Pavilion dv7-1240us | Will Not Power On - Battery LED Blinks Continuously

[NXS]

Greetings!  I acquired an HP Pavilion DV7-1240US laptop.  When the battery is connected to the laptop and the AC adapter is plugged in, the Battery LED blinks continuously in 1-second intervals.  When I take the battery out, the laptop will not power on at all.  

I've done a hard reset of the laptop, I've checked the ram slot connections, removed and reseated the hard drive, and still cannot get the system to work.  

When the battery is connected to the laptop, if I press the power button whilst the battery LED is lit up, the system will momentarily try to power up; all the quick-set keys on the strip at the top light up momentarily and it tries to cycle up, only to die as soon as the LED light blinks off.  

Does anyone have any idea what could be the cause of this?? I should point out that the Caps-Lock and Num-Lock buttons are not blinking at all, and there are no beeping sounds to speak of, so I'm at a loss.  

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thanks! 

[Huffer]

You have about a 7 year old piece of hardware there. I could link you to the famous parrot routine from Monty Python but the humor is generally not appreciated. In all seriousness, you have a dead motherboard there. I hope you did not pay much if anything for it. If you are handy with a screwdriver, I think you could find a replacement motherboard for it pretty inexpensively. 

[NXS]

I'm aware of how old the system is and you'll be happy to know I didn't pay a dime for it.  That said, the system specifications are still capable of doing what my son requires of it, should I be able to get it up and running.  

As for it being a dead motherboard.... would you care to explain how you came to this conclusion?? 

[NXS]

I'd also like to follow up by stating that I've read that this particular model is notorious for having battery issues; HP even recalled the batteries... so I'm wondering if the battery is somehow responsible. 

[NXS]

Okay, here's the latest information I have .  I tried a different power supply and now the battery has taken charge and the system no longer crashes as soon as I power it on.  I can also remove the battery, plug directly into the laptop with the power supply, and I can get it to power on and stay on.  All of the touch strip icon LEDs at the top are light up and staying on, the screen is black, and I'm receiving 4 blink continuous intervals on the Caps lock and Numlock buttons, respectively. 

The motherboard is obviously getting power and is managing to hold it, but the continual 4-blink series of the caps lock and numlock button is indicating something... and the screen is not lighting up (though I do have control of the dvd drive and the system takes 5 seconds to power off when holding down the power button).  

[Huffer]

You had a bad power supply and now have a good one. The blinking caps lock is what tells me it is very likely a bad motherboard. There are a few things you can try like check the memory modules....try each individually in each slot. It also conceivably could be the processor but that is very rare. A bad motherboard can give the same blink codes as a bad processor. You can try a Windows + B BIOS flash from a usb stick. 

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/How-to-flash-BIOS-without-having...

[NXS]

Thanks for your reply.  I have tried swapping memory modules and unfortunately it's still the same issue.  Just for giggles, I even swapped hard drives and tried to connect my VGA monitor to the laptop to see if it would work that way... unfortunately, that didn't work either.  I've done some Googling and it appears as if the DV7 is notorious for having the soldering on the GPU become brittle and fall off... this is what I fear is the actual problem.  Unfortunately, I don't have the utencils needed to do a reball/reflow of a new GFX processor... although, I am starting to think that's the actual problem.  

What are your thoughts?  

[Huffer]

Well the dv7 is not as prone to the problem as its immediate predecessor the dv9000, but yes it can happen. You might not be able to do a reball reflow yourself, but if you can pull the motherboard yourself there are several excellent shops on eBay who will properly and professionally reball the GPU and fix the motherboard for as little as $60US if you can ship just the motherboard to them. 

Post back if you are interested in that. I strongly suggest you not just take it to somebody who is going to "reflow" it or try to do that yourself. Even if you could fix it, a crude brute force reflow with hot air or an oven bake job is not a permanent fix. 

[NXS]

If you wouldn't mind referring me to a reptuable, trusted shops, I would be more than grateful to get that information from you.  The thing is, my son loves the design of the laptop; thinks it's the cleanest looking one he's ever owned and he said that the system specifications are well within his needs... so I'm just trying to be the good father... lol. 

Thanks again! 

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Here's a couple:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-DV7-1000-506124-001-486542-001-NO-VIDEO-MOTHERBOARD-REPAIR-6-MONTH-WARRAN...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-DV7-1000-506124-001-486542-001-Dead-GPU-No-Video-Motherboard-Repair-/2714...