[rescue] Tadpole SparcLE schematics

[Brendan Shanks]

Long story short: I let some magic smoke out of a Tadpole Sparcle (the 15b

with 650MHz US2i)

When I got this machine it didnbt show any signs of life when the power
adapter was plugged in. I took it apart and found that the DC-in fuse had
popped (FS2801, a tiny SMT 5 amp). Replaced that and the machine worked fine!
I booted OpenBSD and I think even installed Solaris 8 on an extra drive (its
original HDD was giving I/O errors). This was back in August.

Fast forward to today, I plugged the power adapter in and got no signs of
life. I figured the fuse popped again, but it should run off a charged battery
fine. I charged its battery using another Tadpole and put the battery into the
Sparcle.
Very bad newsbgot a bad smell and then smoke started coming out of the vent.
Of course I pulled the battery out ASAP. I took the machine apart-- a
transistor (Q1903, a 3-pin SOT23) near the south bridge has given its life,
along with two resistors next to it and burn marks. Therebs even a visible
burn mark on the other side of the PCB (looks like one trace)...Ibm starting
to think this might not be fixable.

My question: would anyone have schematics for these machines?

These laptops were built by Compal, a Taiwan ODM that makes laptops for lots
of companies. The case design is basically identical to the Acer Travelmate
420, the service manual for that is easy to find and very helpful for
disassembly. However I think Tadpole designed the PCB themselves, and I
havenbt turned up any schematics online.
I have a Tadpole Viper (identical machine but with a 1.2 GHz US3i) which
probably has the same motherboard, I can disassemble that just to see the part
markings and do some tracing with a meter. Itbll be a long shot without
schematics though.