Member Avatar for TrustyTony

I have a friend laptop, which shortly recovered running without battery by cold treatment in freezer for two hours, but got symptoms back after trying to charge the battery overnight. Now it again tries to start, accesses the DVD drive and lights up some leads, but not by Power switch which does nothing, but by touch quick start panel push. I tried removing and reinserting memory chips and the hard disk. I noticed by trying to boot without memory inserted that booting behaviour did not change.

When the laptop was running one evening, it overheated and switched off itself after around hour of use.

I have options of using it for something:

  1. I could by Raspberry pi and try to use the hard disk and display panel somehow for making Raspberry laptop.
  2. I could try to find broken screen laptop of same make and try to swap the display panel or have it changed.
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Given the thread so far (notably ’s freezer test and /’s comments), the most important priority is protecting data and then isolating whether this is a simple board/power-problem or a failing motherboard.

The safest first step is to remove the 2.5" drive and make a full image before any more power/thermal experiments. Identification of the connector is quick: a thin L-shaped plug vs a wide ribbon-style connector. Use a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter or fit the drive into a desktop SATA port or a 2.5" USB enclosure, mount read-only and image with a tool designed for failing drives (example: ddrescue or a Windows imaging tool). Avoid running repair utilities on a marginal drive before imaging; clicking/noise usually means professional recovery is needed.

Basic power/POST diagnostics help narrow the fault to the button/case wiring, DC input, or the motherboard. Check the AC adapter output with a multimeter and inspect the DC jack for movement or burned pins. With mains removed and the battery disconnected, briefly short the motherboard’s power-on pins (PWR_SW header) to simulate the button — a reliable way to tell button/cable vs board fault. Note any fan spin, LED pattern, or POST beeps and compare those symptoms to a known-good behaviour: no fans/LED and no beeps usually points at board-level failure.

Thermal and board-level context: intermittent life, overheating and one-time recovery after cooling are classic signs of solder-joint/BGA faults on older laptops. Reflow can sometimes give a temporary revival; full repair usually requires professional BGA rework (reball) or board replacement. Before assuming board death, clean the heatsink/fan and replace thermal paste — simple maintenance can eliminate a thermal-only shutdown.

For repurposing the screen into a Raspberry Pi project, the panel’s part number (on the sticker at the back) is needed. A matching LVDS controller board (plus an inverter if the panel uses CCFL backlight) converts HDMI to the panel. This is a workable project but requires the correct controller for the exact panel part number and a suitable 12V/5V supply for the controller/backlight. Overall: secure the drive first, then decide whether cheap repairs, a replacement board, or salvaging parts (screen + HDD) is the most cost-effective route.

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Member Avatar for BigPaw

Was the entire laptop placed in the freeze? Was this accidental?

How old is the laptop, and what does your friend remember the laptop doing before it kept on resetting itself? Had he or she recently fitted some new hardware, or installed some new software? Any brief and very recent history would be helpful. :)

Edited by BigPaw because: Typo
Member Avatar for TrustyTony

I found from internet by searching that somebody could rewake a laptop by freezing it for 2 hours in freezer, after of course the laptop needed wiping out of condensation water, but it did start to do something when before it showed not any signs of life. It worked that evening for a period but started to overheat, like I said. I could not resist however to try to charge the battery, but that coused the laptop fail in starting alltogether again. But as I mentioned it did not react at all power switch but the touch panel beside it. I do not know about programs installation history as it is my friends.

Now I am thinking it mainly in terms of saving the HD by placing it in external hd case or inside my desktop computer by 2,5" to 3,5" converter/cable piece. I am not sure it is SATA or IDE as I am not so much familiar with laptop connector styles. And of course it has two 1 GB memory modules and DVD-drive, but their value is not so high. I think CPU must not be possible to salvage to other motherboard from laptop... I am really curious to connect the LCD to Raspberry Pi sometimes, if I ever buy one... (I maybe gave the power adapter together with another laptop I was reinstalling software for a friend, so the project is at moment in halt)

Edited by TrustyTony
Member Avatar for BigPaw

I can see the logic, but it is usually better to just use the refrigerator. As someone as technically minded as you would know, due to thermodynamics, the many years of a motherboard's heating and cooling causes fractures in some soldered connections.

Cooling the laptop can help in a limited way and for a limited time. There is a 50/50 chance of repairing the motherboard however, by using a process called "Reflow". This involves protecting all the plastic parts of the board with tin-foil and then carefully using a heat gun to soften and hopefully remelt soldered connections. But don't feel you've failed if it doesn't work. Ever since the UK introduced RHoS Compliancy, solder is now lead-free and you must use higher temperatures to work with it. This makes the Reflow process much more delicate.

According to the HP site, this model laptop has a SATA Hard Disk, 100GB, 5400rpm. For future reference, the Hard Disk is probably the only piece of hardware you would put in a refrigerator. As you've found, a freezer causes condensation, but it also affects the Hard Disk's geometrics. Due to the excess cold the internal disk is distorted due to contraction. Refrigeration doesn't affect the drive to such extremes. Refrigeration only helps to tighten up the operation of the bearings providing stability in the Hard Disk for a helpful amount of time.

Because the laptop has thermal issues, you may want to leave the battery out while you're testing because that in itself generates heat. Also, give the vents and fans a good blast of air.

The only reason I've gone into so much detail here is because I know you're a techie minded person. :)

Member Avatar for caperjack

any freezer suggestion on the net are misleading ,at best you should only ,do it to a harddrive or laptop battery , the harddrive ,would be to try to get it to boot long enough to get some files of it before you ditch it .
the battery one is just to see iy one can get it to start recharging ,I tried bot multiple time for differen drive and baterys ove the years and never had good results .so I don't do it anymore

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