Trying to source a used motherboard - these things are going for more than the laptop is worth onlin

[Hawk5891]

I'm trying to find a valid replacement for the motherboard in a unit - my place of employment was gracious enough to send me 3 devices that are no longer used so that I may look into fixing them for the kids to use for school and homework at home. 2 of them just need hard drives - one was locked out by an angry employee and one was fried - that's fine I can replace those cheaply. The third one I opened up and it is an utter mess of liquid damage on the motherboard - so I will have to replace that motherboard. Quick sourcing online pointed to prices in the hundreds of dollars - most costing way more than the entire unit would cost to buy used. 

At this junction of life - I can't afford those prices - obviously - or I would have had laptops already - the point of sending them to me was that they should be relatively cheap and simply fixes lol :). This is something that would also last the kids a number of years and keep these out of landfills and recycling centers etc. A win-win, well that was the plan, repurposing. At the end of the day - if all I have is a third laptop for a source of spare cosmetic parts, then I guess that is what that is - but I would certainly want to believe that somewhere out there is a motherboard for a unit that's already a few years old that's in the affordable point for us. Does anyone potentially have any leads? I was trying to reach HP Support to see if there was anything at all they could do for this as a courtesy for the kids. However - without a paying subscription for "Tech Support" - of which I generally do not need (I don't know it all, but I am a rather useful ex-computer tech with extensive ability to find solutions), I do not know it all - but yep - current day we live in lol.

Any assistance much appreciated! The motherboard is part number M20704-601

[Huffer]

Your heart is in the right place but you are bumping up against the reality of the market. That is a high-spec machine, not that old. i7 11th gen CPU. Yes a replacement motherboard even from an aftermarket seller is going to be several hundred dollars. HP will ask even more assuming they even still have it in stock in the Parts Store. If the motherboard was water damaged it likely will not even be possible to have it reworked at the chip level by a repair shop. That costs like $125 but there usually has to be a single failure point like a bad video chip. Your best hope actually is to scour eBay and try to find a parts unit with a cracked screen or something else that drives the price down but still has a good motherboard. HP is not very likely to offer you a motherboard at a charitable discount assuming you can even get hold of someone who would have authority to do something like that. Glad you got the other 2 working. You could become a seller and offer the screen and any other still useable parts and likely raise enough money to buy a good used laptop. 

[Hawk5891]

Appreciate that Huffer. Yeah - I tried to do some minor clean up on it - but the liquid damage was so bad that pieces came off just touching them - Not sure a shop would be able to do anything with this one unfortunately. Oh well - I have the machine for other parts and will get the other two up and running for the little ones to use - Thanks for the input! Yes - what a way we have come where it's good luck to getting in touch with a manufacture, and even more luck needed to get someone ready and willing to help lol. Everything's about that bottom line $$$ 🙂 .