Some friends of ours asked me to see if I could repair an HP laptop that was suffering from power problems. The system was prone to lose power even when moved only slightly. In addition, the battery wasn’t able to charge properly and the power LED often flashed different error status codes.

After looking at a repair manual, and the system itself, I concluded that there were three likely causes of this problem: (1) a faulty power connector, (2) a faulty motherboard, or (3) a faulty power button.

The power button seemed to be the least likely cause. If it was bad I would expect it to only be a problem starting up or shutting down the system, but not a problem once the system was powered up and running.

The motherboard was a more likely candidate than the power button. However, since the system does have a separate power connector, which wasn’t soldered onto the board, I figured it was the most likely cause, and also the least expensive to fix.

There’s a reason I included the specific system model number in this post title along with the fact that system has Beats Audio integrated. It doesn’t exactly match the general repair manual for the HP ENVY dv7 line. In fact, the model number for the power connector included in this manual is not the part that this specific model requires.

• HP ENVY dv7t-7200 CTO Select Edition Notebook PC User guides (Support Page)
• HP Envy DV7 Repair Manual (PDF, Page 75, Power Connector Cable)

For this model the correct part number is 678222-YD1 Rev A. I wasn’t able to find this part in HP’s parts store but I was able to find it on Ebay. It’s possible that HP typically uses a different part number but the part number I’ve written above is taken from the faulty cable itself.

Note that replacing this part is effectively a tear-down of the laptop that requires removing at least half of all components. If you’re not comfortable with keeping track of where each screw came from, and reconnecting ZIF ribbon cables among other connectors, than you may be better off taking it somewhere for repair.

Overall, if you take your time and don’t force anything, most individuals with prior experience can probably manage this just fine. It just takes a good bit of caution and patience.

The only other problem I encountered was when removing the keyboard. Unfortunately, the instructions in the manual don’t include additional information relevant to this model. Yes, pushing up on the bottom of the keyboard, via a hole in the DVD drive bay, is the first step. What is not included is that you’ll need to find two other points on the side opposite of the keyboard where you’ll can push on some screw holes with a blunt object. These are used as additional pressure points to pop up the keyboard near the middle and left area.

Replacing the part solved the power problems for this laptop.