Laptop Monitor Black Screen

[Albred]

Hello,



I am working on my friend's laptop, which is an HP Pavillion dv8210us. The laptop is booting up, but the screen remains black. The optical drive also flashes Amber color and makes a winding noise every 2-3 seconds.



Here are the steps I have taken so far from what I've researched.



- Remove the battery, unplug the power cable, and hold down the power button for 15-30-60+ seconds, plug in the power cable and try rebooting.



- Remove the optical drive and try booting.



- Test RAM Modules: Removed top module first attempt, removed second module second attempt, tried swapping the RAM modules third attempt.



- Use a second monitor with a VGA cable, plug it into the laptop, boot up and press Fn+F4 to switch Display (failure).



- Turn off lights and hold a flashlight to the screen to see if there is a dim display (black screen).



The hard drive doesn't make any irregular sounds when booting, CPU fan is fine, and all blue icon LEDs light-up on boot. I have ordered a new dv8210us single-lamp LCD inverter, but the second monitor via VGA not turning on leads me to believe it might not be inverter.



I'm not sure where to go from here.




EDIT: I copied and pasted this from the HP forums since I have gotten 0 responses in 2 weeks. I have replaced the LCD Inverter and that did not fix the problem (assumed it wouldn't since External Monitor did not display either). My friend had stated he replaced the RAM Modules with Used modules a few months ago when he was having issues. This leads me to believe it is indeed a RAM issue, but I also think it may be a bad PC Assembly/ExpressPC.

Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions.

 

[getochkn]

gpu solder has come up from the mainboard and it needs a reflow. Common problem, especially with HP DV series. I've fixed lots of them.

It's the same reason the 360 gets the red ring, the ps3 gets the yellow light. Lead-free solder starts to break down under heat, and the DV series had crappy cooling, and it the solder breaks down, the solder balls from the GPU usually lift from the board, thus breaking a connection.

You took all the right steps and the first them to know if it's the screen or gpu, is try an external. No external but all the lights come on and it seems to half boot is 95% of the time the gpu solder has broken down.

I've fixed lots of them like this with a reflow on my reflow machine. See if someone in your area has a reflow machine. Please try to stay away from youtube videos of people using hair dryers, paint guns, oven baking, etc. 90% of the time you'll do more damage than good.


From my experience though, that's what the issue is. Sometimes a reflow doesn't fix it, I have a stack of dead HP DV laptops that I couldn't fix.

 

[Albred]

That could very well be the issue. I did a little bit more research on gpu reflow and it seems very common, as you stated, with HP laptops in 8000-9000 series. I've called quite a few local repair places, and the ones that could even possibly attempt it, say that it would cost between $200-$300. It is beyond my expertise and I don't have the proper equipment, so I may see if I can just get a refurbished motherboard from HP or somewhere online. Hate to deliver the bad news to my friend 🙁

Thank you for your input.