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    Laptop didn't want to switch on. Should I replace motherboard?

    Discussion in 'HP Business Class Notebooks' started by thomask, Aug 15, 2012.

  1. thomask

    thomask Notebook Guru

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    Hi

    I have a 4 year old HP 8710w. A few days ago I tried switching it on but the machine did not want to power up. The only thing that happened was the power button LED and on/off led would light up while the charge(lightning bolt) LED would flash. I tried a new ac adapter, removing the battery and holding the power button for 30 seconds. Nothing worked.

    Skip to today when HP sent an onsite technician to replace the motherboard with a refurbished one. But before the technician replaced the board he removed and reinserted the ram and the machine suddenly worked again. But now this is my problem: My warranty is about to expire and if there is really something wrong with the motherboard I would rather replace it than have it break completely a week from now when the machine is out of warranty. But I would also not want to have a refurbished (8710w line is quite old) motherboard that might cause more problems. The technician said he'll keep the motherboard with him until Friday. So my question is, is what happened a sign that the motherboard is starting to fail or is this a common problem that I shouldn't worry about. Should I stick with my existing motherboard or get the refurbished one?

    BTW, I googled causes of laptops not switching on and a loose memory module was not one of them.

    Thanks for the advice!
     
    thomask, Aug 15, 2012
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  2. przemke

    przemke Notebook Geek

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    It's difficult to judge but I feel you should stick to your existing motherboard -like you said you'll never know what problems the refurbished one can bring.

    And loose memory modules don't have to be a common problem but can be a problem like you had, I've heard this before. Especially if you had some sort of mechanical shock to your laptop. Also micro dust pieces getting between the connectors can be a source of this problem too (I had such problem once).
    Or the memory itself may be getting bad (run a memtestx86 or similar stability test for a couple of hours to make sure) - if you have two modules in laptop then it's easier to diagnoze.

    Either way I think 4-5years is when many of these HP motherboards are reaching their end of life. Oh and I see now a week passed so you must have made a decision already ;)
     
    przemke, Aug 31, 2012
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