Possible damage to laptop motherboard.

Rhettsterhhhh

Estimable
May 10, 2014
8
0
4,510
I have an Asus X401A laptop. I needed to replace the hard drive. While I was screwing in the new drive, one of the screw holes were not aligned. I was blind to that fact and continued to screw the drive in. I then noticed the hard drive bending the sata connector on the motherboard and stopped. I toke that screw out and realigned the drive. This time, the screws went in fine. With the drive installed, I went ahead and plugged in the PSU to test it. There was no signs of life. No lights, screen, drives, or fans running. At that point, I said to myself "I'm screwed!". After awhile, I unplugged the PSU to look for physical damage to the board. I felt around the sata connector and it felt warm to the touch. I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I removed the drive to see if that was the cause. I let the system set there with the adapter plugged in with no drive and it got warm again. I decided to reassembly the palm rest so I could try to power the system up with the battery to no avail. With the laptop fully assembled, I tried to charge the battery but I noticed the charging led was not lit. I'm really confused and angry with myself right now. I need some answers on what to do, this laptop is about a year old.
 
Solution
Hi,

Since the laptop is opened up try cleaning the inside of the laptop as well and make sure everything is seated properly. Check the RAM as well, reset the RAM connection to the laptop make sure all them are properly seated as well. Lastly, try powering it on with the battery, just hook it up at it's AC adapter and see if it power on. If all these step doesn't work more likely it really is the motherboard damaged indeed.
Hi,

Since the laptop is opened up try cleaning the inside of the laptop as well and make sure everything is seated properly. Check the RAM as well, reset the RAM connection to the laptop make sure all them are properly seated as well. Lastly, try powering it on with the battery, just hook it up at it's AC adapter and see if it power on. If all these step doesn't work more likely it really is the motherboard damaged indeed.
 
Solution

Rhettsterhhhh

Estimable
May 10, 2014
8
0
4,510


I checked the the RAM but I didn't reseat it. I'll try tonight but I doubt that the RAM would cause this. The battery charging LED won't even light up. I reseated all flex cables including the LCD cable. I'm fearing the worst by now. I can't find any physical damage to the board. Further research indicated that the cause is the Power Managment. Any chance that you know about the Power Managment in a laptop?

 

Rhettsterhhhh

Estimable
May 10, 2014
8
0
4,510


I reseated the RAM to no avail. No charging, and no life except the board getting warm when plugged in. I'm pretty sure by now this laptop is done. Such a shame on me because of the amazing internals this thing had. It was one powerful laptop in it's price range. I'll just have to go laptop-less for awhile.