Laptop repair update

[ciphergoth]

My meeting is in Geneva on Monday. I'm waiting to see what flights work offer me.

My laptop is now in very small pieces. Many screws are taped to hastily-drawn diagrams showing where they go. I have removed the PCMCIA socket and painstakingly straightened out the seriously bent pins with a jeweller's screwdriver; it now seems to accept a card in either slot OK. I had been mostly confident that I'd be able to put it all back together properly...

...until I realised that one of the screws that holds the PCMCIA socket in place on the motherboard was hidden under the big metal RF shield covering the back. The shield was glued on, presumably because it doubles as a heatsink since lots of chips seem to be glued to it. I had to peel it away to do the repair.

I take it I should go to Maplin, buy some heat conductive glue, and glue the thing back on taking care the chips get enough glue?

I've taken lots of photos, but I use the laptop to get them off the camera, so you'll have to wait until either (a) I get it working again, or (b) I decide it's beyond repair and start trying to sort out a new laptop before you see them. I'm sure you're dying to know what the inside of my laptop looks like.

One chip looks like a bomb site. The plastic case has turned white and dusty and the motherboard around it is scorched. I suspect this is why my battery life is precisely zero.

Update: Spoke to a couple of guys at Maplin. Their reaction to learning that I'd taken apart my laptop was very much "you did WHAT?". They said that heat-conductive glue bonds really hard, and that if it had been used to glue the chips into place then it would have been much harder to pull the plate off than it was - and that if I'd managed it, I would have taken the chips with it. Since the plate is still tacky enough to stick back into place, their recommendation was just to stick it back on without adding any glue.

I shall keep you all informed as to the results of my first "smoke test"...

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

~Mind boggles~
That's incredible. Anybody else would just go "Oh, it's under the metal bit. In that case it's buggered." and would just give up.
How childishly [in complimentary way] brilliant :)

[lovingboth]

That's laptops for you - yes, they're portable but they're also more expensive, with more limited capabilities, less reliable and harder to repair.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Especially since I bought the second cheapest laptop there was, and proceeded to cart it all over the world. Still, actual explody chips is a bit of a surprise.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

I'll give you a call Friday daytime to give you a hand with the laptop. Been there, done that. If you're insomniac as i email or sms me.

-Roy