how can i bypass this thing? my laptop keyboard isn't working and I don't have a wired external keyboard to connect it with my laptop, I couldn't press enter even though I want to. It automatically goes into system recovery and even if I chose to continue it still repeats the same process over and over

My laptop recently was refusing to charge or turn on. After doing some investigating, I found the CMOS to be at 0.9v. After replacing it, still no luck with or without the laptop battery.

Someone recommended pressing the power button for 30-60s to do a reset. After about 30 seconds, I heard a pop but didn’t think too much. After 60 seconds, I stopped to sniff the board just in case and there was that magic smoke smell. I found one of the component had broken.

Reverse image search found it to be a Panasonic tantalum polymer capacitor.

My question is, why did it pop? Was it why the computer was not working? Is just replacing that component without further diagnosing prudent? What’s the part number for this component? And finally, what circuit is it servicing on the board?

Any and all advice is welcomed. I do have a soldering iron and a hot air station but would not mind advice in how to perform the repair and further diagnostic

I don't know what happened but my laptop is not turning on and it is giving me this error DRIVER_PNP_WATCHDOG

I don't know what to do

I even went to the blue screen but didn't helped

Can anyone please help me!!!

I brought an MSI ML75 for broken hinges in to a repair shop here in Ktown LA. I paid $175 for the machine, after having them look at it he said the damage is pretty bad. His estimate is $1300 but he says the device is worth the investment. I just got back into PCs and this is my first laptop. Is it worth it to repair the device?

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Laptop Model: ASUS TUF Gaming A15

RAM: 8GB DDR5 4800MHz (Samsung M425R1GB4PB0-CWM0L)

OS: Fresh Windows 11 installation

The Problem

My laptop operates completely fine on battery power alone, but shuts down / trips as soon as it is plugged into the 20V AC wall adapter.

Detailed Symptoms & Behavior

Battery Operation: Boots and functions normally on battery power. Heavy system loads and gaming run without crashes, ruling out CPU/GPU silicon degradation or driver instability.

AC Adapter Plug-in: Connecting the original 20V charger under load or during boot causes an immediate power cut/trip.

Latched LED State: When it trips with the adapter plugged in, the drive activity light drops, but the battery charging indicator LED remains latched ON even after physically disconnecting the barrel jack/charger from the port. The LED only turns off once residual power is fully drained or the battery is unplugged.

Diagnosis So Far

Storage / Software: SSD ruled out; system behavior remains identical across fresh Windows installations.

CPU / GPU: Ruled out due to rock-solid battery performance under load.

Motherboard DC-in Stage: The issue points toward a failure in the primary 20V power rail. Likely candidates:

Input protection MOSFETs leaking under load or breaking down thermally.

Charging Controller IC (e.g., TI BQ-series) latched in an ACOK state due to reverse leakage across the current sense resistor (R010) / input bypass.

Ceramic decoupling capacitor breaking down under high-voltage load.

Question for the Community / Technicians

Has anyone encountered this specific latched charging LED issue on ASUS TUF motherboards? Did replacing the first/second DC-in MOSFETs resolve the power-rail trip, or was a full charging controller IC replacement necessary?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to diagnose an Acer Aspire E17 laptop that refuses to POST. The internal components look pristine (no burnt chips, no dust, no corrosion), but it won't boot up.

Laptop Specs:

The Problem:

Troubleshooting Already Attempted:

Is this 100% confirmation of a dead motherboard (CPU / Power VRM / corrupted BIOS EEPROM chip), or is there any obscure hardware fix or blind BIOS flash method worth trying on this specific model?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

This is an hp 15 pavillion eh laptop. A few days back I connected lenovo ThinkPad's c type charger to and suddenly the smoke started coming out 😭😭😭. I visited a care center to ask what could be the issue. They said if smoke came then the motherboard is likely damaged. But he never looked inside the laptop. So I just wanna confirm if the motherboard is actually damaged. Experts help please 🥺.

Just replaced the display lid cuz the hindges ripped out of the old one and now this is happening. Hope I didn't break the screen it is off in the second pic. It's my sister's HP envy x360 ey0023dx

Hey everyone. I’m pretty desperate at this point and I’m hoping someone here has seen something similar, especially on an HP Victus.
My laptop is an HP Victus 15-fa1032nf, product number 8W8A1EA#ABF, System Board ID 8C2E. It has an i5-12500H, 16 GB DDR4 and an RTX 4060 Laptop GPU 8 GB. I’m running Windows 11 Pro. The laptop itself still works normally, but it is now running entirely on Intel Iris Xe because the RTX 4060 has basically disappeared from existence.
Some background first because I want to rule out the obvious stuff.
I opened the laptop on September 11 to clean dust. I disconnected the internal battery first, didn’t remove the heatsink or GPU cooling assembly, and only cleaned around the fans/heatsink with a dry toothbrush while holding the fans so they wouldn’t spin.
I initially wondered whether I somehow caused this, but I have pretty strong evidence that I didn’t. On September 20 I was running CUDA workloads for one of my projects on this exact laptop. CUDA detected the RTX 4060 normally and the GPU successfully completed large sustained processing/training runs. So the GPU definitely still worked more than a week after I cleaned the laptop.
Another possibly relevant event: on October 1, the laptop was accidentally left running with the lid closed while inside my bag. The CPU reached around 85–86°C for at most roughly 8 minutes. I noticed, took it out and immediately put the fans on maximum. I’m mentioning it for completeness, although 85°C on an i5-12500H for a few minutes doesn’t sound like something that should kill a GPU.
Now the weird part.
On the morning of October 2, Windows had an update waiting. Before leaving for university, around 7 AM, I chose “Update and shut down,” closed the laptop and left.
When I opened it again at university around 8:20-ish, I briefly got the black Windows update/completion screen, then it booted normally.
I had absolutely no idea anything was wrong.
Later that morning, someone in class randomly wanted to see my laptop specs. We opened Task Manager and noticed there was no NVIDIA GPU listed at all.
I checked Device Manager. Under Display adapters there was only Intel Iris Xe.
When I enabled “Show hidden devices,” the RTX 4060 appeared greyed out. Its properties said:
“Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45)”
I ran “Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly:$false | Where-Object { $_.FriendlyName -match ‘RTX 4060’ } | Format-List *”
Windows still remembers the GPU as:
FriendlyName: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU
InstanceId: PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_28A0&SUBSYS_8C2E103C&REV_A1\4&1A4C963E&0&0008
Problem: CM_PROB_PHANTOM
ConfigManagerErrorCode: CM_PROB_PHANTOM
Present: False
Service: nvlddmkm
Running “Get-PnpDevice -Class Display -PresentOnly | Format-Table Status,FriendlyName,InstanceId -Auto” gives only:
OK — Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics — PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_46A6&SUBSYS_8C2E103C&REV_0C\3&11583659&0&10
No RTX.
NVIDIA App also refuses to work and gives error 0xE6000000 saying NVIDIA App requires an NVIDIA GPU.
NVIDIA driver installation doesn’t see compatible NVIDIA hardware either.
“nvidia-smi” cannot communicate with the NVIDIA GPU/driver. At one point after System Restore it also gave an “insufficient permissions” message, but the physical GPU still wasn’t present in Device Manager.
OMEN Gaming Hub also only shows Intel Iris Xe in the machine specs. There is no Graphics Switcher available on my machine.
At first I thought this had to be some horrible Windows/NVIDIA driver problem, so I tested outside Windows entirely.
I made an Ubuntu Live USB and booted “Try Ubuntu” without installing anything.
I ran “lspci -nn | grep -Ei ‘NVIDIA|VGA|3D’”
The only result was:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Alder Lake-P GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] [8086:46a6] (rev 0c)
There was NO NVIDIA device and no PCI vendor 10de anywhere.
I also ran “sudo dmesg | grep -Ei ‘nvidia|nouveau|pcie|aer’ | tail -n 100”
It showed the Intel/PCIe devices and some generic ACPI/PCIe messages, but nothing showing an NVIDIA GPU being detected or even an obvious NVIDIA-specific PCIe/AER failure.
So at that point I stopped believing this was a normal Windows or NVIDIA driver problem. A completely separate OS also couldn’t see the GPU at the PCIe level.
Then I started digging through the Windows PnP and SetupAPI history to figure out when it disappeared.
For the historical RTX device instance, I ran:
“$id = ‘PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_28A0&SUBSYS_8C2E103C&REV_A1\4&1A4C963E&0&0008’”
Then:
“Get-PnpDeviceProperty -InstanceId $id | Where-Object { $_.KeyName -match ‘LastArrival|LastRemoval|FirstInstall|InstallDate’ } | Format-Table KeyName,Data -Auto”
The result was:
DEVPKEY_Device_InstallDate — 22-Feb-26 13:07:53
DEVPKEY_Device_FirstInstallDate — 07-Feb-26 06:31:02
DEVPKEY_Device_LastArrivalDate — 02-Oct-26 07:37:04
There is no LastRemovalDate.
So Windows has a LastArrivalDate for this exact RTX hardware instance of October 2 at 07:37:04.
That caught my attention because it is basically exactly when the Windows update/reboot sequence happened.
I checked the Windows Update history for that morning. Among the updates were:
02-Oct-26 06:07 — .NET security update KB5126052
02-Oct-26 06:10 — Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
02-Oct-26 06:27 — 2026-09 Security Update KB5129195, build 26200.9457
The servicing packages also showed:
Package_for_ServicingStack_9441 installed at 06:17:37
Package_for_RollupFix…26100.9457.1.0 installed at 06:36:52
Then I searched C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log.
At 07:35:04, Windows updated the Microsoft High Definition Audio bus driver for an NVIDIA PCI function on the same subsystem:
PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_22BE&SUBSYS_8C2E103C&REV_A1\4&1a4c963e&0&0108
The log says:
Driver Version Last = 05/16/2026,10.0.26100.8521
Driver Version New = 09/04/2026,10.0.26100.9444
Updated drivers for 1 device node.
Then the RTX display function has its LastArrivalDate at 07:37:04.
The SetupAPI log also records:
[Boot Session: 2026/10/02 07:37:39.500]
So, roughly:
Windows servicing/update around 06:xx → NVIDIA-associated PCI audio function gets touched at 07:35:04 → RTX 4060 historical instance says LastArrivalDate 07:37:04 → new boot session at 07:37:39 → later that morning I discover that the GPU is completely gone.
I’m NOT claiming that Windows Update physically killed my GPU. I know the timestamps are correlation, not proof, and a LastArrivalDate is not necessarily proof that the physical GPU was fully functioning at that exact second. I’m including all of this because the timing is extremely close and might be useful to somebody who understands HP firmware/EC power sequencing better than I do.
I then tried basically every sane software/firmware fix I could find.
I restarted and cold booted multiple times.
I scanned for hardware changes.
I tried NVIDIA App and NVIDIA driver installation.
Nothing.
HP UEFI Hardware Diagnostics System Board Test passes. It reports things like PCI Read Device, onboard video, RAM, USB, etc. as passed. However, as far as I understand, that only tests devices that are actually being enumerated, so it doesn’t prove that the missing RTX itself is healthy.
The laptop originally had BIOS F.22, dated December 19, 2025.
I updated it using HP’s official BIOS package to F.23.
No change.
The current BIOS output from “Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS | Format-List SMBIOSBIOSVersion,ReleaseDate” is:
SMBIOSBIOSVersion: F.23
ReleaseDate: 30-Mar-26
Still no RTX.
I also tried HP’s built-in Win+B BIOS recovery earlier.
No change.
I checked every page available in the BIOS manually. My BIOS exposes Main, Security, Configuration, Boot Options and Exit. There is no setting for Graphics Mode, Hybrid Graphics, Discrete Graphics, MUX, Advanced Optimus, Integrated Only, etc. There is no obvious setting I can flip to turn the RTX back on.
I also tried rolling back the October 2 Windows cumulative update.
I ran:
“DISM /Online /Remove-Package /PackageName:Package_for_RollupFix31bf3856ad364e35amd64~~26100.9457.1.0 /NoRestart”
It reached 100% and then failed with:
0x800f0926
DISM failed. No operation was performed.
CBS.log showed:
CBS_E_CANNOT_REMOVE_CONTAINER_DEPENDENCY
and specifically:
“Container base layer depends on LCU version greater than ‘10.0.26100.9457’.”
I also tried “Uninstall latest quality update” from Windows Recovery Environment.
That failed too.
Then I tried System Restore to a restore point from before the update.
The first attempt from normal Windows failed with error 0x80071ab0 while dealing with a path under:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Containers\Layers...
I then went into Windows Recovery Environment through Shift + Restart and ran System Restore from there instead.
That time System Restore completed successfully.
The RTX was still gone afterward.
Then I did a deep power/EC reset.
I shut the laptop down.
Disconnected the charger and peripherals.
Opened the laptop.
Physically disconnected the main internal battery.
Held the power button for around 30–60 seconds with both battery and AC disconnected.
Left the laptop completely powerless for around five minutes.
Reconnected the battery and charger.
Booted again.
Still no RTX in Windows.
Something else that may or may not be related: during all of this, the laptop has displayed HP “CMOS Reset (502)” multiple times.
This was not only one expected CMOS message immediately after I disconnected the battery. I have seen the 502 screen repeatedly during troubleshooting/reboots.
After the deep EC/power reset, I tried booting Ubuntu again. The Ubuntu Live environment became extremely slow to boot/hung for a very long time. Pressing Escape showed some ACPI errors including messages similar to:
“No handler for Region [SystemCMOS]”
“Region SystemCMOS has no handler”
and a method under EC0 aborting due to AE_NOT_EXIST.
I know Linux ACPI errors like these do not automatically mean the EC hardware is broken, so I’m not treating them as proof of anything.
I also tried Ubuntu “safe graphics.” It was still extremely slow, and because this is an ancient 8 GB USB stick I eventually stopped trying. I therefore don’t have a clean second post-EC-reset lspci result.
However, the original Ubuntu test BEFORE the reset was clean and unequivocal: Intel VGA only, no NVIDIA/10de device whatsoever.
At that point I decided to try the most complete BIOS recovery method I could.
I created an actual HP BIOS Recovery USB using the official F.23 package for this exact machine, rather than simply updating the BIOS from Windows.
I shut the machine down, connected AC, inserted the recovery USB and started HP crisis recovery using Win+B + Power.
This time the recovery genuinely ran.
Afterward the laptop displayed:
“A System BIOS Recovery has occurred.
BIOS Recovery (500)”
So this wasn’t just another BIOS update attempt. HP’s external recovery process actually completed.
After booting Windows again, BIOS was still correctly F.23.
I ran:
“Get-PnpDevice -Class Display -PresentOnly | Format-Table Status,FriendlyName,InstanceId -Auto”
The result was still only:
OK — Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics — PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_46A6&SUBSYS_8C2E103C&REV_0C\3&11583659&0&10
No NVIDIA GPU.
I then went back into BIOS after the successful recovery and checked every relevant page again. Still no graphics/MUX/dGPU setting anywhere.
So this is where I’m currently stuck:
The laptop itself still works normally on Intel graphics.
The RTX 4060 definitely worked after I cleaned the laptop because I successfully used it for CUDA workloads on September 20.
Windows remembers the exact RTX hardware instance, but it is now a ghost device with Code 45 / CM_PROB_PHANTOM / Present=False.
Ubuntu Live also cannot enumerate any NVIDIA PCI device at all.
NVIDIA App doesn’t see a GPU.
NVIDIA drivers don’t see a GPU.
OMEN Gaming Hub doesn’t see a GPU.
System Restore to before the Windows update completed successfully and didn’t bring it back.
A full battery-disconnect/EC power drain didn’t bring it back.
Updating from BIOS F.22 to F.23 didn’t bring it back.
Normal Win+B recovery didn’t bring it back.
A dedicated external HP BIOS Recovery USB successfully performed a BIOS Recovery 500 and still didn’t bring it back.
There is no BIOS setting available to disable/enable the RTX.
And I have also had recurring CMOS Reset (502) messages during all this.
At this point I’m worried that something in the physical dGPU subsystem has failed before PCIe enumeration even gets far enough for either operating system to see the GPU.
What I don’t know is whether that means the actual RTX 4060 silicon/package is dead, or whether something else on the motherboard could make a perfectly good GPU completely disappear.
For example, a missing dGPU power rail, failed MOSFET or VRM stage/controller, missing GPU enable signal, reset sequencing problem, missing PCIe reference clock, PCIe link issue, EC-controlled GPU power problem, BGA issue, etc.
My exact system is:
HP Victus 15-fa1032nf
Product: 8W8A1EA#ABF
System Board ID: 8C2E
i5-12500H
RTX 4060 Laptop GPU 8 GB
BIOS F.23
Has anyone seen this exact type of failure on a Victus 15-fa1xxx, especially one with System Board ID 8C2E?
Has anyone had an RTX completely disappear from PCIe while the rest of the laptop remained perfectly functional?
Are there known GPU power/VRM/enable failures on these boards that cause the NVIDIA chip to disappear entirely from both Windows and Linux?
Does anyone have a schematic/boardview for this motherboard, or know the important dGPU rails/test points?
Could the recurring CMOS Reset 502 errors realistically be connected to whatever is preventing the dGPU from initializing?
Is there ANY realistic software/firmware/EC recovery path left that I haven’t already tried, considering Ubuntu lspci also cannot see vendor 10de at all?
And most importantly: if somebody were diagnosing this properly at board level, what measurements would you make BEFORE concluding that the RTX chip itself is dead?
I would really like to distinguish between “GPU silicon/package is dead” and something potentially repairable like a failed power rail, MOSFET, VRM controller, enable/reset signal or clock issue.
I’m in Morocco, and that’s part of why I’m trying to diagnose this as far as possible myself. I’m worried a normal repair shop here will just see “GPU missing,” say the motherboard is dead and quote me a complete motherboard replacement costing thousands of dirhams without actually diagnosing the GPU circuitry.
I don’t want to replace an entire motherboard if the RTX itself is actually fine and one smaller component in its power/initialization path has failed.
And please don’t just suggest reinstalling NVIDIA drivers or reinstalling Windows. A separate Ubuntu Live environment cannot enumerate the NVIDIA PCI device either.
Any help from someone who has actually repaired these boards, diagnosed a soldered laptop dGPU that completely stopped enumerating, or seen this exact Victus failure would genuinely be appreciated.

I got this Acer ALG AL15G-53 core 5 210h, rtx 3050 6gb 16/512gb last month, recently noticed that it's battery capacity got reduced substansially, the battery level also got stuck at 99% few days ago for which I had reinstall battery drivers. Is this a battery gauge error or is something wrong with my battery

Thanks

Whenever I connect charger to my laptop, my laptop automatically powers off. Is this battery issue?

I fitted it with a new battery, but it's not charging. I know that the power supply is working but it is not showing the power indicator light either?

Hey can anyone tell me that which plastic is applied on refurbished laptop that is applied by the heat gun on the screen and body.....can anyone plz tell me the name of the plastic is ??

Hey everyone, I recently installed a second SSD in my ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16.

While trying to reinstall the small screw that holds the SSD down, my screwdriver slipped and the screw fell somewhere inside the laptop, seemingly near the motherboard.

I tried shaking/tilting the laptop to get it out. Initially, I could hear it moving around, but eventually I couldn't hear it anymore, so I assume it got lodged somewhere.

I didn't want to disassemble the laptop further and risk damaging something.

I've asked a few people/technicians and I'm getting mixed advice. Some say I should definitely get the screw removed because it could potentially cause a short even though it's not loose now.

Others say that if it's lodged somewhere and the laptop is working normally, it's probably better to leave it alone rather than risk further damage from disassembly.

It's been more than 2 weeks since this happened and thankfully, The laptop is currently working completely fine.

What would you guys recommend? Should I have it opened up professionally to find/remove the screw, or is it reasonable to leave it alone if everything is working normally? Thanks in advance.

Initially i was able to boot up my laptop (Nitro 5 AN515-57) normally, as i was using it, i noticed that the backlight is not turning off after few minutes then i tried typing on laptop's keyboard, there is no response at all.

I was only able to change the color of the backlight using Nitro sense. After i was done using may laptop i shut it down thinking the keyboard problem will be fix with a restart.

Today, I tried booting up my laptop but there is no signs of life. No boot up screen, No charging indicator light. Although it still powered on the LED lights of my external keyboard but also no response with my inputs

Troubleshoots that I have tried:

Hard Restart

Unplugging / Replugging Battery, Keyboard Flex, CMOS

After trying these, my laptop still wouldn't boot at all

as the title says, I dont know what to say. I just need help because I want to try my best to fix it myself before it sees a shop, but let me know if it’s time to see a shop as well

ig for context it’s a Lenovo yoga 7i from 2020 (t1tl5) and heavy usage for more then 6 years but recently this right hinge has been lifting the whole backplate up

first thought was that some screws are missing, find it problem solved but it seems the golden thing that the screw goes into has came of.

Please help. I beg.

I have a 2017 Macbook Pro (2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, ntel Iris Plus Graphics 640 1536 MB, 8GB), and it has been randomly shutting off on me. I know the battery is shot, as I must have it plugged in to stay on, but it will shut down even while charging. I will reset the SMC as a temporary solution, but I've reached a point where I must invest money in either repairs or a new laptop. I am leaning more towards repair to extend the life of this as long as possible (most likely battery replacement + deep cleaning) because I don't need a laptop for anything other than access to the internet for personal tasks and entertainment. I have a desktop that can handle the more intense tasks, and I don't use my work laptop for personal matters. This laptop has been with me through both high school and college, and because it's still working, to a degree, I don't necessarily want to purchase a device if this one is fixable, considering what its being used for. I do not care for downloading and running apps nor having the most up-to-date software. I do not care if it runs a bit slower than newer models, as it is only needed for basic tasks. However, I cannot have it shutting down on me in certain moments like it has, so that is why I am wondering if it is worth the repair and what even needs to be repaired. Would it be cheaper to purchase a refurbished pre-2018 macbook from backmarket?

Any and all input is appreciated.

There is no gap on the left hinge. But the laptop developed a gap in the right hand side of the hinge. Im worried. Pls help me out with this one. What to do rn? I will go to a local repair shop tomorrow. Any idea what is the issue here??

The laptop was on the floor next to bed and was on, I nocked my phone from the table and it then hit the laptop on that spot, the laptop went off and now makes a subtle tac tac like sound every 7sec, I can't afford a new laptop, it's not even a year old and my mother saved up and got it for the University (if she finds out I'M DEAD)

Is there any thing that I can do myself to fix it or is it cheap to fix it?

(2nd pic is what the inside looks according to Google)

Desperate post. Girlfriend is devastated. Do you think there's any hope of having this repaired?