Problems with DV7

I own a DV7-1038CA, I actually decided to buy it after reading what people said about the DV7s on this forum. Unfortunately I have a problem now, sorry for the wall of text but I tried to be as detailed as possible.

I had opened up my DV7 to clean out the fan ( ****load of dust in there) and took the whole laptop apart. I put it back together and it worked perfectly fine for about 10 hours. The laptop worked great until I dropped it down on my table at a height of about 1 1/2 inches, not a significant height but the screen immediately turned white and the laptop shut off completely. It would not turn on at all, the power light would blink for less than a second and turn off and then I'd have to wait 30 seconds before I could get it to blink again.

I then took the laptop apart again and this time I checked if everything was plugged in properly. I decided to leave the unnecessary covers off so I could turn it on without having to screw it all back on, it turned for about 3 seconds....before I noticed the display cable to my screen was on the heat sink and had caught fire. I immediately turned it off but the damage had already been done, the fire had burnt through the wiring on the inside of the cable rendering my screen useless ( whenever it was plugged the charging light on the side of the laptop would turn off). At this point the laptop was turning on but would turn off after about 5 seconds (probably due to the fact that there was no screen) During this little fiasco I had ripped off the ZIF cable that connects the power button board to the Motherboard. So now I had no way to turn my laptop on, I ordered a new screen and a new power button board.

They've both arrived and I've installed both of them and checked that everything was plugged in fine on the Motherboard, I also applied thermal paste to the CPU. Now the laptop turns on for 5 seconds and immediately turns off (no screen activity at all) and then repeats this process of turning on and off on it's own until I take out the power wire and/or the battery. During this I hear the normal sounds I usually hear during boot up(Hard drive starting up and DVD drive spinning).

I've tried testing it without the screen ( also tried hooking up to a monitor) and tried without the RAM, Hard Drive and DVD Drive. I've also tried doing a power reset ( removing power wire, battery and holding down power button for 30 seconds).

I've had no luck so far and my warranty's already finished up this summer, any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm leaning towards a Motherboard/GPU or Power supply failure but I don't think such a tiny fall could do something like that.

 

Deassemble a reassemble again. I bet something is going on with your power button board. Maybe some changed connection you have made.

 

I've reassembled about 10 times now and I've thoroughly checked everything but the problem is still persisting.

I'll check again later to make sure everything is seated properly though.

 

blackflash16

******************* "The laptop worked great until I dropped it down on my table at a height of about 1 1/2 inches, not a significant height but the screen immediately turned white and the laptop shut off completely. It would not turn on at all, the power light would blink for less than a second and turn off and then I'd have to wait 30 seconds before I could get it to blink again." *********************

Drop sensor? locked the drives and ths the computer? by removing the dust and crap.. did it become a little more sensitive?

If you drop the laptop.. and the drives have a drop sensor... and it does not work.. I would not over think it.. if a HDD locks up in a safety way.. maybe the head is stuck and the drive failed in it is in some kind of stuck in safety mode operation.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01490786&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en#N1272

I did not find the drop sensor option.. and I am a NOOB! but I have owned a couple of HP's in my life.. killed them all thru over heating them.. but I like the Brand.. Point being.. they are tuffer than some others I have owned or droped.. I have read enough to know there are 1 in amillion cases out there.. and that harware does fail in wierd ways..

I hope that changing the HDD out and popping in a new one.. helps the situation.. I hope this is not a 1 in a million kind of failure..

Be well, JW

 

thanks for the reply but wouldn't something come up on the screen even if the hard drive is to blame? I've tried without the hard drive also since I don't have another notebook hard drive lying around.

Also could this have something to do with the thermal pads on the 9600m GT? I noticed it's extremely thin in the middle (can see through it nearly) and I tore it before but stuck back together.

 

Yeah it could be the graphics card, 9600 are notorious to getting hot. Keep in mind we can't know all of what you have done. The fact that the notebook is cycling at start lets me thik that is something with power button or related, it can even be a power button stuck.
Usually when there is a short computers and other appliances just stop and doesn't restart unless the user disconnects and reconnect the power source.

 

This problem started before I ripped out the connector for the power board, I've got a new one now and it's still doing the same thing.

My warranty finished this summer but would HP look at it for me even though I've opened it up and changed the monitor?