This week we had a Dell Latitude 14 6430u come in. The laptop would not power on. When power cords were plugged in to the machine, the laptop would short out the power cord and the light on the AC adapter would shut off.
The user was hoping that the laptop needed a power jack repair, but, it ended up needing a complete motherboard replacement.
In this case we were able to get a brand new motherboard. In this case the system board has an integrated processor which is an i7-3667U.
Before the unit goes home we’ll check with the customer and make sure he is not using a generic AC adapter. We get in machines all the time with flaky motherboard problems and people are using a weird AC adapter. Aftermarket AC adapters often break laptops. They range from $6 – $180, but, they’re all trash in our eyes.
Motherboards have gotten so tiny lately. This is what the 6430u board looks like: