dead laptop

[okie11]

hey folks got a hp laptop with a problem, think it might be a bad ac adapter, already changed out the motherboard due to a laptop repair shops recommendation, now $200 less in my pocket and still a dead laptop. when i try turning on the laptop occasionally it will just shut right off, then other times it will power on but the display is very dim and only shows the HP logo like it would if it was rebooting. my question is before i go out and buy another piece of equipment i might not need has any one else ever experienced anything similar to this.

[jbennet]

pull the battery out and try it with AC power only
is it maybe overheating?
Bad psu or adapter? - adapter is cheap (less than £50) so start there maybe?

[okie11]

sorry should of said that i removed the battery and thats the only time it will stay on when i reinsert the battery the laptop shut off, thats why i think the ac adapter might be bad, it might not be able to charge the battery. the light on the charger is still lighting up though.

[jbennet]

if its not the AC adapter it could be the PSU inside the laptop, if its a fairly standard AC adapter then you should be able to get it cheap, else if its the internal PSU it may cost more than the laptop to fix.

[okie11]

forgive me for my ignorance but isn't the power supply part of the motherboard, when i plug in the ac adapter its attached to the motherboard. if not where would i look for it and what would it look like.

[jbennet]

i didnt notice that before you said you got a new motherboard. it cant be a broken PSU then as its usually soldered onto the motherboard and so would have been replaced

try and get a new AC charger cable and see if it works

[okie11]

yea and after we installed it it did the same exact thing as before, i think it the ac adapter only because i do get power, the display is lighting up but its real dim and it stops loading at the HP logo, think i might make a stop at the local pc store and buy a universal power supply for it and try that. but if you have any other suggestions please feel free to offer them, i have no problem opening the laptop to trouble shoot

[jbennet]

yes, try a new power adapter as its the cheap fix and its quick

[okie11]

yea i think i'm gonna get this adapter http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6321349&type=product&productCategoryId=cat08005&id=1083712938934

the targus web site says it is compatible with my model

[jbennet]

$83.99? - targus are a good brand though, got one like that for a thinkpad of mine. How much is that in pounds sterling?

[okie11]

about 45

[jbennet]

not too bad

[okie11]

just hope that it does the trick, been a few months since it worked

[jbennet]

is the laptop worth alot or is it a cheap model?
if its only cheapey and this doesnt work you may need to look at scrapping it

[okie11]

well when i bought it, it cost $1700 but that was 5 years ago,now its not worth any where near that even if it gets fixed, a month after i bought it the price on laptops dropped alot so i wasn't very happy but i still like it and i can't afford to spend 500 on a new one so i am trying all i can to get this one working

[okie11]

well i bought the new adapter and still nothing even tried a different hard drive, removed both sticks of ram removed the hard drive removed the sound card and still does the same thing. what else could it possibly be

[jbennet]

not a clue.
are you sure the repair people actually put a new motherboard in?
is it still under warranty?

[okie11]

yes i was there when they did it, he knew what he was doing. it wasn't the mother board that was bad, it has to be something else and i can't think of anything else that could possibly be causing it

[jbennet]

due to the dimmimng i would say LCD but that wouldnt explain why it hangs at the POST screen

[okie11]

well according to hp's site they had a problem with the lcd inverter, i posted a question on their site and now i'm waiting for any type of response. i want to figure this out.

[okie11]

well i think i found the problem, i removed the lcd inverter and then attached an external monitor and i have a working monitor. now i just need to replace the lcd inverter and hopefully all will be good again. thanks to those that offered suggestion they helped lead me in the right direction.

[jbennet]

so does it still hang at the BIOS screen with an external monitor?

replacing the inverter yourself can be done but if youcan afford it get it done by the pc shop as getting the laptop assembled again at the end is a hard task.

[okie11]

not really the inverter isn't part of the mother board it's located inside the lcd assembly. already removed it now just got to order a new one.

[jbennet]

i meant that
i replaced the inverter on a thinkpad and getting the screen assembled asgain was a nightmare

[JANINE1]

I'm siding with James on this one but after reading through all the posts on this thread I'm going to add another possibility to the bag here.

You say that the machine is 5 years or older right??? How much have you used it in that time??? Probably quite a lot i'd imagine.

I have a feeling that seeing as you have replaced the main board and the PSU cable and have a new LCD invertor on the way that maybe it's none of these things at all but maybe the battery or a fault somewhere in the charging circuit within the machine.

That said however I'd nver rule out the possibility of a new part being at fault.

[okie11]

well one of the main problems was when i would power it up, whether with or without the battery the laptop would usually shut down in a matter of seconds. when it would stay on the display was real dim and i could barely make out the hp logo. well since i removed the lcd inverter and attached the external display the laptop has not once failed to power up. of course i'm not saying that all is well. still gotta get the new inverter before i can actually be convinced.

[JANINE1]

It's not failed since you hooked it up to the external screen. Weird!!!

In that case then it could well be that LCDinverter.

[jbennet]

yes maybe the inverter was drawing too much current or something which made it dim and fail to post

at least its fixed now

[JANINE]

yes maybe the inverter was drawing too much current or something which made it dim and fail to post

at least its fixed now

I'll ask just for reference as I'm curious - is there any way of telling if a component such as the inverter (in this case) is drawing too much current. I'm still in training after all:)

I should add that I am the same person as Janine1 but i just have two user accounts as i have two mail addresses now.

[okie11]

not sure if there is an easy way or not, not to good with testing electronics in that manner.