[tlug] Re: [OT] toshiba laptop with no power; find the culprit...

[Evan Monroig <evan.monroig@example.com>]

Michal, Nigel,

Thanks for your help.

> Do you have an idea of the possible source of the problem?  The
> possibilities that I can think of are:
> - the AC adapter
> - the battery
> - something in between (what?)

Following Nigel's advice, I went to a PC recycle shop (ソフマップ) in
Akihabara, and the vendor to whom I talked was nice enough to take his
time and find a used laptop with a similar AC adapter. With this
adapter, with or without battery, the power would not go on.

I then went to 東芝PC工房, which is a Toshiba repair shop, and I asked
again. With two different adapters, power would not turn on. So the
fault definitely lies on the PC side. The technician told me that
depending on the origin of the problem they would need to replace
either the mother board (~45000 yens) or the power jack (~12000 yens),
of which 4500 yens are non-refundable if I decide not to have the
laptop repaired after they tell me the final price.

45000 yens being arguably the worth of this notebook (a Toshiba
DynaBook V7/513LMDW), I decided to take my chance and open it myself
to see if the power jack was the source of the problem. It was fine
(normal appearance, no short cuts, no broken soldering). So the
problem is in the mother board.

The end of the story is that I will probably give up on this laptop.

Evan