Fixable?

tl;dr version: Look at the 2nd image. Fixable, or SOL?

So, the story goes as such. Someone gave me a non-working HP DV7-1014ca to do with whatever I want. Thus, I decided to take it apart completely. While doing so, I found out what might be the cause of the laptop not working. Someone had taken apart the laptop before (I don't know the reason), and while doing so, ripped the cable connector for the power button (quickplay button is there too) from the motherboard. They then proceeded to make a terrible attempt at soldering it back on.

Here are pictures of what it looks like:

This is the connector that came off.


Here is the part of the motherboard that the connector came off from. The really burnt thing at the top of the picture is a plastic film covering.

I'm not familiar with the details of a motherboard, so my question is based on the 2nd image: Should I bother to try fixing this (as in re-solder it properly)?

It doesn't look like any of the nearby surface components were burned aside from soldering. So, I have two major concerns:

First, I don't know if the layers below it have been damaged or if some printed circuits were completely cut. Or perhaps, there isn't anything important under there at all? While I can't measure how much the surface was burned/scratched off, I would say it looks less than 0.1mm.

Second thing is the fact that I see the metallic layer underneath. I would imagine in this case, it is a very bad sign. Even if none of the components or wiring underneath are damaged, I don't know how I would approach trying to solder the connector back on without an individual lead for each pin.

I would appreciate some input from people who are familiar with motherboard structures, or have had experience soldering on them

 

Jesus christ.

The power button panel needs to be replaced (cheap). The motherboard may needs to have board level repair or a new motherboard (expensive!). But it was free right?

 

Thats a horrible soldering job.

Is it a ZIF/LIF connector? cause if it is i dont understand how you manage to break that.

Id start with a wick to clean all the solder off and see what you can do from there.

 

Ya, it was free. I'm not confident/crazy enough to buy a broken laptop to try to fix up. Would be fun if I could get this working as it seems to be a decent model looking at the specs. Probably not likely though.

Ya, it was a ZIF. I'm going to guess whoever broke it was either careless and didn't notice the cable before yanking out the power button panel, or they don't know how to unpin the connector.

Anyway, I'll follow your advice. From what I can see already though, it looks like the pads are all destroyed as well as nearby traces. Any suggestions on how to re-attach the connector? Should I expose all the remaining traces and just attach with wires? Or attempt to rebuild the traces? Hopefully there's still enough left for me to figure out what goes where...

 

I would try that.