Originally Posted by dhakir  I've also had the orange light problem for a week before I finally got it working (partially) again.
My problems began when I removed the battery and connected the AC adapter directly to the laptop, as suggested in the manual (to preserve battery life). Probably it was a bad coincidence, but after that it would not boot normally (orange light and sometimes the blue led as well, but no green power light). I thought the adapter had somehow burned something out, since I followed all suggestions in this thread (including opening the laptop several times) and tried booting it at least 30 times, trying different things, but it had NEVER come back again.
Yesterday, I disassembled it completely, checked the entire motherboard, disconnected everything and tried booting it, and nothing. Then I assembled it back and was ready to take it to some tech support (my warranty has expired so I couldn't take it to hp), until today I noticed there was an extra screw. It was one of the fan assembly, so I opened it again and put it there. But I had forgotten to remove the battery this time (I always removed it before disassembling), so I don't know if it helped somehow (probably it didn't), so I tried booting it as I always did after changing things. Miraculously, it went on (by the way, I then noticed that during the first 2 seconds or so you can notice whether it's going to boot or not - the fan does not make so much noise and the green light turns on almost instantly). My happiness didn't last long, though; after some minutes on (without touching it), the screen went off. I rebooted and the orange light came back on. I then tried moving it here and there, until I found out that by pressing the right side of the keyboard (in my case, it's not above the keyboard, it's the right edge of the laptop that works better) with quite some strength (I had tried similar stuff before, but never that hard, since someone in the thread suggested not to press it too hard), it would boot. If I let it go, sometimes the screen goes off and everything apparently stops responding. Then I have to boot it again.
Anyway, what I could notice, booting the laptop without one of the plates, is that there is the fan assembly can move, like, a millimeter or so, if I press it very hard. There are 2 screws around it, and apparently the region where it needs pressure is the lower left corner - quite distant of these screws. Normally, a very tightened keyboard screw (the left one, when the laptop is upside down) should be able to hold it in place, but it can still go loose. I had unscrewed the keyboard a few times before this problem happened (to upgrade the memory), and also had moved the laptop around quite a lot, and it had never happened. Suddenly it went off, and it was just by luck that I found out it was still working and not burned out. I still don't have a solution to make sure the fan assembly will keep tightly in place, so I'm afraid of using the laptop again and having it lock up in the middle of something important. I just couldn't believe such a small displacement could make a difference - there must be some bad quality sensor or connector near that region. Someone in the thread mentioned the fan could "tilt" and be somewhat "loose". For me, it had always seemed secured enough in place, until I found out this incredibly small displacement could be the difference between booting or not booting.
To sum up, my suggestions to anyone with the "orange light" problem would be:
- Remove the keyboard
- Remove the LED board (unscrew 2 black screws on the back of the laptop)
- Remove the memory and keyboard plates
- Push down hard the lower left corner of the fan assembly (the thick metal around the fan)
- Try booting it on while pushing this part down
If it works, release the fan assembly and if the screen goes off, then you have to make sure this part will somehow remain pressed to avoid the problem from happening. In theory, screwing really hard the keyboard screw close to the fan assembly should do, but not always.
I think it's really a shame for hp that this notebook, which seems quite sturdy, has such a problem with something that's not even broken. No wonder so many people sell this laptop cheap on eBay... |