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Troubleshooting >How to read and understand the wiring diagram of a notebook

How to read and understand the wiring

diagram of a notebook
Category: Troubleshooting

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Some users have asked me this question and in various forum posts I have encountered this difficulty, so I will try
to explain it in a simple way and I hope understandable to those who will read this article.

I want to remember for the umpteenth time that the purpose of the site is to try to teach motherboard repair
techniques, so it is necessary to have knowledge of electronics at least basic, some work tools and above all the
desire to understand what you are is doing, we DO NOT want to do remote remotely remedial repairs.
So please read this article calmly and if necessary re-read it several times because it is not easy for me to write it
and for you to understand it.

I remember that for the recognition of the components on the card, you can read this article
http://www.faidatepc.it/consigli/42-come-riconoscere-i-componenti-smd-sulle-motherboard

Let's start with the Symbolism of the Components , each of them is uniquely identified in a scheme, so we will
have (the most common):
At this point I will explain something more specific taking as reference the parts of the circuit that in most cases
where the notebook does not turn on, they are more "suspected" of malfunctions, these are referred to a HP
laptop but in most cases they are similar in almost all computers.
I remember that by clicking on the images these are enlarged.

In the photo below you can see how the "name of the signal" identifies a certain voltage, in this case we should
expect a +3 Volt

On the left I show you the same "name of the signal" next to the numbers that correspond to as many page
numbers where you will find the same signal, in this case 3VCPU.
Not always you will find this last information reported on the diagram, in any case in the pdf you can use the
"search" function (CTRL + f) to be able to find all the points where a certain voltage is branched or component
references, etc.
So remember that in most cases, the name of the signal means "something", so a 5VCPU will mean that we have
to expect a +5 Volt and that this will serve as a power supply to a section of the CPU, another voltage that you will
often find around is the VIN that identifies precisely "input voltage" and that is the 19 Volt that is supplied by the
charger / power supply.
Now let's look at this part of the diagram that shows us how the voltage of the charger goes to power all the
subsequent switching power supplies present in the handset, the so-called VIN

The 19 volt positive voltage applied through the connector on the motherboard (CN17 pin 1,2,3 ), passes through
the inductance PL10 (the direction of the current is indicated by the arrow) and arrives at point VA1, so if we have
no voltage here, we check the previous components and eventually remove PL10 to "dissect" the part that
interests us.
In this way, if (for example) the PC121 capacitor is shorted, at point 1 we will see the 19 volt "appear", while at
point 2 we will be able to measure a low resistance to ground, on the other hand if the voltage at point 1 is almost
at 0 volt, there could be the PC125 in short or the unsoldered power connector.
Subsequently we verify if our current passes through the PD3 diode measuring downstream the presence of the
19 volt, then on pin 3. This voltage is also the input of the mosfet PQ1 (pin 1,2,3), its gate ( pin 4) will be at a
certain driving voltage depending on the type of mosfet (channel N or P depends on the scheme), its output (pin
5,6,7,8) must always be at 19 volts and so we have reached the point "PWR_SRC". This point is connected to the
PR142 measuring resistor which in turn is "read" by the integrated unit you see below that deals with the
management of all this part of the power supply that includes the power supply / battery charger and the battery,
so we arrived at VIN (blue arrow) that we will find around the scheme to feed the other switching power supplies.
The mosfet PQ4 acts as a switch for the voltage that goes to charge the battery, so if (for example) the laptop
turns on but the battery does not charge, the problem could be precisely on the mosfet that acts as a charge
switch. A final consideration on this part of the scheme: when the PC does not turn on, usually the problem is in
this section and sometimes the integrated control breaks, so after checking the goodness of the mosfets take this
hypothesis immediately into consideration.

In this part of the scheme I will try to explain to you the operation of one of the many switching power supplies
present on the laptop's board, most of these power supplies are already in operation when you insert the
charger's plug into the notebook, especially as the tensions of the example are + 3V and + 5V, usually the
voltages already present and those dependent on the power button are shown on the initial or final pages of the
diagram, so the first thing to do is to verify the presence of the voltages as highlighted in point O, let's talk about
3VPCU and of the 5VPCU.
If one or both voltages are not present, let's see how to understand where the fault is if one or more voltages are
missing.
The VIN that we have seen in the previous diagram is applied to point A, if you do not already have tension here,
try to lift one end of the inductance H, this because if after the inductance some component is shorted to ground,
all the current which crosses the inductance H (red arrow) will be dispersed and the measured voltage of VIN will
be about 0 volts. As explained in another article, imagine that the current is a flow of water that crosses the
inductance H and flows from A to B ', if for example the capacitor PC119 (to the left of H) is short to ground
imagine it as a manhole ... so all the water that should reach B 'falls into the manhole (PC119) and is lost, now
replace the water with electricity and you're done ...
Obviously if after raising the inductance H the voltage on VIN is always close to 0, the problem could be for
example on PC116 or on any capacitor connected to the VIN (point A), here you can understand the importance
of having the scheme , without it it is almost impossible to repair a card.
If the capacitors (marked with purple arrows) PC116, PC119, PC171 and PC115 are all good, our now "famous"
19 volt is present at point B 'and is applied to the mosfet C (PQ35), the direction of the current is as always
highlighted by the red arrow. I want to point out this particular configuration of the pair of mosfets PQ35 / PQ36, in
this case they are not used as switches but as voltage regulators, appropriately driving the two gate pins (points
D) each mosfet is set with a different resistance, in in this way a voltage divider is created (the second mosfet is
connected to ground) in order to obtain the desired voltage, this adjustment is made by the integrated X.
Returning to the example of water, the mosfet PQ36 is connected to ground and therefore you have to imagine it
(for the current) as an adjustable manhole where only the desired quantity of water is passed, the water that
remains in the middle of the two mosfets will determine the tension that the designer wanted to obtain ... clear?
So if at point L we have no voltage, let's try to raise the inductance PL7 to see if the problem is upstream (point 1)
or downstream (point 2), in the first case it could be a fault PQ36 (maybe shorted to ground) or interrupted PQ35,
in the second case we are going to check if one of the capacitors PC89, PC87 or PC92 is shorted to ground.
clear? So if at point L we have no voltage, let's try to raise the inductance PL7 to see if the problem is upstream
(point 1) or downstream (point 2), in the first case it could be a fault PQ36 (maybe shorted to ground) or
interrupted PQ35, in the second case we are going to check if one of the capacitors PC89, PC87 or PC92 is
shorted to ground. clear? So if at point L we have no voltage, let's try to raise the inductance PL7 to see if the
problem is upstream (point 1) or downstream (point 2), in the first case it could be a fault PQ36 (maybe shorted to
ground) or interrupted PQ35, in the second case we are going to check if one of the capacitors PC89, PC87 or
PC92 is shorted to ground.
The second supply line in this scheme starts from B '' which exactly replicates point B 'and from which you can do
the same analysis as described above.
One last consideration: as mentioned before, you find others of these parts of the scheme, each of them provides
a certain tension for the functioning of the board, it often happens that the "culprit" is precisely the integrated
control (marked in the diagram with the X) or one of the mosfets that reduces the tension (usually the one above
opens and not the one towards mass), so if necessary always unsolder a head of the component on which you
have doubts and make further measures, then come in the forum to help you.
I know it is easy for me but I will repeat it over and over again, try to understand what you are doing, especially if
you repair the laptops for others too, just like this you will become more and more independent and you will be
able to work quickly on the boards, I wait for you in the forum .

If you enjoyed this article click on the "g + 1" button that you see at the bottom, in this way you will make it more
visible to the other cybernauts. Thanks

Magur

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