Persheis

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May 10, 2011
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18,510
Hello all!

My beloved Asus 1215B fell in battle last year, after almost 3 years of service. I was browsing the net, and suddenly it shut off for no apparent reason. I turned it on again, only to be met by another shutdown soon after reaching the Windows 8.1 logo screen. I thought the issue could be related to heat, so I left the netbook there, went to buy some precision tools, and disassembled the machine. Taking the required protective measures, I reached all the way to the fan and heatsink, I cleaned the fan and replaced the heatsink thermal paste with some Ceramique 2 I had. I reassembled the laptop and proceeded to turn it on… and nothing. It was plain dead. No indicator lights were on, even with the AC adapter connected. I verified the AC adapter works, and the battery lost some maximum capacity, but still worked.

I haven’t disassembled it again since then, and it remains dead for almost a year. However, I decided to revive it and determine the issues that might be causing this problem.

Has anyone got the service manual for this (or any similar Asus EEE netbook) laptop?

Any advices on troubleshooting it? I’m suspecting an internal electrical distribution issue, but I have no info on where to measure and test. Soon before dying, the fan started sounding really loud, and the netbook got way hotter than usual. Also, the battery wouldn't go above 80% or charge.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Hi,

It can be a motherboard problem already if that's the case. But here are more troubleshooting steps that you can try.
- Remove the battery and plug in just the AC adapter then try booting it up.
- If it doesn't boot up try and reseat the RAM, remove them all for couple of seconds then put them back in making sure that they are seated properly into each slot.
- Another test you can do is to try another AC adapter that has the same voltage with yours and see if it will boot up.
- If all these will not work that means its a problem with the motherboard already.
 

Shaun o

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One of the key things to check on the motherboard are the tantalum capacitors.

If any are soldered to the underside of the board where the Amd fusion cpu sits.
You should test there capacitance output is reading at the correct value, as well as measuring the voltage of each with a multi meter.

I`m suspecting though that you have a dry solder joint somewhere.
Possibly if the fusion cpu as I would expect is soldered direct to one side of the motherboard on a Bga array.

In such a case, I would strip the netbook down to the motherboard removing it from the outer case.

Around the area where the cpu is i would run a heat gun around it.
to re flow the solder joints under the cpu on the bga array.

If it was getting hot then it is the likely cause as to why the laptop stopped working. A dry solder joint of the Bga array of the cpu if soldered direct to the netbooks motherboard.

Or you could go the route of a re flow of the whole board by using an oven in your home set to about 230 c in temp.
If your not sure there are plenty of guides on motherboard re flowing you can do at home with just an oven.

I would hedge my bets the cause is a dry solder joint causing the problem.


 

Persheis

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May 10, 2011
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18,510


Hello, sorry for getting back to you so late. Finally getting some free time, I opened the laptop yesterday once again, reseated everything and added some Noctua thermal compound there. Surprisingly the laptop started operating again, but the issues with the sudden shutdown have not been resolved.
I'm guessing it might be the fan, maybe? It screams like a banshee everytime I turn the computer on. The laptop doesn't seem to overheat a lot, but the fan noise hints it might be failing. The battery, too, is dead, so I'm running on AC only.

Do you happen to know any recommended, trusted place to buy spare parts? (A specific seller on eBay works too).

Thanks a lot!

 

Persheis

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May 10, 2011
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18,510


Hello, sorry for getting back to you so late. I opened the laptop yesterday and checked the capacitors you pointed out. I haven't found any "wiggly" component yet, but I'll soon conduct another test with a heat gun to reflow everything. This suggestion was awesome, since I wouldn't have thought some of the base components would fail not electrically, but physically.

Do you happen to know any recommended, trusted place to buy spare parts? (A specific seller on eBay works too). During the latest test, I found out my fan might be dying/near death, and the battery is dead too, and I want to buy the spares.

Thanks a lot!