Question How do I fix my display and fan issues?

[User43562115]

OK I don't work on laptops often but was asked to replace the keyboard on this HP laptop(HP Elitebook x360 830 G). I did this because one key was broken and so I had to unassemble everything with no real experience and reassemble it again in the new laptop keyboard. I was able to do so with some ease but after I got everything plugged in, I didn't get a display but the keyboard lights are on and after a little bit the fan starts going until it reaches max speed.

Things I have already done to troubleshoot:

Checked all connections are plugged in

Reseated all cables, ram, and cpu/heatsink

Reapplied some thermal paste

Checked if it displays on an external monitor, it doesn't

I wanted to flash bios as it seemed like this could be a corrupted bios issue but the manual doesn't show how, and I have no real experience with doing so.

Any help or suggestions are great. Thanks!

 

[Aeacus]

Any help or suggestions are great. Thanks!

My advice, haul the laptop to PC repair shop and let the expert fix it.

with no real experience

To gain experience, buy dead/faulty laptops and mess around with those (or get someone to teach it to you). But taking customers (or friend's) laptop and then attempt fixing it without 0 experience is really bad idea.

 

[User43562115]

I totally agree with you and thanks for the recommendation for getting more experience! But this is actually for a class and I am working on school computer, so no harm or foul if I break something. I just have to give a solid reason to give up on it or fix for my teacher to let it go. In this case obviously still haven't fixed it and still don't know the problem. I hope this clears up any confusion on why someone with no real experience with laptops(I still have decent experience with general computers) is working on it.

 

[Aeacus]

But this is actually for a class

I just have to give a solid reason to give up on it or fix for my teacher to let it go

Is it like a class project/homework? Laptop repair? If so, teacher should have taught you all the knowledge needed for component replacement and all the possible issues that may come from it. Since else-ways, the study method is the worst kind: throw into the water with no swimming skills and either sink or swim.

Here's video of that laptop KB replacement:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S3hETScltg


Now, i can't tell if you did the KB replacement as seen on video, or did you completely disassemble the laptop. For complete disassemble, you could've knocked off resistor/cap from the MoBo (very easy to do). And that bricked the laptop.


For repair shops, Northridge Fix is one of the better ones,
link: https://northridgefix.com

While Northridge Fix is USA based, they accept international shipping and can do repairs worldwide. (If you're located outside of USA.)

Alex, founder and owner of Northridge Fix, often posts electronics repair videos to his Youtube channel, that i find interesting and informative to watch.
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NorthridgeFix/videos

E.g laptop repair after it bricked due to thermal paste change;

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ6omWxfCCc


They also sell all and every kind of equipment to do with electronics fixes. Soldering stations, microscopes, flux, capacitors, mosfets, connectors etc.

So, if anything, you should watch Alex'es videos to see how to repair laptops (if you're into that). But keep in mind that even industry pros can't fix everything and some are deemed "no fix". Like the one i linked above.

 

[User43562115]

Is it like a class project/homework? Laptop repair? If so, teacher should have taught you all the knowledge needed for component replacement and all the possible issues that may come from it. Since else-ways, the study method is the worst kind: throw into the water with no swimming skills and either sink or swim.

To clarify, hopefully, this was an extra project dumped onto to me that I could've rejected by the IT guys who went to my instructor. The laptop is another instructors owned by the school with everything backed up. The IT guys didn't want to do it so they let gave it to my instructor to give to any of us and I was just next to him at the time. I say say that it was just one key missing a cap that still functioned and assumed(I think pretty fairly) it was at my skill level. My experience wasn't to in-depth with only going into a laptop to remove ram, battery, and the display all at once before. I got my hands on it 2 weeks later and the IT guys said to fix it, I would need to replace the whole keyboard plate. I looked at a tutorial for it and saw I would have basically disassemble the whole thing and asked my instructor to give the IT guys because I don't think I have the experience yet, he said I had no choice now. So I go ahead and do it, then it has the issues I listed before. I try to fix them for around 5 hours of troubleshooting and then ask my instructor if I could escalate it to IT as I don't think I would be able to fix it but I didn't know the exact problem and only the issues. Then I was told I would be working on it till I fixed it or knew exactly how I couldn't fix it. So that's the whole background on the issue.

Now, i can't tell if you did the KB replacement as seen on video, or did you completely disassemble the laptop. For complete disassemble, you could've knocked off resistor/cap from the MoBo (very easy to do). And that bricked the laptop.

Mine is the G9 HP laptop so the whole keyboard is connected and to replace it I had to disassemble most of everything and then reassemble it in the keyboard. I agree that I could have damaged the MOBO but I was extremely careful with it as I knew that I didn't know much and could easily damage stuff in it.

For repair shops, Northridge Fix is one of the better ones,
link: https://northridgefix.com

While Northridge Fix is USA based, they accept international shipping and can do repairs worldwide. (If you're located outside of USA.)

Won't and can't have this repaired from someone else as it is school property. And if it does come to going to a pro I would probable give it to the actual IT guys. But thanks anyway for the recommendation.

So, if anything, you should watch Alex'es videos to see how to repair laptops (if you're into that). But keep in mind that even industry pros can't fix everything and some are deemed "no fix". Like the one i linked above.

Once again thanks for recommendations on ways to learn more about the scenario and laptops in general, as I do feel they are point of weakness I have about electronics. I also definitely like tech youtube channels so ill check out your recommendation. Overall, thanks for the help you have provided so far!

 

[Aeacus]

I got my hands on it 2 weeks later and the IT guys said to fix it, I would need to replace the whole keyboard plate.

Now i wonder, 🤔 did you actually powered the laptop on and confirmed it to work fine before you opened it up?

Because if you didn't and only assumed than laptop works fine otherwise, then i get a feeling that IT guys deliberately gave you (your instructor) known to be bad laptop, to see, if you guys could diagnose the far serious issue with it, and maybe fix it. Or maybe not (given that the IT guys know exactly what is wrong with it, e.g dead CPU).

Checked if it displays on an external monitor, it doesn't

This symptom shows one of the core components (or all of them) being an issue: CPU, MoBo, RAM.
Since CPU has iGPU in it, the iGPU can be faulty as well (if iGPU is faulty then this basically means that the CPU itself, Core Ultra 5 135U is faulty).

Because you have a laptop, component replacement isn't as easy (if even possible) as it is with desktop PCs. This makes things harder and other than people who know what they are doing - is unknown area for the most people.

Once again thanks for recommendations on ways to learn more about the scenario and laptops in general, as I do feel they are point of weakness I have about electronics. I also definitely like tech youtube channels so ill check out your recommendation.

👍

Normal procedure to diagnose laptops is to take MoBo out and go over it with good zoom microscope, to see if any components are missing or loose (just look the Alex'es video above). If none is found, another step would be powering on the board and looking via thermal camera what gets hot. One option is to test if there is correct voltage going to the components on the MoBo. But that means you know the MoBo (or have diagram for it), so you can measure voltage at correct spots with multimeter.

Now, all this isn't my personal experience and can be wrong. It's just what i've seen Alex doing in his electronics repair videos.
My expertise lies in figuring out what may be issue hardware wise and that, for desktop PCs. I also have knowledge of component replacement (actually whole build assembly), but i don't have knowledge of actual electronics repair. Soldering, flux, low melt solder, wigs, brushes, q-tips etc - all that is above my paygrade. Instead, i find it interesting to watch how it is done (e.g Alex'es videos).

 

[User43562115]

Now i wonder, 🤔 did you actually powered the laptop on and confirmed it to work fine before you opened it up?

Because if you didn't and only assumed than laptop works fine otherwise, then i get a feeling that IT guys deliberately gave you (your instructor) known to be bad laptop, to see, if you guys could diagnose the far serious issue with it, and maybe fix it. Or maybe not (given that the IT guys know exactly what is wrong with it, e.g dead CPU).

I did check it before hand, it did power on and off correctly so something definitely went wrong during the repair.

his symptom shows one of the core components (or all of them) being an issue: CPU, MoBo, RAM.
Since CPU has iGPU in it, the iGPU can be faulty as well (if iGPU is faulty then this basically means that the CPU itself, Core Ultra 5 135U is faulty).

Because you have a laptop, component replacement isn't as easy (if even possible) as it is with desktop PCs. This makes things harder and other than people who know what they are doing - is unknown area for the most people.

Yeah since the external and internal display is not showing, its not even posting. I can't work on it right now but I think it could be corrupt bios and so I'm going to try to flash bios and do a full battery refresh to hopefully fix it if its a bios issue. Also totally agree with you, it's very annoying that laptops don't have the same interchangeability and standards that desktop pcs have.

Normal procedure to diagnose laptops is to take MoBo out and go over it with good zoom microscope, to see if any components are missing or loose (just look the Alex'es video above). If none is found, another step would be powering on the board and looking via thermal camera what gets hot. One option is to test if there is correct voltage going to the components on the MoBo. But that means you know the MoBo (or have diagram for it), so you can measure voltage at correct spots with multimeter.

Yup, I did check the video out but I really can only do the microscope and checking voltage as none of the lab stations have a thermal camera. I will definitely do all that if bios isn't the problem.

Soldering, flux, low melt solder, wigs, brushes, q-tips etc - all that is above my paygrade. Instead, i find it interesting to watch how it is done (e.g Alex'es videos).

Lol, I feel all of this is above my paygrade, and I ain't getting paid but I got to at least give an actual problem to escalate it to IT. Also I did watch the video you sent, it was extremely informative and gave me a whole bunch of knowledge on basic laptop troubleshooting. I also went to his channel and watched his video on MOSFETS, which also was extremely informative. Definitely a great source of info!

 

[Aeacus]

but I think it could be corrupt bios and so I'm going to try to flash bios and do a full battery refresh to hopefully fix it if its a bios issue.

I actually don't get how it could be corrupt BIOS issue. That is, unless you tried to flash the BIOS and interrupted it at some point, without it being able to finish.

For comparison, desktop MoBos also have BIOS chip on them and MoBo can be easy 10 or even 20 years old, but BIOS still works. So, unless you poke it, BIOS won't get corrupted just out of the blue.

Also totally agree with you, it's very annoying that laptops don't have the same interchangeability and standards that desktop pcs have.

Well, they can have it. E.g Frameworks laptop is one such latest one, specifically designed to be upgradeable;

LTT video of it:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rkTgPt3M4k


As of why big names doesn't do it (Apple, HP, Lenovo etc), difficult to tell. It doesn't add much to the final cost of the laptop and engineering of it can be easily standardized (just look the Frameworks laptop). Yet, big names just doesn't want to give people such convenience.
(On desktop PC segment, one such brand who is dead stuck with all proprietary parts as it can be, is Dell. Dell prebuilts are worst when it comes to desktop PCs.)

Then again, better upgradeability = longer life for the laptop. But as of currently, once one component goes bad, you essentially have to:
* haul it to the brand repair shop and pay hefty sum to fix it (looking at Apple here)
* junk the whole thing and buy new laptop (preferably same brand one, if brands can have a say in it)

Also I did watch the video you sent, it was extremely informative and gave me a whole bunch of knowledge on basic laptop troubleshooting. I also went to his channel and watched his video on MOSFETS, which also was extremely informative. Definitely a great source of info!

👍

 

[User43562115]

Yeah I don't know really know either, but the symptoms are common for a corrupt BIOS and its at least a direction to try and fix. Anyways I can't work on it on the weekends anyway so maybe get back to you on more info or maybe if I solved it. Thanks once again for the help so far.