Posts by Donna Garcia

frozenwolf51 said:Hey everyone, I’ve run into this incredibly frustrating issue with my laptop. When I boot it up, there’s clearly an image on the screen, but there’s absolutely zero backlight. It’s like looking at a ghost—you can barely make out anything if you tilt it just right, and once the sun goes down, it’s basically a black void. To make matters worse, when I plug the thing into my TV using an HDMI cable, everything works perfectly fine. The display looks great on the big screen, which tells me the graphics card isn't dead, but my actual laptop screen is useless. What kind of hardware nightmare am I dealing with here? Does anyone know what could be causing this?

It could be the inverter or the backlight. It’s impossible to give an exact diagnosis just like that.

Sam Murphy said:I'm getting 4.1V on each one individually after taking a few out to test them. What does that imply?

The nominal voltage should be printed right on the cell, usually labeled as 3.7V or 4.2V.
Typically, the total voltage for a 6-cell pack like that ought to be 11.1V or 12.6V.
If you're seeing anything less than that, there's likely a faulty cell in the mix or your connections aren't quite right.

Sam Murphy said:A multimeter works fine since I use it for standard batteries, but I'm not sure if the rules are the same for lithium ones. Do I need to check the amperage, and if so, how would I go about measuring that?

Just measure the voltage exactly like you would with any other battery.
With Li-Ion batteries, each individual cell should sit at 3.7V, so a 6-cell setup ought to give you 11.1V.

brightbadger57 said:I took some photos of the Blue Screen errors so you guys could see exactly what's going on and help me out easier..
I'm posting links to the images here. My apologies if this isn't allowed, but I can't get any images to upload here no matter how small I make them..

http://prntscr.com/5sqnr7

http://prntscr.com/5sqnyp

Help please 😢

Upload the full dump file so we can take a closer look.

restlessbear34 said:Thanks so much. Got the first driver installed. Fingers crossed everything works out.

Now I'm going to give this one a shot too.

Well, check if your ethernet connection is working. If you have internet, then it was a success. 😁

This should get your wireless up and running.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/p...vOid=4053#tab4

Alright, since you've got a Realtek network card, these drivers should do the trick.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/p...&swEnvOid=4053

You can do the same thing for the wireless adapter too—just let us know what you find. It'll show up as a "Network controller" in your Device Manager.

restlessbear34 said:So here I am...

I reinstalled my OS last night—Windows 7, 32-bit. The LAN cable was plugged in during the whole installation process, but once everything finished up, the network setup menu just never popped up. Now I'm stuck wondering if I need to install the drivers first before I can even touch the internet settings, or what? Like Donna Garcia said, I definitely need to track down those drivers.

The thing is, I tried hunting for the chipset drivers on the Realtek website last night and the download wouldn't even start.

I'm totally lost and honestly have no clue what to do next. Usually, when I'm setting this stuff up for someone else or even for myself, it’s a breeze. But this HP machine is seriously driving me up the wall.

Like I said, the driver isn't just going to magically appear simply because the LAN cable is plugged in...

restlessbear34 said:So here I am...

I reinstalled my OS last night—Windows 7, 32-bit. The LAN cable was plugged in during the whole installation process, but once everything finished up, the network setup menu just never popped up. Now I'm stuck wondering if I need to install the drivers first before I can even touch the internet settings, or what? Like Donna Garcia said, I definitely need to track down those drivers.

The thing is, I tried hunting for the chipset drivers on the Realtek website last night and the download wouldn't even start.

I'm totally lost and honestly have no clue what to do next. Usually, when I'm setting this stuff up for someone else or even for myself, it’s a breeze. But this HP machine is seriously driving me up the wall.

Since you're using an HP 4730s, you've got an Intel chipset.
For the network card, right-click My Computer > Properties > Device Manager, find the Ethernet controller > right-click Properties > Details > Hardware ID.

It should show something like PCI\VEN_xxx&DEV_xxx
Copy that into Google or paste it here and I'll tell you which driver to grab.

Nathan Ramos said:Not quite, though I’m more than happy to offer my help here free of charge; however, when it comes to formal education, that's where I start charging a fee 🙂

I only charge for my labor; I don't do training. I'm not a theorist. 😁

Nathan Ramos said:😉

The main thing is that we're on the same page. 😁

Nathan Ramos said:Isn't that really the whole point, though? To get him back online?
Once he's connected to the web, I imagine that wireless driver will just slide right into place effortlessly. 😉

Look, if the OS has the driver for his network card, it'll install it. If it doesn't, it won't. It doesn't matter if you plug in the Ethernet cable before the installation or three days later; if the driver isn't integrated, it simply isn't going to happen.

Nathan Ramos said:But what if he actually does...

The order in which he installs the rest of those components really won't make much of a difference in his situation.

Doesn't matter. I don't see how that would be useful during the installation process. It could potentially connect to the internet after everything is installed.

Nathan Ramos said:1. chipset driver
2. network controller
3. LAN driver
4. WLAN driver
These are the specific components you need to install.
Since things have likely become a bit tangled—much like trying to untangle a messy knot of holiday lights—where even Windows can't tell which device is which, I’d suggest performing a clean reinstall of the OS. It might be a smoother path forward. Before you start the installation process, try keeping the LAN cable plugged directly from your laptop into the router; having that hardwired connection active could make the whole setup significantly easier.

P.S. If you had mentioned which version of the OS you were running, we might have been able to offer some more tailored advice.

For these laptops, I usually install them in this order:
- Chipset
- all that other Intel junk for HP
- VGA
- Audio
- everything else: network, card reader, touchpad

I don't see how a LAN cable is going to help him if the OS doesn't even have a network driver?

Did you actually install any drivers, or did you just do a clean install of Windows?

Anyway, for the wireless, go into Device Manager, find the network controller, and check the Hardware ID under properties. That'll tell you exactly which driver you need to hunt down.

shadowlynx102 said:To link computers that way, you absolutely need a crossover Ethernet cable.

Not necessarily if they're connected through a router. Honestly, in most cases, you don't even need one for a direct connection since most modern network cards feature auto-detection.