NYJimbo
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 2,010
- Location
- Long Island
Customer brings in a HP DV6000 because the machine is booting oddly. Sometimes it will boot, other times it will shut down as soon you release the power button. Sometimes the fans will spin for a few seconds and other times they will not spin at all.
The machine did boot fully in front of me and I was not able to make it fail again, of course until I was sure there was nothing wrong. The machine would light all LED's and the drive would move, fans would spin and then power down. Another time I could get as far as the BIOS but nothing else.
I went through all the normal checks and was almost going to assume it must be something with the motherboard but then she started again and kept running. I noticed if I did a warm restart it would boot each time, no matter what method I used. But physically pressing the power button it would produce unpredictable results. So I got to thinking it just might be something with the power switch. Below is an example of the switch bezel for the DV6000 with its two ZIF / LIF (low insertion force) cables. At the bezel end the cables are inserted with ZIF's, on the motherboard end its force fit with the LIF's:
I checked the connections and everything seemed fine. I only removed the LIF ends when I was diagnosing the machine as I didnt suspect anything on the ZIF (bezel) end. I was about to remount the bezel on the machine when I said "What the hell" and removed the cable from both ZIF connectors (which were factory installed).
If you look at this photo you can see what happened:
I couldnt believe this was the source of the problem, especially since the thing has been inserted for a couple of years but the one lead was so close to ther other I used a dental tool to straighten it out and reinserted it.
Wow, it works.
I shut it down and removed the cable again and saw that the tiny trace had remained in place. Since I didnt have another cable to replace it with I reinserted it gently and locked it down. I beat the machine up, tossed it around. Pressed down on the bezel in a million ways and it has booted every single time since.
Today I will order another cable and keep it in stock and tell the client what happened. If the client wants to wait for the cable ok, if not then they can take it home. I will hang on to the new cable in case of this or other machines like it.
I would never have guessed this was the problem and if I didnt take that "last hope" chance to check the factory installed ribbon cables I would have wasted alot more time trying to figure it out.
The machine did boot fully in front of me and I was not able to make it fail again, of course until I was sure there was nothing wrong. The machine would light all LED's and the drive would move, fans would spin and then power down. Another time I could get as far as the BIOS but nothing else.
I went through all the normal checks and was almost going to assume it must be something with the motherboard but then she started again and kept running. I noticed if I did a warm restart it would boot each time, no matter what method I used. But physically pressing the power button it would produce unpredictable results. So I got to thinking it just might be something with the power switch. Below is an example of the switch bezel for the DV6000 with its two ZIF / LIF (low insertion force) cables. At the bezel end the cables are inserted with ZIF's, on the motherboard end its force fit with the LIF's:
I checked the connections and everything seemed fine. I only removed the LIF ends when I was diagnosing the machine as I didnt suspect anything on the ZIF (bezel) end. I was about to remount the bezel on the machine when I said "What the hell" and removed the cable from both ZIF connectors (which were factory installed).
If you look at this photo you can see what happened:
I couldnt believe this was the source of the problem, especially since the thing has been inserted for a couple of years but the one lead was so close to ther other I used a dental tool to straighten it out and reinserted it.
Wow, it works.
I shut it down and removed the cable again and saw that the tiny trace had remained in place. Since I didnt have another cable to replace it with I reinserted it gently and locked it down. I beat the machine up, tossed it around. Pressed down on the bezel in a million ways and it has booted every single time since.
Today I will order another cable and keep it in stock and tell the client what happened. If the client wants to wait for the cable ok, if not then they can take it home. I will hang on to the new cable in case of this or other machines like it.
I would never have guessed this was the problem and if I didnt take that "last hope" chance to check the factory installed ribbon cables I would have wasted alot more time trying to figure it out.
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