CRACKED! HP 17-F Motherboard DAY23AMB6C0 Rev. C, Model Y23A w/ AMD Processor, Fan (HP-17 F00 4DX)
We had an incident. A family member was having issues with Windows 8.1. It was midnight, a project was due, and Windows 8 was being it’s infamously unintuitive self. She walloped the HP-17 Envy right over it’s heart – over and over, I understand.
If she’d been right handed the damage to the HP-17 F00 4DX laptop might have been minimal. Instead, her left hand smashed the keyboard directly over the fan, the heat sink and processor. The Envy would boot only to shut off, again, immediately. At first there was no video, then there was video, and a message saying the fan was bad, that Windows had to shut down to protect it from hardware damage. And, the warranty period had just just ended.
The fan showed no damage, nor did the motherboard, several keys were stuck, a connector was loosened, half hanging on, but the CPU had been dislodged, and the paste had dried. We repasted the CPU. We prodded and encouraged the left side of the keyboard back into shape. We ordered a replacement fan from eBay.
We pasted the CPU in place, and installed the replacement fan, the computer booted up, and stayed on long enough to make replacement Windows disks, go online, tweak Windows 8 like adding a start menu, add boot to desktop, stop her desktop images from changing much too often, and on and on.
During this honeymoon with the HP machine we ran the four hour hardware test that stressed the machine to max. It tested memory, CPU, in fact, all the hardware; it passed all the tests. The CPU didn’t stutter once.
In fact as long as it sat there in one place, it worked perfectly. It ran without a glitch until we could stand it no more, and we moved the thing.
So, it was cracked. It malfunctioned when we gently tilted the laptop. We took it apart for the hundredth time to make sure a connector wasn’t lose or something we’d overlooked.
We examined the board from stem to stern but there were no hairline cracks that we could see. When we ran out of options we even considered reflowing the board in the oven, but the chips are soldered on the board, and couldn’t (shouldn’t) be removed.
This HP-17 system was a heavy duty, overlarge laptop that was designed to create movies and handle video projects. A complaint about the model HP-17 F00 4DX was that it was more like a desktop than a laptop. Because of it’s size and narrow market, it was hard to find a replacement motherboard. HP parts had none or would not offer any to an individual.
EBay had a used HP 17-F Motherboard DAY23AMB6C0 Rev. C, Model Y23A w/ AMD Processor, Fan that sold before we could buy it. So, now we’re searching for a substitute board with nearly the same specs that might line up with our keyboard and connectors, and chassis. Is that even possible?
Laptops are notoriously unaccommodating when interchanging parts. It’s either find a used replacement board at a decent price or attempt to jury rig a comparable motherboard.
Is that asking too much? Probably, but if anyone has an answer to that question, I’d sure appreciate hearing from you! sh1gr0se@gmail.com.
HP-17F00 4DX part # 763424-501
Model #17-F00 4DX
DAY23AMB6C0 Rev. C
Product # J6U79UA# AB
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