[beejayess]

Hi all I am new here,this is my first post,I am trying to fix this rather cheap laptop for a friend(patriot 3050).It is dead,I mean really DEAD!When you plug it in the battery light comes on for a couple of minutes then goes out.The AC adapter light is on too,but that is it! No other signs of life.I've checked the adapter's output,it is 19.5 v,and there is power getting to the battery terminals.

From right to left assuming that the left is the +(then counting left to right eg term1+,term2+...etc),term1+ = 3.5 v,term2+ =3.5v,term3+ =3.5v,term4+ =0.0v,term5+ =starts at 9v and then decreases down to 0.5v.

I've checked the battery and it seems not to have a charge.0.5v at best and there is a crack in the housing I think the battery is u/s.Does a laptop need a viable battery to work off the mains adapter?
If not where would the problem lie?
I've tried to get inside to see if there is a circuit breaker,but it wont let me in. (I was going to break something)

Tell me is is this laptop only good for a door stop now???

Any help would be appriciated

THX

BJS

[nerdrock]

although this isn't a definitive answer, it should help.

Laptops don't need a battery to operate. (hell, i have an old 400mhz IBM that i use for a bass-guitar effects processor that will only work WITHOUT the battery installed)

Also: i've never encountered a laptop you couldn't disassemble, if you think you're going to break something, chances are you missed a hard-to-see screw. It also helps to search google for the model number of your laptop, as there are TONS of complete dissasembly guides out there. I've done a few laptops, and they've all been their own unique brand of nightmare to work on.

for the rest of your problem, i can only tell you that you're just scratching the surface. the first thing i would do, is check the power button. You'd be surprised how much trouble that can potentially save you. After that, there's a CMOS Battery (watch battery) hidden inside your machine somewhere. Replacing that will only cost you a couple bucks, and also has been known to cause many woes. (interestingly enough, the 400mhz laptop aforementioned was picked up because of that. a guy said 'my laptop is a brick. doesnt work, you can have it.' I changed that battery, and voila, free working laptop )

anywho, sorry to be long winded, but i hope it's a start.

[pr0digal jenius]

There's still many avenues to try, but depending on oyur degree of hardware expertise, particularly when dealing with laptops, you may wish to shy away from many of them



If you live near a Tech shop, like Best buy, or Circuit City, usually for $50-60 they will run a full diagnostic and tell you exactly what's wrong with it, then you can decide if fixing it is cost efficient, or even possible.

Yes, it's $60 gone, but if you spend money fixing things that ain't broken, you'll surpass $60 in a heartbeat


As for the other questions, yes, msot [but not all] laptops will run off AC power without a battery. As for teardown assistance, give us a model and maybe we can point you in the direction you need to get that sucker open



PS - Welcome to DH!

[beejayess]

thx for your help on this,yes i do know my way around a comp. but not laptops I tend to avoid them.
The laptop is an obscure brand....I've tried googling it but all I get is old ads and people selling theirs on EBAY.
But here it is......PATRIOT 3050.........321 series.A very cheap and nasty laptop.
It is not at amrel.com either I treid that.
I thought of the switch myself but couldn't get anywhere near it.Maybe I will try again.There may be a screw that I am missing but b*******d if I can find it.
Thx for putting me straight on the battery issue I thought I was barking up the wrong tree on that one....but I was clutching at straws......
I'll try the CMOS battery (if I ever get inside that is).......
As for all the stores you have directed me to,they are a little far away from me as I live in England.

Any help would be most welcomed

BJS

[matasvytautas]

What did you expect for free? A mercedes?? Throw the piece of junk away...

[ftd86]

sounds like a bad mobo to me. A buddy of mine got some moisture in his laptop from getting caught in the rain and it did the same exact thing you're describing. The only thing I can say is salvage as much as possible (RAM, CPU, wireless card) as that's about all you can do.

[Yousaif]

Originally Posted by matasvytautas

What did you expect for free? A mercedes?? Throw the piece of junk away...

Sometimes free doesn't mean crap. I got a nice Dell Inspiron 600M for free that all I had to do was swap out the hard drive.

Works awesome on a dual boot WIN XP/ Ubuntu Linux setup.

[niceguyrichy]

Originally Posted by Yousaif

Sometimes free doesn't mean crap. I got a nice Dell Inspiron 600M for free that all I had to do was swap out the hard drive.

Works awesome on a dual boot WIN XP/ Ubuntu Linux setup.

damn right, i got my compaq free and all I had to do was take it appart and swap out the fan

[matasvytautas]

this aint no DELL or not even a Compaq...so why ressurect a zombie...not worth the time or money...not even the solder if you will need it...but if you got the time...a good learning experience....for next time