Inspiron 9400 (E1705) dead

[Zed]

The notebook received an impact during work and turned off immediately.

Pressing the on-switch had no effects afterwards. The LED on the power supply extinguishes when it is connected to the notebook, so I assume a kind of short circuit in the Inspirion. I removed the motherboard and all components connected to it and plugged in the power supply with the same reaction as before.

Inspection of the motherboard with a magnifying glass showed me no cracks on the PCB or soldering points.

Can I assume, that at least the motherboard is dead?

Is there any chance to repair the motherboard?

 

[mfw]

The only thing I can think of is to use a voltmeter and see of the power supply drops out when you connect to the motherboard. This may be easier said than done as I'm not sure how easy you can get the voltmeter test leads to test points on the motherboard. If you can do this and the power supply drops out when connected, that tells me there is a short in the power input circuitry. Is the battery disconnected after you pulled all the "guts" out of the notebook? That may be the source of this potential short and may be where the damage occurred if nothing is visible damage-wise when you inspected the motherboard with a magnifying glass.

 

[Zed]

Is the battery disconnected after you pulled all the "guts" out of the notebook?

Yes, the battery was not connected.

I was able to buy an used mainboard and hope that it is okay and will arrive soon. But I'm not sure that only the mainboard is damaged.

 

[Zed]

I received the used mainboard today. It doesn't cause the power supply to switch off and after reassembling the notebook with the bought mainboard it worked as before the impact.

I'm happy to see that only the mainbord was damaged and I could repair it for under $ 50.

If I have plenty of time some day I may disassemble the notebook again and compare the resisance and capacity values of both boards to find the damage of the defective one.