HP Laptop won't boot - mobo?

[drjones]

Have an HP Pavilion DV6 laptop that suddenly developed an issue where it will not fully boot.

The client thought it was because her husband used it for.....inappropriate stuff....and caught a virus.

I pulled the disk, hooked it up to my bench PC, MBAM surprisingly came up 100% clean. It has our GFI MAV & patch management on it, so from that perspective it's clean & up to date.

Here's what I've done:

- Pulled HD, scanned for viruses & shows clean.

- HD health checks OK.

- PC does the exact same thing whether the HD is in it or not. Without the HD, it throws an error about no bootable media, then lets me run the built-in diagnostics. It won't go past about 50% of the memory test before just shutting off.

- Removed CMOS battery / reset

- Removed main battery, connected with only the power cord.

- Removed each of 2x RAM chips, tested with each one at a time. Guess it's possible both are bad? Not likely.

- All that's left that I can think is motherboard? Again, it won't even complete the built-in diagnostics, so I can't look at anything else.

What do you guys think? It's several years old already & I told the client she should prob just replace it....looks more & more like that's going to have to happen.

Thank you

 

[seedubya]

I'd have to agree. I would, for pig iron, throw a different RAM stick in there. Pull any add in cards (wifi etc.) and pull the optical drive - to justify the diagnostic fee.

 

[JustInspired]

So, I'm confused.

With the hard drive in, it does not fully boot... What does that mean? Does it hang? Shut down? At which point?

With the hard drive out, it just shuts down while running the RAM tests... Powers off completely?

You didn't mention if you'd checked the laptop for overheating problems.

 

[seedubya]

You didn't mention if you'd checked the laptop for overheating problems.

I missed that. I read that the machine was hanging not shutting down.
:searchespapersforspecsaversvoucher

 

[drjones]

So, I'm confused.

With the hard drive in, it does not fully boot... What does that mean? Does it hang? Shut down? At which point?

With the hard drive out, it just shuts down while running the RAM tests... Powers off completely?

You didn't mention if you'd checked the laptop for overheating problems.

It basically acts the same with or without the hard disk;

I just threw the disk back in, it would only stay powered on for about 10 seconds, then lights out just as if you yanked the power.

No, didn't check for overheating but I blew it out with compressed air; wasn't too bad.

 

[glennd]

DV6 = overheating

 

[anti]

What happens with a known good power adapter and no battery?

 

[gikstar]

Since those DV series are so problematic, I suggest they just replace it. If replacing the ram does nothing then the next step would be to open it up and remove the fan and the dust in there, remove the heatsink and replace the thermal paste, as it does sound like it may be a heat issue.

It's a lot of work to put into an old laptop that should be replaced

 

[Go-To Gordon]

DV6 = overheating

this

 

[JustInspired]

It basically acts the same with or without the hard disk;

I just threw the disk back in, it would only stay powered on for about 10 seconds, then lights out just as if you yanked the power.

No, didn't check for overheating but I blew it out with compressed air; wasn't too bad.

Did you open it up? To clean the cooling system I mean.
Too many times I have seen dust/lint/hair balls forced back into the fan by well meaning customers with a compressed air can. Usually when this happens, the ball is wedged between the fan blades, preventing any movement.
Not saying this is the case for yours...

(Also, thermal paste gets rock hard and can crack, making thermal conductivity poor.)

 

[ArtemusComputerTechnology]

The Pavilion DV6 do cause alot of issues with not booting up. I remember having a Pavilion (dont remember the actual model). Luckily, the customer was very patient. I told him Im going to run a through test and see what is going on. I swapped ram, removed and scanned the HD, cleaned the fan and still not booting up. I called a buddy of mines that owns a large supply of computer parts and he had the actual mobo for the laptop. He didnt charge, did it out of a favor. I put the mobo in and the laptop booted with no issues. Such a relief.