My son recently handed me his non functioning HP Pavilion dv4. The warranty just ran out from the Big Box store and I need to know which way to go, invest or forget.
It begins to start up. I see lights and hear a fan but only lasts for 4-5 seconds. If I try to boot again immediately, the lights and fan function for a GOOD 1 second plus or minus. That is all it will do. I tried pulling the battery and LET sit for a few minutes and I tried turning on without battery installed to no avail. If I let it sit overnight, it will boot for the 4-5 seconds again, then back to the 1 second rule. I thought of using a power pack from an OLD HP laptop I have, but of course the plug into the side of the laptop is a different size. The unit is a few years old and I'm truly a novice when it comes to computer repair. I am a 99%-er, A USER.

There's very little you can do to repair a laptop. Most of the time when you can't FIND the fault in any of the components that are field replacable it's in the mainboard which you can only repair with specialized equipment. If you can even find the fault. Most of the time these problems aren't visible with the naked eye.

Anyhow, here's a few tips.


• Clean the fan
• Look for burned or loose parts
• Press down on parts of the laptop mainboard that could have been subject to unusual amounts of pressure (like parts underneath the palm-rest) and see if you get a different result when turning it on
• Find the CMOS battery and replace it[/lo]
  
  • do a web search to see if someone had a similar problem and managed to find the part that's at fault.
  
  Once that's all done and you've verified that the RAM, CPU and power supply are in good condition you should probably see if you can find a replace mainboard.
  
  The problem with that is that unless it's new, it might have the very same fault or at least develop it in the future.
  
  lol. My list got entirely screwed up..