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Old August 14th 18, 04:38 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co
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Default WinXP laptop temp question

Bob_S wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in message
...

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Bill in Co
writes:
[]
I may try that next, but I'm not expecting much. Coincentally or not,
this is the same laptop that I lost the double USB port in a few days
ago (which is located in the same area as the hot spot), and was never
able to resurrect (via any device manager uninstalls and reinstalls,
etc). That double USB port was apparently damaged at the hardware
level, which I still find hard to believe.

The obvious question: was the hotspot in evidence before the USB port
failed? If so, it seems not inconceivable that it could be related: the
heat fried a chip, or (though I think this would require _great_ heat)
desoldered something. Or could have just been the final factor that
would separate a minuscule crack that had developed, or something.

Can you get a thermometer into the port? (Maybe a meat/oven one? Though
don't short anything.)


I don't know whether it was hot before, or that could have answered it.
:-) I don't have such a thermometer, but I can tell you this much: if
you leave your finger inside that metal port for about 5-10 seconds, you
will need to pull it out. :-) Paul seemed to be suggesting that might
be around 65C. I just looked this up on the Internet, and according to
one article, it says 60C (for up to 5 seconds). I'm not sure if
anything inside the laptop is supposed to run that hot, but maybe it
could (it does have a NVIDIA graphics chip, afterall). Oh, and I did
check it out with the battery removed, but got the same result.


Bill, I've repaired a number of Dell laptops and one thing I've found is
that if the USB port is on the right rear corner and the port feels loose
it's most likely the solder connection that hold the port connector to the
daughter board has broken loose. The reason it's feeling hot is probably
because that port connector is also the heat sink for the nearby power
regulator for the daughter board the USB port is installed on.

Look up the model number and see if you can find a visual that shows a
photo of the board. The big tell is that the port connector itself will
feel loose compared to the others and if it's located on a daughter board
in the right rear corner then that is probably the reason.

Just a guess.
--


Bob S.


Thanks for the suggestion, but it feels pretty tight, like the other
connectors.

Since I bought this on eBay for about $100, I might just wait and see if I
can find another one that isn't too expensive to simply replace it. Either
that, or just live with my other laptop experiment, which is a Dell Latitude
E6500, which seems to be a much nicer and more elegant laptop, anyways. :-)


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