Press Power, Fan Moves Very Slightly, Nothing Happens *PICS*

[loyukfai]

Got a malfunctioned HP netbook with Atom processors. Doesn't turn on at all. Tried unplugging power and battery, hold power for 30s, no go. If unplugged long enough and try powering on, the CPU fan moves very slightly but then nothing happens. Power LED and battery charging LED are on.

Suspects: Power adapter (5USD), power circuit (10USD), CPU/mainboard (15USD).

Any suggestion/idea...? The old school multimeter at home has ceased to function but I may get another one if it helps diagnosing the issue.

Thanks in advance.

Admin edit: Added PICS warning to subject line

[Medessec]

If you've tried powering it on in every configuration(battery removed, charged battery then powered on laptop to run off battery, etc.) then the last hope you have is that it has a video out(VGA port), which I assume it does. I worked on an HP Mini 210 with HDMI and VGA out. Plug a display into either HDMI or VGA to see if you get anything. You can also try swapping the RAM around, reseating the RAM, or removing certain RAM sticks to try and see if one RAM stick is defective. Although it's highly unlikely that it's the problem, you could also try reseating/removing the hard drive.

If it still refuses to POST(show the HP logo or BIOS screen), then there's not much else any of us can tell you. You can try removing the CMOS battery(usually a little coin battery on the mainboard) and all power sources, then leave the computer for an hour to drain the capacitors. That's a common fix for some Thinkpads... don't know for certain if it would apply to an HP Mini.

Past that, you'll be stuck doing trial & error with the mainboard, screen inverter, and other expensive components to find and replace the defective part. On a machine that's not very powerful nor very valuable, it's hard for us to deem it worth the time. Especially an HP Mini(the audio cards and software are terrible.)

[loyukfai]

Thanks.

Removing the Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator brought the system back to life. Although still not sure if it's the mainboard, the mini PCIe accelerator, or something else that caused the problem. But anyway, the system boots and seems to run fine and the owner is happy with that.

Also found out that it's normal that the fans moves very slightly when the system switches on, seems to be by design. As the fan doesn't run all the time, presumably it's only on when the temperature reaches a certain degree, which is normal, but is this "jiggling" also common on other brands and models...?

Special thanks to the forum member who's got first hand experience on HP netbooks PMed me with his insights.

Cheers.

[Medessec]

Wow. Never would've guessed it'd be that. It is a trinket of video hardware technically... so I imagine that's what's busted. It seems sort of necessary to enhance the netbook's media playback capabilities, so if I were you or the owner, I'd look into a replacement. But it depends on what you're using it for I suppose.

On almost all laptops, the fans will spin, or jitter for a quick second on first power on. The BIOS does this to make sure there's nothing wrong with the fans. Indeed, on netbooks, because of the low power hardware the fans rarely spin up.

Glad you got it going though!

[RealBlackStuff]

Removing the Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator brought the system back to life.

I got several Thinkpads cheap because the TurboMem was busted and the laptop would not start.
After I took it out, they booted straight away.
PCIe slots seem to be very sensitive to static I guess.

[rkawakami]

Thus the standard recommendation to remove all hardware from the system when dealing with a "power" issue or "weird" problem. Got several "dead" T2x systems to come back to life simply by pulling out the MiniPCI card.

[Medessec]

^^^ second on the T2x and Mini-PCI slots. Almost every T2x laptop I've ever had was a no-booter, JUST because the Wi-Fi card was defective. Really annoying.

It does make a bit of sense though- Mini-PCI and Mini-PCIe are pretty complex interfaces, and run on very low amps. I'd imagine any sort of short(someone yanking them in and out with capacitors still charged, or while the laptop's on) would do a card in.