Notebook Dead

[Uncle Flappy]

I have an HP Pavillion ze4400 that does not want to power on. When I hit the power button, all the pretty blue lights (hotkeys and power LED) light up but I do not get anything on the LCD. Even the HD LED flickers for a couple seconds.

Is this thing toast?

- Flappy

 

[RBBRMADE]

Could be bad RAM.
Ron

 

[Uncle Flappy]

Tried 3 different DIMMs. Same results.

 

[FlyingPenguin]

If it was RAM you'd get a beep error.

It's probably toast. Lots of things are possible - most likely is the fan failed (the mobo won't turn on if it detects the fan is not working). Maybe the AC power supply stopped working or the power jack on the laptop is broken (very common). You're getting brief lights from the battery and then it shuts off because the battery is dead.

If it's newer than 3 years old it might be worth taking to a mom & pop computer shop (AVOID BIG RETAIL STORES!) and get an opinion on it. Considering you can buy a decent new lappy from Dell for under $700 on sale, I wouldn't throw away too much money on it unless it's a simple fix.

If it is dead, don't throw it away. Any laptop with working LCD is worth at least $75 on Ebay for parts. Sometimes more.

 

[Uncle Flappy]

@FlyingPenguin thanks for the reply.

I don't think it is a power issue because the LEDs will stay lit for hours if I do not power the notebook off (hold the power button down for 15 seconds). The fans do spin up and stay on. Just no beeps nor boot-ups.

I took the whole notebook apart and the CPU fan does work but there does appear to be a burn mark on the CPU die. No thermal compound anywhere which makes me wonder of this is a common problem for this model. The AMD CPU is soldered in and does not look replaceable.

- Flappy