If your laptop won’t turn on and has suddenly stopped working, it may have a motherboard issue. Don’t hesitate to contact us to receive a diagnosis and a quick quote.
At Computer Chamberí we offer a professional laptop motherboard repair service. We handle all kinds of motherboard-related repairs, such as GPU chip reballing, replacement and substitution of damaged chips, resistors, and shorted coils.
What types of faults can we repair?
GPU chip reballing
One of the most common issues laptops suffer from is graphics card failure (also called the graphics chip or GPU). The problem is almost always caused by a failure in the solder joints to the motherboard due to overheating.
Symptoms are usually:
- No video appears on the laptop screen. If we connect an external monitor, there is no signal either.
- Random lines or meaningless pixels appear on the screen.
- The image is not sharp on the laptop screen or on the external monitor.
- The image appears small and repeated several times on the screen.
- From time to time the laptop boots perfectly until it goes black again after a while.
- The laptop seems to work fine until it heats up (usually after 15–30 minutes) and lines start appearing on the screen.
When turning on a laptop, the core of the graphics chip begins to heat up. If the laptop has dirty or poorly maintained fans and heatsinks, it will overheat and gradually weaken the solder joints. More than 90% of laptops with graphics chip issues have a dirty ventilation and cooling system.
Reballing consists of replacing the existing solder between the graphics chip and the motherboard. In nearly all cases, the solution is to reball the graphics chip. To do this, we remove the laptop motherboard, protect the areas that cannot withstand high temperatures, and use an infrared machine to extract the graphics chip. We start by preheating the motherboard from below and above. Once the required temperature is reached (each graphics chip requires a specific temperature curve), the chip is removed. With the graphics chip extracted, we remove all solder from the motherboard and from the chip.
Next, we perform the reballing itself, which consists of placing the small solder balls onto the graphics chip using a stencil. Then we clean all surfaces with isopropyl alcohol and immerse both in an ultrasonic bath to remove residues and ensure proper cleaning. This last step is essential to ensure a strong and long-lasting solder joint. Finally, we place the graphics chip—now with the balls in place—onto the motherboard and preheat and solder again using infrared.
To finish, we replace the thermal paste and clean the fans and heatsinks to ensure proper internal ventilation.
Repairing shorts on the power line
A board can also be damaged by a short circuit caused by a voltage spike, components that come unsoldered, or simply deteriorate. What can happen in these cases is that the laptop powers on but does not get past the BIOS, only the power indicator lights up, or it turns on and shuts off immediately.
Sometimes it can be a small component that, once damaged, can prevent current from passing through.
The most important thing in these cases is to identify the damaged component that is causing the short circuit and preventing the laptop from completing its boot process. There are various techniques to identify the damaged component, such as a thermal camera, a voltage meter, and others.
Our technicians can run a diagnosis on the motherboard and provide a solution to carry out the motherboard repair.
Reprogramming / replacing a corrupted BIOS chip
In new-generation laptops, the BIOS battery is rarely found anymore, and in some cases an incorrect update can damage the BIOS chip. In these cases it will be necessary to reprogram the chip or replace it so the laptop can boot correctly.
With a corrupted BIOS, the laptop powers on but the screen stays with only backlight illumination without completing the boot process. It is very similar to a graphics failure, but in this case the laptop does not boot the system and the hard drive light does not blink.
Some laptop brands such as HP and Dell give you the ability to read the LED diagnostic and the blink sequence can help identify the type of fault.
Cleaning a wet laptop
We can say that moisture on a laptop motherboard is one of the most frequent causes of component damage and failures. A liquid spill, or simply placing the laptop base on a wet table, can damage the motherboard. Oxidation from moisture can create shorts on any type of motherboard.
In any case, once we identify the components damaged by moisture, we can clean the motherboard and replace the chips and damaged components.
If you need to know the quote to repair your laptop that won’t turn on, don’t hesitate to contact our technical service and book an appointment for a free diagnosis of your laptop.
CPU failure
This is an almost impossible failure to fix. If the CPU is shorted, there is no way to repair the chip. In most cases, a complete motherboard replacement is required.
If your laptop won’t turn on and has suddenly stopped working, it may have a motherboard issue. Don’t hesitate to contact us to receive a diagnosis and a quick quote.
At Computer Chamberí we offer a professional laptop motherboard repair service. We handle all kinds of motherboard-related repairs, such as GPU chip reballing, replacement and substitution of damaged chips, resistors, and shorted coils.
What types of faults can we repair?
GPU chip reballing
One of the most common issues laptops suffer from is graphics card failure (also called the graphics chip or GPU). The problem is almost always caused by a failure in the solder joints to the motherboard due to overheating.
Symptoms are usually:
- No video appears on the laptop screen. If we connect an external monitor, there is no signal either.
- Random lines or meaningless pixels appear on the screen.
- The image is not sharp on the laptop screen or on the external monitor.
- The image appears small and repeated several times on the screen.
- From time to time the laptop boots perfectly until it goes black again after a while.
- The laptop seems to work fine until it heats up (usually after 15–30 minutes) and lines start appearing on the screen.
When turning on a laptop, the core of the graphics chip begins to heat up. If the laptop has dirty or poorly maintained fans and heatsinks, it will overheat and gradually weaken the solder joints. More than 90% of laptops with graphics chip issues have a dirty ventilation and cooling system.
Reballing consists of replacing the existing solder between the graphics chip and the motherboard. In nearly all cases, the solution is to reball the graphics chip. To do this, we remove the laptop motherboard, protect the areas that cannot withstand high temperatures, and use an infrared machine to extract the graphics chip. We start by preheating the motherboard from below and above. Once the required temperature is reached (each graphics chip requires a specific temperature curve), the chip is removed. With the graphics chip extracted, we remove all solder from the motherboard and from the chip.
Next, we perform the reballing itself, which consists of placing the small solder balls onto the graphics chip using a stencil. Then we clean all surfaces with isopropyl alcohol and immerse both in an ultrasonic bath to remove residues and ensure proper cleaning. This last step is essential to ensure a strong and long-lasting solder joint. Finally, we place the graphics chip—now with the balls in place—onto the motherboard and preheat and solder again using infrared.
To finish, we replace the thermal paste and clean the fans and heatsinks to ensure proper internal ventilation.
Repairing shorts on the power line
A board can also be damaged by a short circuit caused by a voltage spike, components that come unsoldered, or simply deteriorate. What can happen in these cases is that the laptop powers on but does not get past the BIOS, only the power indicator lights up, or it turns on and shuts off immediately.
Sometimes it can be a small component that, once damaged, can prevent current from passing through.
The most important thing in these cases is to identify the damaged component that is causing the short circuit and preventing the laptop from completing its boot process. There are various techniques to identify the damaged component, such as a thermal camera, a voltage meter, and others.
Our technicians can run a diagnosis on the motherboard and provide a solution to carry out the motherboard repair.
Reprogramming / replacing a corrupted BIOS chip
In new-generation laptops, the BIOS battery is rarely found anymore, and in some cases an incorrect update can damage the BIOS chip. In these cases it will be necessary to reprogram the chip or replace it so the laptop can boot correctly.
With a corrupted BIOS, the laptop powers on but the screen stays with only backlight illumination without completing the boot process. It is very similar to a graphics failure, but in this case the laptop does not boot the system and the hard drive light does not blink.
Some laptop brands such as HP and Dell give you the ability to read the LED diagnostic and the blink sequence can help identify the type of fault.
Cleaning a wet laptop
We can say that moisture on a laptop motherboard is one of the most frequent causes of component damage and failures. A liquid spill, or simply placing the laptop base on a wet table, can damage the motherboard. Oxidation from moisture can create shorts on any type of motherboard.
In any case, once we identify the components damaged by moisture, we can clean the motherboard and replace the chips and damaged components.
If you need to know the quote to repair your laptop that won’t turn on, don’t hesitate to contact our technical service and book an appointment for a free diagnosis of your laptop.
CPU failure
This is an almost impossible failure to fix. If the CPU is shorted, there is no way to repair the chip. In most cases, a complete motherboard replacement is required.
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