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A HP TX1000 Series laptop PC is unresponsive to the power-on event. What was a previously working machine, the LCD display panel suddenly switched off while the machine was in normal operation.

When the machine is switched on now, the machine displays these behaviors:

  • all LEDs glowing as usual
  • CPU exhaust fan works
  • DVD activity LED works. DVD eject works.
  • LCD panel DOES NOT work.
  • NO HDD rotation sound.
  • Power switch works (switch on and off).
  • no activity on the external display.
  • the Nvidia GPU produces heat.

Upon opening the machine, there are no indications of burns.

Question: any hints on the cause of this problem, or any steps to remedy this?

p.campbell
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NinethSense
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9 Answers9

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  • Are you sure the drive is not spinning up? I know some laptop drives are not audible, but you can usually feel a vibration.
  • How do you know the GPU is creating heat? Does that part of the laptop get hot? and are you sure that is the only chip in that area?
  • Take out the battery, and, if possible use a different power supply. If that doesn't help, it could also be the power circuitry in the laptop went bad, which isn't an easy fix.
  • As someone else said it could be merely an inverter issue for the display panel. Or even a connection issue.
  • Test the hard drive with another computer, preferably not as the boot drive to see if it even works.
  • You could always open up the laptop and see if all the ribbon connections and such between all the components are secure.

Basically anything could be wrong with it and you will be troubleshooting every single part of the laptop to figure it out.

Joshua Nurczyk
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  • I usually feel vibration when it was working fine. I opened the laptop and felt the heat directly from GPU. Only that chip in MB gets hot in < 2 minutes. I do not know any other Tx1000 to test my HDD. Or is this compatible with any laptops? I opened the laptop and tried re-fitting all connectors already. No hope. – NinethSense Jul 03 '09 at 05:21
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It's broken.

With no drive spinup and no screen, but with there being power to other parts of the machine, I would suspect something on the mainboard has burnt out or otherwise failed. Most likely an expensive repair if the device is not under guarantee. It could be relatively simple like the CPU having gone south, but CPUs are not generally replaceable on laptop boards like they are on desktops due to size and heat dissipation considerations in laptop designs.

Depending on what has gone, you might find the drive is still perfectly operational (and just not being given the order to startup), so you will hopefully be able to get any important data off it by taking it out and plugging it into another machine.

David Spillett
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You could also have a bad LCD inverter. With the laptop "ON", as you suspect, take a flashlight and shine it at the screen, if you see a desktop, its a bad inverter, and a cheap fix.

DanBig
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  • I wouldn't exactly call an inverter and service cheap. $100 + your time to install or another $100 for someone else? Also, this doesn't explain the lack of HD. – MathewC Jul 02 '09 at 12:41
  • The inverter for my HP was less than 10 bucks, and all it required was taking off the LCD bezel. – DanBig Jul 07 '09 at 14:38
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I'd also check the power supply brick. I've had these go bad with the same results on HP laptops, replacing the power brick fixed the problem in a few cases.

I've also seen this occur when the LCD inverter dies and draws more power than the laptop can handle, its rare and I've only seen it a few times back in my tech support days but it does happen.

drgncabe
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  • Not sure what is a *.brick. May be better I will visit a servicing center today. – NinethSense Jul 03 '09 at 05:18
  • Its the ac/dc adapter, the little power brick you plug into the wall to give the PC power. Mine looks like a small plastic brick but some are of various other designs. Sometimes some of the components in the device fail and the laptop doesn't get any or adequate power to run. more detailed info -> http://www.uofr.net/~greg/hardware/laptop_power_troubleshooting/ – drgncabe Jul 04 '09 at 21:50
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Try pulling out the hard drive and see if that works. Also try re-seating or replacing the RAM if you can.

Beyond that, there's not much hope that it's not the motherboard.

Adam Brand
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This has happened to my HP laptop, where after running for a long while, it cannot proceed into the bios upon rebooting. I recommend taking out the main battery and letting the computer sit for about a half hour, then trying to boot it again.

Babu
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UPDATE: Visited an authorised Servicing Center. After their examination I have the information complaint is with NVIDIA Chip and since they do not provide chip-level servicing, I need to replace the Mother Board.

Definitely it is costly.

NinethSense
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Have a laugh and try contacting HP. The GPU over heats, they will replace motherboard for £265 ($400) and it will happen again and again and...

I have had 3 motherboards, others even more...

HP claim it is only 1% of tx1000 series but even if it is they must have sold millions because the number of faulty tx1000's is well into 4 figures.

recall - we keep hoping!!

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There are thousands of us online with the same issue. The motherboard has unstuck because of their poor manufacturing. Look online for how this can be fixed for a penny and a few dollars worth of a special glue. It is worth a try right?