What kind of damage could plugging an egpu into a running laptop cause? Would that damage be repairable?
From my knowledge the Thunderbold connection is “Hot Plug”-able. So there shouldn’t be an issue (hardware sided) from only pluging an eGPU into a running laptop.
If the laptop is broken after connecting the eGPU, I would assume a problem with jack or port (maybe bend pins). On the laptop side, I would check if the controller for the port is broken.
I dont know much about EGpus but the original owner plugged an EGpu into the USB port which seems to have killed the laptop. Would an EGpu do that or is it likely some other issue?
If the plugin from eGPU at a usb c port cause the problem, I would check the usb c port. There maybe a problem with the contacts at the port itself. And if the laptop isn’t running anymore it is most likely that the manaegement chip for the usb c port is bad.