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laptop motherboard failure

AndyP

AndyP

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Could a battery failure midway through a windows update really cause a motherboard failure on a dell Laptop?
Or is it just coincidence?
 
yep, it could fry the EEPROM that the system registry is held on. bzzzzzzz
 
Just about anything could cause a DEll laptop to turn its toes up. :shock:

I used to meet the Dell engineers at the parcels depot each morning, they went away with arm fulls of parts everyday. They told me that Dell were assembled from all the really big manufacturers B grade parts.
 
Thanks Dave

The laptop was given to my daughter by the company my wife works for after she completed her work experience so it was not new. Their IT dept confirmed what I had suspected and are trying to find a replacement so I can't complain.
I have told the kids before to make sure the battery is fully charged or the charger plugged in before doing any updates, but do they listen.
 
Andyp":kxcrbwjp said:
Thanks Dave

The laptop wad given to my daughter by the company my wife works for after she completed her work experience so it was not new. Their IT dept confirmed what I had suspected and are trying to find a replacement so I can't complain.
I have told the kids before to make sure the battery is fully charged or the charger plugged in before doing any updates, but do they listen.
Click to expand...
my aging asus did the same thing a few months back, luckily for me it didn't fry the MB just screwed up the system registry. it is what I get for my wife using it and for win 10 deciding to do updates on shutdown.
 
The kids only have windows machines cos that is what they use at school.
They will end up with Macs eventually.
 
I don't think the Mac operating system or apps allow you to do a software upgrade without the machine being plugged into the mains. I guess there is a reason why manufacturers always seem to recommend this. Good luck with getting a replacement organised.
 
I don’t use a Laptop but I’ve done updates on iPhones and iPads without them being on charge. I wouldn’t do it on a device without a decent state of charge though.
 
Battery failure or battery just running out?

You seem to suggest the former in the title and the latter in your second post Andy.

I can’t see how a battery running out would or could ‘fry’ anything... corrupt things yes, fry, not for me.

If the battery was faulty and was causing surges or spikes then possibly but just running out wouldn’t do that.

Possibly just coincidence.
 
Dunno Mark,
I think the battery ran out of juice but I can't be sure. Anyway the IT depart have already found another one that they would like to "donate" to a worthy cause. A few beers will be winging there way with the missus when she goes to work next week.

They also managed to recover all her files from the dead laptop. Backups? I've tried to explain how they should do
them but do they listen?
 
When you say "motherboard failure" - what does it do when you go to turn it on ?

If it was fiddling around with the BIOS - updating it or changing settings - I guess it could leave it unbootable.

I have recovered a motherboard which was "bricked" by power failure during a BIOS update, where I had another identical board, by swapping the flash chip, booting, hot-swapping the chip, then re-flashing the BIOS. But that was back in the days the flash chip was socketed.
 
Sheffield Tony":2kjwtr57 said:
When you say "motherboard failure" - what does it do when you go to turn it on ?.
Click to expand...

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I swapped batteries and chargers. Would not switch on via the charger with no battery either. I had read that it could perhaps be a CMOS battery failure but replacing that is beyond me at the moment.
Now we have a replacement laptop available I may have a go at changing or resitting the CMOS battery on the dead laptop as there are of plenty of tutorials on line.
 
In this day and age, it should be possible to update the BIOS in a pretty much bulletproof manner. Memory, be it EEPROM or Flash, is cheap enough to retain a copy of the previous firmware until the new version has been adequately verified. Look at the many devices that now perform over-the-air updates. They are designed to cope with interruptions.
I reckon you have either been very unlucky, or something else has failed.
As for Dell, I have an aging laptop, and two desktops made by Dell, and they have been no trouble at all.
 
AndyP said:
Could a battery failure midway through a windows update really cause a motherboard failure on a dell Laptop?
Or is it just coincidence?
Click to expand...
It can happen, but it’s pretty rare. A battery dying in the middle of a Windows update is more likely to corrupt the OS or brick the bootloader—not physically kill the motherboard.

If the motherboard failed right after the update crash, it’s usually coincidence unless there was already an underlying hardware issue (weak VRMs, aging battery, unstable power delivery, etc.).

Dell laptops are also known to lock up or refuse to power on if the BIOS update gets interrupted, which can feel like a motherboard failure even when the board is fine.

If you want to rule things out:
  • Try a CMOS reset
  • Check if the laptop reacts with/without RAM
  • Test with a new or known-good charger
  • Inspect the battery if it’s swollen or not holding charge
This guide explains battery failures and replacement steps clearly: https://technologydrifts.com/how-to-replace-a-laptop-battery/

And if it is the motherboard, here’s a solid breakdown of symptoms and fixes: https://technologydrifts.com/faulty-motherboard-symptoms-fix-guide/

Hope this helps!
 
The cmos battery only powers the cmos,which stores the settings for the bios.
If the battery is dead(unlikely as they can last decades) then all that would happen is it would default to the motherboard manufacturers settings.
 
Appreciate the updates but after more than 4 years the problem has long since been solved with a replacement.
A timely reminder though to make sure updates are carried out
 
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