HP dv4000 problem - Page 4

I can not find other way to contact NFO [NOS]. He did repairment for me dv4000 (I sent my notebook from Poland to USA, I paid for the repairment and shipping cost). After receiving it back the monitor is not working. He promised to repair it one more time and this time pay for the shipping. It was 24.6.2008, and since then he is not answering my phone and replying my e-mail. I think an honest person do not act that way. I am still waiting for reply from you NFO [NOS].

Hello. I did reply to your email, check your spam folder, maybe it ended up in there? You did NOT send me your entire notebook, you only sent me the motherboard inside the bottom case. You did not send me the lcd assembly with it. I repaired the motherboard and tested it and have witnesses that it was working. If you have problems putting the unit back together, I can help you. Is the lid switch jammed by any chance? Did you damage the lcd cable when trying to put it back together? I have done this repair for many people from this message forum and NEVER has anyone had an issue with a repair I have done for them. I have repaired over 500 HP dv4000's in my life time. I would repair 200 HP/Compaq/Toshiba/Gateway/Sony notebooks each month. Please respond to the email I sent you. Send me the entire notebook this time and I can diagnose the problem you are having.

Is this a low tech solution? Apply pressure via the metal thing on top? Wish I knew what the hell he was saying. Also where is the logic board anyway?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfpCl5ee3aE

-Will

any one still need help?

Does anyone still want a solution to this? because i recently bought a dv4000 from ebay, and the seller didnt mention this freezing unless pressing the touchpad problem, if i wanted to return it i would lose like $60, so i opened it up and kind of found a cheap solution to this (it worked for me ......... just post a message if one needs help, i will be glad to post the solution i found

Oh please, please - just post the solution ;-) Many others would and could use it as reference ot other issues.

cheers ...

Of course we still need help. Post away.

What this gentleman is showing here has nothing to do with what is actually failing. You can see the Intel Southbridge bga chip that needs to be repaired. The chip that is failing is right where the "play" button is before the video starts. That thin metal cover being taken out of the factory shape can cause MAJOR issues. After banging that and putting it back on the board, that can cause power shorts and even lead to a fire. The board flexing right by the south bridge is what is causing this failure on this model notebook. What this video shows is a "ghetto" attempt in repairing a common problem with the HP DV4000 series notebooks. I do not recommend doing this and I bet it would not repair the problem with this notebook. A trace is physically damaged under that chip from so much flexing. Doing what this video shows does not show how to repair a damaged trace under a ball grid array component...

'sssgood' please tell us how did you fix your dv4000

ok ill do it tommorow........ (need to upload some pics on to my computer)

Hi everyone! Just got this crap fixed - no soldering required! It was indeed the crappy BGA chip mentioned in the thread - the darned chip is right under the touchpad. I'll write the steps to fix this in a while - you need to pull apart the notebook (great fun, second time for me), but the results are perfect. I assume this may vary according to how your mother has become bent, but it worked for me...

Ok, here goes. You will need to follow the instructions in the service manual for the dv4000 for disassembly, it tells you what screws to pull out for what and what to unplug in each stage! If you are faint of heart, get someone else to disassemble for you.

1) Remove the battery, memory cover, hard disk cover
2) Remove switch cover (plastic cover above the keyoboard where the little lights and buttons are) - watch it, its ok to leave it attached to the base while working
3) Remove the keyboard - dont leave it dangling, physically unplug it. To do so, use a small flat screwdriver to pull out the plastic dingy and then just remove the flat cable.
4) Remove the screen (yes, unfortunately it has to go too, so you can get to remove the top cover. It is a lot easier than it looks, follow the instructions carefully, especially when removing the 2 little wifi wires.

You should now have the base with the switch cover dangling.

5) Remove the base case cover (black plastic). Again, follow carefuilly the instructions. If it doesnt click off, do not force it, you've probably forgotten some screen somewhere. Remember the 2 screws in the CD-ROM bay. Remember to unplug the touch pad in the same way you unplugged the keyboard!

6) I'll post the picture of the result when I get home. You now should see the faulty chip as seen in the video of posts above.

I was tempted to remove the metal cover and hammer it as I saw in the video, but resisted temptation - did not make too much sense to do this!

I now cut a piece of rubber the same size as the chip, about 1cm or 1/3 inch thick and placed it on the chip. (will add picture later). I then replaced the cover and tested the rubber height. The plastic cover arched slightly around where the touchpad was, as the rubber forced the cover up (and the faulty chip down).
At this point I plugged everything in carefully and tested the machine for freezes. Everything seemed ok, so I closed the remaining cover screws and reattached the keyboard. Tested once again. Ok - remember if the rubber is too thick the arch the keyboard makes may seem weird, but it ensures the chip will work fine. Remember, we are trying to arch the motherboard down, as we do when pressing above the touchpad to make the crap work.

I reattached the screen and replaced the switch cover.

Final test, perfect.

Ok, I agree that soldering the chip properly or replacing the mother is probably a better and more permanent solution, but I live in Argentina and shipping it to the US or laying my hands on replacement parts was not an option. I admire the guy from Poland who had the guts to send his via mail, if I did that from here I'd be lucky to get the screws back!

One more thing, label the screws and parts carefully, or you'll end up with some screws left over once you are done (I did )

If you need any further help, just post here.

Thanks to all you guys posting here over the years, it sure helped to identify the exact location of the problem.

Great feedback! Possible uploading some pics in another post?

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread193771.html

cheers ...

Updates

The service manual for the DV4000 can be accessed here:

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00530488.pdf

Sorry, just had my iphone with a crappy cam available. Here are some pics:

This is the damn thing taken apart. The BGM chip is the black square bottom right:



Once the laptop was reassembled, a slight curvature can be seen, where the rubber is applying pressure to the chip:



If anybody has any questions or needs help, just write to me via this forum. I'll add any additional necessary pics then (with a proper camera!).

BTW, I used a piece of rubber from some used car part. Any soft rubber (x example, an eraser) should do fine!

You are a star!!!!

cheers ...

I used your method but I didn't get the result I wanted. If you could tell me exactly what dimensions that rubber was.

I used a rubber washer, round, about 3/4 inch in diameter and about 8mm (1/4 inch) thick. You can also place it above the circuit board to the left of the touchpad.

Try the computer without closing it first - attach the screen cable and the case cover and keyboard without all the screws. Then test the notebook and test different rubber thicknesses until you get the results you are looking for.

Again, I suppose this varies according to the soldering problems from notebook to notebook, so I hope you get it working. Good luck!

As I read the thread and pml99's repair, the rubber washer fix is to cure the mobo lockup and keyboard/cursor freeze problem. I've had those, but much more consistently (read: all the time now) am having the USB device non-recognition (and/or failure to keep recognizing) problem mentioned by Swen (pg 1), Chefws (pg 2) and billcsho (pg 4), and described in countless other places around the Web.

Does the USB port problem have the same cause as the system freezes?

I've chatted uselessly with an HP chat rep, and with an escalation rep (who was not a tech rep). All I get is "I never heard of this problem. Ship it to us with $300 and we'll look at it, with a 90 day warranty. " With 2 minutes of Googling, they can read all about it, dating back 3 years!

This is not the HP I used to know, but at this point I don't care. I just want a sensible fix, or at least to know why I'm junking this thing. Can somebody shed more light on the USB angle?

The Intel south bridge also controls the functionality of the USB ports as well. Many times putting pressure will not fix the problem and neither will doing a ghetto repair with sticking rubber parts on top of chips. If your car's radiator cracked, would you get it replaced/welded or stick some bubblegum in the hole?

Another rube-goldberg "fix" for DV4000 lockup/USB failures

[NFO]N0S, while I don't think your radiator analogy is accurate, thank you for providing further insight into this issue.

And while I remain unhappy with HP's failure to even recognize what should by now be a well understood problem, let alone to logically discuss a timely, cost-effective solution, maybe they are currently hindered in this regard. I've just learned that key parts of their information systems are down for a few days during a refurbishment, or upgrade or something. (Maybe they could try pressing on their cases?).

Meanwhile, with my DV4000 having become virtually unusable over the past 48 hours, I've hit on another stop-gap solution: I've stuck a medium-size spring clamp on the case. Not the strongest one in the hardware store, but strong enough to hurt if you clamp it on your finger. Much improved, although -- oops --my USB hard drive just disappeared as I rested my hand on the case, so it's hardly perfect. It may enable me to get some critical work done.

And it will probably invite some interesting conversation on the plane.

-- That was Mar 28. A quick follow-up (Apr 13):

Luckily for all, I didn't need to use my laptop on the plane last week. Meanwhile, with another phone call to HP Tech Support, I reached a tech support who actually cared. She checked thoroughly for a service bulletin on this but found nothing.

Unfortunately, the only "resolution" she could suggest was to have it repaired independently, as sending it to HP would probably just result in them either recommending a replacement motherboard, and the cost for that would run about as much as a new notebook. Neither seems a suitable "solution," since a replacement mobo (at whatever price) might have the same fault, and a new computer would be available only with Vista on it.

I'm still hoping for some sign that HP tech management actually knows about this fault and that it has manifested itself since 2006.

HP may argue that having to throw out a notebook after just 2.5 years is acceptable (the age of mine when symptoms begain appearing), but even if that attitude does not destroy the good feelings I've had toward HP for decades, how do we know that this quality issue isn't still cropping up in their newer products?

I did the fix following the detailed advise from "pml99" but after two weeks the problem came up again, and again...