Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

HP 625 Graphics Chip & Reassembly

Mar 17, 2018 3:43PM PDT

I have the well publicised black screen problem, almost certainly caused by the ATI graphics chip.
I have the system stripped down and have tried heating up the graphics chip as advised. With power on the board and the screen reconnected, I still have the black screen. This could be because I have been too cautious heating the chip, or I have overheated it. ( I don’t have a proper soldering heat gun so have carefully been using a modified electric paint stripping gun!). If anything I suspect that I have not applied enough heat, so as this is a s**t or bust job I will try a bit more heat in due course.
Other than the above, I have couple of problems on which I would appreciate advice:
1. There are two long leads, black & white from the right hand side of the screen that go through to the chip side of the mother board. Possibly microphone? Each has a small plug/socket which appears to connect to one of the soldered points , but there is no indication which ones?
2. Although there is power on the board (the CPU & graphics chip were warm without the heat sink) with the memory in and the hard drive plugged in, the hard drive does not start when the on button is pressed. Any advice on which connectors I might have missed?
There are plenty of videos on YouTube on disassembling the 625, but few on reassembly and these are mainly on mechanical reassembly.
Grateful for any advice.
Graham

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
Is this that nearly 8 year old laptop?
Mar 17, 2018 3:58PM PDT

Why I ask is I don't see such at any of the repair shops. All the folk I know call then dead and gone.

- Collapse -
Answer
HP 625
Mar 17, 2018 5:27PM PDT

Yes, I suppose I have had it for about five years. Built like a tank as someone commented. Being a mean old ****** I thought I would have a go repairing it.

- Collapse -
There are possible units on ebay.
Mar 17, 2018 5:33PM PDT
- Collapse -
(NT) Hp625
Mar 18, 2018 3:25PM PDT
- Collapse -
HP 625 problems
Mar 18, 2018 3:44PM PDT

I am in the UK and there are ‘refurbished’ mother boards available, but not at the sort of price your link indicated.
If I can’t t it to work with a bit more heat, I will buy a new laptop.  The HP 625 did enough for my requirements, so I don’t need a high spec system.
It is just a bit more satisfying to effect a repair.
With respect to the two leads, I have just realised that they probably connect to the little plug-in modem board that I have currently not reconnected.
Which only needs me to sort out why the hard drive isn’t running and of course the original problem.

- Collapse -
Good luck in the repair.
Mar 18, 2018 5:13PM PDT

Here's a video of a pro doing a fix around the GPU.

This sort of failure is one that I can imagine a non-engineer or non-professional tech would be working the GPU instead of the real issue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzcgT_fiVTA

Anyhow, good luck.

As to replacement boards. Different markets but here I'm seeing these spares dropping off the market as time goes on. We can find newer machines ready to use from under 200USD. In fact here's what my brother and I filled desks with at his office. They were 128USD each.

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gs-hp-probook-6460b-14-intel-core-i3-2310m-2-1ghz-4gb-250gb-hdd-new-b

Since there are plentiful used and refurbs here, no one shows interest in the HP 625 here.

Note: Edited for spelling error in title.

Post was last edited on March 18, 2018 5:32 PM PDT