base of 2 instead.

Bits and Bytes:


Each digit in a binary number is called a bit (that’s short for binary digit), and
computers handle numbers in blocks of eight bits called a byte. The binary number
1011 0101 has eight bits, so it’s a byte. You can interact with a computer in many
ways, but all your mouse clicks, key presses, webcam videos, and soon need to be
translated into bits and bytes before the computer can understand them.

In fact, when working with computers and other digital gadgets, you usually see
much, much larger numbers than just 1 byte. All the files on a computer are
collections of bytes, but if you tried to describe their size in bytes alone, those
numbers would be huge! That’s why files are usually described in larger units, like
kilobytes (kB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), terabytes (TB), and so on. Here’s
what those units mean:

1 KB = 1,000 bytes
1 MB = 1,000 kB = 1,000,000 bytes
1 GB = 1,000 MB = 1,000,000 kB = 1,000,000,000 bytes
1 TB = 1,000 GB = 1,000,000 MB = 1,000,000,000 kB = 1,000,000,000,000 bytes

If a computer’s hard disk can hold 1 TB of data, then it can hold one trillion bytes,
which is eight trillion ones and zeros!
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 65

Logical:
Logic is a way of reaching a conclusion based on pieces of information that you
know to be true or false. For example, imagine you know the following statement
is true, beyond a doubt:

Statement 1: If there are oranges inyour fridge and you have an orange squeezer,
then you’re able to make orange juice.

If you trust the preceding statement, then there are two conditions to check
before you can make orange juice:

Condition 1: There are oranges in your fridge.

Condition 2: You have an orange squeezer.

If you check your kitchen and find that these conditions are true, then you can
logically conclude that you can make orange juice.

Computers use Boolean logic, which is a system of logic that works only with the
values true and false to convert ones and zeros into actions. For a computer to
know whether you can make orange juice or not, it would have to reach that
conclusion through Boolean logic. Let’s try thinking like a computer!

First, look for the conditions in Statement 1 that affect whether you can make
orange juice or not. In this case, the conditions are the two phrases between “if”
and “then,” joined by “and.” Assign them letters as follows:

There are oranges in your fridge. = A

You have an orange squeezer. = B

The conclusion is the statement after “then.” Give it aletter, too:

You’re able to make orange juice. = Q

With these letters, you could rewrite Statement 1 as “If A and B, then Q.” In
Boolean logic short hand, that looks like this:
A AND B = Q
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 66

This is a logic equation, where AND is an operator like addition or subtraction.


When both statements on either side of AND are true, the conclusion Q is true.

Given Condition 1 and Condition 2, A and B are both true. Substitute both into the
equation to get:
True AND True = Q
Q = True

Because both A and B are true, then Q must be true. Time to make orange juice!

How a Computer Decides When It Can Make Orange Juice

Condition A Condition B Result Q


(There are oranges in your fridge.) (You have an orange squeezer (You’re able to make orange juice.)

False False False


False True False
True False False
True True True!

Logic Gates:
Many of the circuits inside your computer are physical versions of logic equations,
complete with smaller circuits called logic gates, which are physical logical
operators. A logic gate takes ones and zeros-representing true and false,
respectively-as inputs and then outputs a 1 or 0 based on the results of the
equation inside.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 67

AND Gates Check for Two True Inputs:


The AND gate is the physical form of the AND operator you used to decide whether
you were able to make orange juice. An AND gate has two or more inputs - A and
B, for example - and one output - Q, for example. It checks whether A and Bare
both 1, and if they are, then Q is 1; otherwise, the output is 0. Q is 1 only if both A
and B are 1; if one or both inputs are 0, the output is 0.

I find it helpful to write out the values of Q that result from different input
combinations in a truth table. This truth table shows all possible input
combinations for the AND gate and what the output will be for each. In a truth
table, 0 standsfor false, and 1 stands for true.

AND gate

A B Q = A AND B
O O O
O I O
A I O O
B Q
I I I
Symbol Truth table

OR Gates Check for One True Input:


The OR gate checks whether input A or input B is 1. If either is 1 or both are 1, then
the output Q is also 1. But if both inputs are 0, then the output is 0.

OR gate

A B Q + A OR B
O O O
Input Output O I I
A I I I
Q
B I O I
Symbol Truth table
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 68

NOT Gates Flip Inputs:


The NOT gate, also called an inverter, has only one input and one output, and its
function is very simple: the output is the opposite of the input. If the input is 1,
then the output is 0. If the input is 0, the output is 1.

NOT gate

Input Output A Q = NOT A


O I
A Q
I O

A Bigger AND Gate:


AND gates and OR gates can have more than two inputs. For example, here’s a 4-
input AND gate symbol:

4-input AND gate

A
B
Q
C
D

Because it’s an AND gate, the result will be 1 only if all four inputs are 1; otherwise,
it will be 0. That is, the output Q is true (1) if all four inputs—A, B, C, and D—are
true (1):
Q = A AND B AND C AND D

We can also make a 4-input AND gate from three 2-input AND gates, like this:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 69

4-input AND gate

A
B
Q

C
D
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 70

Part 4
Electronic Components
types and functions and Test
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 71

The Main Electronic Components in Laptop Motherboard

1 Capacitor Stores an electrical charge for a short period of time

2 Resistor Limit the flow of electrons, reducing current

Resists changes in the electrical current when passing


3 Inductor
through it

Protects the circuit from the risk of increasing electricity


4 Fuse
current

5 Diode Allows the electric current to pass in one direction only

Generates a very precise frequency electrical signal at a


6 Crystal oscillator
specified time

7 Transistor Transistors are used when it is necessary to amplify


voltage, current, and power.

An integrated circuit is a collection of electronic


8 IC
components (resistors, transistors,capacitors, etc.)

The electronic components shown in the figure above are the main components
you will find in the laptop motherboard, but you will find them in the form of
different shapes and sizes, according to the design of the electronic board.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 72

We’re going to give you a brief overview of common electronic components and
explain what their functions are, units of measurement and methods of testing
them.

Capacitor

The capacitor is like a rechargeable battery; you can charge a capacitor and use its
energy to power something. But a battery can hold much more energy than a
capacitor. A battery can power an LED for days without recharging, while most
capacitors can power one for only a few seconds at most.

How Capacitors Work:


On the inside, capacitors are very simple devices. They’re made of two metal
plates placed very close together, with a material such as paper in between. To
save space, the metal plates and the material between them are folded or rolled
into a compact package.

Terminal

Metal Plates

Dielectric (material to keep


plates apart, such as paper)

Capacitor Dielectric (material to keep


plates apart, such as paper)

Capacitor used for many purposes:

- Storing and discharging the current according to the needs of the Electronic circuit
- The link between electronic circuits
- Smoothing the electrical current
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 73

Typesof Capacitors
You will notice that there are several typesof capacitors:

Electrolytic Capacitors Plastic Film Capacitors

SMD Ceramic Capacitors Ceramic Capacitors

Tantalum Capacitors SMD Tantalum Capacitors


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 74

Aluminum Capacitors SMD AluminumCapacitors

Photo showing three different types of capacitors

SMD Solid Capacitors

SMD Ceramic Capacitors

SMD Tantalum Capacitor


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 75

Capacitor Features:
Capacitors are measured in farads or more commonly in micro farads and
PicoFarads. The name comes from Michael Faraday (1791-1867) a very interesting
man.

Every capacitor will have two important ratings: capacitance and voltage.

1- Capacitance :

Capacitance is a way of saying how much energy the capacitor can hold at a given
voltage. This value measured in pico-Farads (pF), nano-Farads (nF) or micro-Farads
(µF) and is marked onto the body of the capacitor as numbers, letters or colored
bands.

2- Voltage :

The Working Voltage is another important capacitor characteristic that defines the
maximum continuous voltage either DC or AC that can be applied to the capacitor
without failure during its working life.

3- Equivalent Series Resistance(ESR) :

The Equivalent Series Resistance or ESR, of a capacitor is the AC impedance of the


capacitor when used at high frequencies and includes the resistance of the
dielectric material, the DC resistance of the terminal leads, the DC resistance of the
connections to the dielectric and the capacitor plate resistance all measured at a
particular frequency and temperature.

Aluminum Capacitor Electrolytic Capacitor

The maximum
voltage is 10v

The maximum
voltage is 6.3v

Capacitance rating
Capacitance rating is 2200 µF
is 1000 µF
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 76

Did You Know?


When you are wanting to replacing a capacitor, you must to use the
same or higher capacitance rating and same or higher voltage rating or
very close to it.

SMD Ceramic Capacitors written the


side it letter C with number

Non Polar Capacitor Symbol like SMD Ceramic Capacitors

Polar Capacitor Symbol like Electrolytic Capacitors

Capacitors are symbolized on mainboard with the letter C and


sometimes symbolized with two letters like PC and sometimes
does not have beside it any letters in some mainboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 77

SMD ceramic capacitors


without voltage or capacitance
value

Some capacitors don’t have the value of capacity or voltage value written on them
like ceramic capacitors.

Did You Know?


When SMD ceramic capacitor is damaged, you can replaced with
another SMD ceramic capacitor by same size and will function
without the any problem.

Polarized Capacitor
Can only be connected to a circuit in one direction must be inserted in the proper
orientation with respect to applied voltage. If a polarized capacitor was connected
to a circuit incorrectly, at best it won’t work as intended. At worst, an incorrectly
connected polarized capacitor will smoke, spark, and be one very dead part.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 78

PolarizedCapacitor

Electrolytic Capacitor SMD Tantalum Capacitor

SMD Tantalum Capacitor Aluminum Capacitor

Non-Polarized Capacitor mean that they can be inserted into a circuit around
either way.

Non Polarized Capacitor

SMD Ceramic Capacitors Plastic Film Capacitors

Tantalum Capacitors Ceramic Capacitors


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 79

Positive Side

Negative Side

Bar across one end of this tantalum capacitors provides the capacitor
positive lead polarity

White line drawn on Bar show direction


motherboard show of the positive
you the positive tantalum capacitor
tantalum capacitor
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 80

Non-polar capacitors like ceramic capacitors which have no specific orientation for
installation on the motherboard we can install them in both directions

Ceramic capacitors without a specific


direction because this is non-polar
type can be installed in both direction

Capacitores NEC Proadlizer

Proadlizer capacitor is a group of capacitors grouped in


one package and Manufacturer use this capacitor to
reduce the cost of production and the area occupied by
components in the motherboard design.

33 Capacitors(4 aluminum+29 ceramic) 1 CapacitorProadlizer


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 81
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 82

Capacitors testing

There are three main ways to test capacitors.

1- Visual inspection:
This is the first thing must be done when you repair any laptop motherboard,
we should check the electronic components to make sure that there are no
traces of burning or roasting on any electronic component, first scan around the
motherboard looking for capacitors which has its top will either swell or burst
open.

the upper surface of the electrolytic capacitor is inflated

In this case, you do not need to check the capacitors, just direct replace it and
retest the motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 83

2- Using Digital Capacitance Meter

Digits LCD Display

Zero adjustment+- 20pF approx

9 test ranges from 200pF to 20mF

Be sure that capacitor is fully


discharged before tested

Socket use it to plug leads


of capacitor directly for
measurement

Test leads put RED one into positive


lead of capacitor and put BLACK lead
into negative of capacitor
3- Using ESR Meter

This is the latest technology in testing capacitors. It is used to check on electrolytic


capacitors and the advantage is that you can perform capacitor testing while the
capacitor is still in circuit, it can test aluminum electrolytic capacitors, film
capacitors, ceramic, high voltage capacitors, etc. It also has the function to check
inductors and coils too.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 84

4- Using Digital Multimeter

Using the Continuity test or the Buzzer mode

Testing SMD Ceramic Capacitor

1) Put the two ends of the measurement 1) Sound of a buzzer with 0 value so
on the ceramic capacitor. capacitor is damage (short circuit)
2) Shows value without sound of a buzzer
so ceramic capacitor is Good.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 85

Resistor

A resistor is a passive electrical component with a primary function to limit the


flow of electric current, adjust signal level, to divide voltages, resistors come in
different shapes and sizes. We measure the amount of resistance with aunit called
Ω ohms.

Figure 1 Resistance Figure 2 SMD Resistor

Have colored bands on them Tiny surface mount resistor

Figure 3 SMD Network Resistor


A group of resistors have the same value in a single package. They primarily act
as a voltage divider, which split the voltage in a circuit to smaller amounts.
Whether you want a thick film resistor array or thin film resistor array, find them
in great price range at Future Electronics. We are the reputed distributor of
resistor networks from leading brands.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 86

SMD Resistors with letter R, numbers


and letter on their surface indicating
their value

Zero Ohm resistance, used as a


connection between two points
on the motherboard (it function
as a fuse)
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 87

On the Motherboard the symbol for resistors is usually present by letter R, an


example is the R5 & R9, R10 on the motherboard below.

On the Schematic diagram the Resistor symbol is usually present by

Understanding the Resistor Code:

When you look at a resistor, you’ll notice that it has several colored bands. These
colors tell you the value of the resistor, to find the value of a resistor, use the table
below.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 88
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 89

Most resistors have four color bands. From the left, the first band gives the first
digit of the resistance value. In this example, the first band is yellow, so the first
digit is 4. The second digit is given by the second band, which is violet for 7.
Together, this gives us the base value of 47. Next we multiply 47 by the value of
the third band—the multiplier. In this example, the orange band stands for 103 Ω,
so we multiply 47 by 1000:
47 × 1000 Ω = 47000 Ω = 47 kΩ

Note: If a resistor has five bands instead of four, then the first three bands are
digits, and the fourth is the multiplier.

But the actual resistance of a resistor usually won’t match the value written on it!
That sounds a bit crazy, right? It’s hard for manufacturers to create resistors with a
very exact resistance value, so instead, they make sure the resistors are some
where around that value and tell you how far off the real value could be.

This is where tolerance comes in. Our example resistoris labeled 47 kΩ with a
tolerance of 5 percent. This means that the resistor’s real resistance could be any
value 5 percent higher or 5 percent lower than 47 kΩ. Because 5 percent of 47 is
around 24, the real resistance could be anywhere between 43 kΩ and 49 kΩ.

Usually, the three bands that tell you the resistance value are grouped together,
and the band that tells you the tolerance is spaced a bit farther away. But
sometimes the bands are so close that it’s hard to see which three bands give the
resistance. Fortunately, the fourth band is typically gold or silver, so if you see a
gold or silver band, it’s safe to assume this is the tolerance band.

How to Write large values


Our resistance color chart shows some resistance values written with k and M in
front of the Ω symbol. These are part of a short hand that makes it easier to write
really large values. If you have a resistor that’s 300,000 Ω, it’s common to shorten
that to 300 kΩ instead, where k is short for kilo, which means one thousand. The
M stands for mega, which means one million. So instead of writing
3,000,000 Ω you could write 3 MΩ.

You can use online website or program to calculation of resistor value.


https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/conversion-calculators/conversion-
calculator-resistor-color-code-4-band
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 90

Resistor Testing

1- Visual inspection: Checks for missing or any burning on resistance.

Example of Burnt resistances

2- Using Digital Multimeter: You can check the resistor resistance by selecting the
ohm range in the digital multimeter, If the resistor is in circuit, you will generally
have to remove the resistor so you are testing only the resistor value and not the
other components in the circuit.

Set the dial to


resistance mode
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 91

Connect test probes across the two points of the resistor as shown in the photo,
polarity isn’t important, value of resistance shown is 9.86 kΩ.

Note: All resistors have a specific tolerance rating. The tolerance rating is marked
by a color band on the end of the resistor’s body, normally the band is gold
indicating 5 % tolerance. If the tolerance band is silver, then the rating is 10 %.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 92

How to test SMD Resistors:


Because of the small size of SMD resistors, there is often not room for the
traditional color band code to be printed on them. Therefore, new resistor SMD
codes were developed. The most commonly seen codes are the three and four-
digit system and an Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) system called EIA-96.

Examples of 3 and 4
Digits coding system

Examples of Digits
coding systemEIA-96
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 93

Let’s take an example of a 3 and 4 Digit System: In this system the first two
or three digits indicate the numerical resistance value of the resistor and the last
digit gives a multiplier. The number of the last digit indicates the power of ten by
which to multiply the given resistor value. Here are some examples of values under
this system:

Significant Value Multiply Factor Significant Value Multiply Factor

This example, value of resistance is This example, value of resistance is

792 X10º = 792 X 1= 792 Ω 31X10² = 31X 100 =3100 Ω


= 31 kΩ

The R or decimal between 2 and 3 This resistance has the letter R as first
which means the value of = 2.3 Ω digit represents a decimal so this
resistance has a value of = 0.382 Ω

This resistance has the only a zero and This resistance has 3 zero and also
represents a zero-ohm resistor with no called a zero-ohm resistor with no
resistance. resistance.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 94

Select Ohms range and place your test probes across the two points of the
SMD resistance as shown in the photo. this SMD resistance belongs to the
system of coding 3-4 Digits System by use this system coding we’ll find value of
resistance: 561 = 560 ohms or 0.560 k ohms.

This resistance is 0 ohm (zero-ohm resistance) it functions as a fuse.


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 95

The multimeter show OL that means bad resistance.

Once the SMD resistors are burnt, the only way to find out the value is through
a schematic diagram or comparison from the same motherboard model.

Now we take a look at another popular coding method the EIA 96 System this
system is based on a 96 series of preferred values.

by looking up for code of 38 in above table 1 we find the value of 243

in table 2 we find that the letter C means a multiplied factor of 100


this resistor is therefore a value of 24.3kΩ.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 96

The SMD resistor coding is the same as the SMD network resistor. An SMD
network resistor consists of few resistors that have same ohms value in a single
package.

The testing method is the same as a normal type of resistor, Calculate the SMD
resistor code first, above example we have SMD network resistor marking on it
number 510 its means 51k ohms.
Then place the test probes across the two ends of the SMD network resistor and
read the result directly from the digital meter LCD display.

Same ohms value


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 97

Inductor - Coil

An electric wire wound in loops is called a coil. If current flows in a coil, a magnetic
field is generated that goes through the inside of the coil. If an iron core is inserted
in the coil, the magnetic field is concentrated in the iron, and it becomes a strong
electromagnet. The strength of an electromagnet is proportional to the product of
the current and the number of loops in the coil, if the direction of the current is
reversed, the polarity of the electromagnet is also reversed. If the current is
stopped, the magnetic force of the electromagnet disappears, on the schematic
diagram and on the motherboard an inductor is represented by letter (L).

Current

Magnetic
field Current

Current

Magnetic field

Below are a few examples of inductors:

Inductors Types
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 98

SMD Inductor / SMD Coil and its side is


written letter L with number and
sometimes written with two letters like
PL or DL

The symbol of Coil on schematic diagram

Other types of Inductor and its side


is written letter PL with number

Other types o fInductor written the


side it letters PL with number
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 99

Inductor Testing

Set to the buzzer mode to test an inductor with digital multimeter. If the inductor
is ok, the buzzer will sound and if the inductor is open (internally) or shorted there
will be no sound.

Buzzer mark appears on the screen

Set the multimeter to buzzer mode


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 100

Fuse

A fuse is a very thin wire, the function of fuses is to stop higher than normal
current from flowing through an electronic circuit. It is designed to protect
electronic components from being damaged, fuse come in different sizes and
shapes. A fuse is labeled as (F) in a motherboard.

Different types of SMD Fuse

SMD Fuse symbols on schematic diagram

SMD Fuse symbolized on mainboard & schematic diagram with the


letter F and sometimes symbolized with two letters like PF, FP and
next to it is a number.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 101

Testing Fuse
Touch the probes to both end of the fuse. You can check the fuse while it still in
mainboard or out of mainboard. A good fuse reading should show continuity or
read ZERO ohms. A bad fuse is open which will not showany reading on your
meter.

You may also set to the buzzer range to test a fuse with digital meter. If the fuse is
ok, the buzzer will sound and if the fuse is damage there will be no sound.

The red and black test probes can be either way when testing fuses
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 102

Diode

Diode only allow current to flow in one direction, and they’re always polarized. A
diode has two terminals. The positive (-) side is called the anode, and the negative
(+) one is called the cathode. They are made from silicon slabs “doped” with
materialsthat cause the one-way current flow.

The diode symbol with the anode and cathode marked on schematic diagram

Current through a diode can only flow from the anode to the cathode, which
would explain why it’s important for a diode to be connected in the correct
direction. Physically, every diode should have some sort of indication for either the
anode or cathode pin. Usually the diode will have a line near the cathode pin,
which matches the vertical line in the diode circuit symbol.

Below are a few examples of diodes.

Diode SMD Diode


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 103

SMD diode use a line to mark which


pin is the cathode

Diode use a grey ring to mark


which pin is the cathode

Diode symbolized on mainboard and circuit diagram with the


letter D.

Diodes symbols on schematic diagram

Zener Diode Schottky Diode Silicon Diode


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 104

SMD Dual Diode is a single package with 2 diodes, middle pin is the negative.

1 3

SMD Dual Diode

Don’t think these two SMD are transistors, in fact they are SMD dual diode, look at
marking on the motherboard D18, D17, letter D is diode symbol on motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 105

Testin Diode

When using digital meter, you should set your meter to Diode test range and again
you should expect reading one side and when you reverse the probe you will get
no reading.

Cathode

Anode

Note: In some cases, it may be necessary to remove one end of the diode from the
circuit in order to test the diode. A good SMD diode should have one reading and if
you get two readings that means the diode already shorted.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 106

Zener Diode

A Zener diode allows current to flow from anode to cathode like normal diode, but
it also permits current to flow in the reverse direction when its Zener voltage is
reached, Zener diodes have a highly doped p-n junction. Normal diodes will also
break down with a reverse voltage but the voltage and sharpness of the knee are
not as well defined as for a Zener diode. Also, normal diodes are not designed to
operate in the breakdown region but Zener diodes can reliably operate in this
region.

Zener Diode SMD Zener Diode

Zener diode symbol on the circuit diagram and motherboard usually begin with
letter “ZD”.

Anode (+) Cathode (-)

Zener diode symbol on schematic diagram


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 107

Testing Zener Diode

Testing a Zener diode is just like testing a normal diode, when using digital meter,
you should set your meter to diode test range and again you should expect reading
one side and when you reverse the probe you will get no reading.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 108

Transformer

A transformer is a device that takes electricity turns into a magnetic field, then
turns it back into electricity. Depending on how the transformer is designed,
transformers are used to increase or decrease the alternating voltages in electric
power applications, A transformer is labeled as “T” on a schematic diagram.

Transformer symbol

SMPS Transformer are used in switch mode power supplies in electronic


equipment such as adapters of laptop and Inverter board of LCD and TVs, etc. The
input is called the primary winding while the outputs are the secondary winding.

SMPS
SMPSTransformer
Transformer

Switch Mode Power Supply Transformer section in adapter

CCFL Lamps output


voltage connector

High Voltage Transformer

Switch Mode Power Supply Transformer in Inverter board of LCD


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 109

Crystal Oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a


vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very
precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time, to
provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits.
Quartz crystals are manufactured for frequencies from a few tens of kilohertz to
tens of megahertz. More than two billion, you well find a crystal in a digital device
like a laptop, DVD player or MP3 player.

Crystal symbolized on motherboard & schematic diagram


with the letter X or Yand next to it a number YK1.

Symbol Crystalon schematic diagram

Crystal in the laptop motherboard, printed with


letters YK1 and their frequencies 14.318 MHZ
marked on their body.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 110

Crystal symbol in diagram,


printed with letters YK1 and
their frequencies 14.318
MHZ marked on their body.

For testing crystal oscillators, you will must have digital multimeter with Hz mode
or testing by a crystal tester or use or oscilloscope. The measurement must be
taken when the motherboard power is ‘On’. Put the probe of the digital
multimeter or crystal to the crystal pin and read the measurement. That means
place the black probe to cold ground and the red probe to the crystal pins.

Hz function in a digital
multimeter
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 111

Transistor

Transistors are semiconductor devices with three terminals that can act as
amplifier controls or electrically controlled switches.

Amplifier: when it works as an amplifier, it takes a tiny electric input current at


one lead and produces a bigger output current at the other lead.

Switch: A small electric current through a lead can switch on a bigger current flow
through the other leads of the transistor.

In the photo below, you can see several types of transistors:

Semiconductors

Transistors are made of silicon which is a semiconductor. A semiconductor is a


material that is not a pure conductor, it has higher resistance than a conductor,
but much lower resistance than insulators.

N-Type
We can introduce impurities into silicon, so that it works in a specific way, this
process is called doping.
If we dope the silicon with chemical elements such as phosphorous, arsenic or
antimony, which have 5 valence electrons, the silicon gains free extra electrons
that can carry an electric current.
When we add these elements, we are introducing electrons. As electrons are
negative, this type of semiconductor is called N-Type (negative type).

P-Type
On the other hand, we can dope silicon with other elements like boron or gallium.
As these elements have only three outer electrons, when they are mixed into the
silicon matrix, they create “holes” with absence of electrons.
So, this type of silicon has less extra free electrons, and so it is called the P-Type
(positive type).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 112

N-Type P-Type
Donorimpurityco
ntributes free Acceptorimpurity
electrons creates a hole

Types of transistors

Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) Unipolar Junction Transistor

PNP Transistor NPN Transistor MOSFET JFET

N-Channel N-Channel

P-Channel P-Channel

The two major families of transistors are bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and
field-effect transistors (FETs).

Bipolar junction transistors require an input or output current at their control


leads.

Field-effect transistors practically don’t require currentonly voltage.


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 113

A- Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJTs)

Bipolar junction transistors consist of a three-layer sandwich of doped


semiconductor materials. We can have two types of bipolar junction transistors:
The N-P-N and the P-N-P. Each layer has a pin. On bipolar junction transistors the
three pins are labeled: Collector (C), Base (B), Emitter (E).

In the photo below, you can see the symbols for NPN and PNP transistor respectively.

NPN Transistor PNP Transistor

The letter „Q‟ is used to label transistors in a schematic and motherboard

How the Transistor Works

When a little bit of current flows from the base of a transistor to the emitter, the
transistor “closes the switch” so that current can also flow from the collector to
the emitter.
With no voltage on the transistor’s base, or the controlling pin, no current flows
from the base to the emitter. That means no current can flow between the
collector and the emitter either.

A transistor that allows current to pass is considered on, a transistor that doesn’t
allow current to pass is considered off.

Apply a small positive electrical to


the Base, current will also flow from
1- Electrical current flow from the
the Collector to the Emitter.
Collector to the Emitter when
the Base is on State.
On State
2- Electrical current not flow from
the Collector to the Emitter
when the Base is off State.

Off State

The mechanism of work the transistor NPN


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 114

Apply a small Negative electrical to the


Base, current will also flow between the
Emitter and the Collector. 1- Electrical current flow from the
Emitter to Collector when the
Off State Base is on State.

2- Electrical current not flow from


the Emitter to the Collector
On State
when the Base is off State.

The mechanism x of the transistor NPN

Transistor Testing and Identifying the Leads

NPN and PNP transistors fall into the family of bipolar transistors and are easily
tested with a multimeter. The transistor is basically and OFF device and must be
turned on by applying forward bias to the emitter base junction. Transistors are
three-terminal devices that act like two diodes back-to-back. Each junction, like a
diode should show low resistance with its forward biased and high resistance when
it’sreverses biased.
In the following diagram, two diodes are connected together and although the
construction of a transistor is more complex, we see the transistor as two diodes
when testing it.

The bipolar transistor consists of three layers of n-type and p-type semiconductor
material arranged either in a npn or pnp configuration.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 115

Important Note: Transistors come in a variety of case styles. The pin-out for the
emitter, base and collector is notthe same from device to device. Likewise, it’s
impossible to determine if a transistor is a PNP or NPN type by it’s shape or case
design. Everything can be determined using the transistors part number. To get the
right pin-out, you will have to refer to a datasheet and look up the device using the
part number.

Another trick for common, low-power transistors, is to connect the ohmmeter to


the collector and emitter, leaving the base hanging open. Apply polarity so the
collector will be reverse biased (positive for NPN, negative for PNP.) Now wet a
finger and thumb. Hold the base and collector leads in this finger/thumb clamp
(don't let them touch). This injects some current into the base. If the ohmmeter
resistance reading decreases, the transistor is working. By holding the base and
emitter leads between thumb and finger, the resistance should go Up. These
simple tests often tell if you have a PNP or NPN transistor, and if it is good or bad.

If you have access to a transistor’s data sheet, then you already know a lot about
the transistor. You know whether it is NPN or PNP and which lead is the emitter,
the base and the collector, However, the transistor's data sheet will show you that.

The first page is usually a summary of the part's function and features.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 116

1- Manufacturer Name : FAIRCHILD


2- Transistor type: MMBT2222A
3- Electrode the transistor : NPN
4- Features and characteristics of transistors
5- Physical form (package) of the transistor MMBT2222A is called SOT-23 and
another transistor PZT2222A is called SOT-223

Little tip on how to test a transistor

Testing NPN transistor like two diodes connected back to back as shown down

Collector
Base

Emitter

1. Testing between Base and Collector expect high and low on your meter (diode
test).
2. Testing between the Base and Emitter expect again high and low on your
meter (on diode test).
3. Testing Collector and Emitter expect high both ways.

Testing NPN transistor…again use the same principle

B) Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs)

Another type of transistor is the MOSFET or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect
Transistor is acomponent similar to the BJT in the fact that it can amplify or switch
electronic signals. The MOSFET has three terminals or leadsare known as the Gate,
Source and Drain. The voltage on the gate terminal controls the conductance of the
circuit between the drain and the source.

Apply a small positive electrical to


the Gate, current will also flow from
the Drain to the Source. 1- Electrical current flow from the
Drian to the Source when the
On State Gate is on State.

2- Electrical current not flow from


the Drain to the Source when
Off State the Gate is off State.

N-Channel MOSFET
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 117

Apply a small positive electrical to 1- Electrical current flow from the


the Gate, current will also flow from Source to the Drain when the
the Source to the Drain. Gate is on State.

Off State
2- Electrical current not flow from
the Source to the Drain when
the Gate is off State.

On State P-Channel MOSFET

Testing MOSFETs
You should know that most of the Mosfet has a Flyback diode between source and
drain, so that when testing you will get a reading in one direction between source and
drain and this is normal.

A Fly back diode inside The


Mosfet and negative lead of
flyback diode connected with
drain lead of Mosfet

N-Channel MOSFET

Fly back diode inside the Mosfet


and negative lead of flyback
diode connected with source lead
of Mosfet

N-Channel MOSFET
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 118

N-channel MOSFET

Set to the diode test mode


1- Put the black test lead on the
drain pin and put the red test
lead on the source pin
2- You should get a voltage
reading of between 0.45-0.7

Reverse the test leads

1- The red test lead is on the drain


pin and the black test lead is on
the source pin
2- You should get an O.L
Reading.

Note: If you get a low reading in both directions between source and drain the
Mosfet is considered shorted and if you get an O.L reading in both forward and
reverse bias directions the Mosfet is considered open.

P-channel MOSFET
Testing the P-channel Mosfet transistor is just the same way a show you checked the
N-channel Mosfet transistor.

Set to the diode test mode

1- The black test lead is on the


drain pin and red the test lead
is on the source pin
2- You should get an O.L
Reading.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 119

Reverse the test leads

1- Put the red test lead on the


drain pin and put the black test
lead on the source pin
2- You should get a voltage
reading of between 0.45 - 0.7

You should always try and find a datasheet for the MOSFET you are testing, inside
the datasheet you can find lots of useful information, let‟s take example how to test
Mosfet transistor with help of the datasheet.
We will search for the DataSheet for Mosfet transistor model APM2510N.

First, read the part number printed on the Mosfet and then go to www.google.com
search engine or use a search engine like AllDataSheet.com and write one of these
keywords as shown below:
APM2510N datasheet
APM2510N pdf
APM2510N code
APM2510N circuit
APM2510N marking
APM2510N diagram
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 120

Download datasheet file to your computerand open datasheet to know the type the
transistor that we want to test it and properties and identify which pin is the drain, gate
and the source.

When you read the first page you will find a lot information, type and features and
characteristics of the transistor.

1- Manufacturer: ANPEC
2- Transistor model name: APM2510N
3- Transistor type: N-Channel MOSFET
4- Physical form of the transistor (TO-252) and Pin Configuration Definitions G,D,S
5- Transistor Symbol.
6- Features of transistors as voltage rating, maximum current and maximum voltage,
these features are described in detail in the table on page 2.
7- Applications: this tell us for what we can used this transistor here the manufacturer
used this type in desktop computer and dc/dc converters.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 121

Set a multimeter to “Diode mode” and connect the black test lead to pin drain “D” and
connect the red test lead to the pin source “S”. working Mosfet will have reading
between 0.45-0.7

Reverse the leads so the black lead isconnected to the source “S” and the red lead is
connected to the drain “D”. The multimeter should indicate the OL mark. (Over
Limit).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 122

You should keep in your mind the transistor comes in different physical size, shape,
let‟s first get familiar with A Transistor Outline number or TO, some TO numbers are
shown here:

DIP-8 DFN SO-8 FL


SOIC-8 or SOP-8

TO-252 SOT-223 SOT-23

TO-251 TO-220
TO-126

Let‟s get example how to test Mosfet transistor with the eight legs (SOIC-8).

Example for Mosfet transistor model AO4409:

Transistor model AO4409 belong to SOIC-8 package(8 legs). The datasheet for the
AO4409 should tell you what each pin does. Try searching online for “AO4409
datasheet”. When you find the datasheet and open it, you should see like this:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 123

1- Manufacturer: ALPHA & OMEGA SEMICONDUCTOR


2- Transistor model name: AO4409
3- Transistor type: PNP Channel Mosfet
4- Short Description
5- Some characteristics of transistor like the voltage
6- Physical form of the transistor (SOIC-8) and Pin Configuration Definitions G,D,S
7- Transistor Symbol
8- Described in detail and features of transistors as voltage rating, maximum current
and maximum voltage.

The legs of a transistors are numbered counter-


clockwise, starting from the top left. The topis
indicated by a little notch or circle.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 124

The photo below identify which legs are the drain, gate and the source.

Legs 5, 6, 7 and 8 are Drain


5
legs

Leg number 4 is Gate


8 4 leg

1 Legs number 1, 2 and


3 are Source legs

Set a multimeter to “Diode mode” and connect the red


test lead to source “S” and connect the black test lead
to drain “D” the multimeter should indicate the OL
mark.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 125

Reverse the leads, the black lead is connected to the source


“S” and the red lead is connected to the drain “D”, the
multimeter should have reading between 0.45-0.7

Test modern Mosfet transistor DFN SO8-FL

example for Mosfet transistor model 4935N


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 126

4935N is N-Channel Mosfet so set a multimeter to “Diode mode” and connect the red
test lead to leg drain “S” (you can place lead tester on any of three legs because they
all the source) and connect the black test lead to the leg source “D” (you can choose
any leg 8, 7, 6, 5 because they all drain), The multimeter should have reading
between 0.45-0.7

Reverse the leads so the black lead is connected to the source “S” and the red lead is
connected to the drain “D”. the multimeter should indicate the OL mark
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 127

Integrated Circuit (IC)

Integrated circuits (IC) are a key part of modern electronics. They are the heart and
the brain of most circuits. They are small "chips" of black color that can be found
on almost all circuit boards.

An integrated circuit is a collection of electronic components (resistors, transistors,


capacitors, etc.) all embedded within a small chip. They have different
functionalities, among which can be found: logic gates of a circuit, operational
amplifiers, voltage regulators, microcontrollers, microprocessors... etc.

There are many different types of integrated circuits (IC), each of which has unique
dimensions, mounting-types, and/or pin-counts.

QFP QFN BGA

SOP-8 or SOIC-8 TSSOP-8 DIP-8

PLCC-32 SOT-223 SOIC-32


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 128

All components with PU code are IC, but the code function is different. A lot of PU
on the motherboard. So, for beginners, you should creative to take one sample
motherboard and see how much PU in the motherboard, then take a look
datasheet to know the function and how it works.

IC is the brain of each circuit (controller). Let us simplify easily, only if IC for voice
then we call IC sound. Identification of a good or bad IC should be with schematic
to know the inputs pin and outputs. Measurement techniques must also use
voltage not like other components in general.

TPS51125 Dual-Synchronous Step-Down Controller


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 129

The most important integrated circuits are in Laptop Motherboard

1 IC used to store relatively small amounts of data


EEPROM (BIOS)

2 Super I/O Limit the flow of electrons, reducing current

Clock Generator Resists changes in the electrical current when passing


3
through it

Protects the circuit from the risk of increasing electricity


4 Voltage Regulator
current

5 PWM Controlle Allows the electric current to pass in one direction only

Generates a very precise frequency electrical signal at a


6 Microprocessor
specified time

Letter that symbolizes the Integrated circuits (IC) on the


motherboard is U and may have another letters PU.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 130

EEPROM

An EEPROM short for (electrically erasable programmable ROM) it is an integrated


circuit (IC). In terms of applications, stores information that can only be read.
Modifying it is either very difficult, EEPROM is also a type of non-volatile storage,
which means that the information is maintained even if the component loses
power. In the picture below, is an example of what a EEPROM chip may look like
on your laptop motherboard.

It contains the basic instructions for what needs to happen when a laptop is
powered on. This is typically referred to as the firmware of a laptop. The firmware
represents the basic code to get the laptop started. Firmware is also referred to as
BIOS or basic input/output system.

The BIOS also includes a test referred to as a POST (Power on Self-Test) which will
ensure that the laptop meets requirements to boot up properly. If the laptop does
not pass the POST you will receive an error message which may be text on the
display screen and/or a series of coded beeps, depending on the nature of the
problem. Since POST runs before the laptop's video card is activated, it may not be
possible to progress to the display screen. The pattern of beeps may be a variable
number of short beeps or a mixture of long and short beeps, depending on what
type of BIOS is installed.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 131

PLCC-32 TSSOP-8 DIP-8


Three Common forms of EEPROM in the laptop motherboard

Some example of (EEPROM) BIOS chip and their location in the laptop motherboard

EEPROM IC (Bios IC) Model


TSSOP-8

TSSOP-8 Package PLCC32 Package


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 132

(Bios) EEPROM IC on the Schematic diagram usually represent by SPI ROM or SPI Flash ROM

BIOS manufacturer

Here is a list of popular bios Manufacturers

Company Name Shortcut


MXIC MX
EON EN
AMIC A
Numonyx M
SPANSION S
WINBOND W
SST SST
ATMEL AT
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 133

Manufacturer = SST
Type = 49LF004B 33-4C-NHE
Package design = PLCC-32 (2x7 and 2x9 Pins = 32 Pins)

Manufacturer = WINBOND (stylized "W")


Type = 25X80VAIZ
Package design = DIP-8 (2x4 Pins = 8 Pins)
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 134

Super I/O
Super I/O or super input/output or SIO, it is an integrated circuit on a laptop
motherboard. The Super I/O chip controls most of input and output units as
parallel ports (printer), power management, keyboard, touch pad, Temperature
sensor and fan speed, bios.

Super I/O Production of Company SMSC

Some newer chipsets are combining the Southbridge and Super I/O chips into a
single chip and referring to this chip as the Super Southbridge chip. Some
manufacturers such as NVIDIA and SiS have even combined the Northbridge,
Southbridge and Super I/O into a single chip.

How do I know what IC is the Super I/O on motherboard?

Identifying the Super I/O on mothetboard is often easy if you look for an
integrated circuit that is labeled with a company's name that manufacturers Super
I/O chips. Some common Super I/O manufacturers are Fintek, ITE, National
Semiconductor, Nuvoton, SMSC, VIA, and Winbond.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 135

Clock Generator

Every laptop has the “clock generator” to generate clock signals used through out
the system. Timing in a laptop system is critical particularly to synchronize the
activities within the various chips. To do this, a crystal is used, and this is a picture
of a crystal and clock generator.

Crystal Oscillator

Clock Generator

The most common crystal is a 14.318 MHz crystal, and one of the reasons that this
particular frequency shows and it's because within the world of crystals this is an
extremely stable frequency and it serves as the foundation frequency for
generating all of the other timing circuits in a PC. This frequency would be
multiplied or divided as necessary and we would get the frequencies like 33 MHz
for the PCI, 8 for the ISA and 48 MHz for USB.

Crystal Oscillator Clock Generator


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 136

Voltage regulator

It is an electronic component belongs to integrated circuits (IC), The voltage


regulator is simply an electrical device which can sustain the voltage of a power
supply within suitable limits.
The electrical equipment connected to the voltage source should bear the value of
the voltage. So, the source voltage should be in a certain range which is acceptable
for the connected equipment. This purpose is fulfilled by implementing a voltage
regulator. It regulates the voltage regardless of the alteration in the input voltage
or connected load. It works as a shield for protective devices from damage.

Pin Description

Ground Input voltage

Output voltage
Laptops have voltage regulator on the motherboard and its used to output of
voltage with low voltage difference than the internal voltage range.

Example: Voltage Regulator Model G2997F6U

Voltage regulator model G2997F6U


in the HP G62 laptop
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 137

Input voltage
VIN is the IC
power supply
Output voltage used input voltage
to power chip on
DDR memory, this
voltage equal
VDDQSNS/2

Voltage regulator G2997 Pin Description

Pin 10 is (VIN) voltage input of IC for work, powered by 5V.

PIN 1 is (VDDQSNS) input voltage, equal value of DRR3 RAM (1.5V).

PIN 3 is (VTT) This pin is used to the voltage regulator output, VTT value It will be
equal VDDQSNS/2, here we have 1.5/2 = 0.75v.
0.75v its responsible for supply chips located on RAM.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 138

Testing voltage regulator Model G2997F6U

Set the multimeter to DC mode and first connect the Red test lead to the input pin
10 (VIN) and the Black test lead to ground, the voltage that we should read should
be 5v, after that put the Red test lead to the pin 1 (VDDQSNS) and the Black test
lead to ground the voltage that we should read should be 1.5v.

Now read the output voltage pin 3 (VTT) place the Red test lead of the multimeter
on the pin3 and the Black test lead on the ground, we should now read a voltage at
or about the rated voltage that the regulator is designed for, here we should get
0.75v.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 139

PWM Controller

Before we talk about PWM, we need to explain the basics about signal types.
There are two basic kinds of signal types - Analog and Digital. Analog signal types
have degrees of intensity, between 0% (off) and 100% (maximum), allowing for a
range of accuracy when determining something like screen brightness or fan
speed. Digital signal types, on the other hand, have no degrees of intensity, they
simply have an off or on state. This means something like brightness control is
impossible on its own, because in digital terms, the backlight is either on or off.
Digital signal controllers, however, are cheaper, smaller, more power efficient, and
simpler to implement than analog controls. In order to take advantage of the
benefits of digital signal controllers while retaining (and even surpassing) analog
functionality, PWM is used.

PWM tests at differing levels of brightness ranging from 100% to 0%


PWM is a very rapid frequency of on/off states of the digital signal to achieve a
result similar to what could be achieved on a plain analog signal. If you wanted
70% screen brightness for example, you would simply need to keep the digital
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 140

signal on for 70% of the time and off for 30% of the time your screen was turned
on. This is done rapidly, with the frequency measured in Hertz (Hz), or number of
times per second. The faster the frequency, the less noticeable the off states
become, until the resulting effect is indistinguishable from what an analog signal
would produce.

Is PWM necessary? In short, yes. PWM is used not only for LCD monitor brightness,
but most forms of finite control in electronic devices today. Servo motors and fan
speed control (you may notice that case fans for a computer will sometimes be
rated as with PWM) are two common implementations of PWM. New technology
such as what is found in smart phones is too small and designed to use too little
power to utilize any alternatives such as analog controllers.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 141

Microprocessor

A Microprocessor is an electronic component that is used by a computer to do its


work. It is a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit chip containing
millions of very small components including transistors, resistors and diodes that
work together.

One of the most famous IC's belonging to the Microprocessor IC series is the
Southbridge, Northbridge and VGA Chip.
The northbridge typically handles communications among the CPU, in some cases
RAM, and PCI Express (or AGP) video cards, and the southbridge. Some
northbridges also contain integrated video controllers, also known as a Graphics
and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) in Intel systems.

I/O Controller Hub (ICH) is a family of Intel southbridge microchips used to


manage data communications between a CPU and a motherboard, specifically Intel
chipsets based on the Intel Hub Architecture. It is designed to be paired with a
second support chip known as a northbridge.

In the modern laptop motherboard Northbridge and Southbridge has been


integrated into one chip called the Platform Controller Hub (PCH).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 142

Part 5
Identifying of Common Components of
the Laptop Motherboard
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 143

This part will introduce the common electronic component you will find on laptop
motherboard.

Capacitors (C):

Tantalum Capacitor

Polarity Indicator (+)

PC157 Location Marking

Capacitor Symbol

SMD Electrolytic
Capacitor

Polarity Indicator (+)

PC177 Location Marking

PC175 Location Marking

SMD Ceramic Capacitor

Ceramic Capacitor Symbol


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 144

Nec Tokin Capacitor

Capacitance and Working


Voltage

Typical Example of Capacitors


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 145

Inductor – Coil (L):

Inductor

Location Marking

Inductor Symbol

Inductor

Capacitor

Location Marking

SMD Inductor

Location Marking
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 146

SMD Inductor

Inductor Symbol

Typical Example of Inductors


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 147

Fuse (F):

Fuse Location Marking

Fuse Symbol

Ceramic Capacitor

Typical Example of Fuse


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 148

Diode (D):

Diode Location Marking

Black line represents


Cathode terminal in Diode

Diode Symbol

Dual Diode Symbol

Diode with 3 legs (SMD Dual Diode)

Zener Diode (ZD or PD):

Zener Symbol

Zener Diode

Black line represents Cathode


terminal in Zener Diode
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 149

LED:

LED Symbol

LED

Negative side of the


LED
G = Green color
R = Red color

Crystal (X or Y):

Crystal Symbol

Crystal

Typical Example Of Crystal


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 150

Resistors (R):

A Resistor

A Resistor Network

A fuse resistor

Resistor value

Resistor Symbol

NTC thermistors Symbol

Location Marking

Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC thermistors) are resistors with a negative


temperature coefficient, which means that the resistance decreases with increasing
temperature. They are primarily used as resistive temperature sensors and current-
limiting devices.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 151

Mosfet (Q):

Mosfet 3 legs

Mosfet Symbol

Mosfet 6 legs

Mosfet Symbol

Mosfet 8 legs

Leg Number one


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 152

Transistor (Q):

Transistor Symbol

Transistor

Connector:
Connector Symbol

Connector

Leg Number one

FAN Connector:

FAN Connector

Connector Symbol
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 153

Battery Connector:

Battery Connector

Battery Connector Symbol

Bios:

Bios IC

Bios Symbol
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 154

Part 6
Documents Related to the Laptop
Motherboard
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 155

The documents related to the laptop motherboard and define each one and
whether you need it.

1- User Manual:

A user manual is a document related to the laptop explaining its operation and
how to use it, you don't need this document while repairing the motherboard.

2- Service Manual:

A service manual is a document related to the laptop describing all the services
provided by the laptop and how to keep in good state, you don't need this
document while repairing the motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 156

3- Schematic Diagram:

The schematic diagram is the most important document related to the


motherboard, it provides a detailed explanation of each Integrated Circuit and its
pins and connections, it's your map while repairing the motherboard.

4- Block diagram:

The block diagram is a single page within the schematic diagram document, it
contains the connections between the different Integrated Circuits of the
motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 157

5- Datasheet:

The datasheet is not related directly to the laptop motherboard, it's a document
related to a single Integrated Circuit in the motherboard, it contains a detailed
description about its pins and inputs and outputs and the possible installations and
many more.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 158

Part 7
How to Read DataSheet?
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 159

Unfortunately, these documents are usually written by engineers for other


engineers and as such they can often be difficult to read, especially for new
comers.
Lots of websites that provide document datasheet or component data.

For example:
www.ti.com
www.alldatasheet.com
www.alltransistors.com
www.electronics.stackexchange.com
www.www.datasheetcatalog.com.com

When you open datasheet the first page is usually a summary of the part’s
function and features. This is where you can quickly find a description of the part's
functionality, the basic specifications (numbers that describe what a part needs
and can do) and sometimes a functional block diagram that shows the internal
functions of the part.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 160

Pin Configuration

A pinout lists the part’s pins, their functions and where they’re physically located
on the part for various packages the part might be available in. You'll find some
acronyms here: DCIN (pin1) is DC Supply Voltage Input, BATT (pin16) is Battery
Voltage Feedback Input, DLO (pin2) is Low-Side Power-MOSFET Driver Output, etc.

Detailed of electrical specifications follow. These will often list the absolute
maximum ratings a part can withstand before being damaged. Never exceed these
or you'll be replacing a possibly expensive part!

Some parts will have one or more graphs showing the part’s performance vs.
various criteria (supply voltage, temperature, etc.) Keep an eye out for "safe
zones" where reliable operation is guaranteed:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 161

Some datasheets will include example schematics for various circuits that can be
built around the part. These are often very useful building blocks for interesting
projects, so be sure to look through them:

At the end of many datasheets is packaging information, which provides accurate


dimensions of the packages a part is available.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 162

Part 8
Motherboard Part Numbers
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 163

When troubleshooting a laptop motherboard to component level it's mandatory to


know the manufacturer or the board as a starting point in search for aide. To be
able to locate the schematic this information is mandatory since we can’t go by a
laptop's model number for the simple reason that a laptop model number may use
different motherboards.

So in this part 7 will give you some basic information on how to identify the
manufacturer of a motherboard.

What is laptop ODM?


“OEM” stands for "Original Equipment Manufacturer" An OEM is a company that
manufactures or develops something that is sold by another company.

Laptop computer like Apple, LG, Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu-Siemens, BenQ and
etc., they are not manufacture their laptop motherboard. All of them are using the
same Taiwanese OEM (An Original Equipment Manufacturer) and Chinese
factories.

For example, a Dell laptop might contain an AMD processor and a Samsung SSD.
AMD would be the processor OEM and Samsung would be the OEM of the storage
device. An iMac might contain an Intel processor and Micron RAM. In this case,
Intel and Micron are the respective OEMs.

There are about 10 major motherboard manufacturers and everyone of them has
its own “hand writing”. The main ones are Quanta, Compal, Pegatron (spun out of
Asus), Foxconn (Hon Hai), Wistron (spun out of Acer), Inventec etc.

List of some OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)


Quanta Compal Inventec

BENQ JoyBook S41 Dell Latitude D630 LA-3301P HP NX6325 6050A2030501-


DA0CH3MB8E0 MB-A05
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 164

Sony Asus Wistron

SONY MBX-123 ASUS EEEPC P701 Wistron JE40 HR – 48IQ01.031

Quanta is probably the biggest laptop manufacturer, followed by Compal and


Pegatron. Compal and Pegatron probably have the best quality overall.

Information about the manufacturer and motherboard model laptop very


important to us. you might need to know model number motherboard’s model for
a number of reasons as stated below:

1- Looking for motherboard BIOS file or the need to update the BIOS of
motherboard.
2- Looking for a motherboard schematic.
3- Need to update the drivers of hardware as audio drivers.

How to get the schematic diagram?


The easiest way to look for the schematic diagram in the internet is by using the
laptop reference, for example: Acer Aspire 1300, Hp pavilion DV5-1000us etc.
In case you don't find the schematic using the laptop reference you can use the
ODM.

To look for the motherboard schematic using the ODM method look for a
reference printed in the motherboard and use it to search for the schematic, below
is an example of those references for ODMs:

Find the motherboard model number


This is usually printed on the motherboard, but can be located in several possible
locations, for example, it may be printed near the RAM slots, near the CPU socket,
or between the PCI slots. There will be a lot of writing on the motherboard, but the
model number is usually written in the largest text (Motherboard model numbers
are typically a collection of numbers and letters).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 165

Look for your motherboard schematic online


Go to a search engine of your choice (Google) then type in your model number
followed by the word "Schematic or Diagram" and press entre. This will bring up a
list of matching schematic motherboard models.

Carefully review the search results. Watch in particular for results in PDF format, as
most manufacturers that do list their schematics online will do so in PDF (Adobe
Acrobat) format.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 166

Click link to download schematic

Put your schematic to your folders


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 167

Part 9
How to Read Laptop Schematic?
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 168

The most important part of the motherboard repair process is understanding the
schematic diagram, you can't do anything without getting that document and
understanding it.

What’s the schematic diagram?

A schematic diagram, in effect, as a map of an electronic circuit, showing all of the


components and how they interconnect with one another.
When you troubleshoot a laptop motherboard you need to use the schematic
diagram to find the faulty component in relation to other components in the
circuit.

Important Part Schematic Diagram


Cover Page
The cover of the schematic diagram of the laptop as same as the cover of a book.
The cover page contains a reference of the laptop and the version of the
document, it may contain a table of contents as well, telling you what each page is
about.

But if the table of contents is absent it's always possible to find out about each
page, note the cover page design is different for each brand.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 169

Name of Manufacturer

Hardware
Instaled
Version and date of the Code Motherboard
document

Then comes the block diagram, which describes the connections between
different Integrated Circuits of the motherboard, you find the number of the page
that discuss every IC listed there, so it's another way of a table of contents.
Then in the next page come sometimes some descriptions of the voltages
mentioned in the document and sometimes the states in which they are present,
as well as some other general useful information.

Voltage Description

Other Information
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 170

Then generally come the description of every integrated circuit in the motherboard
and every slot or port including the power button and the battery connector.

Then comes the description of each IC with all its pins and connections, if you want
a more detailed description to know exactly what are the IC's inputs and outputs
and everything you should download its datasheet.

After that comes the description of the motherboard circuits like the charger
circuit or the different voltage generator circuits, note that a circuit is a network of
electronic components that perform a specific task.

Charger circuit

Knowing what each page is about is essential to understand the schematic diagram
document, as we said earlier you can refer to the table of contents or looking at
the bottom right of the page gives a description of the page.

Page Description
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 171

Understanding Basic of Schematic


These tips will be based on the schematic of Compal LA-4101P motherboard.

On the other hand understanding a schematic diagram is the ability to understand


how the circuit described works, you have to be able to read the schematic
diagram first and be familiar with electronic components and their functions and
how they operate, this is what you really need to know, and it comes with practice
and experience, we will explain some circuits in this training to give you an idea on
how to decipher them. Let's get more on how to read schematics:

Laptop schematic have on their front pages a block diagram is intended to provide
information of all board components, in brief. In him we have a lot of information:
- Socket processor used.
- If the board uses PCH or set North Bridge / South Bridge.
- Bios used (we can also see if the card uses one or two bios).
- The code of the main components.
- In some schematic, we still have the page information in which the circuit is.

If this item is not part of the schematic, you have to manually fetch the page that
contains the circuits that we need to analyze. This can be seen on page 2 of our
schematic.
Note that in this schematic we have an indication of the page where the matching
circuit is. For example, if we need to analyze network circuit (LAN), we directly to
page 30 of schematic.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 172

Schematic Path and Connection Between Circuits

Schematic symbol for conductors that cross paths but are not
electrically connected.
Not Connected

A path that only passes and does not have a relationship. And in principle the line
is a path connecting one components and others that connect one pin and others.

Schematic symbol indicating conductors that intersect electrically.

Every time there is a point in the intermediate meeting both wires indicate the
existence are patronship or a triangle path or branch line or path junction or cross
path.

Wires can connect two terminals together or they can connect dozens. When a
wire splits into two directions, it creates a junction. We represent junctions on
schematics with nodes, little dots placed at the intersection of the wires.

Connected

It is evident that you cannot show all the connections of the components on a
single page, and for this reason, the schematic is always divided into several pages.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 173

To show the connections from one circuit to another, schematics manufacturers


have adopted symbols to indicate the types of input signals, output signals and
bidirectional signals (input and output on the same terminal).

Another rule is quite adopted in relation to the names of the signs, as can be seen
below.

2 1

On the inside of the component (1), we see that the terminal has the name given
by the component manufacturer and can also be found in its datasheet.

The name displayed outside the component, with the signal line (2) is the name
given by the schematic from the manufacturer. Note that next to the signal name
appears a number (3).

This is the page number which is the continuation of this circuit, i.e. the circuit
where this line will be connected. We see in the image below where these signs
come together.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 174

That is, the signal R_CLKREQ # _9 generated in U44 and on page 25 is the diagram,
is connected to pin 43 of the clock generator, which is on page 17 of the schematic.

This page statement where there is a continuation of the circuit is practical, but the
best method is to use the search the PDF reader, where we can find all the points
at which this signal is on. Simply enter the signal name in the search and perform
the search.

In the case of circuits of the power supply (supplies) the schematic usually shows a
terminal named voltage.

In the image above, we see the voltages +3VALW and +3V_LAN.


Note that the voltage +3VALW Mosfet is the input voltage and the voltage
+3V_LAN It is the output voltage.

See also in this case, the drain of Q106 is the point of the voltage source +3V_LAN.
This is where this voltage is generated.

Although the two voltages have the same value (+3V) after passing through the
Mosfet the signal name is another, this is very common in any electrical schematic.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 175

Below is another example of the change of names of the signalsor voltages after
passing through certain component.

This is important when we are reviewing the schematic and need to know where
certain voltage is generated. That is, when we have a missing voltage on the
motherboard and we need to find the source of this voltage in the diagram.

Another important detail are the symbols shown next to the component
references.

The image above, we see that the capacitor C357 has the @ (At) symbol next to
your reference. This indicates that the capacitor isoptional and will depend on the
card manufacturer if this component will be mounted on the board or not.

We can find some variants of this symbol as an asterisk (*) registration OPTION and
others. The important thing should always keep in mind that if any component has
a symbol next to their reference in the schematic, it is optional and cannot exist on
the motherboard. See an example below:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 176

Information

The wiring diagram may also contain various information that can help us in the
repair of the motherboard. An example is shown below. Page N° 4

Here we can see the connection of the motherboard of sources and we will make
some considerations about them.

For example, enrollment B.C the next block VIN, indicates the motherboard power
entry mode charger. We see that this point is connected to block B+ this block is
generated and other stresses.

For example, let's admit that we do not have the voltage +3VALW on the
motherboard. We see the picture above this voltage is voltage dependent B++ that
is the source voltage +3VALW.

So, we already have a starting point to begin the analysis of the defect. Of course,
the generating circuit voltage +3VALW depends onother factors to work, but we
already know that the line B++ It is critical to its operation.

Another important information that this schematic gives us is the sequence in


which the signals appear on the motherboard. See the image below.

In it we have the inscription AC MODE, indicating that this table is only valid for the
mode charger. If you had the inscription DC MODE (or something) would be just to
battery mode.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 177

Note that in this case, the signs left follow a descending order. In this sequence
other schematic can be shown from bottom to top.

To identify the order in which these signals are, simply identify the VIN signal,
which is usually always the first signal to be generated on the motherboard.

In some schematic, it may have another name. From it, we head to the other,
which may be above or below this sign.

In the case of the image above, we see that the VIN signal is first on the list and in
this case the sequence is decreasing. Note that the VIN signal is immediately in
front of a waveform showing how this signal behaves. Note that the initial part of
the stroke begins on the bottom line and at one point, it rises to the top line.

The bottom line is the 0V voltage while the top line represents the maximum
voltage according to the signal.

Following the waveform VIN, we see that the voltage starts at the bottom row (0V)
and connect the charger changes its value to the upper thread (maximum value,
which is typically 19V) and remains so until the boot is removed. After the voltage
VIN reaches its nominal value, the next voltage for operation is B+.

Following the same principle. Note that it remains at a low level (0V) to the voltage
VIN is stabilized (note that the point at which it rises to the top row is different
from the waveform VIN). Watching from left to right, see how the B + "Delay" a
little more to reach its maximum voltage. This sequence occurs automatically in all
signs, one after the other until the signal ON / OFF # (Power button).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 178

From this point the sequence is interrupted and the card is waiting for the user
presses the power button. This is the condition of Stand-by the board. Note that
the form of signal wave ON / OFF # It is inverted relative to the other.

It starts on the top line, after a time down to the bottom line, remains at this level
for some time and again rises to the top line.This tells us that the power button in
normal state, begins its work cycle at a high level (typically 3V) and be tight, is low
(0V) while the button is pressed and returns to the high level after the button it is
released.

In short, after connecting the charger, the adapter initiates some signals (voltages)
and enters a standby state. To repair the board, wehave to check if all these points
have the corresponding voltages. It is clear that if one of them missing, the card
will not turn on.

After the standby voltages are at normal levels, when pressing the power button,
other voltages arise, according to the sequence shownin the above figure and can
be seen on page 5 of schematic that we are using for this example.

Finding signs

To search for these signals in the schematic, again we count on the help of our
search PDF reader.

For example, if we need to find out where the signal (voltage) VIN, do a search for
the schematic with that information.

In the case of this schematic, we will find many points where this signal is present,
but to facilitate the measurements on the motherboard, choose alocation easily
accessible, as shown in the image below. In this case, we chose the drain PQ101,
since it is relatively easy to find component on the motherboard.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 179

Confirmed that our first signal is present, we can seek other points, following the
sequence shown above start. Thus, we can identify where the voltage ceases to
exist and this is where we must begin the analysis.

The search system is also interesting when we need to locate a specific component
that we have on board and want to know about the circuit to which it belongs.

Unfortunately, not all schematic brings such detailed information about the
schematic we are using. Other schematic may contain variations of such
information, as they are not fixed rules to all manufacturers.

Related Search
We know that the card input circuit (usually VIN) is made in the charger circuit and
this circuit exchange some information with the SIO. Thus, the SIO identifies that
there is a connected charger and sends an acknowledgment signal to the
motherboard connect.

This exchange of information between the circuits is very common in any


motherboard.

Often, this "permission" to call the motherboard is sent by the SIO to the PWM
generator circuit of the 3.3V and 5V, as we shall see.

This varies from project to project but the method described below can be applied
to any schematic and thus is easy to identify these points. The first step is to
identify the page number where are the circuits that we analyze. In the schematic
we are following, we can seeon page 2 in the diagram motherboard blocks. As we
have seen, there have indications of the pages where each circuit or component on
the motherboard is important. In this case, the SIO is in page 38.

The charger circuit is not identified, but generally will be in the following pages to
the DC circuit/diagram of the DC block.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 180

As the DC/DC circuit is on page 41, our charger circuit should be a page next to it.
In this case, it is in page 44 schematic. Thus, we identified that the SIO is in page 40
and the charger is in page 44 schematic. We also saw that each signal that leaves
or enters the components, generally have the indication of the page where the
circuit goes.

So, we open the diagram on page 44 (charger) and in the search field of the PDF
reader we type the page number that is the SIO (40).

What we will do is to search the current page related to that we intend to


compare.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 181

The search system will indicate all circuit pin charger related to the SIO which is on
page 40 of the schedule. i.e. all pins are connected tothe SIO and the charger.

See the image below (use the zoom control of your PDF reader to view better).

According to the symbol in the component terminal, we know if this terminal


sends or receives SIO information.

This procedure can be used anywhere in the wiring diagram.

The same can be done with the page you are on the SIO. In this case, we open the
diagram on page 40 and type in the search field.

in the page number that is the charger circuit (44) and the searched terminals are
connected together.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 182

As mentioned above, sometimes the SIO sends a signal to the operation of the
sources of 3.3V and 5V. This circuit is on page 44 of our schematic.

Being in this schematic page and searching for the number 38, we see that two
signals have direct communication with the SIO.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 183

Using this system, we understand how these signals are communicated and thus
how the circuit works.

The search system is also useful when we are analyzing part of a circuit and need
to know where some signal or voltage is generated.

For example, analyzing the page circuit 44 we will admit that the voltage VL does
not exist. We need to know where it is generated to identify the responsible circuit
and verify because it is not being generated.

To find this tension, you type its name in the search field and we all locations
where this tension should be present. In this case, we can see that it goes through
several components, including PJP301 jumper shown below.

Note that at this point the voltage +3VL gets its name +3VLP. Searching for +3VLP,
we found that this voltage is generated at pin 8 PU301.

It remains now to analyze why it is not being generated.


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 184

As we were sourcing voltage +3VL it is clear that we were searching in the opposite
direction to the schematic and not in the order in which it is generated and feeds
the circuit remaining.

After locate the signal source, we see that in fact, the voltage +3VLP that is
generated in PU301 and after going through PJP301 jumper is what is called +3VL.

How to deal with schematics that don't have the power sequence

I'll give you the things that you need to consider in order to make sure that power
sequence took place properly.

The way to deal with a schematic that doesn't have the power sequence described
is to define the necessary things required for the motherboard to boot, those
things are:

1- The 5V ALW and 3.3V ALW that are used to power many important ICs such as
I/O controller, so the first thing to check is the presence of those voltages, and of
course we look at those voltages from where they are generated: the 5V and 3.3V
generator.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 185

Below is an example of 5V and 3.3V generator of a HP Compaq la-1701:

As you can see, we should look for the IC with the reference PU4 and test the 5V in
the pin 13 and 3.3V in the pin 2.

2- The next thing we should check is the signal that confirms the I/O controller and
the BIOS are ok, as we said in the previous article this signal should be sent from
the I/O controller to the ICH, so even if the name isn't the same as KBC_RSMRST
you can still look for an outgoing signal from the I/O to the ICH, in the case of
the HP Compaq la-1701 the signal name is: PM_RSMRST and you should test it at
the pin 3 of the I/O controller:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 186

3- Then we need to find the signals that confirms the ICH is functional, we know
that ICH sends those signals to the I/O controller in the case of the HP compaq
la_1701 those signals hold the same name SLP_S3 and SLP_S4:

4- Now we should make sure that the RAM got its voltage and we should look for
a signal from the I/O controller to the RAM voltage generator, in the case of
the HP Compaq la-1701 the page describing the RAM voltage generator is 38 so
we should look for a signal going from I/O controller to page 38 which is SYSON
pin 148 of the I/O.

5- The next step is to make sure the CPU got its voltage and we should look for a
signal from the I/O controller to the CPU voltage generator, in the case of
the HP Compaq la-1701 the page describing the CPU voltage generator is 41 so
we should look for a signal going from I/O controller to page 41 which is VR_ON
pin 155 of the I/O.

Then concerning the MCH there is two parts of it:

The first part is the connection with the CPU we should look for a signal H_CPURST,
we test this signal in the CPU slot after removing the CPU, in the case of the HP
Compaq la-1701 this signal should be tested in B11 point of the CPU slot:
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 187

And finally check for DDR_CKE0 and DDR_CKE1 and DDR_SRAS# and DDR_SCAS# in
the RAM slots to make sure the RAM part of the MCH is functional.
This way you made sure all the principal ICs of the motherboard are functional and
you have the voltages necessary for the motherboard to function.

Keep reading

You’ll find lots of schematics on the Internet. Get a few and practice reading them,
focusing on signal flow and organization. Try to deduce which components are
generating or passing signals, and which are support systems for the central
players.
Look for coupling components, filter and bypass capacitors, power supply sections,
digital control systems, voltage regulators, oscillators and so on. After a while,
reading a schematic will be as familiar as reading a book. You’ll be able to take one
look and recognize the sections and stages.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 188

Part 10
Signal
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 189

Explanation of common signal names about some known


manufacturers

Now I expect that you already know how to reading schematics I will try to explain
the most important signal names used on the motherboard. When a laptop
motherboard working, it will send and receives different data and commands to
control the circuits. So, the signal is very important for a laptop motherboard to
working properly.

Like you can notice, when reading different motherboards schematics, each
manufacturer uses different signal names.

Signals
The arrows of signals symbols given on the schematics randomly, this is because
the direction of the flow of the signals can be on both ways.

Output signal

Input signal

Input & Output signal

The Power good signal

CPUPWRGD = The power good signal PG (POWERGOOD) is used to describe that all
the voltages supplied to the chip in question are OK at the moment.

The PG is usually high when it is active. For example, after the CPU gets all the
voltage that it needs, then the CPU power supply chip will send the PG signal.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 190

The common abbreviations of PG signal are among others:

PD PWRGDx POKx PWRG


VTTPWRGD CPUPWRGD POK SPOK

Example:
After RT8205 gets all the needed voltages, then it will send SPOK like you see on
the next picture.

Some common Wistron signal names used around the charger chip MAX8725.
AD+: The first voltage that the adapter converts.
DCBATOUT: Common point of the 19V.
ACOK: The adapter detection output for charging chip.
DCIN: Power supply input for charging chip.
ACIN: Adapter detection input for charging chip.
Check next picture.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 191

The open signal


To let a chip work, we need what we call a trigger signal or an open signal. By some
chip this is called EN (ENABLE).

Written like the way you see it means it is active when it is high. And it triggers the
chip to run with a high-level value.

By another chip this open signal is given by a SHDN# (SHUTDOWN). the post-fix "#"
represents that the signal is active when it is in its low-level state. This means that
the signal is closed when it is low. If you want to open it, it must be turned to its
high-level state.

The combination of the name and the sign "#" emphasis the meaning of that
signals whether it trigger/stop the chip with its low value/high value.
Check picture
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 192

Reset Signal

Reset Signal (RST) means literally: a new signal.

When the signal starts, it will reset automatically and jump from low level value to
high level value. But during a normal operation, a reset occurs by pressing the
reset button, the signal jumps from a high-level value to a low-level value then to
high level value.

For example: for PCI the signal from 3.3V jumps to 0V, then to 3V, which is a
normal reset Jump.

Reset signal is generally expressed as ***RST# prefixed with different names such
as: PCIRST#, CPURST#, IDERST# and so on.

The reset during a small time will have a low-level value. When the motherboard
works normally, the reset has a high-level value. Usually we call it a NOT Reset.
This refers to the high voltage that Reset has at that moment, the measurement
point voltage of the reset signal is 0V.

Example:
3.3V platform reset from the South Bridge, after dividing into 1.1V as the CPU
reset, shown in next figure.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 193

+5VALW +3VALW signal

This signal used to control many IC's. Those voltages are always present directly
when the adapter is plugged or the battery is present.

By some new motherboard only +3VALW is present first after plugging the
adapter. The +5VALW will be generated after pressing the power button.

PWR_S5_EN

PWR_S5_EN is a signal that enables the 5V_S5_PWR/3D3V_PWR_S5 on the


MAX8734A.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 194

+3VL is the 3.3V linear power supply comes from the SMPS, in this case the
TPS51125 after pressing the power button, meant to supply the EC and many other
IC’s.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 195

KBC_PWR_BTN# is a signal produced when the power button is pressed and sent
the EC. This signal is one of the signals that allows the EC to be triggered.

Clock signal

The clock signal, noted on schematics as CLK (CLOCK), is a signal that provides a
way of comparison (benchmark) between the work of different digital circuit, so
that each connected device delivers a unified work and the basic unit of the clock
is Hz (hertz).

On the motherboard we find a main clock circuit. The function of this circuit is to
provide a suitable clock frequency to all the devices present on this motherboard.

This main clock circuit will send different frequency to all the different devices
present on the same motherboard, such as:

- CPU is more than 100MHz


- PCI devices are 33MHz
- PCI-E device is 100MHz
- USB controller (internal integrated in the South Bridge) is 48MHz

Chip select signal

Chip select (CS) is the name of a control line in digital electronics used to select one
(or a set) of chips out of several connected to the same computer bus. If one chip
on the same bus needs to use the bus the signal CS will mention the address of
that chip.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 196

Chip select signal is common in BIOS chip, noted as CS# and # means that it is
active when it is low. It's sent by CPU from the North Bridge to the South Bridge &
finally to the BIOS.

It exists or not, which can initially judge whether the North & South Bridge and
CPU work and whether BIOS information is destroyed/corrupted.

SPI BIOS pin shown in next image, CS# is the BIOS chip select signal.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 197

Part 11
The Architecture of the Laptop
Motherboard
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 198

Power supply and signal

On motherboard, on some places we can find a 5V we can call this a 5V power


supply. But on other place we can also find the same 5V voltage, but we call this a
signal voltage.

What is the difference between the voltage power supply and the voltage signal?
You can draw quite a lot of current from a voltage power supply (limits depend on
the specific power source you are using) and there is no drop-in voltage.
Signal voltage, on the other hand, need to be conditioned before you draw any
current from them otherwise, they drop in voltage. Most signal sources are
capable of only a few milli-watts of power.

An important thing that need be taken in consideration in the CLOCK questions is


that the connected devices must have the suitable voltage, thus powered on, and
need to have the same clock frequency if to be able to communicate with each
other.

For example: Memory and North Bridge need to have the same clock, after being
powered on, to be able to understand and transmit signals between each other.

Means after that the main board is powered on and the clock generator circuit is
working properly, then afterwards we can measure the clock signal and not
otherwise. If the motherboard is not powered on, clock signal cannot be
measured.
We can use the oscilloscope to measure the clock signal.
On the next picture we can see the clock signal of a clock chip benchmark-14MHz
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 199

On the new Intel architecture of single bridge there is nothing new concerning the
display signal output. Usually the display signal output will not output by itself.
But it will be transmitted to the PCH through the FDI bus, then the completion of
the display signal will be done by the PCH self.

This process is different from the AMD single architecture like we will see on the
next posts.

The AMD single bridge architecture (A70)

After the development of the AMD chipset A45, the mobile version A50, the
architecture is changed to single bridge called FCH.

There is alot of similarities with Intel single bridge.

The bridge and the EC manage almost the same devices as Intel single bridge.

The CPU of the AMD also integrates the graphic chip. This gets the name APU. But
it can output the display signals directly not like Intel that need to do that through
the PCH.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 200

The Nvidia architecture double bridge (C51M)

Nvidia is very famous as a big producer of graphic chips and chipset in laptops and
desktops. But at the moment they stopped the production of desktop chipsets.

We can find many single bridge chipsets as double bridge chipset in desktops
Nvidia architecture on the market. But in the laptop Nvidia architecture mostly
double bridge chipsets are present.

On the AMD double bridge architecture, we need to mention that the BIOS has a
variety of buss connections:

1- Some of them work through X-BUS under the EC chip.


2- Some work through the LPC bus connected in parallel with the EC.
3- And some work through the SPI bus connected to the SB independently.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 201

The AMD SB (South Bridge) has also allot of similarities as the Intel SB.
The SB controls the next devices:
1- Audio chip
2- USB
3- SATA
4- EC
5- etc...
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 202

Under the EC chip the devices controlled by the EC remains unchanged.

High-level and low-level signals


In the digital logic circuit, the low-level signal is represented by 0 and the high-level
signal is represented by 1. The value of high and low level in the circuit is
determined by the circuit and is not limited to a certain value. But in general, 0V is
considered as low logic value. And 3.3 is considered as high logic value.

In Apple circuit diagrams the power supply begins in general with PP and does not
have any special symbol to be given with on schematics. See the example given on
the next photo of the PP18V5_S3.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 203

The GND or the ground is used to close the circuit power loop. Because without
GND no current will flow through the device in question. The symbols used for the
ground are VSS or GND.

The North bridge and South Bridge are connected by the so-called Hub-Link that
later is named to DMI (Direct Media Interface). The speed of this connection is very
fast.

The South bridge controls mainly the next devices:

1- USB devices like camera, blue tooth and card readers etc.
2- Audio card. Modem and audio are on the same line.
3- SATA: Hard disk and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
4- IDE: early hard disk and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM.
5- PCI-E device: Network card and card reader, expansion card, mini PCI-E slot etc.
6- EC which is connected by LPC (low pin count got his name because it is one of
the busses that has small number pin-out).
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 204

The second architecture of Intel is the single bridge, this begins from HM55 and
above.

After the Intel chipset 5 series, Intel develops what it calls the PCH (Platform
Controller Hub). In this single bridge architecture, you will find the Northbridge
integrated in the CPU. If the graphic chip is not discrete it can be also integrated
within the CPU.

The CPU main's control is:

1- Memory.
2- PCI-E 16X discrete graphics chip.

The CPU and PCH bridge are connected with 2 busses:

1- FDI (Flexible Display Interface) bus.


2- DMI (Direct Media Interface) bus.

In the intel single bridge, the PCH controls almost the same devices as on the
bridge architecture among others:

1- USB
2- PCI-E 1X
3- SATA
4- Audio

And the connection between the PCH and the EC is still using the LPC bus.
And devices under the EC remain unchanged.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 205

The architecture of Nvidia single bridge (MCP67).

In the architecture of the Nvidia single bridge the CPU manages only the memory.
The bridge manages all other devices. Because of this the bridge generates all of
heat which is a reason that makes the ball of the chip get loose easily and need to
be reballing very often.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 206

In the intel double bridge GM/PM45 architecture, the CPU and the Northbridge are
connected through the FSB (Front Side Bus).

The Northbridge controls the Memory, PCI-E 16X discrete graphic card and display
output interfaces.

The devices controlled by the EC (embedded controller) among others are:

1- keyboard
2- touchpad
3- BIOS
4- etc.

Part of the motherboard BIOS and EC may be connected to the South bridge by the
same LPC bus or by a separated bus called SPI.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 207

The AMD architecture double bridge has some differences from the Intel
architecture. Because AMD CPU has a 638-pin it can manage to control the
memory directly. But in Intel this is controlled by the GMCH (NB).
The NB in the AMD architecture controls all the PCI-E devices where this is done on
Intel architecture by the ICH (south bridge).

The NB also can integrate the Graphic chip as on Intel architecture and is
responsible to output the display signal directly.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 208

At this moment the chipset used by the main stream laptop on the market are
dominated by two manufacturers: INTEL and AMD. Once Nvidia has left the market
since 2010, you will find very few on the market the notebook computer products
with Nvidia chipset.

The CPU used in the architecture of Nvidia double bridge, is the AMD 638. Like in
the AMD architecture the CPU can manage the memory directly.

The North Bridge is responsible to manage all PCI-E device and output the display
signal if the graphic chip is integrated, like the way it is in AMD double bridge
architecture. Devices managed by South Bridge and EC does not differ a lot from
AMD double bridge also.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 209

The power supply provides the devices with power and it can have different
symbol and names in the schematics.

We have for example: VCC, VDD, VCC3, VDDQ, VTT, VBAT, 5VALW, +3VO etc.

- Pulse jumping from high level to a low level is called the falling edge signal pulse.
- Pulse jumping from low level to a high level is called rising signal pulse.
- And pulse jumping from high to low then jumps to high is called high-low-high
pulse.

The rising edge waveform The falling edge waveform The high-low-high waveform

KBC_PWR_BTN# is a signal produced when the power button is pressed and sent
to the EC/KBC/SIO to be triggered.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 210

AD_IN# and AC_IN# are signals that let the EC knows that the adapter is detected.

LID_CLOSE# means that the lid cover of the laptop is closed. It is active when it is in
its low state. If it is active the laptop will not power on. LOGICAL

This signal comes also from as you see from the 3V3V_AUX_S3 and 3V3_KBC_S5.
Those signals can never be generated if the cover lid is closed.

CLK_EN# after CPU power supply has been are present. This signal will be sent with
its low-level state to the Q13 in this case, to let know that there is no problem with
the MAX8736 and that CK_PWRGD and VRMPWRGD may proceed to enable the
clock generator circuitry.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 211

CK_PWRGD and VRMPWRGD on the drain of Q13 will be grounded if CLK_EN# is


high and the motherboard will never come ON.

CK_PWRGD: After the South Bridge receives the signal VRMPWRGD, the
CK_PWRGD will be sent with its high-level value toe the Clock generator to open
the clock.

The last signal on the wistron architecture will be the G792_RST#. From this
temperature IC this signal will be generated if all the temperature on the
motherboard is OK.

This signal alerts if the temperature is NORMAL or not. And will generate a high
value if the temperature has been seen as a normal one.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 212

Check the picture. If the signal will be low the NAND GATE U43D the PM_PWROK
will get a low value for the which this will shut down the system.

After a while of searching in different Quanta schematics concerning the linear


power supply of 3V and 5V, namely noted as VL, 3V_AL and/or 5V_AL, I found out
the next situation:

Motherboards: HP, DELL, Packard Bell, Acer, Lenovo and IBM that I have checked
are not using the same naming convention for the linear power supply as shown
above even using the same Quanta Architecture, but some of them use only VL,
others uses both 3V_AL and 5V_AL, and other only 3V_AL.

We will give a print screen of a HP Compaq 6320 as an example here bellow .


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 213

One of the great difficulties in interpreting schematics is as follow the signs. In an


schematic we have various input and output signals for interconnection of
components.

It is also true that we have some schematics that hinder the location of
components and signals. But with the tips shown, we believe it will facilitate
research of these signs, and thus increase the understanding of how the
motherboard works.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 214

Part 12
The Basic Knowledge You Must Know
Before Starting to Repair Laptop
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 215

What is a short circuit?


- A short circuit is when a voltage or signal is stopped before it makes it to its final
destination, short referring to its trip being “Shorter” than it should have been.
- A short can be caused by poor soldering that bridges two points together or a
failed component that is tying two signals/power lines together that should not be
tied together.
- A “short to ground” is when a pathway to ground exists that should not.

Red line signifies path of


electricity, going to system

Example of a short to ground.


- Red line signifies path of electricity.
- PC41 went bad and is acting as a wire.
- Circuit ends there is a “short” before power can flow “TO SYSTEM”
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 216

Finding a short:
Here we have four capacitors on this line. The line works great!

Until one day, water is spilled and a capacitor explodes. PC51 is now sending all the
voltage to ground!

Measure each capacitor, right?


- Many will turn their multimeter to capacitance or resistance mode and
measure PC51 is the bad capacitor. Let’s assume PC55, PC54 and PC50 are
working in perfect condition.
- We take the multimeter and place black probe on pin 1 of PC55 and red
probe each capacitor.

This will not work! Can you guess why?

- be on pin 2 of PC55.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 217

- The meter measures resistance by sending out a voltage and measuring what
comes back on the other end.
- Since all of these capacitors are on the same line, you will get the same
measurement reading any capacitor.
- PC54 is providing the line a path to ground.
- Since PC55, PC51, PC50 all share a line with the bad PC54, they will all measure
the same if they are still soldered onto the motherboard.

We can use heat for short detection.

- Whichever component is warmer is likely the component that is short circuited.


- We can use freeze spray to help us detect the shorted component - wherever it
evaporates first is warmest.
- We can also put alcohol on the board which is cheaper, and evaporates quickly.
- Note a perfect short circuit will pass a lot of current but will cause no voltage
drop across the short and will not get hot.
- An open circuit component will pass no current but will have a voltage drop
across it but will not get hot.
- A partial short as a result of for example a capacitor failing and passing some dc
current will get hotter than normal because it will have a current flowing and a
voltage drop across it resulting in a power loss in the component and the
component will get hotter than normal.

What is a voltage divider?


A voltage divider is a simple circuit which turns a large voltage into a smaller one.
- A voltage divider steps down a higher voltage to a lower voltage.
- A voltage divider is a series of resistors between a higher voltage and ground.
- A voltage divider is inefficient, but cheap used for things that do not have high
current requirements.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 218

Here we have a resistor between a high voltage source and the intended
destination, then another resistor between the intended destination and ground. It
is turning 12v into 3v.

Resistance of resistors will set the voltage.


- Allows the enable pin of this backlight IC to get 3v when ever
PPBUS_SW_LCDBKLT_PWR is on.
- If you sent 12v to the enable pin of backlight IC, it would die. Good thing we
have a voltage divider.

Used a transistor to control the voltage divider.

What if we used a transistor to control the voltage divider's path to ground?

- We could then control whether the voltage divider works.


- By being able to control that voltage divider, we can then control backlight
being on or off based on signals from other parts of the machine.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 219

12V S D
12V
G
This voltage divider is 5V
now working as a voltage
divider since it has a path This P-Channel mosfet is
to ground letting power through
since Gate voltage is
below source voltage

3V
This N-Channel mosfet is
letting power through
since Gate voltage is
above Source voltage
3V

What are System Power STATES?


S0 = Computer is on and working. The system is fully usable. Hardware
components that are not in use can save power by entering a lower power state.

S1, S2, S3 = Computer is sleeping. The system appears to be off. Power consumed
in these states (S1-S3) is less than S0 and more than S4, S3 consumes less power
than S2 and S2 consumes less power than S1. Systems typically support one of
these three states, not all three.
In these states (S1-S3) volatile memory is kept refreshed to maintain the system
state. Some components remain powered so the computer can wake from input
from the keyboard, LAN or a USB device.
Hybrid sleep used on desktops, is where a system uses a hibernation file with S1-
S3. The hibernation file saves the system state in case the system loses power
while in sleep.

S4 = Computer is hibernating. The system appears to be off. Power consumption is


reduced to the lowest level. The system saves the contents of volatile memory to a
hibernation file to preserve system state. Some components remain powered so
the computer can wake from input from the keyboard, LAN or a USB device. The
working context can be restored if it is stored on nonvolatile media.
Fast startup is where the user is logged off before the hibernation file is created.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 220

This allows for a smaller hibernation file, more appropriate for systems with less
storage capabilities.

S5 = Computer is off. The system appears to be off. This state is comprised of a full
shutdown.

G3 = Mechanical Off. The system is completely off and consumes no power. The
system returns to the working state only after a full reboot.

Different power will be present during different states. You need CPU vcore during
S0 while it is on, but you do not want it when it is off – S5.
PP5V_S3 and PP5V_S0 are created by the exact same circuit, but PP5V_S0 is only
meant to be present when the laptop is on, opened up, and being used.

What is a DC to DC boost circuit?

A laptop LCD backlight runs off of about 39 volts in an A1286 MacBook Pro. Its
Battery is a 12.6 volt battery. Does this mean we carry around flashlights? No! We
boost it.

- A DC to DC boost circuit boosts a lower DC voltage into a higher DC voltage.


- Think of it like stopping short in a car.
- For that split second when the brakes are slammed, you aremoving forward
faster than the speed of the car. Good thing wehave seatbelts!
- Same concept is applied in electronics.

DC to DC boost circuit contains four main elements.


- Inductor, this is what we are shorting to ground to create the higher voltage.
- Diode, this keeps the boosted voltage from flowing back through the circuit.
- Capacitor, this stores the boosted voltage, and also smoothest it into a straight
line.
- LED driver, this is what does the switching to switch the inductor's output to
ground.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 221

What is a feedback?
- These chips are cheap crap connected to other cheap crap.
- They are not to be trusted.
- Most power control chips in buck converters, DC to DC boost circuits, and
power supplies in general like to know what they are doing. For this, feedback is
used.
- Chip will change how it controls circuit based on feedback.

Example:

This is Feedback

FB = Feedback
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 222

Diagnostic method for laptop power supply circuit failure


The motherboard power supply circuit of the laptop computer is an indispensable
part of the laptop and its problems usually lead to various failure phenomena such
as failure to boot, automatic restart, and crash etc.

To learn the diagnosis and elimination of the fault of the power supply circuit of
the laptop motherboard:

Firstly, the basic working principle should be mastered.


Secondly, the common fault phenomena caused by the problem of the power
supply circuit of the motherboard should be understood.
Finally, the maintenance experience of the power supply circuit of the
motherboard should be continuously summarized and learned. method.

1- Laptop motherboard power supply circuit basics There are two ways to supply
power to the laptop motherboard. One is the dedicated rechargeable battery for
laptop computers and the other is to convert 220V mains to 19,5 or 20 volts.
Powered by the power adapter. The laptop's dedicated rechargeable battery
typically provides a lower supply voltage than the power adapter's input supply
voltage.

Whether it is a dedicated rechargeable battery or a power adapter for a laptop


computer, the power input to the laptop's motherboard cannot be directly used by
all chips, circuits, and hardware devices. This is because the functional modules
and hardware devices on the laptop motherboard. The current and voltage
requirements are different and must be converted after the corresponding power
supply.

Therefore, various power conversion circuits on the laptop motherboard have


become an indispensable part of the laptop computer. At the same time, after the
problem occurs in the power supply circuit of the laptop computer, it will lead to
various failure phenomena such as failure to boot, automatic restart, and crash.

To learn the diagnosis and troubleshooting methods for the power supply circuit of
the laptop motherboard, you must first master the working principle and common
fault phenomena, so that the fault analysis can be reasonable and the
troubleshooting can be quickly and accurately performed during the maintenance
of the laptop.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 223

1- Laptop motherboard power supply


The power supply conversion circuit on the laptop motherboard mainly adopts two
kinds of switching power supply and linear regulated power supply.

The switching power supply is the most widely used power conversion circuit in
laptop motherboards. Switching power supply is widely used in the system power
supply circuit, CPU power supply circuit, chipset power supply circuit and memory
and graphics power supply circuit on the laptop motherboard.

The switching power supply uses modern electronic technology to control the "on"
and "off" of the electronic switching device (such as the FET) through the power
control chip to send control signals to pulse-modulate the input power, thereby
realizing power conversion and automatic stabilization. The function of voltage and
output adjustable voltage.

The switching regulator power supply circuit applied on the laptop motherboard is
usually composed of electronic components such as a power control chip, a field
effect transistor, a filter capacitor, a storage inductor and a resistor. The power
control chip is a power supply voltage conversion control component in the
switching power supply circuit and the field effect transistor and the energy
storage inductor are voltage conversion execution components in the circuit, and
the capacitor in the circuit mainly plays a filtering role.
The linear regulated power supply has the characteristics of low noise, fast
response, simple structure, low heat generation, low cost and small size. The linear
power supply is widely used in the laptop computer's standby circuit, memory
power supply circuit and chipset power supply circuit. Provide one or more power
supplies for it.
The linear regulated power supply circuit usually consists of a small number of
electronic components such as a linear regulator chip, a capacitor and a resistor.
When a linear regulated power supply is used to supply a reference voltage in the
memory supply circuit, it is usually designed on the motherboard. Near the
memory slot when the chipset power supply circuit uses a linear regulated power
supply to provide a certain power supply, it is usually designed around the
motherboard chipset.
1-1- Protection isolation circuit and charging control circuit
1. Protection isolation circuit
Protection the isolation circuit is an important part of the laptop computer power
supply circuit. It connects the power adapter and the rechargeable battery to form
the external power supply of the two-way notebook motherboard, and chooses to
deliver one of the power supplies to the motherboard. Kind of power supply
circuit.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 224

The main function of the protection isolation circuit is to switch the power supply
mode of the laptop. The choice is whether to use the power adapter to supply
power or a rechargeable battery, and provide certain protection functions.

Switching the power supply mode of the laptop means that when the laptop has a
power adapter and is powered normally, the protection isolation circuit selects the
power adapter to supply power to the motherboard of the laptop. When there is
no power adapter power supply or the power adapter is powered abnormally, the
protection isolation circuit will choose to be powered by the laptop's rechargeable
battery.

The protection isolation circuit of a laptop usually consists of electronic


components such as a field effect transistor, a resistor, a capacitor, a triode and a
charge control chip. The power supply switching function of the protection
isolation circuit is mainly realized by the switching function of electronic
components such as field effect transistors in the circuit. Electronic components
such as field effect transistors have the property of allowing current to pass when
conducting, and not allowing current to pass when they are turned off. By utilizing
this characteristic of an electronic component having a switching function such as a
field effect transistor, and further controlling the charging control chip in the
circuit, the power supply switching function of the protection isolation circuit can
be realized.
In addition to the function of controlling the on and off of electronic components
such as FETs, the charge control chip in the protection isolation circuit has the
function of monitoring and detecting whether the voltage and current in the circuit
are normal. When the external input power supply is abnormal, the protection
isolation circuit cuts off the input power supply, thereby protecting the circuit of
the latter stage.
Different manufacturers and models of laptop, the protection isolation circuit has a
certain difference in design, the above is only its basic principle, and in the
troubleshooting process of the laptop, should be further analyzed according to the
circuit diagram.
2. Charging control circuit

The charging control circuit is also an important part of the laptop power supply
circuit. Its main function is to convert the input power of the power adapter into
the charging power of the rechargeable battery. The core component of the laptop
charging control circuit is the charging control chip, which controls the charging
process of the rechargeable battery of the laptop.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 225

The charging control circuit of a laptop usually consists of electronic components


such as a charging control chip, a field effect transistor, a capacitor, an inductor,
and a resistor, and belongs to a switching regulator power supply circuit. The FET
in the charge control circuit receives power from the upper circuit and the charge
control chip can control the turn-on and turn-off of the FET in the circuit. The
inductor mainly plays the role of energy storage in the circuit. The capacitor mainly
functions as a filter in the circuit.

After the charging control circuit converts the input power of the power adapter, it
outputs the voltage and current required for charging the rechargeable battery of
the laptop. At the same time, the charging control chip can also detect and
monitor the charging process to prevent damage to the rechargeable battery.

Problems with the protection isolation circuit and charging control circuit of the
laptop will cause the laptop to fail to boot normally, and the rechargeable battery
cannot be charged normally.

3. The circuit analysis

Charging control chip is the core of the laptop protection isolation circuit and the
battery charging control circuit, and has the functions of detecting and controlling
the working process of the whole circuit.

The following takes the ISL6251 charging control chip as an example to elaborate
the basic working principle of the laptop protection isolation circuit and the
charging control circuit.

The ISL6251 charge control chip is a highly integrated battery charge controller
that not only controls the battery charging process of the laptop, but also controls
the power supply between the power adapter and the rechargeable battery by
controlling the externally connected FET.

The ISL6251 charge control chip has accurate charging current limiting function,
and its charging voltage accuracy can reach ±0.5% (-10°C~100°C), thus ensuring
the safety of the battery charging process and prolonging the service life of the
rechargeable battery, as shown in Figure 1. The pin diagram and internal functional
block diagram of the ISL6251 charge control chip are shown.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 226

Figure 1 diagram of the chip for ISL6251

Figure 1a Functional block diagram


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 227

Before starting to study I advise you to download schematic Compal LA-7321P, so


you can follow and understand the voltages.

Figure 2 ISL6251 charge control chip Functional block diagram

As shown in Figure. 2, the FET PQ102 and the FET PQ103 in the circuit mainly
function as a power supply switching function in the circuit. When the power
adapter is plugged in and normal, the FET PQ102 is turned on, and the
motherboard of the laptop is powered by the power adapter. When no power
adapter is supplied or the power adapter is not powered properly, the FET PQ103
is turned on and the laptop's motherboard is powered by a rechargeable battery.

The resistor PR101 in the 19th pin and the 20th pin connection circuit of the
ISL6251 charge control chip is used to detect whether the input current of the
power adapter is normal.

The FET PQ110 and the FET PQ108 in the 14th and 17th pin connection circuits of
the ISL6251 charge control chip control the on and off of the two FETs by the
output drive control signal. The power supply of the FET PQ108 comes from the
input power of the power adapter. The inductor PL101 mainly functions as an
energy storage device in the circuit. The capacitor PC101, the PC102 mainly
function as a filter in the circuit.

The 21st pin and the 22nd pin of the ISL6251 charge control chip are connected to
the resistor PR102, which is mainly used to detect whether the charging current of
the battery is abnormal.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 228

The input power of the power adapter is charged by the FET, inductor and
capacitor in the charging control circuit, and the rechargeable battery is charged.
The whole process is controlled by the charging control chip.

1.3 standby circuit and system power supply circuit


1. Standby circuit
The standby circuit of the laptop computer is a laptop power supply circuit capable
of providing 3.3V and 5V power supply in standby mode.
When the laptop's motherboard has a power adapter or a rechargeable battery,
the standby circuit is already working.

The standby circuit converts the power supply of the protection circuit output to
more than ten volts to 3.3V and 5V standby power, and supplies the chip, circuit
and related equipment that need standby voltage, such as the chipset, EC chip, and
host power supply key on the motherboard, prepare for the boot of the laptop.

In the design of the standby circuit, there are certain differences between different
manufacturers and models of laptop. In the specific laptop maintenance process,
the composition of the standby circuit and its output can be judged and analyzed
according to the power-on sequence of the faulty laptop. Powered by.

The standby circuit of the laptop is the basis for the normal startup of the laptop.
In the maintenance process of many laptop, the standby circuit needs to be first
tested to determine the scope of the fault. Therefore, it is very important to
master the working principle of the standby circuit.

2. System power supply circuit


The system power supply circuit of the laptop is also a very important power
conversion circuit on the laptop motherboard. Unlike the standby circuit, the
system power supply circuit is in the laptop boot process and during the running
process, for each laptop. Chips, circuits, and related hardware devices provide 3.3V
and 5V power.
After the system power supply circuit of the laptop starts to work normally, the
power supply of the ten volts supplied by the protection isolation circuit is
converted into a system power of 3.3V and 5V. Many of the chips, circuits, and
related devices on the laptop's motherboard require both power supplies to
function properly.

The relationship between the standby circuit of a laptop and the system power
supply circuit is very close. In many cases, it is necessary to first recognize the
structure and principle of the standby circuit, in order to further analyze the
system power supply circuit of the laptop.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 229

The standby circuit and system power supply circuit of the laptop are the basis of
the booting process and normal operation of the laptop.

When the electronic components in the two circuits are damaged or have
problems such as soldering and desoldering, the laptop usually fails to boot
normally. Startup and automatic restart and other failures.

3. Analysis Linear Regulated Power Supply Type Standby Circuit

Figure 3 shows the laptop standby circuit diagram consisting of two linear
regulators, LP2951 and G913CF. The power supply DCBATOUT output from the
protection isolation circuit is input from the 8th pin of the linear regulator LP2951.
After the conversion of the internal circuit of the chip, a 5V standby power supply
named 5V AUX S5 is output from the first pin. A chip, circuit, and related device
that requires a 5V standby voltage for the laptop in standby mode.

Figure 3 standby circuit diagram

After 5V_AUX_S5's 5V standby power supply output, it will enter the chip through
the 3rd pin of the linear regulator G913CF. After the internal circuit of the linear
regulator G913CF is converted, it will output a 3.3V called 3D3V_AUX_S5. Standby
power supply, providing chips, circuits and related equipment that require 3.3V
standby voltage in standby mode.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 230

As can be seen from the circuit diagram, the standby circuit converts the power
supply provided by the isolation circuit into a standby power supply of 5V and
3.3V.

The core of the whole conversion process is the linear regulator in the circuit. It
can also be seen that the standby circuit of the linear regulated power supply type
has a simple structure and requires a very small number of electronic components.

4. Switching power supply type standby circuit

The ISL6237 power control chip is a versatile, highly integrated and efficient power
control chip that is widely used in the power supply circuit of laptop
motherboards.

ISL6237 power control chip has wide input voltage range (5.5~25V), soft start and
soft stop, thermal shutdown, dual fixed 1.05V/3.3V and 1.5V/5.0V output or
adjustable 0.7~5.5V and 0.5~2.5 V output and other features, as shown in Figure 4
is the ISL6237 power control chip pin diagram and internal functional block
diagram.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 231

Figure 4 detail Functional diagram ISL6237

The ISL6237 power control chip integrates a pulse width modulation (PWM)
controller and a linear regulator, which can be used to drive the 3.3V and 5V
power supply of the rear stage circuit. Figure 5 shows the application circuit
diagram of the ISL6237 power control chip.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 232

Figure 5 diagram of the ISL6237 power control chip

The fourth pin of the ISL6237 power control chip is the on chip linear regulator
signal open end. When the 4th pin gets a high-level turn-on signal, the linear
regulator function module inside the ISL6237 power control chip starts to work.
After that, the 7th pin of the ISL6237 power control chip outputs the power supply
named VL. Power is supplied to the relevant pins of the ISL6237 power control chip
and related circuits.

The 14th pin of the ISL6237 power control chip and the EN1 and EN2 terminals of
the 27th pin are the signal enable terminals of the internal circuit of the ISL6237
power control chip. When these two pins get a high-level start signal, the ISL6237
power control the internal circuit of the chip starts to work, and outputs relevant
control signals to drive the relevant electronic components of the subsequent
stage circuit to enter the working state.

The control signals output on the 15th and 18th pins of the ISL6237 power control
chip are mainly used for the FET PQ43 and the FET PQ40 in the driver circuit, and
then pass through the storage inductor PL10 and the filter capacitor in the
subsequent stage circuit.

Finally, the power provided by the protection isolation circuit is converted into a
5V standby power supply to the chip, equipment and related circuits that require a
5V standby voltage.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 233

The control signals of the 26th and 23rd pins of the ISL6237 power control chip are
used to drive the FET PQ42 and the FET PQ41, and then pass through the energy
storage inductor PL11 and the filter capacitor in the subsequent stage circuit,
which will eventually protect. The power supply provided by the isolation circuit is
converted to a 3.3V standby power supply to a chip, device, and related circuits
that require a 3.3V standby voltage, such as a host power supply key, an EC chip,
and an RTC circuit.

During the startup and operation of the laptop, the ISL6237 power control chip and
its related circuit output 3.3V and 5V power supply, under the control of the
relevant signals, the relevant circuit is converted to 3.3V and 5V system power
supply, providing 3.3V And 5V power supply chip, equipment and related circuits,
such as chipset, etc., as shown in Figure 6, is the circuit diagram of standby power
supply converted to system power supply after power on.

Figure 6 diagram of standby


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 234

1.4 CPU circuit

The CPU is the core of the laptop motherboard, and the importance of the power
supply circuit that guarantees its normal operation is self-evident.
Because the CPU is very integrated and complex hardware, and the working
conditions are more demanding. Therefore, the CPU power supply circuit is also
the power supply circuit with the highest design requirements in the power supply
circuit of the motherboard, and is also one of the circuits with high failure rate.

The CPU power supply of the laptop motherboard can be divided into core power
supply and auxiliary power supply. The CPU core power supply circuit is usually
located near the CPU socket of the motherboard.
The CPU is one of the most power-consuming chips in a laptop motherboard,
especially its core power supply has a relatively low supply voltage but relatively
large supply current. Early CPU power supply usually used single-phase power
supply circuit, but with the improvement of CPU performance and working
conditions, the current CPU power supply circuit is a multi-phase power supply
circuit.

In a multiphase power supply circuit, each phase is relatively independent but


symmetrical, and the current generated by each single phase eventually converges
to provide a low voltage, high current supply to the CPU core.

Some CPU power supply circuits are also designed with FET drivers for better drive
circuit operation.
The FET driver, also known as the power control chip or driver IC, has the
characteristics of signal amplification and high voltage resistance, and is mainly
used to better drive the FET in the circuit.

At present, the power supply of the laptop CPU can be divided into three parts:

the CPU core power supply, the display core power supply and the auxiliary power
supply integrated in the CPU. As shown in Fig. 7, the CPU power supply connection
circuit diagram of the Intel laptop motherboard is shown.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 235

Figure 7 CPUcircuit diagram


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 236

Figure 7a +CPU CORE

Figure 7b+ GFX CORE power supply


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 237

As shown in Figure 7a, the +CPU CORE supply powers the core of the CPU,
which is typically provided by a CPU power supply circuit located near the CPU
socket of the motherboard.

As shown in Figure 7b, the +GFX CORE power supply is the power supply for the
integrated display core in the CPU. This power supply is also typically provided
by an independent switching regulator power supply circuit.

As shown in Figure 7. The CPU is connected to the ground circuit. For a CPU
with high power consumption, a large number of grounding wires can
effectively ensure the safety and stability of the CPU. As can be seen from
Figure 7, the CPU needs voltage when it works normally. A variety of power
supplies with different currents can ensure that the functional modules
integrated in the CPU work stably. The various power supplies required by the
CPU are provided by a dedicated switching regulator power supply circuit, and
some are converted by other power supply circuits. Several important CPU
power supply circuits are specifically described below.

1.5 CPU core power supply circuit

The CPU core power supply circuit provides a core power supply circuit for the
CPU of the laptop motherboard, and is a switching power supply circuit, which
is usually composed of a power control chip, a field effect transistor, an
inductor, a capacitor, and a resistor, and the like, wherein the power control
chip It is the core of the circuit, not only has the function of driving and
controlling the circuit, but also the functions of detection, monitoring and
protection.

The power control chip can monitor the voltage and current changes of the
output of the power supply circuit through the circuit connection of the
relevant pins, thereby ensuring the stability of the current and voltage supplied
to the CPU. When the power supply circuit is abnormal, the power control chip
can turn off the circuit output, thereby protecting the entire circuit and the
CPU.
The power control chip outputs a control signal through the relevant pin to
control the on and off of the FET in the circuit, thereby converting the power
provided by the upper power supply circuit into the core power supply of the
CPU.
The difference from the fixed voltage output power supply circuit is that the
voltage value of the CPU core power supply is dynamically changed. This
requires that the power supply control chip in the CPU core power supply
circuit should first understand the power supply voltage required by the CPU,
and then drive the power supply.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 238

The circuit produces the power required by the CPU.


The power supply information is transmitted between the CPU and the power
control chip through the VID technology. VID technology is a voltage
identification technology. The VID pin on the CPU outputs a coded signal to the
power control chip in the CPU power supply circuit. The relevant function
module inside the power control chip decodes the encoded signal transmitted
by the CPU, thereby obtaining the power supply information required by the
CPU.

According to the power supply information transmitted by the CPU, the power
control chip drives the latter circuit to output the power required by the CPU.
The TPS51621 power control chip is a buck controller for CPU and GPU core
power supply circuits. It features a simple external connection and a wide input
voltage range. Its internal integrated MOSFET driver can effectively drive the
FET in the circuit. The TPS51621 power control chip also has current limit and
voltage protection functions. Figure 8 shows the application circuit diagram of
the TPS51621 power control chip.

As shown in Figure 8, the TPS51621 power control chip's 14th pin, 15th pin,
16th pin, 17th pin, 18th pin, 19th pin, and 20th pin are TPS51621 power
supplies. The VID signal connection terminal of the control chip is directly
connected to the VID signal pin of the CPU for transmitting the VID signal.

Figure 8 TPS51621 power control chip


Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 239

The 21st, 24th, 27th, and 30th pins of the TPS51621 power control chip are used to
output the drive signal, control the FET PQ 15, FET PQ16, FET PQ 17, field effect
The PQ 18, the FET PQ42, the FET PQ43, the FET PQ44, and the FET PQ45 are
turned on and off, thereby converting the power supply provided by the protection
isolation circuit into the power supply required for the normal operation of the
CPU. The inductor PL10 and the inductor PL11 in the circuit function as energy
storage. The +CPU CORE power supply of the final circuit output will be directly
sent to the CPU core to ensure the normal operation of the CPU.

1.6 Memory circuit

1. Basics The memory used by laptops is typically a separate PCB board that
communicates with the laptop motherboard through SO-DIMM slots and is
powered.
The memory module mainly includes memory chips, SPD chips, and electronic
components such as capacitors and resistors. The memory supply circuit on the
laptop motherboard needs to supply the voltage and current required for normal
operation of the memory chip and the SPD chip, and also to supply power for
communication between the memory and the CPU or the north bridge chip.

2. Circuit analysis is shown in Figure 9 for the laptop power supply connection
circuit diagram. It can be seen from the figure that the current DDR3 type memory
commonly used in laptop motherboard mainly needs +1.5V, +0.75VS and +3VS
power supply. The +1.5V power supply is the main power supply for the memory,
the +0.75VS power supply provides the reference operating voltage for the
memory, and the +3VS power supply is mainly used for the SPD chip of the
memory.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 240

Figure 9 DDR3 circuit diagram

As shown in Figure 10, the +1.5V main power generation circuit of the memory is a
switching regulator power supply circuit. The FET control circuit turns on and off
the FET, and through the inductor energy storage and capacitor filtering in the
circuit, converts the power provided by the protection isolation circuit into the
1.5V main power supply required for DDR3 memory.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 241

Figure 10 +1.5V main power

The 0.75V reference operating voltage required for DDR3 memory is typically
provided by a linear regulated power supply circuit next to the memory slot. The
power required by the SPD chip of the memory can be supplied by the output
power of the system power supply circuit through the conversion of the relevant
electronic components.
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 242

Part 13
Dictionary for Technicians
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 243

For understanding laptop schematic, you must know abbreviation and short form
name of the laptop motherboard components. And it is kind of dictionary for
technicians, so these are necessary for better understanding electronic data.

Name Components Code table

Components Name Code


Capacitor C
Resistor R
Diode D
Zener Diode ZD or PD
Oscilator X
Fuse F
Transformer T
LED LED
Inductor- coil L
Transistor Q
Power Resistor PR
Power Capacitor PC
Integrated Circuit IC U
Crystal X or Y
Power Diode PD
Power Integrared Circuits PU
Power Inductor PL
Power Transistor PQ
Switch SW

Definition of Term Technique


Term Definitions
DC Direct Current
AC Alternate Current
Voltage Power Supply
Ampere Current Flowing
Power/Watt The amount of voltage required
Load Load
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 244

Voltage Definition Definition Signal


Input Input in
Output Alternate Current Out
Negative Voltage have a value below 0 -
Positive +
Ground GND
Clock CLK
Reset Input Confirmation Reset
Data Communicate PCI &etc

Term of Circuit Definition


SYSTEM 3V/ 5V PCU Step-down circuit for lowering 19V to 3V or 5V
DC IN & BATTERY Circuit for battery charging and power jack circuit in the initial
Charger gate power
GPU CORE Circuit and voltage power supply for chip (ICH/GMCH)
GPX CORE Circuit for processor power supply
VCC CORE Circuit for processor power supply
TERMAL PROTECTION Circuit heat detector supply
DISCHARGED +1,8 V Circuit Suspend LDO
DDR +1,5 V & 0.9 Circuit power supply for RAM
CLOCK GENERATOR Circuit for produce clock signal
LVDS Circuit for display on screen LCD
POWER BUTTON Circuit switch on/off
CONN Connector
RTC/CKT Circuit CMOS & frequency generator CHIF
DIS Circuit VGA Externat Generator
UMA Circuit VGA InternalGenerator
PWM Circuit Pulse Widget Modulation controller
COMPARATOR Circuit Comparator
SPI FLASH (KBC) Circuit BIOS
CRT Circuit for external monitor and projector
LPC BUS Circuit Communication
DMI Digital Media Interference

Term of Circuit Definition

Step Up Riser Voltage


Step Down Lowering Voltage
DC Converter DC to DC
Rectifier Rectifier Circuit
Voltage Divider Voltage Divider
OP-Amp Amplifier
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 245

The motherboard common signal definition


Term Input / Output Definition
CLK_CPU_BCLK [1:0] I Bus clock
H_PWRGOOD I Power OK signal
H_CPURESET # I Reset signal
H_VID [6:0] O Voltage identification signal
H_GTLREF I GTL reference voltage
CPU_BSEL [2:0] I/O Bus select signal
H_TEST [1:2] I CPU detection signal
AUX_PWR_ON AUX voltage is turned
AUX_OFF AUX voltage shutdown signal
V_RPWRGD CPU voltage is normal
AUX_PWRGD AUX voltage is normal
LID # Sleep-pin switch
LCDSW LCD backlight switch
CHG_ON Charging open
ADAP_IN Adapter access
LCD_SW [2:0] LCD switch
BATOFF_I Battery Close
BTL_BEEP Alarm tone control
RF_LED Wireless LAN indicator
PWR_LED Power Indicator
CHG_G_LED Charging instructions (Green)
PM_THROTTING # Over-temperature alarm
SB_RTCRST RTC reset
CHG_REF Charging reference voltage
FAN_CTRL0 Fan Control
CHG_I Charging current setting
EC_BRGHT Light and dark adjustment
BAT_I Charge / still charge
BAT_V Battery voltage identification
ADAPTOR_I O Adapter current setting
DPRSLPVR I Deep sleep - the regulator signal
H_STPCLK # I Stop the clock signal
H_SMI # I A system management interrupt signal
H_FERR # Floating-point error signal
H_20M # I Address bit 20 mask signal
H_INTR I Maskable interrupt
H_INIT # I Initialization
H_IGNNE # I To ignore numerical error signal
PM_THRMTRIP O Thermal alarm signal
H_THRM # I Thermal alarm signal
H_PROCHOT # I/O CPU overtemperature indication
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 246

BATT_TEMP Battery Identification


EC_POWER_ON I Power on signal
ROMCS # O Chip select signal
ROMRD # O The data has been ready
LRST1 # I LPC reset signal
SLP_S3 (S4, S5) # I Sleep control signal
PLTRST # O Total reset signal
PWROK I Power good signal
RSMRST # O Restore the normal reset signal
PWRBTN # O Power button signal
MIC_JD_SENSE # I Within external micphon switching
HP_JD_SENSE # I Within the external speaker switch
ACZ_SDATAIN [1:0] I Serial data input
ACZ_SDATAOUT O Serial data output
ACZ_SYNC O Sync signal
ACZ_RST # O Reset signal
LDRQ # I DMA request
LFRAME # I/O LPC framework
LAD [3:0] I/O Composite line of the address data
SMBCLK I/O lock line
SMBDATA I/O Data lines
SMB Full System Management Bus
SATALED # OD SATA to read and write instructions
SATARBIAS (#) I he Serial ATA resistance bias
SATA0RXP (N) I Serial ATA0 accept
SATA0TXP (N) O Transmission of serial ATA0
IDE_PDIORDY I I / O channel ready
IDE_PDIOW # O Disk I / O write
IDE_PDIOR # O Disk I / O read
IDE_PDDACK # O Device DMA confirmation
IDE_PDDREQ I Device requests
IDE_PDD [15:0] I/O Device data
IDE_PDA [2:0] O Device address
IDE_PDCS1 # O Device chip select
USBP + (-) I/O USB signal
OC # I Overcurrent protection
EE_CS O Chip select signal
EE_DOUT O EEPROM data output
EE_DIN I EEPROM data input
EE_SHCLK O EEPROM clock
LAN_RSTSYNC O Lan Chip reset signal
TP_TX [2:0] I Transfer data
TP_RX [2:0] I Accept data
PCI_CLK_LAN I Network clock
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 247

PCI_LOCK # I/O Locking


PCI_IDSEL I Initialize the device selection
PCI_DEVSEL # I/O Device select signal
PCI_STOP # I/O Stop
PCI_TRDY # I/O Signal from the device is ready
PCI_IRDY # I/O Master device ready signal
PCI_FRAME # I/O Cycle framework
PCI_RST # O Reset signal
PCI_GNT # O Guarantee
PCI_REQ # I Request
PCI Bus - Peripheral Component Interconnect bus
PCI_C / BE [3:0] # I/O Instruction or byte Enable
PCI_PAR I/O Parity signals
PCI_AD [31:0] I/O Address data bus
DMA Direct access to memory
TV_DACB / DACC O TV signal transmission
NB_CRT_REFSET I Resistance setting
NB_CRT_BLUE O The Blue analog signal output
NB_CRT_GREEN O The Green analog signal output
NB_CRT_RED O The red analog signals output
NB_CRT_VSYNC O Vertical synchronizing signal
NB_CRT_HSYNC O Horizontal synchronizing signal
M_WE # O Write enable
M_CAS # O Column address
M_RAS # O Row address
M_BA [1:0] O Bank Select
M_CS [3:0] # O Chip select
M_CK [4:0] / MA_CK # [4:0] O Clock output
M_CKE [3:0] O Clock allows
M_DQS [7:0] I/O Data strobe
M_DM [7:0] O Data Masking
M_DQ [63:0] I/O Data lines
MA_A [13:0] O Memory address
H_DP [3:0] # I/O Data parity
H_DBSY # I/O Data bus is busy
H_AP [1:0] # I/O Address parity
H_ADSTB [1:0] # I/O Address Strobe
H_ADS # I/O Address Strobe
H_TRDY # I/O Target ready
H_REQ [4:0] # I/O Command request
H_D [63:0] # I/O Data bus
H_A [31:3] # I/O Address bus signals
H_CPUSLP # I CPU sleep signal
DPRSTP # I Depth stop signal
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 248

SIO pin description


Signal Nam Type Defination
IMVP_PWRGD CORE TO SIO VRM cpu core voltage ok PG
LID_CLOSE LID SWITCH TOSIO LIDSWITCH(magneting sensor)
WiFi_ENABLE SIO TO WIFI turn on wifi card
ECRST reset signal to sio
KS SIGNAL KEYBOARD keyboard
SMBUS DATA SM BUS DATA system management signal
SMBUSC.K SM BUS CLOCK system management signal
PRQHOT CPU TO SIO cpu hot signal
VFAN SIO TO FAN turn on fan
FANSIG FAN TO SIO fan rpm input to sio
MUTE SIO TO AUDIO mute audio
TPDATA SIO TO TOUCH PAD touch pad
TPCLK SIO TO TOUCH PAD touch pad
USBPW_ON SIO TO USB turn on USB
SUSC(SLP_S4) PCH TO SIO turn on power
SUSB(SLP_S3) PCH TO SIO turn on power
DNBSWON(PM_PWRBTN) SIO TO PCH power on signal to pch
NBSWON(KBC_PWRBTN) PWR BTN TO SIO power button 3volt to zero
LAN_PWR SIO TO LAN SECTION turn on network
ACIN VIN TO SIO adopter present signal
AC_PRESENT SIO TO PCH adopter present signal to pch
S5_ON SIO TO ALWAYS always voltage turn on
SUSPON SIO TO SUSPEND release always voltage to
suspend
MIAINON SIO TO STEP 2 turn on1.5v, 1.05v
RUNON SIO TO STEP 2 turn on1.5v, 1.05v
VR_ON SIO TO VRM turn on cpu core voltage
SUS_PWROK PWM TO SIO suspend voltage ok
HWPG PWM TO SIO power ok input ta sio without cpu
ECPWROK(PM_PWROK| SIO TO PCH All power ok
TEMP_BAT BAT TO SIO battery temperature
XCLK CLOCK 32.7KHZ 32,7khz clock input
RSMR5T SIO TO PCH resume and reset signa 3 volt
FRAME PCH TO SIO frame signal from pch indicating
data processing
clk33mhz PCH TO SIO 33mhz clock signal INPUT clock
dept ok
PLTRST PCH TO SIO Platform reset 3volt saying alI
power ok reset generated
BIOS_RD SIO TO BIOS sio read bios
BIOS_CS SIO TO BIOS sio select bios
BIOS_CLK SIO TO BIOS dock signal
BIOS_WR SIO TO BIOS write signal to bios
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 249

Conclusion
With the information you have acquired, you should have a basic understanding of
how to test almost all of the electronic componentsfound in laptop motherboard. I
strongly suggest you get started right away with all of the tips and tricks you have
learned from this Training E-book.

What you need to do now is to buy few laptop motherboards from your favorite
electronic stores and begin to assemble it. This is one of the practical ways to
improve your soldering skill, testing electronic components, understanding
components coding and part number and etc.

Once you are good in testing electronic components you then can look for
junk/broken laptop motherboard to repair to perfect your repair skill.

I wish you all the best and look forward to hearing your success story.

To your success.

www.LaptopRepairSecrets.com
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 250

Recommended training to Learn laptop motherboard Repair


The information below will help you learn how to repair your laptop motherboard
successfully. Click on photo below to visit the website:

Please visit the Resources Page to get more useful repairing information at:
www.LaptopRepairSecrets.com/p/newsletter.html
Laptop MotherBoard Repair Step One 251

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