(OT) good laptop hardware repair group or forum

[Chris Whitehouse]

Graeme Dargie wrote:
>>
> 
> My grandmother had a HP that just died too.  My brother took the first stab
> at it, describing it as a likely "DC-DC converter" problem, and I was seeing
> indication of a bad seat on the CPU.  It was working just fine and for the
> CPU to become unseated is not likely.  I tore that machine apart until I
> couldn't figure out how to get the top or bottom plate off that surrounds
> the motherboard.  I didn't fix it, but we all gave up and she went and
> bought another system.
> 
> 
> The DC-DC converter is what takes the 18V (or whatever) the mains/battery
> supplies, and breaks it out into the 3.3V, 5V, 12V, etc needed to power all
> the various components.

Someone pointed me to this service manual http://tinyurl.com/de6luh. You 
might find one for yours on the HP site. I suspect something similar has 
happened to mine, I'm going to take it to a shop for advice, some of 
them will do component level fixes which is cheaper than a new motherboard.

Chris