Laptop cooling fan

[davemac82]

where do I start, I have an acer travelmate 2420 and the cooling fan has stopped running causing the laptop to shutdown.
So I dissasembled the laptop to replace the fan, I have another acer laptop so I took the fan from that and tried it with still no joy, and the surprising thing is the original fan I stripped from the acer 2420 works fine in my other laptop, could anyone suggest what could be the problem?

[caveman_nige]

I would say you probably have a dry joint somewhere onthe mainboard. These can be difficult to find, if you have magnifying glass and patience, you can check the board over, sometimes you may need to flex it a little to find the the dry joint. You will need need to be fairly confident with a soldering iron to reflow the joint and not have the solder run over other contacts which would create a short..

However before you go and have a crack at that you should consider that it could be a component fault somewhere on the board, these can be harder to find even for a sparky..

An expensive place to get it fixed would be with Acer:
Acer UK Limited
Acer (Esplex Technical Service and Repairs)
Unit M, Eagle Road, Plympton, Plymouth
England PL7 5JY

If calling from UK: 0870 853 1000
If calling from Southern Ireland : 01 40732 14
For products out of warranty, please call: 0906 301 0001.


But you could buy a refurb or 2nd hand part..
Acer Aspire 3620 and TravelMate 2420 Motherboard MBTB201001 MB.TB201.001 - Acer - Laptop-Motherboards.co.uk

[davemac82]

I do not really want to buy a new board its not worth it even at ?60+ quid, it might help that a bit of cola was spilt on it just a few days b4 the fan stopped working could any sticky residue be causing it to malfunction or will it be fu&ed because of this

[Mjolinor]

If you spllt coke on it then it is going to die, may take a few weeks but it eats the copper on the track, even a small bit and it leaves conducting crap everywhere it touches.

It should have been washed in water immediately after you spilt coke on it then left to dry for at least a week.to stand any chance of living.

[davemac82]

If you spllt coke on it then it is going to die, may take a few weeks but it eats the copper on the track, even a small bit and it leaves conducting crap everywhere it touches.

It should have been washed in water immediately after you spilt coke on it then left to dry for at least a week.to stand any chance of living.

thanks thats very positive, but there does not seem to be any coke on the board m8, thought just maybe a chance a little bit had got through and was siting on a component and stopping the fan from running.

what would I wash the board with just water and with a cloth or steep it ???????????if the damage has not already been done

[Mjolinor]

It's too late. If the coke didnt get on the board then no worries. If it did then likely it is your problem. You will have to dismantle it and find where the bit is, usually you can see from the inside of the upper case where the spill got past the keyboard or whatever. Look carefully but by now you will be having to repair a track or a joint that has corroded.

It isn't technically hard to do jsut needs very careful looking at, it doesn take much.

If it went on the keybaord then that too will pack up in a while, washing it now will not do any good towards makin git work but it may stop it going worse.

It's a suck it and see job.

[Mjolinor]

Don't try to wash the keyboard, the water never comes out unless you pull it apart. If you wash it you will kill it unless you pull it apart first and that is a real ball ache.