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Question

Any way to add video outputs to all-in-one system?

Apr 13, 2017 12:02PM PDT

I personally HATE all-in-one PCs due to scenarios like I am about to describe. I have a customer bring me an HP AIO that won't turn on. Anyway, I diagnosed the unit and it is turning on. Here is the problem. You hit the power button and it turns on and boots up with a chime and everything. There is no output to the screen and there are no HDMI ports on the unit.

Anytway, I opened the AIO up and it wasn't hard at all. It was only two screws which I have seen before but it isn't common, especially on a cheap unit like this one.

The power inverter/converter board for the LED was smoked. Components were melted and blackened so I knew it was at least part of the problem. I blindly ordered and replaced this part as it was only $7 and I was willing to gamble that much money. Nothing was solved. It still turns on and boots with no display. I assume that the circuitry on the motherboard or the LED backlights themselves were fried by the incident.

Anyway, the owner has since replaced the unit and gave it to me to recycle or whatever so I wanted to play with it a little before sending it to the recyclers and see if there was any way to get a working display in this unit for cheap.

It has been suggested that I use a USB video adapter. The problem is that I assume drivers will need to be loaded for this to work and I have no display and no way to load the drivers so that is likely out. Anyone have a way to make this work.

The other possibility is to splice the harness into a laptop or desktop display. I assume the output it digital and not analog but don't know.

It is an HP 23-g013w if that helps. I know the W means it came from Wal-Mart and this is what you expect. Again, this is a low-end unit so I don't want to spend a lot of money to tinker but it is at least a Haswell Pentium Dual Core which might have some interesting potential. I could mount it in a slimline case with a laptop display mounted to the outside of the unit. I might see if the pinout looks similar. Then there is the issue of powering the backlight.

Conor

Discussion is locked

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Answer
How do you know it's the backlight?
Apr 13, 2017 12:07PM PDT

Did you do the flashlight test?

Also, it's nearly impossible to get the drivers installed without a good display. But if you had a LINUX system many of those just work with USB video cards and not such a big deal.

I'd sell it off for parts and never look back.

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I am not 100% sure.
Apr 13, 2017 12:33PM PDT

I did the flashlight trick of course and those results were inconclusive. I could see something flash on the screen but it was more like the entire thing was turning yellow for a few seconds and alternating like this a few times.

I thought it might be fun to play with and use the small motherboard in some type of enclosure as a media PC or similar but this one may not be worth the hassle.

The CPU looks like it eBays for $39.99 without issue so I will probably sell that and then junk the rest. I will keep the RAM, optical drive, HDD, but the rest will go to the recyclers.

Conor

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the flashlight test
Apr 13, 2017 9:19PM PDT

if you used the flashlight with the computer on, then you should have seen a normal desktop. If not, then it is a good chance there is most like a major problem.

I think any fix would be a waste of money - would exceed the value of the aio.

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I agree
Apr 13, 2017 10:12PM PDT

The fact I couldn't see a normal post screen or desktop made me think that something else might be wrong. Either the screen is toast or the circuitry in the MB is fried. If I could have hooked something up externally without spending a lot of money I might have tried it but I don't think it is worth messing with at this point. I wonder why the LED inverter had melted and fried components in the first place.

Conor

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Ahh ! This AIO is the same as
Apr 13, 2017 10:23PM PDT
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Answer
Gamble
Apr 13, 2017 9:02PM PDT

How much money are you willing to gamble?

I see more than a few usb>video adapters.

Specs show the stock unit comes with w8.

So read up on each adapter to see if w8 is pnp that will at least allow you to get a display.

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I think I am done with this thing.
Apr 13, 2017 9:22PM PDT

It looks like these adapters run in the $40-50 range and that is more than I care to spend at this point. It was a cheap and somewhat low-end unit from the start. It seems like they made it a disposable from the beginning and I don't know if this will solve it either. I think getting $40 out of the CPU is the best way to go. The rest will go off with the junk to recycle.