HP Pavilion laptop screen is messed up

Hey all,

I have in my possession one of my friend's laptop, an HP Pavilion DV-4. She recently needed to replace the battery since Windows reported that her old battery needed to be replace since it couldn't hold a charge. She got the battery, replaced it, and that's where the problems began...

The laptop starts up fine, boots into Windows normal, but the screen itself doesn't work, a full on black screen. I have it connected to a VGA monitor to test if the graphics chipset is fine. It worked fine for the first five minutes on VGA with perfect color and all. Then it went weird and now there's a blue tinge. I tried to hook it to an HDMI monitor and started up the laptop, but the BIOS hung saying that it's "Preparing to boot to OS" and does nothing.

On HDMI, the BIOS doesn't have a blue tinge, on VGA, it does.

I looked at the replacement battery and it was 11.1 volts, it should be 10.8 like the original. My conclusion that I drew from this is that the battery slightly overvolted something, either the LCD screen, the inverter, or maybe a voltage converter. I'm now thinking the graphics chip is also damaged...

OH, I already tried power cycling it, so any comments and suggestions on what you guys think would help. I'm trying to get a second opinion.

I have yet to crack the sucker up and see if there's a loose connector.

Coke Robot,

1. Power off laptop
2. Remove battery
3. connect power back to the laptop (battery still removed)

Does the laptop work? yes or no

karlsnooks said:

Coke Robot,

1. Power off laptop
2. Remove battery
3. connect power back to the laptop (battery still removed)

Does the laptop work? yes or no

Click to expand...

Yep, that's actually how I've been running it since I got it.

UPDATE!! Something's odd going on. I connected it to a different VGA monitor, it correctly displayed the proper colors, and I plugged in the HDMI monitor, same outcome. I actually had the screen on the laptop work only once and it did that when I plugged in the other VGA monitor. Then I unplugged it, restarted, and still nothing on the laptop screen.

coke robot,

Turn off the laptop.
Do not connect an external monitor.
do not connect any external devices to the laptop.
remove the power cable from the power inverter to the laptop.

insert the battery.
connect the power inverter to the laptop.
Connect the power inverter to the ac.

Power on the laptop.

Display function correctly?

karlsnooks said:

coke robot,

Turn off the laptop.
Do not connect an external monitor.
do not connect any external devices to the laptop.
remove the power cable from the power inverter to the laptop.

insert the battery.
connect the power inverter to the laptop.
Connect the power inverter to the ac.

Power on the laptop.

Display function correctly?

Click to expand...

Hmm, problem. The old battery is literally wasted. It can't hold a charge or even start up even one LED on the whole system. I don't want to use the new one since I fear that might aggrivate things some. But I'll give this a try with the old one though.

coke robot,
Use SIW (link in my sig) to determine state of the old battery.

Here's what SIW shows for my battery.

Coke Robot,
While we are at this, let's give the battery a chance.

WIN + X key combo | in the Battery status section, select PowerSaver |
click on the icon in the Display section, and set the display brightness to the minimum acceptable brightness.

WIN is the key with the wavy microsoft flag on top.

Coke Robot,

I'm a little slow tonite. I just recalled that HP recalled several units because of battery problems.

I recommend visiting the HP site to find out if there are any recall actions. To take advantage of HP's recalls, then she must register the laptop at the HP site.

karlsnooks said:

coke robot,
Use SIW (link in my sig) to determine state of the old battery.

Here's what SIW shows for my battery.
View attachment 167969

Click to expand...

I'm going to get on that right now!

Ok, the battery wear level is 0%, the current capacity is 0 mWH, and the estimated charge remaining is 0%.

karlsnooks said:

Coke Robot,

I'm a little slow tonite. I just recalled that HP recalled several units because of battery problems.

I recommend visiting the HP site to find out if there are any recall actions. To take advantage of HP's recalls, then she must register the laptop at the HP site.

Click to expand...

I looked into that but unfortunately, the battery wasn't in the recall.

Odd thing going on here...after a Windows Update restart, the laptop screen started to work again for the second time. I looked into the ATI Catalyst control center and it detects the laptop and external monitor. Windows detected the laptop monitor after I disabled the external from Catalyst control center.

Hmmm....I'm starting to now think there's a software issue here and not a hardware.