Guys I need some serious help

[Hockey05]

Ok so here's the ordeal.

I was working on a clients laptop a week ago. He brought in a HP Pavilion zd7000 s/n 365***-001. His problem was that his laptop would not stay on, only for about 30 seconds then shut down. Ok well, of course its either overheating or a DC jack problem. So I opened up his laptop and hey, what do you know his jack was burnt.

Ok so we isolated the problem and ordered a new jack right away. Well it came a few days later and some other tech besides me soldered it on there. I was kinda doubting this guys soldering skills on laptops, but he has been working there longer than I have so I said what the hell and put the laptop back together. So everything is straight, LCD connected, everything looks good. I go to plug it in and all the sudden I see smoke going everywhere. I'm like, what the f***?.. maybe it will stop? About 30s-1minute this thing smokes for. Obviously I cant give this back to the customer. So I opened everything back up took a look at it and yep, what do you know, the dc jack burned again. At this point I told the client I am very sorry this happened, but you need a new motherboard. He said, sure sounds great.

Ok so we ordered him a new motherboard, when I was ordering the MOBO I was really paying attention to the model # of the MOBO. It is still a zd7000, but the # is 356669-001 I believe? Ok well, yesterday I was working on this for while. I took off the cpu+heatsink off the old MOBO, scraped off all the dust in the heatsink, reapplied thermal paste then put everything back on it. So I go to plug it in and hey! sweet! its got the blue LED lights so its charging(battery is not in). Ok well, I go to turn the laptop on and the screen just stays black. This is not good, I sent a lot of time of this and now its spewing out another problem. At this point im thinking a display problem, but we do not have any spare laptops laying around so I could bring the monitor over and test it. But keep in mind the monitor was working on the older MOBO and I made sure every cable was connected 3 times. Ok, then I tried to see if the display would show up on a desktop.... still nothing, the laptop just turns on you can hear the fans going and they get louder a little bit. I cant even hear it going to POST @ all. This got me wondering if it could possibly be the CPU or Hard Drive, so now I have tons of scenarios which I think could be the problem, but I'm having trouble narrowing it down.

-When the laptop was smoking could the CPU HDD or RAM been damaged?
-Could the CPU be bad?
-Could the HDD be bad?
-Is the RAM/CPU/HDD compatible with this MOBO?
-Maybe the RAM is bad?
-Could the LCD been damaged somehow?
-Why don't I hear POST going?

So I'm really having trouble narrowing this down. If anyone could be of assistance I would seriously appreciate it. This is the first laptop I'm working on through my company and its really stressing me out that I cant figure this out. If someone call me and try to walk me through this that also would be greatly appreciated and I would be in debt to you. Sorry about the bad typing, I'm really really tired. I'll check back in the morning to see if anyone actually read this or has a solution. Thanks guys.

 

[NYJimbo]

I go to plug it in and all the sudden I see smoke going everywhere. .I'm like, what the f***?.. maybe it will stop?

This is the funniest thing I have read all week. Thank you !

ps- you are not ready to work on laptops. Its not because you cannot do a jack, its because you obviously cannot do any diagnostics and actually think a burning laptop will stop after a while and it will be ok.

 

[iptech]

I go to plug it in and all the sudden I see smoke going everywhere. I'm like, what the f***?.. maybe it will stop? About 30s-1minute this thing smokes for.

When have you ever known any computer to smoke as a matter or course? It was FUBAR'd after the first half-second.

Where did this replacement motherboard come from? Ebay? I guess it's not from HP as I'd say you've just invested your time and money in a motherboard with a fried GPU. Search these forums for the many tales of woe with cooked GPUs on HP laptops.

 

[vdub12]

I go to plug it in and all the sudden I see smoke going everywhere. .I'm like, what the f***?.. maybe it will stop?

This is the funniest thing I have read all week. Thank you !

ps- you are not ready to work on laptops. Its not because you cannot do a jack, its because you obviously cannot do any diagnostics and actually think a burning laptop will stop after a while and it will be ok.

I thought the same thing.

Another thing that screamed amateur is "This got me wondering if it could possibly be the CPU or Hard Drive". Hard Drive? this is the last thing I would think about in a no post situation.

 

[iptech]

Ok so we isolated the problem and ordered a new jack right away. Well it came a few days later and some other tech besides me soldered it on there. I was kinda doubting this guys soldering skills on laptops, but he has been working there longer than I have so I said what the hell and put the laptop back together

These guys should carry a health warning!

I'd love to know how this episode was explained to the customer.

 

[GotaPC]

-When the laptop was smoking could the CPU HDD or RAM been damaged?
Probably Yes , i cant really tell on this one , but the Mobo would be for sure!
-Could the CPU be bad?
Do a diagnostics because we obviously cant tell if it is or not.
-Could the HDD be bad?
Do a diagnostics because we obviously cant tell if it is or not.
-Is the RAM/CPU/HDD compatible with this MOBO?
If you ordered the same Mobo that was on before then yes of course their gonna be compatible.
-Maybe the RAM is bad?
Then again , Do a diagnostics because we obviously cant tell if it is or not.
-Could the LCD been damaged somehow?
Check the wiring and make sure all the cables are connected , if they are then do a diagnostics for the LCD , if it doesn't work then the GPU unit might have been already fried before you put it on.

Where did you buy that Mobo from?

 

[Hockey05]

The board was purchased on eBay for pretty cheap, the guy selling it had a 90 warranty on it and said it was new. At this point I think were just gonna send back the mobo. I guess it probably could be bad video, but the hard drive light wasnt even going on if I remember right? Will have more info. in a bit. thanks for the help.

 

[Blues]

A PC will POST with out an HDD so if the issue is no video and no POST then forget the HDD if its got problems it will come later.

 

[lebpcmedic]

Try reseating the RAM

 

[xxsilk109xx]

The board was purchased on eBay for pretty cheap, the guy selling it had a 90 warranty on it and said it was new. At this point I think were just gonna send back the mobo. I guess it probably could be bad video, but the hard drive light wasnt even going on if I remember right? Will have more info. in a bit. thanks for the help.

I order parts all the time from Ebay, but I have NEVER seen a NEW from the factory motherboard on there for sale, with just a 90 day warranty. As a matter of fact, I dont recall seeing any NEW mobo on Ebay for laptops, desktops sure. But not laptops.

 

[NRTS]

Just to throw some other ideas in the mix - broken USB sockets where they short out due to forced insertion of the USB connector the wrong way round.
The smoke was probably a dc converter overloading and burning out - the dc supply for a laptop is often 19v so it gets converted to various lower levels. It may have had 12v but blown out the 5v.
I've seen the results of a tech re-assemble a machine and get a cable trapped in the sheilding, which then shorted and killed 5v on the board.

All you need to remember is when you let out the magic smoke, its usually game over!

 

[hardtoremember]

Time to sharpen your laptop buying skills.

 

[Hercomputers]

All you need to remember is when you let out the magic smoke, its usually game over![/QUOTE]

Uh, I would think so- But a motherboard off Ebay? H-m-m-m-m...