Given a "broken" HP dv6704

[Turbopit]

This laptop came from my girlfriends mom. She was having problems with it and she took it to a shop. The shop told her a virus had corrupted the motherboard and it would need a new one. Before she told us anything about this she bought a new laptop similar to this one. I assume she probably gets them at Best Buy. I'm not sure why she doesn't do some research or ask for my help. I'm sure the shop she went to was just trying to sell her stuff she didn't need.

She gave us this laptop, I started it up at home and was given an error message. This was a while ago and I don't have the message or laptop in front of me but I remember at the time I googled it and found that the solution is to reload the operating system. I assume it came with a Vista disk but I also assume I shouldn't bother with Vista?

So what I was thinking is getting Windows Home 64 to load onto it.
Should I double the ram?

Anything I may not be thinking of? I've never used AMD it's been a while since I've done any kind of upgrades.

It's mostly going to be used for email, internet, music and movies. May use "Play On" to stream movies/hulu to our tv as well. I'm sure it will get whatever version of photoshop would run ok on it.

My desktop PC is very old. Think I am still using a P4 in it when I put it together many years ago. It's probably going to get replaced this spring with a sandy bridge build but if this laptop works out well enough that might get delayed. Other than music listening and photoshop I don't do much on my home computer anymore.

Thanks for the advice!

Specs on the laptop from a google search:

HP Pavilion Notebook dv6704nr / 15.4" WXGA High-Definition* BrightView Widescreen/ Dual-Core Mobile TK-57/ 2048M/160GB/ Lightscribe DVD+/-RW / Vista Home Premium
FeaturesProduct Name dv6704nr
Product Number KC305UA#ABA
Microprocessor 1.9 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-57
Microprocessor Cache 512 KB L2 Cache
Memory 2048 MB (2 x 1024 MB)
Memory Max Up to 4 GB
Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M
Video Memory Up to 799 MB
Hard Drive 160 GB (5400 rpm)
Multimedia Drive LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition* BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)
Fax/Modem High speed 56K modem
Network Card Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity 802.11b/g WLAN
Sound Altec Lansing speakers
Keyboard 101-key compatible & 2 Quick Launch Buttons
Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots One ExpressCard/54 slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
External Ports 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
2 Headphone out
1 microphone-in
1 VGA (15-pin)
1 TV-Out (S-video)
1 RJ-11 (modem)
1 RJ -45 (LAN)
1 notebook expansion port 3
1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)

 

[Lanyap]

You should be able to do a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. You may have to use Vista drviers from the HP support site for some of the devices.

 

[Turbopit]

Thanks

 

[heymrdj]

I'll warn you now, having done it to 6 and 9 series from that run of HP's, that windows 7 drivers are non-existent and you have to use Vista ones. My brother's 6000 came out fairly ok, my 9550t was buggier. It would just randomly bluescreen over a driver, or have issues with monitor switching in graphics. The keyboard function keys driver on my 9550 were unsupported so I couldn't use those. In the end I went back to the Vista Ultimate I ordered it with from the factory.

Also a warning that the 6 series, especially the 65xx, 61xx, and 67xx models were known big time for mainboards dieing. So I wouldn't dump in a lot of money expecting it to keep going. Every company has their series blemishes, between the 7 and 8 series GPU's frying boards from heat, and HP's own cheapness in board construction, the 6 series were a reliability blemish from hell.

Oh also this experience comes from 3.5 years in a computer repair shop. We have a shelf just for the 6 series with bad mainboards..

Then again we also have one for Toshibas with destroyed power jacks, and Dell Inspiron 1525 with cracked/destroyed hinges/fascias.

 

[MAG1969]

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit will load and run fine on this laptop. I have a dv9000 (almost same exact laptop except 17") and have mine running. The only the that will not work are the multimedia quick launch keys.

The series laptop was plagues by Nvidia chipset problems (nvidia admits this) chipset actually heats up too much that it desolders itself from the board requiring the chipset to be reballed.

I have simply carefulley heated up the chipset with a heat gun to reset the chipset. Many people blame the low melting point of the solder used for the problem.

Anyways.. Good luck!

 

[Turbopit]

Thanks all. I'll go ahead and give it a try. I don't mind if some "extra" buttons don't work. I did read some old posts on various websites a few weeks ago after a google search about some of that stuff being a pain to get working.