HP Touchsmart 610 Graphics problems - replace mainboard or add MXM card?

[Karlin High]

One of my clients has an HP TouchSmart 610 all-in-one computer. (HP product number BZ662AA.) And loves it, mainly for its large, good-quality LCD panel. Last week it began having graphics problems. Has anyone else had experience with these models?

1. Sometimes the display won't come on at all - not even for BIOS splash. It does change shades of black, which looks like it powered up but isn't getting any video. Then the hard drive gets busy, and eventually it plays Windows 7 start sounds, all in the dark.

2. Other times the display comes on, but with rolling, flickering, horizontal streaks.

3. Once in a rare while, the display works normally.

4. And in any of those conditions, the computer might shut down abruptly with no warning.

This reminds me of laptops with bad graphics chips. Cooling problem, maybe? Heatsinks and fans look OK, not clogged.

Normally I'd hook up an external display to verify a graphics chip problem. But, this computer has no way to hook up an external display other than USB. (I don't have an adapter for that, never needed one before. I could get one, but would it need a driver? How to install it in the dark?)

Or if it was a standard desktop PC, I'd try putting in another graphics card. After getting the case open, it looks like this all-in-one has mostly laptop-size components. It has a slot marked MXM 3.0, which apparently is Mobile PCI Express; I have no experience with that. On the mainboard, it looks like there are 2 ports where the LCD panel's cable could plug in. One says LVDS/DP for UMA, which is where the LCD cable is now. The other one says LVDS/DP for MXM. So, if I got an MXM graphics card, maybe I could plug the panel into the other port and solve the graphics problem. I wonder if that would help the random crashes, though...

Or maybe have to replace the entire mainboard? Would it help, or would a replacement board have the same problem? This model isn't as famous as the HP DV6000 laptops, so I haven't been able to find much info about that so far.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

See if you can find a MXM graphics card that is compatible and give it a shot. Keep in mind you have type I, II, III, and A, B. The cards are not generally sold to the public and you deff. have to do some research.

I could not find your model's version, but you can start here, http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/index.html

I don't see this as any different as a desktop with a bad Nvidia chip or what not.

 

[javjim]

Check if the screen could have a faulty inverter or a bad backlight.

Check if you can see for the logo and everything onthe lcd, it can be seen but probably is very dim.

If the Video card is not working the machine would not post at all

 

[14049752]

Check if the screen could have a faulty inverter or a bad backlight.

Check if you can see for the logo and everything onthe lcd, it can be seen but probably is very dim.

If the Video card is not working the machine would not post at all

If the graphics chip is failing, it can still post in many cases. The backlight or inverter would not cause flickering/rolling streaks as described.

To the OP: An MXM board may help, but I would only order that if you can return it if it doesn't work. With the board (probably) failing, the mxm card might only be a temporary solution.

 

[Karlin High]

Thanks, everyone. The customer chose to have the mainboard replaced, even after I warned that it might not help. We'll see what happens...