HP Pavilion - replacement board died?

[NerdDetective]

Original Fault & Replacement Motherboard
I've got an HP Pavilion dv7-1245dx on my bench right now. It turned on with a straightforward and easily google-able problem. There was a black screen and the CAPS/num lock lights were giving a slow single blink. HP's support website (source) indicated as a CPU failure. I figured it was the motherboard.

My client didn't sound happy with what a new board would cost (he was on the fence with "could you transfer my files over if I just got a new laptop?"). I told him that I was able to find a refurbished one with a warranty significantly cheaper than a brand new one, so he agreed to let me try that. Long story short, I install the motherboard and it works perfectly. Windows boots right up. All is right with the world, and I my joyous heart, exclaims "tell our client the good news!"

New Fault
However, I decided to run some diagnostics while I went to help another client, just in case. I popped in Memtest for the RAM to run while I was out. When I got back, the laptop was off. I noticed that I'd forgotten to actually plug it in (duh), so I figured the battery had simply died. I plugged it in to charge up, such that I could continue testing.

Thankfully, I'd resisted the urge to make that "hey, it works!" call. When I turn it on, here's what happens:
1) The fans and LEDs turn on briefly for about 3-4 seconds, then turn off abruptly.
2) There are no beeps or any screen activity.
3) When plugged in, any additional use of the power button causes the front power LED to light up briefly (about a 3-4 seconds), with the other LEDs and fan staying inert. After it's unplugged, the LEDs and fan will come on again briefly as in step 1.
4) If on battery power only, the fans/LEDs will always activate (as in step 1) each time I push the power button.

The light in the power jack stays on when it's plugged in and does not flash or turn off at any point.

First tried removing the unnecessary (no change):
* Hard drive
* Wifi card

Additional steps taken:
* Remove all RAM, swap RAM positions, try one RAM module.
* Use the battery while plugged in.
* Disconnect the battery, but keep plugged in.
* Connect the battery without plugging in.
* Hold the power button for 30 seconds with battery/AC plug are out.
* Remove the CMOS battery for several minutes.
* Completely take the whole thing apart and put it back together (twice).
* On second rebuild I noticed that the GPU seemed a little "gunky" so I cleaned it.
* Put in the old motherboard. This exhibited the original error condition.

Any Ideas?

Given that I can replicate the original fault with the original board, I'm pretty confident that some part (i.e. CPU or RAM) did not spontaneously fail and cause the fault I'm seeing with the replacement board.

At this point I'm just planning on explaining the situation to my client (that the lower cost refurbished replacement failed), getting a refund on the board, and buying a brand new board (if the client is okay with the price). I feel like my attempt to help the customer on price with a refurb board has backfired.

Am I missing a possible fix? Anyone else seen this kind of problem on a laptop board before?

 

[PCX]

I am not sure how many responses you will get since issues like these are common for these particular laptops. Many HPs with the AMD chipsets have issues with the motherboards, more specifically with overheating. Anyways, I am not going to suggest any fix since I would never suggest to my customer that they EVER get one of these boards replaced with another identical board. I would also never suggest a refurbished board, especially since in most cases, you have no clue who refurbished to board and it is still prone to the same issues . . . in fact thats probably why it had to be refurbished in the first place. So here is what I suggest

1. Tell the customer (for laptops like these) that the laptop is not worth repairing and that you can do a data transfer.

2. Never use refurbished boards. Some times you get new boards that are duds, the same is even more true for refurbished boards.

3. Mark laptops like these so that you know to suggest or not to suggest the above in the future.


Finally, this is just my standard, but I do not do any repairs I cannot warranty or do not feel comfortable warrantying. If a customer still wanted me to replace the board even after my professional opinion, I would tell them that we could not do that service for them and that if they want to replace the problematic board with another problematic board identical to it, that they will have to take it somewhere else. In general, any time a customer wants to me jerry rig, do something ghetto, or do something that I cannot warranty, I tell them that we either do it the right way or not at all.

 

[NerdDetective]

I wasn't aware of a widespread problem with the the AMD HP boards, though admittedly I usually get called about problems with Windows or broken screens. I'll heed your advice and talk customers away from board replacements on those kind of computers in the future. It's certainly not worth the trouble if it's a widespread design flaw.

You're also right on the refurb. Normally I would only chance used/refurbished goods for my personal use (since it's only my problem if it breaks), but in this case I thought that giving the customer the option would help. Of course when I make that one exception, that's when it bites me. I'll certainly learn from that error. Hopefully the only cost will be some return shipping out of my pocket and wasted time, as opposed to an unhappy customer, especially when my motivation was to make a happy customer by finding a cheaper part.

Based on your advice, I'll call my customer and explain that the option of a data transfer looks much more promising at this point. Thanks.

 

[technibbling]

I agree with PCX

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[Encrypted Existence]

I had almost the same exact thing happen to me just a few weeks back. Link to thread: http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37909
I learned to stay away from refurb/used boards. I also learned (from PCX) to charge a $75 up-front diagnostics fee for any laptop that has power "issues" due to the fact that they are more time consuming to diagnose.