Question Can this laptop be repaired ?

Apr 19, 2020
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Hi everyone,

Some month ago, one of my friend probably killed my HP Envy 13 (ad-003nf) by causing an electrical overload to one of its USB port. When it happened, the screen turned off immediatly, and the computer never started again. I bought a new computer since, but as it is a 1300e laptop, I can't just throw it away without trying to repair it.

When I plug the power on, the LED on the start button turns on, but nothing happen, and the Charging Led remains turned off.

I tried to plug an external HDD to an USB C port which can charge an external device even when the computer is not running, and the LED on the HDD do turns on.

I guess the motherboard is dead... Can somebody confirm that ?

Thank you for your response !

Have a great day
 
Apr 19, 2020
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Hi all and thank you for your answers,

I opened it and removed the motherboard. As everything on this laptop is directly on the motherboard, the problem must be on it.
I looked at the USB port, they look perfectly fine.. The electrical overcharged was made with a 12V tension on the USB, which is not much, so there are no visible damage on the motherboard neither.

Here is a photo of the motherboard : https://ibb.co/D7PnX8Q

I might just be a soldering, but again I don't see any damage on the motherboard...

I saw used motherboard on ebay from the same model, at a correct price. As everything on this laptop is directly on the motherboard, apart from battery, screen and SSD, changing the motherboard is radical but should save my laptop right ?

If you think on anything I would be glad to hear ! The fact that when I plug the alimentation of the laptop in, the led of the Start button turns off makes me think that the problem might not be so big...

Thank you !

Ps: sorry for my english, it is not my mother tongue... :sneaky:
 
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Can you flip the board and take another high quality picture?
Motherboard model is written somewhere on the board itsef, might be under tape.

You can test few things, plugin external monitor on the hdmi port.

Plugin the DC- in cable (where power cable plugins)

Keep the heatsink connected

Remove cmos battery / battery connector (round coin battery might be on the other side of the board)

Put the motherboard in non conductive table, look that nothing is shorted

Remember when you start the laptop you have short window to test if it boots / you get picture since fan is not connected and cpu heats very rapidly, around 20sec and you need to disconnect the power cable.

If there was no cmos battery, you need to get the power button cable from the front cover and plug it in the motherboard, if there was cmos battery it should boot straight away when you plugin power cable, no power button cable needed.

Test if you get picture on the external monitor or power leds, / etc. This means cmos clear fixed the issue or you killed another component on the system like LCD, keyboard etc if you get picture on the screen,

Plug off powr cable after test, plugin the power cable connector (if you booted without cmos battery and didnt need it before this) Plugin the battery to the motherboard connector and try to boot WITHOUT power cable. plug off battery fast if you get picture.
 
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Apr 19, 2020
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Thank you for your answer,

First, I do not have any removable cmos battery on it, as you can see on the other side of the board, which is quite empty : https://ibb.co/GkLCxFY

However, I do have these little connectors, but I do not know how to operate with them. (Connecting them with a wire, without DC IN ?) : https://ibb.co/NVtsSDw

I tried what you said, by plugging DC IN and an external monitor, and then pushing the start button, but nothing happened, and there were not heat around the CPU, even after 10 seconds.
The LED on the start button which do turn on are the only living sign of the motherboard.*

I could probable get a multimeter, is there any component or soldering I could theck ?

Otherwise I will probably try to get a working motherboard on ebay...

Thanks again
 
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Something might of caused bios corruption but theres no point if you dont get 3 volts To the bios chip. Multimeter with fine tips Is nice. But can you remove tape near the usb ports and Look if there Is anything odd there?
You can also get usb ch341a programmer those are like 3 euros shipped
 
Apr 19, 2020
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Hi,

I did what you told, shorting the pins for 10 seconds, with DC IN plugged. But nothing changed.

Do you have an idea of where I could find the bios chip ?

I looked under the tapes, and found out that there are 2 soldering that seems to be damaged. Actually if we compare them to the other soldering, it seems like there is no soldering tin on them anymore : https://ibb.co/CHgbJBn

About the programmer, what is it used for ?

Thanks
 
Voltage on bios chip (pin1) means that KBC is fine, check pin 8 too, rest is hard cause you would nee d oscilloscope to measure them (signals). Also was that the usb port which caused the issue in the first place? Can you take pic of other side of board on that USB port.

Also get yourself one of these CH341a programmers you can check with this if bios is corrupt:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SOIC8-SOP8-Test-Clip-CH341A-Flash-BIOS-USB-Programmer-fur-EEPROM-25CXX-24CXX/114031747365?

Soic clip is useful if you dont want to desolder the chip from the board, but is not necressary.
 
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Apr 19, 2020
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Both pin1 and pin8 are alimented with continuous 3V. It happened 1 year ago, but there are only 2 USB A port on this laptop so it is probably this one.
But as far as I can see, these soldering are there to maintain the port on the motherboard, and even if the soldering is damaged, it is still connected to GND ( I tested it)

For the other side : https://ibb.co/rHTZV2q

When the surcharge happened, the computer turned off immediatly, do you think that it would have happened if the problem was only a bios corruption ?

If yes I am gonna buy the programmer and see, even if I do not know I to use it, i'll find out.

Thanks

Ps : the programmer you sent me is described as compatible for eeprom 25CXX. On mine it is written 25Q64. Will it work anyway ?
 
Things like this might corrupt bios and ec. Can you confirm motherboard model number, written on 2nd picture of the motherboard its just so small text , is it 6050A2919201 - mb -A01?

Yes i have flashed w25qxx chips with ch341a but there is sometimes problems with using the soic clip, when you flash the chip using a clip you are literally powering the whole 3.3v circuit on the motherboard. These programmers are not always capable of doing it and you need to desolder the chip and solder it into addon pcb (included in that)
 
Are you getting voltage on the power button pins?`If yes try this below (first remove all connectors from the motherboard just try boot it barebone only power cable connected:

If power button board is not working (this is crapshoot) you can try to plugin power cable and short pin3 and ground on power button connector (on the motherboard). This should boot up the pc without power button also.

Can you remove all tapes from the motherboard and look if theres anything odd looking under, including heatsinks?

And for bios chip, IF soic clip method dont work:

You can do it with soldering Iron too. Like this :
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHMmG3NuM9U

There is not much room for error when looking at the spot where your bios chip is.

Here is a very good guide on how to do it : https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...asher-1-8v-adapter-and-a-soic-8-clip.3593910/
 
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Apr 19, 2020
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I do have 3v on the 2 pins located at the top of the power button, and the others, located at the bottom, are connected to the ground. When I press the button, the 2 pins at the top go from 3V to 0V, and become 3V again when I release it. So it seems to be working right ?

Here is what is behing the heatsink tape. It looks ok to me... : https://ibb.co/sbmr61T

I boought the programmer, I am now waiting for it, might be quite long ...

Thank you again for the help, much appreciated !

Have a nice day
 
Looks fine, what programmer did you buy? Power button seems to work, there might be short somewhere.

Trying to reprogram bios would not be my first step if i had the motherbord myself, but since i dont have schematics for it its worth a try. And this programmer is very useful for its price, you can reflash any desktop or laptop with it, fixing laptops with bricked bios and also you can try modded bios and do it yourself too since there is always backup you can reflash if something goes wrong.
 
Apr 19, 2020
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I bought the programer you told me

I watched some videos about how to diagnostic a dead motherboard online with a multimeter, but It did not help..

At first I was considering the fact of buying a new motherboard (~250e), so if reprograming the BIOS does not work I will do that...

If you can suggest me something else, for instance to locate the short or anything, I am always interested.

Have a nice day.
 
So we know 3.3v line is present, what about 5v line which covers USB ports ?

Put the cmos battery back in and plugin power cable, after few minutes test with your finger if you find some area getting hot on the motherboard. Then use isoprophyl alcohol 90%+ just drop it on the hot spot and see what component evaporates quickliest, its not conductive.

I sometimes use this method if i dont have isoprophyl alcohol :
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOALg_rDIZk


Thing is most likely no area gets hot since short is isolated within a power line (example fuse blown) and you would need to use external power supply to inject voltage other side of the dead component to see what is causing the short.

If nothing gets hot with power adapter , unplug the power cable. You can find the short pretty easily by measuring different lines with continuity (obviously do this WITHOUT any power plugged in, never measure continuity with any voltage)
 
Apr 19, 2020
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I do not have Cmos battery, or at least none that I can remove. But after several minutes, no parts are getting hot...

I am gonna try to find the short by testing continuity !

Edit : I think I found something. One usb port is powered by 5v, but the other one on the other side of the mb (The one on which I found some damaged soldering earlier) gets no alimentation. So it must be this port that has been overloaded.
 
Okay remove power cable and check it for short with continuity.

Was this the port which caused it to die in the first place?

Do you mean after pressing power button, you need to remember there is usually some ports which power peripherals when the machine is shut down, and some ports get voltage only after power on. "Always on USB"
 
Apr 19, 2020
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Yes i am quite sure it was this one

I mean when the power cable is plugged in, only 1 USB port is alimented by 5v .

The usb C do power peripherals when the machine is shut down, but not the USB 2.0, not on this computer at least. And the soldering that is used to power the usb port with 5V seems to be damaged, when I compared it to the other USB 2.0 port. By damaged I mean there is a lack of soldering compared to the other.

Thanks
 
Apr 19, 2020
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When the power cable is plugged, i check the voltage on the VCC 5V pin of the usb ports. My bad, actually both of them a correctly powered with 5V, last message was a mistake.

Then, with power cable off, I checked the continuity. None of the pins of the USB ports are beeping, apart from the GND ones of course. All of the others pins have a infinite resistance, apart frome one power pin on one USB A port which have about 300 ohm of resistance. Is it normal ?

thanks