Geekom GT13 Pro Motherboard Damage - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: Brightfire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 10, 2025, 08:51:45 am
content: Greetings all,I recently brought a Geekom GT13 Pro on ebay from a private seller. Long story short, I owned the device for 4 months before it died, and both ebay and the private seller refuse to help me with getting the device working again.I opened the device to find these components burnt on the motherboard. I've found a shop that can potentially repair the board, but they have no idea what the components are, nor the value of them. Would anyone be able to assist me with this, as there is very limited to no documentation of this from Geekom to allow us to find out ourselves?

author: akatrinii
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2025, 09:14:30 pm
content: First, after 4 months you're asking of owning the device you're asking eBay or the private seller (which can't give warranty) for help, you truly must be desperate.Second, it seems to be a mosfet.What I presume is the power jack port on the left, classic two mosfet configuration and the current sense resistor on the top. From what I can tell, that N-channel mosfet is completely exploded, most likely welded to the board, possibly damaging PCB layers. Chances of actually fixing the device are slim. If the shop that can potentially repair the board can't figure it out, which seems pretty obvious, they're dodgy as hell. Let me guess, they are charging for a repair attempt fee regardless of the outcome. If that is the case, they'll just get your money and won't give a working product.I see you're based in the UK, there are plenty of good repair shops there, just not convinced the cost of the repair is worth it considering the value of the device (edit: nevermind, I just googled the model, seems to have a 13th gen i9, not bad).Ask for Sorin if you want a proper dodgy fix or ask Adamant for a more conventional approach. Cheers.

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 10, 2025, 09:22:33 pm
content: A good photo of the PCB is available in the article at CNXhttps://www.cnx-software.com/2024/07/06/geekom-gt13-pro-core-i9-mini-pc-review-with-windows-11-and-ubuntu-24-04/https://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/GEEKOM-GT13-Pro-vs-Mini-IT13-motherboard.jpgThe blown parts might be ferrite beads. Even if replaced, I'd expect the damage is likely more extensive and probably has spread even beyond that MOSFET.What on earth happened? Was it a lightning strike?

author: Brightfire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 10:34:35 am
content: Thank you for your reply akatrinii,In terms of asking ebay and the private seller for help - basically I brought the device because it was being sold as "new", and the description even said that it had been unopened except to take pictures. So I'd at least assumed that it would have the 3 years manufacturer's warranty, so if there were problems I could go back to the seller and they'd put it via the manufacturer. The seller told me there wasn't even that, which to me infers that it's over 3 years old, and thus not "new" at all...I'm based near Cambridge, and of all the shops I contacted, most said they didn't do onboard repairs (I'm guessing because of the amount of students chucking drinks on their laptops). The one that did get back to me said the same as you - that chances are slim. I'm basically clutching at straws here - ebay and Paypal both refused to help me get any form of money back on this, because it's outside the "30 day money back guarantee", and Geekom have told me because I got it from a private seller, they can't do anything except sell me a new one. So I'm £600 out of pocket at the moment.Appreciate all the help you've given so far - it's been almost a month since all this occurred and I'm just hoping for luck to be on my side just once with this

author: Brightfire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 10:37:39 am
content: Thanks for the help Kean,I thought this might be the case, but considering my position it's either attempt to fix (and hope I get luck and it works), or throw it in the bin and lose £600.I think this might actually be a fault with the product - checking online for help on this brought up several people that have had exactly the same thing. One reddit post even had a picture of the exact same burns and components blown! It couldn't have been anything on my side - the device was plugged into a UPS that has a couple of other devices connected into it, and they've been fine since I got it.

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 10:42:02 am
content: Do you have links to those other posts?

author: Brightfire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 09:12:45 am
content: Thanks for the reply Kean.I have a few of them - the main two I remember are below. Some didn't have images and just described the issue, so I won't include those, but the two below show damage to the same area on the boardhttps://www.reddit.com/r/MiniPCs/comments/1jszhjc/geekom_power_board_fried_after_1_week/https://www.facebook.com/groups/httpswww.geekom.co.ukminipc/posts/1795707448028276/

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 04:57:59 pm
content: OK, thanks for the links. Based on the several documented instances of the same issue I can see makes me think it is a design flaw due to using parts with insufficient ratings for peak currents.I don't think me saying that will help you at all though, especially as I haven't done any real analysis of the circuitry and I am just guessing what those parts are.

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 05:25:46 pm
content: They look like ferrite beads, or they could be SMD fuses (some of them also look like ferrite beads).

author: akatrinii
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 06:25:08 pm
content: What are your skills? What tools do you have?Say you could go and identify and you remove the damaged components, still you would need to take the board to a repair shop to fix it further.Give this guy a chance, he has a YT channel and is very experienced:https://sorinelectronics.com

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 06:40:09 pm
content: Quote from: gamalot on September 12, 2025, 05:25:46 pmFuses are designed to blow, not to burn up like that. And the SMD ones are generally thinner unless designed to go in a socket.I am reasonably sure they are ferrite beads. Easy enough to check if anyone has one of these models (GT13 or IT13, and maybe others).

author: gamalot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 07:48:26 pm
content: Quote from: Kean on September 12, 2025, 06:40:09 pmThere are fuses that look exactly like ferrite beads, but they're rare. It occurred to me that it could also be a varistor, as some varistors also look like ferrite beads.

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 13, 2025, 12:35:31 pm
content: Varistor is a possibility, although a pair of them seems unlikely - unless for redundancy.I still think based on the location and orientation that they are likely to be ferrite beads.I would start by removing any remains of those parts, and generally cleaning up the PCB, then applying power from a lab PSU to see if anything happens and how much current is drawn.Assuming nothing happens and no current draw, I would replace them with 0R resistors or small pieces of wire, and running the same test.