HP Envy 15 i5 - 500g 1080p display - broken motherboard - worth anything?

Hi,

I just run out of warranty on my HP ENVY 15 Core i5-520 4GB 500G
HD5830, 1920x1080 screen resolution.

Well, two days ago, my computer just froze and shut down, all of a sudden.
Never booted again...
A specailist told that the mother board is broken (costs a fortune to repair according to him??)

Anyway,

What kind of value do you think this machine has at this point (needs a new motherboard + a person who can install it)?

How much should I expect to get if I sell it on eBay or similar?

Thanks for your help!

 

Ebay is hit and miss; all depends on who sees it while it's listed. A conservative number would be like $200, but could go as high as $400 I think.

With that said, I'll give you $100 for it. *he says with an evil scumbag grin*

 

Hey there. Whoever spoke to you was trying to rip you off. And please don't sell it. It's still very valueable. I have replaced a broken motherboard for the envy once, everything turned out fine, the laptop even booted back to Windows 7. I suggest you go get a new motherboard (I know a trusted dealer, good service and everything, costed me $200 - the mobo is 140, handling fee and 5 days guarantee delivery via fedex are 60). If you do a google search, most sites will tell you the mobo ranges from 300-500. So 200 is pretty slick.

For the dissembly and putting it back. It's fairly easy (less than 15 screws, would take half an hour, or an hour-if you are a clean person like me, cleaned up the machine for better air ventilation and applied new thermal paste ). Here is a dissembly guide: http://www.multiupload.com/CPY5OL9EFL

All you need to do is follow the guide, remove your CPU, RAM, HDD and WLAN (or you may consider an upgrade ), clean, and put everything back.
Whether the machine will recognize the old OS, I'm sure because it's the same motherboard, for me, I suppose I was in luck, I did an change the mobo from 1st gen to 2nd gen.

Meanwhile: if you need to extract important files from the HDD, go to frys and grab yourself an SATA to USB enclosure ( something like this). That's what I did when my envy broke 2 days before my assignment is due..

p.s: the guy above, $100 for it ? I hope you are just kidding.

 

Thanks a lot for the info wildkid!

And also true h8isgr8, eBay is a hit and miss. If I were to sell it there
I would put a price reserve mininum for sure. Just don´t know if would be ready to sell this under 400.

Yes, I kind of had the same feeling about the "rip off part"... !

Anyway: an additional question:
The tech guy said that the main power cable (that resides just under the mousepad, the one that draws all the way from the female charging hole to the board itself.) is also broken.
So: if I buy a new motherboard, does it come with a new power cable as well.

Gonna check out that site out.
I guess shipping costs to where I live (Finland) will add something to the total bill, but if I can get my baby fixed for under 300, I´m a happy camper.

 

Who did you actually tall to ? According to the guide and my experience, the power cable is not underneath the mouse pad. It's next to CPU Fan cable as O remember. You may spend sometime reading the guide. And the mobo won't come with anything else (just the board with CMOS, GPU on it). If you are sure that there is something wrong with the power, get the power connector first and test it out. But I highly doubt it, you can try power up the laptop with just battery only (since that's a different source on the board).

And for the final bill, just try to negotiate with the agent.

btw remember to get good thermal paste . I applied it on the cpu and gpu ridges too. And this is what I'm getting:

 

Hi again,
Nice readings you´re getting there wildkid!

Below are some pictures of my motherboard.
Actually, all of a sudden the fans started to work again, lights came to the motherboard (while taking a backup from the hard drive). Well I touched the black component in the middle of the pictures. (says "ene" or similar).
What´s that part? It burst a tiny amount of smoke, and the computer was dead again.
I think that is the part which is broken on the motherboard.
Also, what is that component (in the picture also) that sais Intel, has aux 1 and aux 2 + a scanner code in it?
I think I ought to replace that one too (some black colouring on the connector pins on it also)



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My motherboard model nr. is 580125-001.
I saw one for HP envy 15 for a really good price, but the nr, is
576772-001. Does it really matter if it is not EXACTLY the same motherboard,
but for the same model (envy 15?)

Thanks a million again!

 

Yes, it matters if the motherboard part number is different. Would mean it accepts a different CPU, may have a different GPU also. Look in the Service manual and it will tell you what each motherboard is.

Also, what is all that gook on the pins of the wifi card in those pics?

 

Since you have i5 already installed, it means your current motherboard is the one that doesn't support usb 3.0. You should get the exact model, as far as I am aware, there are simply two models, one that supports i7 quad and gives usb 3.0 capability and the other supports only i5 and i7 dou w/o usb 3.0.

For the black thingie, no need to find it because you will never be able to anyway . It's part of the mobo.

I found this for 580125-001 ( link). $200 free DHL shipping, it's easier to deal since it's on eBay. He has good ratings too. I think you may settle with that. Just make sure you demand for the tracking number before and after purchase.

 

The "ENE" IC is probably for the memory card reader.

WTH is going on in that pic? Looks like something got spilled around where the wireless card goes. The socket pins and left and botton row pins of the ENE IC look all corroded and messed up. The wireless card has something on a couple of it's electrical contacts as well. I also see a piece of solder laying across pins 65/66/67 of the ENE IC (could be what shorted it and made it smoke).

 

Thanks for the replies again.
I actually spotted the same card myself on ebay Wildkid, seems like a reasonable price!

As for the wireless card comments. Is the one with the aux 1 and aux 2 + intel text on it a wireless card?
I guess I need to replace that as well (won´t come with the motherboard)
How pricey are they?

The "stuff" on the card is actually just burned out darkish stuff on top of the previously superconducting material.

So in short. By looking at those pictures.
Is there something else on top of the motherboard I need to replace?

Thanks!

 

Well for the wlan card, there are many options since I have added whitelist removed bioses for Envy 15. You can grab the same 5100 AGN or 6200 on ebay for around 30-50 without the need to flash modded bios. Or go for high performance Bigfoot Network Killers 40-50 (1102 version, and you will need to flash modded bios). And yeah looks like your wlan card is damaged

 

OK,

Going to give this repairig process a shot. I ordered the motherboard + new wlan card.

A few questions still:
1. What if I don´t put any extra thermal paste on top of the CPU? There already is some left. Should I try to peel the old one off (very gently) or just leave it there?
2. I´m sure my wlan card will arrive later. Can i just put the old wlan card there just to test wether the motherboard and everything else works OK (I mean, I don´t neccessarily need a working WLAN card right away, I can just install the new one later on. I.e. is there a risk that a simple wlan card can break a working motherboard? I guess I could just leave it unplugged.).

It was rather easy to dissassemble as you said Wildkid. Now I´m sitting ducks for the new components to arrive. Fingers crossed

 

I highly recommend you to get a new paste because the GPU will need to be applied ( it doesn't come with thermal paste on it). And please don't peel off the old paste on CPU manually, you will scratch it. Get some cotton swabs , alcohol solution (first aid antiseptic) and wet the swab just a little. Clean the surface gently.
For the WLAN, I guess it's safer to put the new card together with new mobo

 

Hi again.

Darn it, I got the new Mobo, installed it according to the guide.

Well, no power still. The power button blinks every 1-10 seconds, but nothing happens if I press on it.
Also the charging light apperas (which only apperead every now and then on the old mobo when it broke down).

Bye bye 200+ bucks. I guess I just have to buy a new computer.

Cant really understand what on earth can be the problem... :/

Thanks for all the help though!

 

Before you give up on it, make sure that the power supply is working properly. If you can, take a multimeter to the ring and sheath and make sure there is voltage potential (not sure about the Envy 15 but it's either 12V, 9V, 7.5V, or 6V).

If the power supply is working, give the battery a half hour to charge enough to support the boot process.

Check your memory. The MB will not boot without memory seated properly and in working order.

You can leave the HDD and/or SDD, Wireless, etc out during the testing process. They are not needed for your laptop to post.

 

Astonishingly the computer (after a few days of leaving it a side) booted with the new mother board.

I manage to boot the computer about 20% of the time. Interestingly, the booting process will start if I lighlty press the top of the cooling fan on top of the processor?

A mysteroius entity this HP envy...

Now I have a smaller problem as I broke the touchpad connector cable.
I´ve been lookin everywhere for a replacement cable.
The hp part number 576841-001 seems to be for the whole touchpad assembly.

I even tried to cut the lenght of the cable a little bit and peel the pins visible, but it doesn´t seem to work.

I wonder if I can buy a 6 pin (which the HP cable is) connector from another manufacturer...

Well, atleast I made progress, was worth the shot to replace the motherboard.
Thanks for the help on this issue to everyone.

 

I can't help you with the cable, but if the processor isn't seated properly, that could be why it doesn't boot until you apply pressure. Just something to think about. Good luck.