Alienware 17 R4 - 6820HK/1070M - Dead Motherboard

So this morning (03.02.18), I wake up to my machine being off (I leave it on 24/7), so I just think that it is just Windows Update messed up and shutdown the machine. It won't turn on, AC LED ring is out. I start thinking that the wire or power bar has gone bad, it wasn't that. So I start hunting down the problem and pull the machine apart. As I pull the main panel off... that acrid burnt plastic smell, the smell in the nightmares of all hardware techs. I narrowed down where the smell is coming from, but I don't have a multimeter to check the SMD.

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Can anyone tell me what that is, or even better, if there is anyone in Montreal, Canada, that can fix this cursed thing?

What is the likelihood my M.2 SSDs are still good? Could this have cooked my GTX 1080 Ti in the Amplifier? I ask because I have no way of testing any of these things.

Dell Canada wants 2639.99CAD for this damned board, best price I can find so far is 900USD for a used one, imagine how hesitant I am...

And this is after all the problems I posted here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alienware-17-r4-various-problems.813372/

 

Uhm mate.... Bro.... pal..... cmon you can't be serious

 

Actually, I am serious, because you circled part of the heatsink, you can see the thermal pad sticking out

 

I'm aware, look at the CMD chip next to the mosfet under your heatsink. it looks roughed up. Remove the heatsink for dramatic sight.

 

That is just some dust. I looked again at the actual thing, just to make sure. Just to be clear, we are talking about the brown SMD capacitor, right?

 

It looks slightly melted on the picture. Hence I think mosfet next to it might have melted. Remove the heatsink and make a photo of that.

 

Thanks for your suggestion, I should have done so from the beginning. So I pulled the heatsink expecting to find nothing, but I found that a choke had blown, on the CPU see pic:

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I don't expect to have damaged M.2 SSDs with this, the Amplifier should be fine too, I think.

 

Well there you have it. GPU and M2ssd should be fine yeah.

Thought mosfet would have died, but nope. Low quality picture tricked me!!!!!!!!!!! ;_;

I think you should be able replace that chip yourself. It isn't exacly a small SMD or anything, but then again you don't know the cause so replacing it might end up breaking even more. You can maybe ask @Khenglish

As far as I know he's in the US but getting a board repaired with some shipping should be way better than paying for a new for a price that is basicially a new notebook or getting a used one that might have been refurbished and will die on you in a couple of weeks.

 

When you dropped that user's name here, does it notify him that he was mentioned?

I am surprised as well that the only visible damage is that one choke. I would be willing to repair it, definitely way cheaper than 900USD, if it can be done properly of course. And that isn't a dig against a person I don't know, I just know a lot of jokers who call them technicians and constantly damage stuff. I don't have a hot air station, so I won't be attempting this fix myself.

This choke could explain some of the odd problems I was having before.

Thanks for your replies.

PS. Sorry about the bad pics, I forgot to change my S8+ to macro mode.

 

Yeah he gets notified. Kenglish is known for being very competent. To Showcase what kind of guy he is:
https://premamod.wordpress.com/2017/10/10/clevo-pascal-mxm-standard/

The guy knows whatsup