Old laptop

[Little Monster]

I have an ancient Escom KT50-MNB-I (Paradigma) laptop, which did have a
knackered power-supply module, which I fixed, so now it has power, however
I get no life apart from the fan running and the battery charging. The
cpu (mobile 486) is fine, so I am wondering, what is frugged? And how can
I tell? Memory too ancient to test in another machine, graphics card
likewise, no bios beep, but that could be due to faulty memory, mobo integrity
unknown. Power and reset buttons cause very slight shift in mobo voltages
pretty much everywhere. Unfortunately I don't have a manual to tell me
what is ....normal.

It seems a shame to junk it cos it's a funky little machine, when it could
be something simple like a discrete component causing the fault.
Suggestions, anyone?

Monster
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[Little Monster]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:43:34 -0700, Andre wrote:

Any aluminium SMD or normal electrolytics ? Replace the lot and see if
this helps .

Minimal cost . These *will* fail in old equipment, guaranteed !

Funny, it was some surface mount ones that failed in the power converter -
no idea what type they were, they had gone s/c. I replaced them with some
"reclaimed" small standard radial electrolytics, extended the wires so
they could hang off the board! I will investigate what is on the mobo.
Thanks!

Monster
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[Andre]

"Little Monster" <root@localhost.localdomain> wrote in message news:<a5efef7ff90d8e2a0742998360cd8c40@TeraNews>...

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 12:43:34 -0700, Andre wrote:

Any aluminium SMD or normal electrolytics ? Replace the lot and see if
this helps .

Minimal cost . These *will* fail in old equipment, guaranteed !

Funny, it was some surface mount ones that failed in the power converter -
no idea what type they were, they had gone s/c. I replaced them with some
"reclaimed" small standard radial electrolytics, extended the wires so
they could hang off the board! I will investigate what is on the mobo.
Thanks!

You're welcome

BTW, I'd replace them with the exact type for best reliability, as
they use SMD to reduce lead length (and help EMI). What you have done
is OK for test purposes though.

Not trying to nitpick, but using reclaimed 'lytics without first
testing on an ESR and/or capacitor meter is a bad idea. You may find
they fail in a short time.

Also, you need to replace every electrolytic capacitor on all of the
boards . If you miss one, it may not shown immediately but the machine
may breakdown in a few weeks or months. Use antistatic precautions!

The problem I describe is endemic on camcorders over a certain age,
these are particularly evil things to service due to the sheer number
of capacitors and their tendency to leak (!).

Monster