MSI Cyborg 15 not powering On, not charging, motherboard repair, tricky fault but easy to be fixed, by Electronics Repair School on YouTube. 11 min 16 s.
- Video length
- 11 min 16 s
- Time to do it
- 2 hours
- Difficulty
- Takes practice
- Steps
- 8
What you need
Steps
Unplug the charger and hold the power button down for 30 seconds to drain leftover power. Plug the charger back in and press power again to rule out a simple lock-up.
Test the charger on its own with a multimeter or power meter. You should see the rated voltage, around 19 to 20 volts, at the barrel plug or over USB-C.
Open the bottom cover and disconnect the battery before anything else. Look at the DC jack for looseness, cracked solder joints or green corrosion.
Set the multimeter to resistance and measure from the main power rail to ground. A reading close to zero ohms means there is a short on the board.
Feed one volt into the shorted rail from a current-limited bench supply. Watch the current draw and keep the limit low so nothing else heats up.
Point a thermal camera at the board, or dab isopropyl alcohol on it, and look for the part that warms first. That is usually the shorted capacitor or MOSFET.
Remove the faulty part with hot air and fit a matching replacement. Measure the rail to ground again to confirm the short has gone.
Reconnect the battery, refit the cover and test the laptop on the charger. Check that it charges and boots before you close everything up.
Tips and common mistakes
Never inject voltage into a rail without a current limit, or you can kill more parts than you started with.
Check whether the laptop is still under warranty before you open it, since board damage often voids it.
A single shorted capacitor can make a whole motherboard look dead, so test rails before replacing the board.
Photograph the connectors and screws as you take them out so reassembly is straightforward.
Questions
Why does my laptop not turn on even when the charger light is on?
The light only shows the charger is receiving power. The fault can be a bad DC jack, a shorted part on the board or a dead battery, so you have to test each one in turn.
How do I know if the problem is the battery or the motherboard?
Disconnect the battery and run the laptop on the charger alone. If it still will not start, the fault is in the charging circuit or the board, not the battery.
Can a motherboard with a short be repaired instead of replaced?
Often yes. Shorted capacitors and MOSFETs can be swapped out, but it needs soldering tools and some practice with a multimeter.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
