Pavilion 14 broke 4 days out of warranty.

[jgh230]

Our laptop broke literally 4 days out of warranty. It is only a year old and it doesn't exactly say great things about HP that it broke so soon after the warranty ends. 

The laptop won't boot, not even into BIOS, and we have tried all the troubleshooting steps. Sometimes the screen just goes green, other times nothing happens (all there is is a blank screen). I read up online and I found that cheap motherboards frying themselves is common with HP laptops.

We are in the UK - and I've read that manufacturers are liable to replace it if it does not last a 'reasonable time', i.e. up to 6 years. HP claims on its website that laptops should last 3 years, but ours literally lasted 1 (less than 1 from when it was first used. Does anyone have experience of this/did you manage to get your laptop repaired outside of warranty? 

[The_Fossette]

@jgh230

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[jgh230]

Hi, Sorry for the delay in replying but apparently the warranty was literally just 1 year and it broke unfortunately a couple of days out of warranty, so I decided to try and establish the cause of the problem myself. 

After taking off the bottom cover I reinserted the RAM and the laptop worked, no issues - so the RAM evidently had unseated itself. However upon reapplying the body panel the laptop doesn't work unless I'm pressing down on the area where the RAM is. This is really odd, as it worked no issues when the body panel was not on the laptop. I've now tried this several times and the RAM always works when the body panel isn't on, but never once it's back. 

Please could you advise whether you think this is a problem with the actual RAM module (replaceable) or the motherboard itself. Thanks! 

@The_Fossette

[The_Fossette]

@jgh230

I am glad to hear that! It doesn't look like hardware and it looks like the chassis is touching the internal components and which is causing a short. I recommend you check carefully whether the chassis is touching the motherboard or any circuit or part on the motherboard.

Cheers!

[Repairatrooper]

Is it possible that in reassembling you missed installing a shield of any sort?

[jgh230]

Hi, thanks for your suggestions @The_Fossette @Repairatrooper. 

I can't see any obvious defect in the laptop's chassis, but it turns out the laptop has actually been dropped (I wasn't aware of this previously - it is a relative's laptop) so I guess that is the cause of the issue. I have no idea how it was dropped but apparently not from a great distance and only onto carpet. 

With regards to the missing shield - no, all of the original parts are intact, but perhaps it was dislodged when it was dropped?  So as I said, as far as I can see, there is no obvious misalignment but here I am attaching a photo anyway: 

I'm guessing that it's the part that sticks out (circled in red- I don't know if it has a name or not, sorry!) which is causing the issue, would you recommend that I just remove this and hope for the best, or is there something else I should try? 

We are close to just giving up on this and getting a new laptop so any further suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks again for your support so far!