Customer replaced a capacitor and the laptop went dead, what goes wrong? Can we fix it? Acer Swift 3 

Amazing combitation of the knowledge and experiense. All those capacitors are there for a reason - so the laptop will work stable at manufacturers given parameters. But it doesn't mean one or two missing capacitors on the power rail will make a noticible difference. But if you start to take one after one, at one piont laptop can start to work unstable, especially in the harsh evirement. It is like the screws on your car - one or two loose screws will not affect, but better don't take out all the screws.

Nice repair. Just a theory, perhaps the third "capacitor" the customer tried to replace which was larger than original and obtained from a donor board was not a capacitor after all. There are other SMD devices which might look like a ceramic capacitor but are actually fuses, resistors, shunts, sometimes even inductors, etc). This caused the LDO to malfunction and took out IO chip.

you trying to put motherboard backwards was hilarious x)

Thanks!

It's Best 🎉. But what about the firts shorted small ic

thank you for telling what temperatures you use for hot air soldering not everyone shares such information on youtube, thank you and best regards my master and the best electronic dentist 🥰

Sorry Sorin, i disagree here completely! In times, where manufacturers get attention on EVERY single unnecessary part and reduce everything to the absolute minimum for cost-saving, i really don't believe, that those caps can be removed without any downside... There must be an effect like more ripple from the switching supplys etc. and on high load appications this will result in unstable operation or other parts will die more quickly. I've designed a power supply (VRM) module for the old socket 7 boards (like Necroware) and i placed a lot of different caps to get rid of the ripple and i have to tell you, that every single cap i placed was important for the resulted clean DC voltage... sure the most CPUs ran at average load without issues... but with higher load then, some refused to run stable.

nice job as always Sorin! But that case is strange, i too find it strange that the two things are unrelated that much - changing the cap and leaving the battery connected - and then the EC chip blows :D Probably the customer shorted some lines during the repair

sorin. Many of those who work in the field of laptop maintenance and repair do not do the work that you do. Well done my dear friend💪👏

I don’t understand why at +/- 5:28 you say, if you remove a cap “just leave it off”, why? I’ve remove many caps from devices, and then replaced them with functioning ones and the devices now work. If a lightbulb dies, do you not replace it? Also, at 7:42 you are checking the chip’s outputs by testing its neighbouring caps [on resistance mode?], are you looking for a possibly shorted cap? Please clarify, I’m really trying to learn. Thank you kindly

One thing I don't understand. He first found this LDO chip that was hot ..but still he did not do anything about it . Why?!

Sorin, it would be cool to do an experiment. How many caps you can remove from an old working laptop till he no longer works. Remove like 20-30 caps... to proove your point. Because in our newbie minds is always a thought that those caps are there for a specific task and we do not want that task to be disturbed. That's why everyone thinking about not replacing caps is bad. In reality is like you remove a 10cm stone from a 200m dam, expecting that dam to collapse because we removed a stone.

Another successful cyber surgery with a lot of passion! I don't know if I could get that chip with like 100 balls perfectly in the right place.

Great reapir as always sorin. would care to explain how the short that was seems to be because of ldo was actually realted to super io chip ?

A video describing how to deal with "solder balls" when replacing chips would be very interesting and helpful. Thanks for your excellent instruction.

20:24 - What material is that pad you’re using to cool the chip?

the cap was to small in value the ldo was not able to regulate the transients of the super io the io kept on restarting usually at 2-13 msec eventually failed good thing it died first and did not took others with him , it`s not bad to put a slightly higher cap on a dc line (never on data lines there it must be exactly the calculated value) BUT you don t put a smaller value one a lDO this ic`s like the pmics dont tolerate more than 3% deviation which means a few tens of milivolts when the super io fails in this kind of way it will certanly damage the other components because repeated restarts of this chip trying to sequence up before the supplies have discharged leads to failure when we debug this ic`s we call it the ninja mode , after you read the flag registers from the super io memory or whatever pmic`s it will become clear what happen but usually the feedback paths to the ic are used to bleed the charge from the rails when it`s powered down then a programed delay like SEQ_DOWN_POSITION_n[10] = 1'b1 will call for a delay before powering up again , i only worked with broadcom lt and texas this ones from asia qualcom hsilicon are quite different from ours

My guess is while soldering he shorted the 3,3V rail to higher voltage (by touching some pad or via) and the regulator couldn't pull it down. I did such mistake more than once doing my hobby projects.

These ldo chips and few other chips on a laptop have some weird markings on them even an internet search won't help much but the fact that you recognized it's a 3.3v ldo chip is just amazing and a nice fix

Thanks for another amazing video, we're learning.

Sorin, many thanks for the lesson. You possess skills which are second to none. Paul, USA!

Another interesting and entertaining teaching video. Please continue making these.

No I don't trust you,...that is not a nice laptop! jk 🤣 Your passion for electronics is unsurpassed. You actually hype me up to repair stuff! Love it, thanks ❤

Thanks so much Sorin. I just bought my 30v 5amp bench power supply a day before yesterday

Respectele mele domnule Sorin! Întâmpin o problema cu un laptop alienware area 51m cu limitarea de putere pentru placa video de la 180w la 50w. Am verificat absolut toate temperaturile și sunt in jurul de 70 grade la procesor și placa video. Am instalat hwinfo și am văzut că limitarea se face când SODIMM ajunge la 90 de grade. SODIMM însemnând plăcuțele de rami. Am înlocuit plăcuțele cu altele și face absolut la fel. Ați putea să mă ajutați cu o părere? BIOS actualizat la zi, Windows curat absolut tot. Pare fii o problema hardware.😢

🥰😁😄🤓😃😎 Oh My Goodness... You Gota Our Same As My Model... Acer Swift 3 SF315 52G 55AA I Was Wished Some 3 Years Ago, And Wishing Do Some Day You Will Be Trying To Fix Same Model Laptop... It's Same Motherboard... I Learned Lot Off Things From You Sir... "Greetings To You Sir"... Thankyou Very Much For Teaching With Various Aspects... Today I Am More Confident Than Earlier Was... I Will Come Back Soon To Talk With You... And One More Sir Can You Do Some Sessions For Laptop Motherboards Sections, Then All Sections Explained. With Most Likely Common Faults And How To Identify... Even In Some Cases Without The Thermal Camera... Thankyou Very Much Sir... 🤓😃😎 Your Electronics Student... Actually I Have Completed My Education In BSC Computer Science 3 Years Graduation, Then I Completed MBA In Finance Post Graduation... But I Have Interest In Electronics Also...

You can also solder caps with soldering iron it is not very harmful for board

Very inspiring, thank you Sorin, your videos getting better and better by the day.

0:44 the customer should have change it in the next video...LOL!!!!!! thats the reason doesnt work........more LOL!!!!!😆

Sorin, how did you recognize instantly that it's the 3.3v LDO

No Capacitor, No Short! - Quick question though, if it's better/safer to just remove the capacitor and not replace it, why is it there in the first place and why is it not 100% required? Thanks Sorin for another great video :)

Super IO with balls? a) Size reduction. b) That there are no external terminals with the main objective of inhibiting or making it difficult to follow the lines (trajectories) of the circuit and that the technician decides not to waste time and that it is better to change it (replace it) and better still force him to buy the dedicated team for reballing in a "professional" way. c) "Top-tier technology" "The future is here" "Update for new changes". How many more of these catchy slogans will you manufacturers need to try and convince me? My personal opinion on this new chip. Is it necessary to expose it in my native language here? On the other hand, excellent repair yours. A sincere congratulations. Thank you very much for sharing since that IC is not going to surprise me anymore. All the best

I have a laptop with 3.3, 19, and 12 v rails.. when i put power in it. The chip is called L8=7L is getting smoking hot. I guess maybe i have the same issue. ???

Good evening sir how much that machine you are checking motherboard

Hello, does anyone know what happened that there was no live broadcast today? I hope all is well with Mr. Sorin, greetings🤝👋👋👋👋👋

Short on main power rail Sorin - It's very Bad No short on main power rail Sorin - it's very bad Viewers - what ? 🤔

You're just lazy, remove and replace caps with hot tweezers, no risk whatsoever.

Wouldn't it be better to replace the capacitor? Surely it was doing something?

Your friend had to lose the ITE 8987 so we have a free lesson about risky caps 😂

Hi everyone. got a question what maybe the cause when the IO chip is beeping on the gate when testing in beep mode. does it really mean the IO chip will be fault or. and where can I put my power supply if want to check the faulty

Please what the name of that device for scanning chips taking enough charge

Ok, how much do I have to pay you to come learn from you in your shop? Nice job sir!

Just realized that ROSIN is an anagram of SORIN lol

3:00 - But we can agree in one thing. We make them believe in something, they do it then machine dies, then they really dig deep into knowledge to solve problem, then they learn :) @Sorin, you make conclusions "customer was soldering capacitor with battery plugged in." - Who knows what else he did wrong, and in what moment, where he shorted what. My advice is just ignore all info. It will lead you on wrong track sooner or later. I personally ignore all info from customer, all info from colleagues, and investigate on my own... (Nobody has bad intentions but they will not mention all details and will lead me to wrong track... not any more.) 14:32 - Looks like chip is removed from place on right upper corner, GND contact is soldered but chip is not there?

*Sorin. What is the reason not to solder the capacitor back with a soldering iron? Quick, easy and no stress for motherboard...*

Donor capacitor does not match the voltage? Its voltage is less than 19 volts.

Hp g8 turning on but no display

lol why you sigh so loud when you foind the heatring on the chip...lol a hard day for a hard job lol

Your the GOAT master, im a technician in the philipines, i've learn so much from you sir😁❤️, SALUTE👍👍👍

For us beginners, it would be helpful to state what 'current' you're setting the PS to. We can see voltage but not current. Thank you much for the service!

It's an Acer, it's lucky they even run...

hello sorin, did u also replace the 3v/5v chip?

Thank ya'll Sorin. You did a fantastic job. The customer should remove the chip he just put in. The capacitor. It will fail and take down the laptop again if it shorts. 50 50. Sorin should remove it and leave it empty if it goes to ground. Good job Sorin, lucky customer. Next time instead of an incorrect cap leave out like Sorin does if he sees two more just like it. Like he says, "no upside".

sir what type of air machine are you using

Does the chip need reprogramming? Thanks sir sharing your experience

Sir ,Where do you buy brand new chip?

it's been 5 days you haven't uploaded new video I hope you are doing well Mr Sorin😢

I want to come learn with you

Just need bio programmer

Hello 🤝👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👋👋👋👋👋

Good practical in laptop

Great video. You had me at the edge of the chair, waiting to see if it would work.

I must hail you sir

Amazing Sorin ! Congratulations once again! But, I would like to know where did you send the current to find the shorted ic chip? Thank you very much!

Thank you

Nice one

Wow! Sir. Amazing ❤❤❤ Solutions. Keep up the good work.

💪💪💪👏👏👏

👍👍👍👍

❤❤

❤❤❤

tanx

Mr. Sorin is amazing repairman.. Thanks for this tutorial video everytime i watch you i amaze.. ❤👏

Another customer is happy now. Great as always Sorin 😊

a super IO with balls, factories pass to the next level! thanks, Sorin.

More and more thanks to say, every time a lesson to learn. I hope in some day Ill be fixing mbs like you. It ll be a long road to take but ill not surrender.

The component 3 v power as fault was compelling as I watched your understanding of the device. And made the repair as where very close solder need. Thank you for this lesson. While no job flow as to earning power, I hope you understand I truly enjoy learning the particular functions. Where as I undertake repair at times. Regards from Washington State, US M.

Hi. fantastic work as always. i don't understand that. was the EC pre programmed ? where did it get its programmed ?

He forgot to disconnect the battery HYYYAHHH

I always put back the original capacitor. I cut it in halves en resolder them back😜

Good lesson. Thank you Genius Sorin

The customer burned the io chip haha

Great video Sorin thank you.

S is for Sorin… …S is for Smooth 👌

that sweet taste of victory....

Great video thanx 🎉

you did it again,good job

PRO tip for caps: Try the N9100 tweezers that go with the ATTEN ST-9150 station. Turned my life 180, now I barely use the soldering iron. Might need a bit of help from the hot air station if you have a larger ground plane (or you can just increase the temp, I'd rather keep it lower to preserve the tips life), but the fact that you can just pick-up and drop them back in is a game changer.

Good luck

Cool..

well done

I would use low melt solder , which makes the job more expensive but safer

Now we can't bully anymore Sorin about his dodginess :(

Congrats on this one, Sorin. In spite of your big knowledge, you are also a lucky man! (EC programmed from factory, I mean)

Happy to see i could be repaired amazing 😂