[SOLVED] Gigabyte Sabre 15 - Plugged in and not charging

[dj_83]

Hi everyone, first time posting here.
I've been using a gigabyte sabre 15 for a while, and recently started running into power problems. At first, the system would cycle back and forth between AC and battery power when running intensive processes. This led me to notice the AC adapted was only outputting 90W when the system requires 120W - so I bought a new adapter. However I also noticed then when the battery was holding a charge, it wouldn't hold it for very long either - so I bought a new battery. Even with both installed it won't charge, the system won't cycle. The battery worked by itself, and the adapter works by itself but they won't work in conjunction. Now, the battery is dead and I've got no way to charge it, so I'm running straight off of AC power with no battery installed.

At this point, I've updated all the drivers, updated my BIOS, and still nothing. I can't find any good manuals on how to disassemble this to even begin looking at connections and for now, I'm stuck to running with everything plugged in.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm at wits end with this one.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Did you buy genuine battery and power adapter?

 

[dj_83]

Did you buy genuine battery and power adapter?

Unfortunately I’ve got no way of confirming, Gigabyte is pretty tight about replacement parts unfortunately - I did a lot of research trying to match the model numbers and narrowed it down to CLEVO as the manufacturer.
My problem has drastically changed however, I attempted to flash the BIOS to see if that was the issue and after about 2 hours of running with the new BIOS, my laptop shut off and won’t turn back on.
There’s no CMOS reset button or jumper, and I’m pretty sure I’ve successfully done a hard reset of the CMOS by removing the battery and shorting the terminals but still nothing - I’m afraid it’s bricked.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

If you didnt crash during the bios flash then changes are thats not the cause.

Seems like latest bios 1.05.13GI1 updates also EC which controls battery charging, did you reboot after updating the bios or continued to use it? If you rebooted in between that means flash was succesful.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

And you tried to remove battery and power cable then press power button 30seconds to drain, after that plugin only power cable NO battery.

 

[dj_83]

And you tried to remove battery and power cable then press power button 30seconds to drain, after that plugin only power cable NO battery.

I've tried that already too.
The laptop didn't shut off during the BIOS update - and I didn't update to 1.05.13GI1
I actually updated to 1.05.22RGI1.

I've got some progress, if I leave it plugged in long enough the battery will charge up to around 20% and let me use the laptop for some time. It won't charge when in use, and can't run off the AC power alone (doesn't even detect it). I thought if I left it plugged long enough it'd charge more but it caps out around 27%.

I cannot remember if I restarted after the BIOS update. I did do some poking around the motherboard when I was clearing the CMOS (which I did by removing the battery for some time) and noticed some scorching near the power supply port, one chip is even a bit melted - but it still runs. I confirmed the CMOS clear by seeing that the time was reset on the laptop - however, the bios update was not undone.

 

[lga1156_ftw]

You found the cause then. Is the chip In dc In board which has dc Jack connected To it. Or Is the chip on the motherboard

 

[dj_83]

You found the cause then. Is the chip In dc In board which has dc Jack connected To it. Or Is the chip on the motherboard

The chip is in the motherboard. But why would it still be able to charge when off?

 

[lga1156_ftw]

means that charging circuit is still somewhat functioning. Probably broken dc jack which was shorted for few seconds and caused the issue. Dc jack seems to be soldered to the motherboard.

Any liquid ever fallen to the laptop?

You did right bios update, But there was also EC firmware update above that https://www.gigabyte.com/Laptop/Sabre-15/support#support-dl-bios
ec controls battery chaarging , power leds and power on

DO NOT UPDATE THE EC , if you shuttdown middle of update it will brick your motherboard, its usually not even stored in the bios chip realy hard to reprogram

 

[lga1156_ftw]

Its bad design to use soldered DC jack straight to motherboard, if it goes bad it can potentially kill the motherboard or atleast cause havoc to power switch mosfets and resistors.

Can you take picture of the melted chip, and area near DC jack? High resolution.
Atleast we can already figure out possible fix before you get it to repair technician (unless you own some soldering skills)