I really enjoy taking apart computers! Laptops are much harder than desktops to work with because everything has to fit perfectly together. To get to the graphics chip, the entire laptop had to be completely taken apart. I only missed one connection ribbon the second time I had to reassemble without looking at the instructions!
The LCD screen on this dv9000 had gone out and connecting it to a small LCD TV via the HDMI cable provided a short fix. Then, that option went out after a month because the culprit, the nVidia graphics chip, finally had had too much overheating. As I researched the issue, I found that it has been an ongoing issue with nVidia chips installed on a whole slew of HP laptop models. Unfortunately, this particular model is not eligible for free repair like all the others. I'm glad my new HP laptop has an ATI chip and doesn't have this issue.
The defective laptop was replaced by an iMac. I'll probably follow suit as soon as I get a good excuse. So far, my HD has already been replaced once and I'm getting a few, sporadic HD errors on the new drive.
A month after the iMac moved in, I tore apart the HP Pavilion with these instructions. And, a corresponding YouTube video showed how to apply a quick fix. I was afraid to fry the motherboard with heat, but I had no other options. In the end, I was able to get VGA output to work and an extremely dim output on the laptop's screen. So, now I've got to replace the inverter for the screen and things may be back to normal.
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