Toshiba Satellite Pro 420CDT high-pitched whining noise - What could it be?

[GiGaBiTe]

Damn. Close inspection of the board reveals not one, but two missing solder pads and two traces eaten away.

Should I just assume the board is effed and replace it entirely?

You can use bodge wires to repair the traces. The pads I'm assuming are for the capacitor, if they don't go anywhere on the top of the board and the pads on the bottom side of the board are fine, you can leave those alone. You'll want to keep the bodge wires as short as possible and as flat as possible if they're under the capacitor so it doesn't have to be lifted up too high and potentially interfere with the laptop case.

 

[T-R-A]

You can use bodge wires to repair the traces. The pads I'm assuming are for the capacitor, if they don't go anywhere on the top of the board and the pads on the bottom side of the board are fine, you can leave those alone. You'll want to keep the bodge wires as short as possible and as flat as possible if they're under the capacitor so it doesn't have to be lifted up too high and potentially interfere with the laptop case.

Wouldn't hurt to add some hot glue around the part if it's not secure to the board after the above.

 

[mitkaman]

Did you succeed in fixing the inverter? I have an old laptop (IBM ThinkPad 600E) with a similar problem. Would like to know the best way to fix it.