So, I recently was given an Alienware R4 17 for free (on the known condition that it wasn't working) and upon opening her up and doing some searching, I found the issue.

One of the chips labeled BAA618 or 8AA618 (its one or the other), the little resistor, and the area between them on the actual motherboard were burned pretty badly - bad enough that a little less than half of the chip was gone and that the spot on the motherboard had a small amount of depth.

Now, I like to consider myself decently savvy in regards to computers. Laptops are a newer concept to me, but I've been building and servicing desktops for almost 15 years now.

What are the chances that this is fixable? The warranty has since expired last year, and I don't have a ton of capital to throw at it. And, if not viable, is there any salvage value or chances I could sell it on eBay as an as-is broken item for somebody else to worry about?

http://i.picpar.com/lY4d.png

http://i.picpar.com/kY4d.png