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Our (HP) laptop has developed what may turn out to be a terminal fault. At power up it comes on for about 3 seconds, then switches off - then after another 5s it trys again for another 3 seconds - repeat ad nasuem until you take the battery out! Same with / without battery in, and with / without AC power, and with the HDDs removed. Had a bit of a cast about - seems to be a not unknown problem, and suggestion it might be a MoBo failure.... Will try tonight with the RAM out, and then the 'quick play' touch button bar (which was also implied) off, then off into checking the CPU is still seated. Overall I am not hopeful though - so I think we will on the look out for a new one. I know there have been several threads on new Laptops recently, and Lenovo appeared to be the choice. This still the case? Or other / better options? Win 8 (although I would probably go with Linux anyway)? Laptop is preferred as we have nowhere for a desktop, and I need a proper keyboard for some of the stuff I do.
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Sounds like your cooling fan and vents possibly needs cleaning.
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Something to check is whether your model of laptop is one from HP that had an Nvidia graphic processor that was prone to overheat... and ultimately damage the motherboard.
Are you saying it cannot get as far as a diagnostic boot screen or access to the BIOS?
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>Something to check is whether your model of laptop is one from HP that had an Nvidia graphic processor that was prone to overheat... and ultimately damage the motherboard.
It is
>Are you saying it cannot get as far as a diagnostic boot screen or access to the BIOS?
Correct, not even getting to POST really.
Having read a bit more it does look like are several symptoms of the MoBo fault - and this could be one of them. It's now 4.5 years old, so given the fault, it's not too bad. New one on the way I suspect....!
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If you've finished with the laptop, then buy an enclosure and stick the hard disk in it.
usually a handy external disk for not much.
e.g. (there's possibly better and/or cheaper)
www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-treasure-ts04b-black-external-25-hard-disk-enclosure-usb3-aluminum
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If it is one of the HP laptops that ultimately succumbed to overheating of the motherboard due to the Nvidia GPU... don't think it's economically viable to fix. As any (second hand) replacement motherboard is likely to be on it's way to failure too.
The reason I asked about model and checking if it was one affected was it would save a lot of time. Sounds terminal with regards motherboard failure to me.
The 'fix' from HP at the time was to run the GPU at a lower clock speed. This simply prolonged the life outside of warranty time - no doubt yours might have had this 'fix'. Because they actually failed a lot sooner than 4.5 years!
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For sure its just one of many reasons why I would never recommend an HP laptop to anyone.
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My laptop repair company (I use for soldering) charges £60.00 for a reball but results are mixed. Personally with any HP over two years old I don't recommend any motherboard repairs.
HPs with Nvidia chipsets are more use as a heater than a radiator!
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For what it's worth, these are the Which? reliability ratings.
Brand Score
Acer 91%
Apple 90%
Sony 90%
Toshiba 90%
Asus 89%
Compaq 89%
Fujitsu-Siemens 89%
Lenovo 89%
Medion 89%
Packard-Bell 89%
Hewlett-Packard 88%
Samsung 88%
Dell 87%
Edit.
The alignment hasn't worked as I had intended, but i think the message is reasonably clear. (should be ok now - DD)
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 12 Feb 13 at 10:00
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Thanks Duncan - that's not really much of a spread!
Indeed, I wouldn't have bought it had I realised the issue with the board, but it was a bit of a distress purchase!
Had all the anciliaries off last night, no change, so pretty sure the board has turned its toes up. Off to Lenovo to see what they have to offer.
I will probably try and re-flow the board just for my own edification - it can be used as a garage laptop for entertainment on the turbo trainer / possibly running Lexia to interrogate the Citroens (although that appears to need XP to run).
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>> but i think the message is reasonably clear.
ie. not much difference?
Do they give any idea of the sample size?
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>>
>> Do they give any idea of the sample size?
>>
Cut and paste:-
Table notes
The Which? reliability score is based on the proportion of machines that have needed a repair. Scores for each brand are adjusted to account for sample size and product age – so a brand won’t be unfairly penalised if a lot of owners have older models. There must be at least 50 owners of a brand for it to receive a reliability score. The survey was undertaken in July 2012.
Sample sizes Acer (993), Apple (647), Asus (103), Compaq (141), Dell (1,137), Fujitsu-Siemens (67) Hewlett-Packard (593), Lenovo (158), Medion (55), Packard-Bell (82), Samsung (333), Sony (429), Toshiba (701). Total sample size is 5,600.
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Interesting.
At home we have two aging laptops, an Acer and a Lenovo. Both have been reliable in themselves, but the Acer is looking decidedly shabby as various plastic bits have dropped off, all the rubber feet are missing and the battery retaining latch has failed.
The Lenovo still looks like it just came out of the box. The build quality of those things is excellent.
The work machine's a Dell. The less said about that thing the better. Suffice to say that I wouldn't spend my own money on one.
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Given it didn't work anyway, there was nothing to lose in stripping it down (except 2 hours not watching carp TV my wife insists on watching!), and having a go at reflowing the chip. Result? - well I'm typing on it! No idea how long it will last, but there are people doing re-balls on ebay for £30, so not the end of the world if it goes again. I cleaned a lot of fluff out of the fan housing, so hopefully it will run cooler for a while now.
Well chuffed!
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"No idea how long it will last,"
7 months then, by the look of it. Same scenario last night. Will probably get it reballed this time, but that is the line, no more spending on it afer that.
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Laptop fault / replacement potential - Victorbox
