HP dv5-1125nr display problem

Hi!
I'm trying to help a friend of mine, to fix his laptop. The problem is, that the display randomly turns off. It boots up, runs fine but after a while the screen goes black (power options are set to never turn the display off). The only way to power it on again is reboot, but only for a couple of min or sometimes seconds. He claims, that sometimes the display works fine even for a couple of hours. I noticed, that the display never turns off when for example staying in bios or sth. I tried to reinstall windows. I changed vista with win7; updated drivers - nothing helps. My friend has used the mashine for a couple of months with an external monitor with absolutely no problems.
My only suggestion is that the cable, connecting vga and display has failed, or the display...
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Product Specifications HP Pavilion dv5-1125nr Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

It can't be the problem with cable, as you mentioned, the display works fine in BIOS mode

The problem might be with graphics drivers, the only reason I can think of. You should try to install fresh windows 7 and do not install any graphics drivers and see what happens. If it fails again, I don't know any more ways to help you out, otherwise post here if it works.

 

Ok but as I said, sometimes the machine just works for a couple of hours without a problem, so maybe it's a question of time to fail even in bios. But the fact, that the laptop has worked fine with external monitor for a couple of months, makes me think that the cable could be problematic.
I've done a fresh install, no change.

 

Well I have my old laptop Hp dv6000, it has quite similar problem. Although not with the display, but with dvd drive and web cam. After a few hours or even minutes it stops responding. And restarting windows doesn't help at all. What I want to say is that those devices work only after cold start of laptop. I haven't found the solution to this problem too. It might be something wrong with motherboard.

 

I had a similar problem with my DV5. The screen would flicker and show patterns of lines of different colors. Nothing that made sense of course. So I sent it to HP. They replaced the cable. I'd give that a shot. You can probably find it real cheap on ebay.

Otherwise it might be the mobo, or the display. The cable being the least expensive option.

 

I recently replaced a dv5-1235dx LCD cable that was causing my screen to flicker and that fixed the flicker and dimming when you adjusted the screen up or down but displayed no flicker on external LCD monitor. I ordered a new LCD cable for my dv5 and that fixed the problem. I can now adjusted the screen back and down not all the way down where the laptop goes into hibernation mode but down far enough and backup up to viewing position and the flicker is gone. Way cheaper then sending it in or replacing the LCD the cost of the cable alone was a life saver when I thought it was a LCD problem. This is a less expensive way to go but if you do replace the cable and the screen still goes dark or completely off then the problem might be more extensive and related to a bad LCD or back-light no longer working properly. And this will be either replacing the back-light or a complete LCD replacement. And seeing as you own a AMD chip-set I know and I read that the the DV4 line with AMD GPU was notorious for having a bad GPU that could also be the problem as well but my DV5 has a Intel video so I don't know this extends to the DV5 AMD GPU line model of this series. Someone that owns a DV5 AMD GPU probably could tell us more about it.

 

thanks for the answer! where did you get your cable from? i saw cables sold on ebay for 7-10 usd, maybe i'll get one from there to se if i can fix it. is the replacement very complicated? i mean, i have asembled desctop pc a couple of times, but i've never even opened a laptop before? is there a video, that can help me do the job?
10x

 

Its not very difficult, just time consuming. Patience and organization are important.

Here have a look:

How to take apart HP Pavilion dv5 laptop >> Inside my laptop

 

David I think got the link for you to remove the display. I bought mine from ebay for around 8 usd and from what I did to take it apart to replacing the cable seems to be the cable was the problem as I was able to move the screen up and down not far enough to switch to hibernation stop the screen flicker. I think the link by david is shots of laptop being disassembled is what I also used to take mine apart since that was my first time as well. I taken a hp dv4 apart and was similiar to taking the dv5 apart as well so it didn't take me to long of a learning curve to do it the second time around.

This link will be a general hp laptop and might help to show you how to take apart the lcd as there are two hidden screws that are covered at the hinge. I have to check back when I get home as to see the right link I used.

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/category/3-compaq-hp-laptops/

ok, here the correct update I used to remove the lcd to locate and switch the cable.

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/remove-lcd-screen-from-hp-pavilion-dv5-laptop/