help diagnosing pavilion dv2000 (dv2310us) problem

So I guess I am my family's personal IT department. My sister gave me her pavilion dv2310us to fix. Here's what's goin on, what do you think the issue is? I have a vague idea, I just need some outside input.

Very rarely will the laptop power up and the BIOS will post.
I press the power button, all the blue backlighting lights up, the HDD light comes on for only a few seconds (doesn't blink, just stays solid) then shuts off and does nothing, the screen stays blank, and the BIOS never post.
It just sits there with a blank screen, all backlighting lit up, and nothing happens.
If there's a CD in the drive, it will spin up, but the screen stays blank, and the BIOS never post and nothing further happens.
Very, very, very rarely will the screen come on, the BIOS post, and it continues to boot. Then if you reboot it or shut it down and power it up, it will go back to the original symptoms I described.

I've read 2 different scenarios. 1) About the lid switch breaking 2) About the nvidia chipset frying. I originally though it was the chipset and/or entire motherboard crapping out, but I can't understand why speratically it will boot up. I don't know where the lip switch is or how to disconnect/test it. Any diagnostic suggestions?

 

There are 3 main parts those will cause no display:
1-Ram
2-Video card
3-CPU

and.....Others

-So you can test the easy one first by using a known working Ram.
-A bad hard drive can be a problem. You can test by booting without hard drive.
-A bad wirelss card could be a problem. Try booting without wireless card.

After all these tests, the problem could be from the bad video chip set or CPU, but video chip is more likely the failing part.

The lid switching is not likely as the system will boot normally but no display on the LCD. The simple test is using external monitor to check if the unit has video signal to display.

 

Or assuming you have two ram sticks in your notebook, just remove one at a time and try it with just one stick. The chance that you have two bad ram sticks would be rare.

If you were to call HP the first thing they would have you do in a case like this is to reseat the ram (remove and reinstall it) to make sure you don't have a bad connection.

 

Tried the RAM, no fix. Tried the wireless card, no fix. Pulled the HDD, worked in another laptop, no fix. I'm pretty convinced it's the mobo. Or, if it is the video card, they are integrated on the mobo of these computers, right?

 

I had the same notebook, same symptoms.

GPU is fried. The defective solder bumps Nvidia used is the issue. Thats why it sometimes works and it doesnt. I had to pre-heat my notebook to get it to work.

I suggest you check the HP defective list for a free replacement. You will find it in the stickies.

 

Ok Lets Start...I Got My Friend Laptop (Hp Dv2310us) To Repair
Apparently It Was Not Booting.Only The Lights Would Come On.
I Tried Looking For Some Info Online Which Was Helpful.
Which Stated That We Should Update The Bios Link Here > http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01087277&lc=en&cc=us#c01087277_bios But How I Can I Update My Bios If i Cant Even Get The Pc On?
Well As Stated In Forums I Read Taking Out The Battery And Memory For A Couple Hours Actually Works After You Take Out The Battery Do A Hard Reset By Holding Down The Power Button For 30 Seconds.Now When You Replace The Battery And Memory Plug In The Power Supply.Nb
; If The Pc Boots For Itself Hold The Power Button Until It Turns Off Then Turn It On Again (Might Have To Turn On And Off For A While However The System Will Eventually Boot(Hit f8 While Trying To Boot) ...Once Inside Windows "Do A system Recovery At Once Forget Backing Up Your Files These You May Hve To Lose
Thats It My dv 2310us Works Very Good Now.Nb All Dv2000 Series Have This Problem..Hope This Help Worked For Me ...Plz Post On Other Site So This Can Help Others .I Will Not Be Here Again Just Had To Post To Help Email Address [email protected]
One More Thing My Hdd Light Was Not Staying On Either B4 I Though My Hdd Was Bad Or Motherboard They Were Not! Btw No Thanks To Hp For all Their Help