Motherboard dead?

After spending days overthinking it, I finally pulled the trigger on an HP ProBook 4740s with an i7, 8GB of RAM, and an ATI 7650M... The initial high lasted about five minutes before the headaches started. First, it was a total nightmare with the drivers—they have them for Windows 7 Pro, but nothing for Ultimate 🙂 🙂 . Once I actually got all the drivers installed, I realized sleep mode was broken. It goes to sleep, sure, but it won't wake up; the laptop either resets or just dies completely. I spent hours scouring official forums only to find a mountain of people complaining about the exact same thing, but of course, the "experts" there just give you the same useless advice like performing a hard reset or other nonsense. By some stroke of luck, I figured out that when installing the graphics drivers from the HP site, I had to skip the "accelerated video" part... and even then, I had to disable extra settings just to stop Windows from throwing errors during bootup. After days of fighting this thing, I thought I finally had it dialed in. But why would anything be easy? This laptop runs hot as hell. I’ll launch Football Manager, close the 3D menu, and the temp instantly spikes to 80 🙂 . Then, to top off this pathetic saga, it won't even turn on anymore. I hit power, the fan spins at max speed for maybe 3 to 5 seconds, and then everything shuts down. Black screen. Total silence. I can barely even eject the CD drive before it dies. I took it to a repair shop and the tech told me it was the motherboard. He called me back later saying he flashed a new BIOS version—which, naturally, isn't even listed on their website—and claimed it wouldn't be covered under warranty, costing me $80. Luckily, the guy was decent and since I'm a student, he said he'd write it up as a different fix so I wouldn't get charged. He gets it running, I bring it home, and the problem is right back where it started. It turns on for 5 seconds and dies... Anyone else dealt with this mess? Does anyone know how to actually fix this?

Sorry for the rant, but I just had to vent. Don't buy HP!

Clearly, something is seriously wrong with the CPU cooling—the laptop just shuts itself down right after you boot it up because the processor is already overheating. Honestly, what kind of bottom-tier repair shop did you take this to?

By the way, when you're hunting for drivers, make sure you check if they're for a 32-bit or 64-bit OS—it doesn't matter if you're running Home, Pro, or whatever else is out there, the architecture is what counts.

Benjamin King2 said:Clearly, something is seriously wrong with the CPU cooling—the laptop just shuts itself down right after you boot it up because the processor is already overheating. Honestly, what kind of bottom-tier repair shop did you take this to?

By the way, when you're hunting for drivers, make sure you check if they're for a 32-bit or 64-bit OS—it doesn't matter if you're running Home, Pro, or whatever else is out there, the architecture is what counts.

I thought the same thing, but then it would have stayed on for at least 10 or 12 hours before failing, and it doesn't even get that far. I managed to get it running once, and then everything worked fine with temps looking okay. That’s what I thought before I bought into this whole circus. It won't even let me install what's offered—like trying to put 64-bit drivers for Pro onto Ultimate. Once I burned my own Windows media and saw it hadn't even installed the generic drivers, I realized I'd been wasting my time...

Look, if it won't even power on, we're talking a hardware failure—plain and simple. Take it to a different shop, preferably somewhere that actually knows what they're doing, instead of wasting your time with that moron who supposedly "flashed the BIOS."

Look, if your motherboard had actually kicked the bucket, your Caps Lock key would be flashing at you five times right after you hit the power button. Sure, the fan would spin up, but that’s about it—zero signal, zero audio, just a spinning fan and some blinking LEDs.

I had my HP die on me after four years of solid use, and that’s exactly how a dying motherboard behaves.

Updating the BIOS isn't even that big of a deal on an HP; it’s basically just like installing any other piece of software. It's Windows based.

So, I’ve got a major sound issue on my machine. I’m 100% certain it’s a hardware failure because I have already exhausted every single software option under the sun. Don't even bother suggesting driver updates or system tweaks—there is absolutely no audio device detected anywhere. It’s completely invisible. I can't find it in the BIOS, it's gone in recovery mode, and no amount of driver installation helps. It's just... gone.
The weird part? This whole mess started right after I pulled the CMOS battery out for about an hour, so maybe that's a clue. Or, knowing my luck, I might have accidentally snagged something and fried the audio chip while I was taking things apart. To make matters worse, I wasn't being careful enough when tightening the keyboard screws during reassembly, so now I've managed to break the keyboard too (one key is totally dead, though I figure that's a much easier fix). What I really need to know is: is it actually possible to repair a chip on a motherboard, or am I looking at a full motherboard replacement? If I'm reading this right, the audio is integrated directly onto the board, and that separate little audio board is just an add-on for headphones and a mic.

The CMOS battery is usually easy enough to find, so it’s hard to mess anything up there, but who knows? You already managed to wreck the keyboard, so maybe the audio is next on the list.

If the motherboard itself is fried, finding the specific fault—let alone trying to fix it—just isn't worth your time, if it's even possible at all. You're better off just grabbing a cheap USB sound card for a few bucks and plugging in some external speakers, or honestly, just going Bluetooth.

Hey there,
I’ve got a question regarding a motherboard swap. Is it even worth trying to replace the motherboard on a Lenovo G510? Does anyone have a ballpark idea of what that would actually cost me? Also, I’m wondering if a new motherboard would come with the processor and the dedicated graphics card included, since they're both soldered onto my current one.
Any info at all would be a huge help..

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...board&_sacat=0

It all depends on which specific model you're rocking. On some versions, the processor isn't soldered down, so how do you actually know yours is? If the motherboard is definitely dead, you really ought to crack the laptop open and check the exact model number yourself. Looking at these prices, it might actually make sense to just order the part and swap it out yourself. Taking it to a repair shop is going to cost you double—and for good reason. Parts aren't cheap, then you've got shipping, sales tax, and labor costs piled on top...

You could try asking for help over here:

http://www.repaircafe.org/