20 Most Recent HP Compaq nw8440 Notebook Questions & Answers

Chances are, you have a bad motherboard. You can try one thing. In my experience, it works about 10% of the time.
Unplug the power cable from the laptop. Remove the battery. Press and hold the Power button on the laptop for 30 seconds (This will drain the power from all components). Put the battery back in the laptop. Connect the power cable. Try to turn it on. Again, in my experience, it works seldomly (I promise I've seen it work several times, though).
If that doesn't correct your issue, you may have a DC jack which has solder joints broken. If your laptop charges "sometimes" but not others, this is probably you. The DC Jack is the component inside of your laptop which the power cable plugs into. Over time, whether you do as much as trip over the cable down to just laying the laptop on your bed (it will sink down and put pressure on the DC jack/power cable), the DC jack may have wiggles itself free of the solder joints holding it to the motherboard. This is not a cheap repair.You can test this by giving SLIGHT upward pressure to the power cable at about an inch away from the edge of the computer. Keep an eye on the front LEDs. If no other LEDs light up, then you probably have a bad power cable. If, when gently pressing up on the power cable, you get an LED to turn ON, then you have a bad DC jack.
In either case, the only fix is to take the PC to a computer repair shop.
I hope this helps and thank you for using Fixya.com.

The only solution is to contact an authorized HP Compaq repair depot, and either exercise the WARRANTY, to get it fixed, or, if the warranty has expired, pay them to purchase and install a replacement motherboard. EXPENSIVE!

Sounds like it could be a loose connection between the screen and the motherboard. Not much you can do to fix it short of taking the computer apart completely. I would recommend taking in to a shop for repairs.

there is a small slide side to the left then slide battery out

HI There,


I'm a full-time laptop repair technician. Here are the possibilities of what can be the problem. It's definitely a hardware issue. I'm going to list them in the order of most likely to the least likely.

• 1. Behind the Bezel (the plastic frame that goes around your actual screen panel) is a small curcuit board (long, flat and thin) that controls many of the screens functions. It has either become partially bumperd loose at its connection plug or has been damaged and needs to be replaced.
• 2. The Backlight (a very slender flourescent bulb behind the top part of the bezel) has had one of its connections partially damaged. If it had become completely broken at the connection your screen would be black.
• 3. The screen has a plug that attaches to the motherboard inside the laptop. It may have been knocked partially loose and needs to be firmly plugged in again.

None of these repairs can be done without prior experience of disassembling your laptop, or having the Service Manual available for viewing as you go through each progressive step to get to each part and check it.

A favor please? If you are considering leaving a "2 Thumbs up" rating, please leave none at all. It only reduces my rating here for trying to help you for free.

Regards,

Marcus

I don't know when the last time that you have installed XP, but it certainly would not hurt to reinstall the operating system again along with SP1, SP2, and SP3. "Microsoft Updates" site offers all of these updates for free provided that you have a legitamite copy of windows installed. The manufacturer's wesite offers free downloads to your model specifically, which could help. If you still have the original factory install and recovery disks, reinstalling the original drivers would almost guarantee no hardware problems. Drivers become contaminated and can lose the necessary information to make hardware work. It is also possible that your hardware is going bad. There are tests from your manufacturers website that will help you decide. Good Luck.

It seems that the connector/ socket from from the LCD to the main board is not well and firmed connected. It's located just right above the keyboard. But you have to open the upper case of the Notebook

When you say "I bought a new power supply", do you mean you bought a new ac adapter?

Try this method and write back to me with the results:

1) Unplug the notebook and REMOVE the battery pack

2) Hold down the power button for 15 seconds

3) PLUG IN the ac adapter to the wall outlet (DO NOT PUT BACK IN THE BATTERY)

After you plugged in you pc, try powering on the unit again.

If it does not power on, please write me back.

A common reason for this is that one or both of your RAM is bad. If you have more than one stick of RAM, you can try take one out while the machine is totally off and battery removed. After it is removed, reconnect the power and try to boot it up. If nothing changes, swap out the sticks. If it comes up with one stick in that means the other one is bad. You can run, albeit slower, on one stick as long as you need to, but it is recommended to maintain at least 1 GB of RAM at minimum.

Good Luck,

NOLA Tech

Do not use that adapter....it is bad, go out and get one that is putting out the correct voltage. It is running slower and uncorrectly because it is no longer getting the correct and consistant voltage that it needs. If you continue to use that particular adapter, you will fry your motherboard and have to replace both. Spend the bucks and get a correct one, look on the bottom of the computer and it will tell you the correct voltage the unit runs at.

please cheek your user guide for more info on OUTPUT or cheek that your power output (voltage) are of specification. Take care of you.

Have you opened up the bottom of the laptop to ensure that the battery is set correctly? Also, on the bottom of the latop, check that the memory chip is inserted properly in the slot, or the laptop will not work, either.
See, all those little slots on the bottom of the laptop are there for specific reasons, and if they are not set properly, if the chips or batteries are loose, etc. then your laptop is not going to work the way it is supposed to work. You spent a lot of money for this laptop, so spent a little quality time ensuring that all components are set correctly, or the laptop won't work worth a darn. Dropping it from a height of two feet is fun, but not worth a damn if you want your laptop to work when you've finished playing games with it.

Take it apart and check the wires that power the screen. If moving the lid has any effect, you've likely got an intermittent open circuit in the wiring that goes through the hinge. You can try to figure out which one it is, but those wires are usually too small to splice without micro-miniature tools. I'd search for the best price on a replacement screen for when you get tired of it or it finally goes away completely.

If you can give it a desktop-replacement role where the lid doesn't need to move much anymore or run it off an external monitor permanently, you may be able to extend the useful life at little or no cost. A docking station would be preferable here, since running a direct external monitor over the long term will likely fry the motherboard after a year or so of constant use.

Last choice is to slick the drive, sell it for cheap on ebay, take that money and the money you saved on not buying a screen and put it towards a new one if you want to invest in an upgrade.

Here you go.
You'll need Adobe Reader or the like to view.