EEVblog #1345 - HP DV7 Laptop Repair - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 03, 2020, 10:59:07 pm
content: Dave fixes a thermal issue with his old video editing laptop, a HP Pavilion dv7

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 03, 2020, 11:59:37 pm
content: I have a Sony Vaio Z2 i7-2620M & AMD HD 6700M laptop running in Windows 10.I didn't have to do anything to get the drivers to work in Windows 10, but the original Windows 7 was upgraded to Windows 10 using a Vaio supplied image, surprising considering Sony has sold off its Vaio PC division some years earlier.It was quite the bees knees in innovation back in the day, 1080p 13.1" screen, ultra light carbon fibre 1.17kg (2.27lbs), 8GB RAM & 512GB SSD (2x256GB in RAID 0). It was an ultrabook before ultrabooks were a thing.The AMD HD 6700M graphics are inside a companion external Blu-ray slim drive caddy connected via Thunderbolt over optical (aka "Light Peak").

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 04, 2020, 04:16:49 am
content: I was given a laptop to look at for an overheating issue once...When I pulled it apart, I found a wad of dust that was as solid as a piece of felt completely blocking the path for the cooling fan air flow.No surprise when I removed that wad that things ran cool again.Something to keep an eye on, especially if you're in the habit of using your laptop while sitting up in bed.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 04, 2020, 04:50:11 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on November 03, 2020, 10:59:07 pmI have the same laptop. I have the HDMI out plugged into 1080p screens and the video mode shows up fine, both 1920x1080 and 1280x720 as soon as you select external monitor/projector mode, or separate modes on 2 screens.The video modes are restricted to lower resolution if you try to clone the external screen with the built in LCD. You might even be able to get 1440p out, though I haven't tried this mode.It also has no problem playing back 1080p or bluray images. Only some newer revisions of Firefox have stutter when playing back 1080p @60hz with Intel graphics. The ATI is better, but always makes Win7 crash randomly when enabled, so I never use the ATI. This may be defective on my laptop as I can deliberately trigger graphics glitches when using TeamViewer as a client in full-screen mode when the ATI graphics is enabled.

author: I.T. Manager
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 05, 2020, 01:02:41 am
content: With a 17" screen the DV7 is a big laptop and was often used a desktop replacement.I have worked on a few HP DV7's with varying issues.Overheating, as with Dave's DV7 is common and all laptops can suffer from dust in vents and fans.Usually, the first the technician hears about it is when the laptop continually shuts down, most times a clean fixes the problem, sometimes it is too late and overheated chips have failed.Bad video memory was another DV7 fault (caused the screen to show random green pixels). Haven't worked on one for about five years so can't remember other faults I came across.Note for Dave or anyone wanting to repair one:The service manual was available online from HP, as I downloaded a copy. I can make it available, if it is possible to upload it here.

author: Ashen
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 06, 2020, 02:38:00 pm
content: Well, there's a guide how to make a Windows 10 using AMD discrete graphics on this laptop.Some tools/drivers are required^_^UBR tool, to get valuable info from your machine, which is required to make every function to work properly. I've uploaded ithereDDU (Display Driver Uninstaller), to properly remove windows default drivers, can be downloaded from their official website:https://www.wagnardsoft.com/And latest Leshcat Drivers for old AMD GPU's. Grab it from hisrepositoryAdditional note - download drivers which you might need before you start installation of Win10^_^First step is to get back to Windows 7, install minimum set of drivers (to make sure that everything IS working properly). Original drivers have to be downloaded from official HP's website. Install, as i said, bare minimum of drivers - Intel's chipset, Media Engine, Intel's GPU and AMD's GPU, and "Nothing else matter".After you installed everything i've said above, you have to run UBR tool. You'll see something like it:Write down anywhere you feel comfortable two sets of data - {CurrentControlSet Intel} and {ControlSet001 Intel} In my case it'sf840for both, your machine might shown different values. These are required to make all graphics workng properly after Windows 10 installation (like sleep mode, brightness control, etc). Keep them in safe place in case if you have to reinstall Windows. They are working with Windows 7/8.1/10.Second step is - install Windows 10. Be sure that your laptop IS in offline mode - no ethernet nor Wi-Fi connection is allowed! You can use Windows 7 x64 drivers for most of internal hardware. But install minimum set of drivers first - Intel's Chipset and Media Engine. Then you have to prepare your Leshcat drivers. Run it and you'll see a startup menu. Check in it's configuration window that you have marked all required stuff, like Intel and AMD's drivers and let it extract all required files.Third step is to run DDU tool. When you launch it it will offer you to reboot in SAFE MODE. Do it. When in SAFE MODE DDU will restart istelf and you have to:1) Remove AMD Drivers (without restart or quitting DDU!)2) Remove Intel Drivers (with reboot, which is recommended).After laptop reboots go to folder with previously extracted Leshcat drivers and run manually Intel's GPU drivers. There will be 2 folders, don't let them confuse you, you need the set for Windows 8.1/Windows 10. After installation it might ask you to reboot, it's okay to do that.BUT BEWARE!You have to configure Intel drivers before proceeding further^_^Run UBR tool again. There you have to press {J} button and tool will ask you to manually input configuration data (f840 for my machine, possibly different data for yours!) twice - {CurrentControlSet Intel} and {ControlSet001 Intel}. It can be identical values for both or different for each other. Then tool will ask you to reboot to apply these values.After reboot your system have to work properly in normal mode, after you put it in a sleep mode and wake up.Fourth step is to install AMD's drivers. Back again to folder with extracted drivers, run SETUP and follow instruction. It already configured, so just run it and proceed with it till the end. Can't remember if it will or not ask you to reboot, but do it anyway, just to be sure that everything installed properly.Technically, if everything went fine and all internal hardware is perfectly working, you've done hardest part of the job and now you can use AMD discrete graphics on Windows 10.Just install all required drivers for other hardware and you can safely get it online to update Windows.Be aware - depending on installed cardreader in your laptop (Realtek definitely won't!) it might or might not be working with Windows 7 drivers. In that case let me know, i'll upload for you the drivers which i use on my DV7 with Win10.P.S. - as i said on your youtube channel, you can upgrade laptop's CPU to a better one. But check Service & maintenance guide first. You can check for it on official HP's website. My DV7-6152er has Core i5 2410M installed. After some soldering (i've soldered in parts for third PWM phase of CPU power supply and now is able to use quad core cpu's) and i'm using i7-2820QM which is wa-a-a-ay better^_^By the way, i also tried i7-2630QM and it sucks. It's just a bit better than i5-2410 i had before.One more thing - this motherboardcan be upgradedfor 2GBytes of GDDR5 VRAM.

author: scopeman
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2021, 03:53:41 pm
content: Hi Dave,I have 3 of these laptops. One of the common problems is that the left display hinge breaks loose from the base, so I would suggest 2 things:1. Use JBWeld Steel Epoxy around the hinge mounting to head off cracking of the plastics. You will have to unscrew the hinge from the base plate to do this. If you see cracks there you might have a little Dremel work to do to rough up the plastic to make sure that the epoxy will stick.2, Usually the display hinge tension is set way too tight. There are Nylock nuts that are used to set the spring tension on the bars that are guided through the part of the hinge that is on the display. Simply take a nut driver and loosen these nuts a bit so that the display closes easily. Even if you don't have cracks in the baseplate I would do this anyway.You can find brand new keyboards for these units on eBay cheap. In addition, you can get a high capacity battery that has a bonus of propping the laptop up at an angle.I really like these laptops for CAD work, especially for PCB layout so I intend to keep them running as long as I can.By the way, did you try to get the drivers updated to allow them to run in Win10?Two of my machines are still running Win7. I bought another one a while back when I had a scare when my main one died, and I was afraid that I could not fix it. The replacement runs Win10, but so far that one is on the shelf as I did fix my Win7 one. I really do like the two hard drive feature. I don't know of any other 17" modern laptop that can do that. I have 2 1TB drives in mine.All the best,SamW3OHM