Dell Inspiron 15 5578 Starlord13_R 15296-1 - main power rail short

Hello Everyone,


I have a problem to find the problematic component.
When charger is plugged in the light on charger goes off and I have confirmed that main power rail is shorted to ground. As always I try to find faulty component by applying voltage to shorted line:

With 1V and 3A applied I have voltage drop to 0.38V and 3A is being taken.
This is not dead short as voltage is not dropping to 0V. I am using thermal camera but nothing on the motherboard is indicating heat spot. Different service has done repair by replacing burnt capacitors (in main power rail) in the past and laptop was working without any problems for 10 months.

My suspicion is affected traces when laptop got faulty/burnt capacitors last time.
For short moment I have tried to apply 1V and 5A. Voltage drops to 0.64V and 5A is being taken.
Could problem with traces be the answer why I can't see any heat being generated ?
Has Anyone got an idea what else could be the problem ?
Thank you.
Regards,
Rafal.

0.64V x 5A = 3.2W. That is quite enough to heat up the shorted component as long as you use the proper cables for short test. Basing on the 2nd photo, your cables seem a bit weak for such a test. Try a simple "cable power loss test": connect both cables ends together under 5A current and see what the voltage reading will appear on your power supply. Everything above 0.1V means the cables are too weak for short test.

Thank you for your help. Changing wires has helped to identify faulty capacitor.