Asus motherboard displaying no picture

Sinarth

Estimable
May 19, 2014
2
0
4,510
Hi.
I have a Asus computer where the motherboard is in a somewhat working order. the problem that I have is that it won't give any display, the screen won't even light up. The laptop went black after i dropped it from about 1m. The only physical damage that's been done was to the case of the laptop just below the screen.

The computer receives power and can start up, at least the fan is spinning and the LEDs light up but not the internal or an external screen. My best guess is that the motherboard is FUBAR but I'm still willing to try to save it just because it's a nice computer and it would be good experience for me, win or fail.

What I have done:
- Tested it with an external display without any luck.
- Stripped it to bare minimum, HDD, screen, RAM and all the cables have been removed.
- I've tried re-flowing the northbridge twice.
- I've tried using different CPUs, RAMs, screens and VGA cable (I work at a computer store so I've had a supply of components that have been tested and are in a working condition that I've tried using them on my laptop without any success).

I can't find any signs of any physical damage to the motherboard and the only thing i can think of to try next is to either heat up the whole motherboard if in the event that some tin somewhere got cracked when the laptop was dropped or getting a replacement motherboard.

I have access to all the necessary tools and a BGA station.
Do you have any experience with this kind of problem or am I destined to purchase a new motherboard? I've looked up the prices for a new motherboard and with shipping it would cost me around $200 so I'm willing to try to save the motherboard at any cost. Hey, it can't get any worse.
I'm happy for any suggestions that you might have.
 

SirSub42

Honorable
Aug 31, 2013
29
0
10,610
Sounds like your Graphics unit on the motherboard may have been knocked silly with the drop. I have heard of people repairing these components generally with directed heat, (Using a blow torch to heat up the area around the soldered connections) or even with something as general as baking your entire motherboard in the oven for a few minutes. You may want to check out Youtube, certainly a nice collection of DIY videos for this sort of thing.

Best of luck to ya and look forward to a response (Especially if you try the oven idea). - Sub
 

Sinarth

Estimable
May 19, 2014
2
0
4,510
I've actually tried heating up the VGA chip (re-flowing) but it's most likely that I need to heat up the whole motherboard as there might be a hairline crack in one of the soldering for a chip and that's impossible to actually see, unless you have a machine to detect that which unfortunately my work doesn't.

Usually just heating up the VGA chip will work as I've done it numerous times, if it fails it's mostly shown within a month or two and then you have to re-ball the chip (removing the old solder and putting on new).

Guess I'll just have to cover up the capacitors with protective foil so that they won't burst and just use the BGA machine to heat up the motherboard.