Weird dent near Battery Compartment in Pavilion g6

[Droidge]

A relative of mine has a HP Pavilion g6. For some reason, his Wi-Fi Adapter stopped working, and then his keyboard started having problems. What's weird, is that he tells me that his PC, running on Windows 8.1, didn't show any driver failures, and continued to function properly, but the keyboard and Wi-Fi problems crippled it. On further investigation, he found a weird dent near the Battery Compartment on the underside of the laptop. I attached some images, can someone please help me/him with the problem? We erased everything that was on the PC and reinstalled the OS and everything, but it went in vain. We, unfortunately, do not have any money to get the laptop repaired, as we're out of warranty.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... that looks like a HOT spot or Temperature deformed plastic... it could be from the something that was on the outside touching it.... OR there was a Battery or charging overheating problem inside.
Google your model to see if there was a recall or history of failure due to a overheating battery or charger. NICAD batteries have a short re-charging life and need to be replaced in the life time of a Laptop.

 

[Solandri]

I agree with Ironsounds that that looks like slightly melted plastic. I'm not convinced it's from the battery though, as the battery looks to be along the back edge of the laptop about an inch away, and there's no damage between it and the damaged spot. I would unscrew the L-shaped part of the bottom to take a look inside and see what lies directly above/below the damaged spot. I have a sneaking suspicion your wifi card literally fried.

If the damage inside isn't too bad, you can get a new wifi card for about $15-$25. They're pretty easy to replace (assuming the connector hasn't been damaged). The only tricky part is reattaching the tiny antenna leads.

Keyboards can be a lot more work to replace, and their cost varies with the model of your laptop. Common ones can be found for as little as $20 on eBay. More rare or exotic versions can be over $100. On some laptops you just have to remove a few screws and part of the bezel, and the keyboard lifts out. Others you have to almost completely disassemble the laptop. If the wifi can be fixed, you may be better off buying an external keyboard and using this laptop as a desktop until you have enough money to buy a new laptop.

 

[Droidge]

Thanks for the answers. Sounds like the Wi-Fi card got fried, I'll try to open it up when I get my hands on it.