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Fixing an HP G42 with No Video (In New Westminster)
This HP G42 was listed in below:
an HP G42 laptop which worked but one day the screen just went black but the laptop turns on and runs. So now i bought another laptop and this one is up for sale for parts or you can fix it up and you will have a great laptop. For safety reasons the laptop will not come with a hard drive or ram but it does have a almost new battery and also the charger. Over all condition of the laptop i would say is a 9/10 with no cosmetic flaws since everything is in perfect condition and the screen has no scratches or any dead pixels
It looked like video chip problem. I wanted to test whether reflow would work in newer HP laptop. I met the owner at 29th Ave Skytrain station on 1May2013 on the way to work in the morning. At home, I checked the hard drive compartment and and found that the hard drive caddy and screws were missing. I contacted the owner who gave them to me the other day.
On weekend, I disassembled the laptop. The video chip had not been attempted. I tried reflow few times. It still had no video. I had to order a new motherboard.
To rebuild this G42, I needed a hard drive and a motherboard.
For hard drive, I wanted to test out Solid State Drive. I found a 120GB SSD for $65. I met the seller at Oakridge mall. The seller told me that the SSD was working and had warranty from Kingston. He updated the firmware and provided me the firmware CD.
Later on, I found a new motherboard from Argentina in right price. It took two weeks to arrive. When it arrived, I installed it to the laptop. It had production invalid message below:
Product informaton not valid
The following product information programmed into the system board is missing
System Board (OOA) - Product Name
Product Configuration
Product Serial Number
Product Number
I contacted the seller who was told by HP technician a few days later that it could only be fixed by HP technician. I browsed internet on this issue and tested the solution below which worked for this G42:
1. Download rufus_v1.2.0.exe from http://rufus.akeo.ie/ to create a bootable USB.
2. Download the file HPDU.rar from the link at the bottom
3. Unzip the HPDU.rar and copy all files to the bootable USB.
4. Boot up the G42 from bootable USB.
5. Run nbdmifit.bat and enter the product information which is under the battery.
When boot up was resolved, I tried to install Windows 7 on the SSD. The installation stuck on 0%. I emailed the seller several times. Over a month, he did not reply. I contacted Kingston who told me that they do not provide warranty for purchase from Craigslist. I bought a 320GB 7200 RPM hard drive.
With all the problems which took time to get resolve, I finally completed the rebuild on 8Sep2013. It was picked up by a young man from New Westminster on 30Oct2013.
Link:
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/hpeb/attachments/hpeb/bsc-411/118745/1/HPDU.rar