Dell Inspiron 1720 Repair

Today a Dell Inspiron 1720 came in with the following symptoms

• Completely Dead.

No life, no light, no fan, nothing. Zip. Nada.

Instead of ordering a new mainboard, I felt like a challenge so I started troubleshooting. The first thing I noticed was that every time the AC adapter was plugged in, the LED would go out straight away. This cheered me up, as it indicated a short on mainboard somewhere, and this type of problem is fairly simple to repair.

I removed the mainboard & connected it to the bench power supply. Yep, definitely a short as the power supply LCD registered maximum amps. Voltage drops down, amps go up.

It took me 5 minutes to find the short. It was on the underside of the board and it could be located through visual inspection. The area is marked in red.


Here is a closeup, you can see the damage to capacitor PC123


The capacitor is 10uF & is part of a power circuit called a VRM - Voltage Regulator Module. Its a multiphase DC-DC buck converter which steps down the main line voltage (19.5V) down to a level required by other circuits. This one I think is for the CPU (1.075V).

I stripped a 10uF capacitor off a scrap board.


I removed the remnants of the old capacitor & plugged in the bench power supply. Current draw was now perfectly normal. I soldered the new capacitor in.

And fired it up.


Problem solved!!!

Cubby House - Part 1

I've always wanted a cubby house. I needed some place to escape my parentsWhen I was small, my dad gave me a huge cardboard box. I cut holes in for windows & made doors from the flaps.

The next day it rained. Result one big soggy mess.

The next version was some polycarbonate sheeting precariously tied over the gap between the fence and the shed. This was better then cardboard but the dirt floor attracted insects, spiders and snails like a magnet.

20 or so years later I've got kids of my own. We have a decent sized back yard, so I thought wouldn't it be great to build a cubby house for them.

My original plan was to buy the wood, and cut & do it all myself, however when I found places selling complete kits, I could not resist. I purchased the 'Blue Cockatoo" from Cubbycraft. Within a short amount of time about a ton of wood arrived on our front lawn.

Sadly the insane level of bureaucracy in Australia required that I obtain Shire approval before I began construction. My local Council has a track record of demolishing Unauthorized cubby houses so I didnt want to take any chances.

I just find the whole idea of getting approval AND paying $250 to those mongrels ridiculous. They get enough of my money every year with ever increasing council rates. This is what I needed

- Detailed plans of cubby construction
- Site plan of the property indicating where cubby house will be built
- Signed Approval letters for all 4 neighbors
- All site & cubby plans signed by 4 neighbors
- Residential Code variation form
- Building license approval form.

When I went to the council offices, they stated it does take 4 – 8 weeks for approval.

I went around to all the neighbors & none of them had a problem whatsoever. I got them all to sign the adjoining property owners form & the site plans. I sent it all off to the council.

A month later I got a letter back saying it was not sufficient.

1) While they had signed the site plan, they had not signed the elevation plan.
2) They all circled "No Objection" but they did not write in full detail what they dont object to.
3) Some properties have multiple owners, and the signature of every owner is needed, whether they live there or not.

Finally after about 4 months got it approved.