[ttelgrande]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtstephenson

I did an upgrade on one of these nc6000 machines for a friend. New hard drive and more memory. Shortly after the upgrade his machine started having this power symptom. I went thru this thread and found the suggested fix w/ the Maxim chip being the culprit. I took the laptop to work and took it all apart. I looked carefully at the motherboard with particular interest in the Maxim chip. (Using a microscope). While I did not see a specific fractured solder joint I speculate that is the fault. This component is a 'J' lead component where the solder is only in contact with the pad at the bottom of the J (and that solder is mostly under the body of the component). This particular location was discolored as well (usually from excess heat). I decided to resolder the leads (there is plenty of pad space on the board for solder) and let the solder wick up the side of the J lead. I'm using a specialized solder iron with a very very tiny tip that will allow soldering fine pitch components. I did a careful inspection after the solder work and cleaned the flux away with alcohol. Re-assembled the machine and tested it overnight.

My friend has been using his machine for two months now with no issues.

My conclusion is that the J lead component having very little solder at the base of the J cannot reliably do the job in a high thermally stressful environment. But making a good (low impedance) solder joint will promote reliable operation.

Solder work on this board is not for the home hobbiest but it really can be easily resolved with the right equipment and skill.

Hope this helps some of you with your problem.

Tom Stephenson