"Fun" with notebook repair.

TheInternal

Senior member
Jul 7, 2006
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Greetings all,

I recently acquired a few older notebook computers that had some sort of issue and have been seeing if I can get any of them to work since A) I'm friggin' broke and have lots of experience getting stubborn desktop PCs to bend to my will, and B) I could really use a notebook that I could use to surf the web and do word processing.

I've been told the HP Pavilion dv5000 notebook computer I've been poking at has a "motherboard issue", and thus far my testing hasn't been able to rule that out. Apparently, the previous owner had taken it to the Geek Squad and had been told as much. The HP tech person I talked to on their website made a prompt diagnoses of motherboard problem as well.

Frankly, from what I've heard of Geek Squad, I tend to take such things with a grain of salt.

What I've done to it thus far:

I can't get the thing to boot, but it will turn on and stay on. I'm wondering if it IS a motherboard problem, if it's one I could fix. I can't access the BIOS (already tried resetting it as well as reseating the RAM), it seldom will even give me a POST error message. The monitor will power on, but I can't get it to do anything. I've tried getting it to turn both with the battery, DVD-ROM, and hard drive installed, as well as with them removed (no change). The power LEDs come on, and will sometimes flash very rapidly in endless succession. My operating theory is that the computer has either a corrupt BIOS, a "bad" motherboard, a "bad" power converter of some kind (tried two different power cords already), or possibly some sort of weird heat issue. HP offered to fix it for $398, which seems silly considering I could get a modern serviceable netbook for that much.

I've yet to completely rip the thing apart, but the case contradicts the website by having a Intel Celeron M sticker on it (the website implies the 5000 series is AMD based). I'm also unsure if this notebook has the NVIDIA chip that had some manufacturing defects (a bad or loose die or something).

If I can't get the thing to work, I'd probably be happy to part it out to folks who could use the stuff in it that does work. Any suggestions / places to start? Should I just give up and try to find a place that I can recycle it for $50 or so bucks? I've yet to resort to the "freezer fix" that I've heard of.

Any suggestions welcome.
 

TheInternal

Senior member
Jul 7, 2006
447
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76
I just discovered something potentially awesome. I have a Compaq Presario c300. Interestingly, the batteries and power cords are interchangable, and APPARENTLY, they are the same base model (the cases and jacks are even in the same place!) I think I may get lucky and be able to combine parts into the case of my choice (since the c300 is working, but the hinges are broken that connect the monitor to the rest of it.
 

TheInternal

Senior member
Jul 7, 2006
447
0
76
(mostly) successful.

the C300 guts fit in the dv5000 case (had to dremel a little of the speaker resonance chamber off, but that's not biggie), but I did end up making something on the motherboard smoke while fooling around with that little circuit board that rests below the LCD (the 5 or so inch long, 1/4 inch wide thingie that the video connection on the motherboard goes to) in combination with a different LCD. That's what I get for being overzealous >.<

fortunately, I was still able to boot and install windows 7 and can leave the lappy on for hours at a time with no return of smoking. There is an unpleasant smell that comes and goes now and again though and an obviously burned something or other. little black rectangle with at most two connectors at one end. A resistor, I think?

Somewhere between moving everything over and slapping it all back together / screwing the thing back together, the computer stopped running on battery power though. I know it at least stayed on via batter with the original windows XP install, but I think I may have to find some sort of battery management for Windows 7, but don't know where/how to get that working. Suggestions welcome.