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Surviving a spill - only works with video disabled -why?

post #1 of 13
6/23/11 at 10:21am
Thread Starter 

I have a recent HP Pavilion dv7 laptop. I spilled a drink on it unfortunately. If I use it for long the screen will go black but music etc in the background will keep playing. I found that by disabling the graphics adapter, the screen never goes black. Of course, disabling the graphics adapter hurts the graphics capabilities a lot.

Why does disabling the graphics adapter "fix" the screen blacking out? Doesn't the same ruined on-board hardware get used anyways disabled or not? I am guessing the driver isn't used for the on-board graphics when disabled but the spill probably hurt the hardware.

I should be happy it runs at all, but I would really like to know why it runs with the graphics adapter disabled but not with the adapter enabled. Same hardware enabled or disabled right? Thanks for any thoughts on this. It killed my nicest computer except as a basic browser :(

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post #2 of 13
6/24/11 at 12:20am
Make any difference with an external monitor?

cheers ...
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post #3 of 13
6/24/11 at 7:40am
Thread Starter 

No difference with an external monitor!  If the motherboard has built in graphics hardware - why does disabling the video adapter keep the screen for going black.  Again, the screen goes black with no error or warning but you can hear music playing still.  So it is just graphics related.  Disable the adapter and it runs fine but with reduced graphics capability.  Doesn't the same on-board hardware get used disabled or not?  Thanks so much for your help!

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post #4 of 13
6/24/11 at 7:56am
Can't tell ya 100% really - electrical parts and liquid don't like each other.

I would personally try to take the machine apart and take a close look underneath the keyboard. Use some alcohol to clean out any area that you feel some "burning". Let them dry good before putting the parts back together.

Try also leaving the keyboard out (removed from the notebook) and just use an external keyboard

cheers ...
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post #5 of 13
6/24/11 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 

I had some help trying the cleaning under the keyboard -so we did get a lot of residue.  I am just confused on how the notebook uses graphics hardware with the adapter disabled.  It seems to me on-board hardware gets used enabled or not.  We did do a pretty good cleaning but it didn't fix it :(  We also tried external keyboards but the problem is only there with video adapter enabled.  My guess is the same hardware is used enabled or not right?  Many thanks for the help!!!!!!

 

EDIT:  I replaced the keyboard as well after cleaning....

 

 


Edited by 55goldtop - 6/24/11 at 8:47am
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post #6 of 13
6/24/11 at 1:12pm
Yeah it would be, but certainly not in any high performance modes. It's possible that certain parts of the chip go into a low power state or smth, and in high power state it's enough to cause a short.

Who knows....

zzpulp might know, he's pretty knowledgeable with vcards.
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post #7 of 13
6/24/11 at 1:29pm
Thread Starter 

Yes - this is what I imagine happening but couldn't figure out specifics!  I think you nailed it.  I wonder if I could run it differently with the adapter enabled and not have the issue.  thx for the input.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by matchbox2022 View Post

Yeah it would be, but certainly not in any high performance modes. It's possible that certain parts of the chip go into a low power state or smth, and in high power state it's enough to cause a short.

Who knows....

zzpulp might know, he's pretty knowledgeable with vcards.


 

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post #8 of 13
6/24/11 at 5:45pm
If you have another vcard laying around you could try it with that.
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post #9 of 13
6/25/11 at 10:33am
Thread Starter 

The video hardware is built onto the motherboard - is there a way to test another video card?
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by matchbox2022 View Post

If you have another vcard laying around you could try it with that.


 

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post #10 of 13
6/26/11 at 4:56pm
Maybe if you have a spare pci-slot, could use a half-sized video card, unsure about pc cards or expresscards as video cards, I DO know there are adapters that use the smart card reader if you have one (which IS PCI-Express) to go to an enclosure for desktop video cards for laptops, that could be tested. I don't think a "laptop" bios will bypass the integrated card first, and I doubt it gives you the option to disable it in your bios, but once it starts booting it might recognize the second video card, case in point unless you have a controller board and a lot of time, you'll have to use a second monitor with the 2nd card.

You'll need to install the 2nd card with drivers and what not like you would a regular card in a desktop. Who knows, is there a pci-express (mxm) slot in there for dedicated video?
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post #11 of 13
6/27/11 at 8:52am
Thread Starter 

I do have a smart card reader - the external card sounds interesting although not the extra monitor.  I never thought about a PCI slot  - I didn't realize the Pavilion could have one.

Edit:

The TurboBox-mini™ NA220A is a compact external PCI Express enclosure for ease-of-adding a PCI Express Card to a laptop/notebook or desktop computer.

 

Maybe...

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post #12 of 13
6/27/11 at 1:06pm
It's certainly possible. I haven't opened your computer so I don't know if there is a slot or a place to solder a slot or even if the bios will accept another internal card.
There are strict pci video cards, they suck, but it would allow you to diagnose the problem a little better.

That one is for a pci-express slot, and the only one that exists I believe is the smartcard readers externally and the bus internally. So far they haven't made a 16 lane pciexpress external one, if they did with a high def video in port, well, gaming laptops would no longer exist.

The smartcard reader is one pciexpress lane, just one. It's a big bottleneck.
I don't know about the pc card port, but I'd guess it's only a pci connector or perhaps even smth else., I just haven't researched into it enough.
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post #13 of 13
6/29/11 at 8:31am
Thread Starter 

I wonder if I can just choose choose a generic driver a generic driver in win 7 that will keep the notebook useable instead of disabling the adapter?  Can you choose a generic driver or does win 7 auto decide?  Thx!

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