Electronic Knowledge required for laptop repairing

[philipshadow]

Hello i am about to go for a laptop repair training course but i have realized that electronics is very broad. And i dont think i need to know all electronics before i understand laptop circuits and their operations. i therefore would like to know that kind of topics in electronics i should be concerned with in the laptop repair business so that i wouldn't waste my time leaning all electronics.

 

[Externet]

A laptop repair course should probably be renamed to "parts replacing" until works if it is hardware related, and "tamper with software" until works if programs / OS related.
The electronics knowledge should be very basic as for chargers, fuses, batteries, wiring, connectors, multimeter use. Years of university electronics study does not pay repairing disposable equipment.
Dismantling computers without breaking anything else should be an important chapter of that course. Do not dream of obtaining a service manual with schematics.
Ask at service centers how many true electronics engineers work there repairing computers. That will tell how deep you should know electronics for the task.

 

[philipshadow]

Thank you

 

[TCSC47]

I don't think you will need a great depth of electronics knowledge. The important things are how to dismantle the cases and remove components without doing any (further) damage.
Also the computer fault codes will tell you a great deal about what to look at, so you would need to learn how you get hold of these.

Probably the most important bit of electronic knowledge you would need is to understand ohms law. Electrical knowledge really.

 

[Kabelsalat]

The big problem is when the GPU chip somehow got one or several bad connections as it is factory-soldered on the motherboard. Unless you can "bake" it in an owen or by heat gun properly on first attempt, any further repair attempts is at no avail.

 

[philipshadow]

okay. So what do you think about chip level or signal level motherboard repair.

 

[Kabelsalat]

okay. So what do you think about chip level or signal level motherboard repair.

As long as you just replace a single component - i.e. a electrolyte - you may have a chance to make the repair.

Most often the only practical solution is to get a brand new motherboard and replace it all. That is if the rest of the computer is in good shape.

 

[philipshadow]

okay. How do i build up my troubleshooting skills inorder to know which component is faulty.

 

[Kabelsalat]

okay. How do i build up my troubleshooting skills inorder to know which component is faulty.

Depends on where you live and your age and how much time you got - and how much money to self sustain under course.

One thing I see commercials for all the time on youtube is something called skillshare. However - I don't have first hand experience with that service. But that is one source I can think of.

 

[Externet]

okay. How do i build up my troubleshooting skills inorder to know which component is faulty.

Takes maaaany years of experience learning all of it.
After all you have experienced and learned through all those years, the technology, components, assembly, architecture, construction has changed so much that you are forced to keep learning the new developments or abandon the intention perhaps because it is an even more disposable product than before, or you got derailed to some other activity that pays your bills, or you already forgot what you learned at the beginning... (which may be useless by now anyway)
Forget about investing in BGA equipment for guessing unobtanium components replacement at senseless prices at quantity-one from fly-by-night vendors in the orient.
Never forget you will find no service manuals for such products. And IF you do, next model hitting the market in six months uses different everything. Murphy's law clearly states the unit you have to repair is not for the manual you somehow found.

Same of worse with cellular telephones. Not even under a microscope. Even if you simply want to canibalize / repurpose its camera or display, you will find a bunch of hurdles.

I spent a year repairing Cisco 'switches' worth tens of thousands each paying like $100-$200 per IC and replacing BGAs in educated guess mode but reward$ were good.
Took all my decades of experience and knowledge to dare. Their schematics are in vaults guarded by 'armies', total inobtanium.
And guess what... a super-oscilloscope is an useless tool to fix those.

From what I remember know, there is several 'power management' ICs everywhere in the circuitry. They allow other ICs to power-up only if the previous IC started fine the sequence and got normal operation reported. Then another 'manager' chip continues the sequences to power the whole unit. Very tricky to repair...
The parts vendors in U.S. are nothing like 'DigiKey' ; they are almost hidden; with minimum sales of $500 or whatever they want to make your life harder.

Enjoy the pain ---->

Perhaps you possess the fine skills. Just imagine you break a pad, trace, vias on a $30K equipment

 

[philipshadow]

hmmmm i guess i have to test the waters and if its tough maybe i will bail out and continue developing apps.Or maybe i will continue to engage this world of electronics.