Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

[liquidzorch]

Hello. My star wars edition HP laptop has died on me. I have traced the fault down to a shorted SOC (processor) it seems. Searching online I have no motherboards for sale near me, and if I search on ebay I can see some, but they are so expensive it's not worth it. I could buy a new laptop for that price. My version is just a simple i5 without dedicated graphics.

So searching for the MB model number I have found other boards that are very similar, in the 15-ab series, and one I really want in the 17T series laptops. They vary by very little, like the battery port is missing on the 17T, which is something I can easily transplant onto. Or the keyboard port is shifted to the right, but the exact same pins, so I could easily move the port back to my correct spot, or even leave it there, as my eyboard ribbon would reach.

The only thing I am worried about is configuration of the EC or BIOS and my screen. I saw somebody already tried to swap in a board from a 17inch AMD board, with the same board number, and the internal screen didn't work, they never posted if they found a solution, I am guessing something in the EC or BIOS for the screen? maybe.

Can anyone confirm, if I buy this i7 board, that came from a 17T laptop, that has the same motherboard model number and rev, but different HP part number, and I solder the battery port in the correct place and transplant anything else needed, would it work? Is it worth a try?

Thanks in advance!

[mcplslg123]

Re: Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

Can you post the pics of two motherboards??

[liquidzorch]

Re: Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

Here they are. The one without the heatsink is the one in my laptop i5-6200u processor. The one with the heatsink has a i7-6500u, and the battery port is not installed (it has a connector for wires), and the keyboard and keyboard backlight connectors are moved slightly to the right (my motherboard has those ports, and my keyboard ribbons do reach these ports, all pins are in the same position).

The only thing different is a realtek chip on the bottom of the board, close to where the ethernet and sd board connect. Mine does not have it, and the donor would have it. I can solder and un solder anything that is not a BGA. I was thinking of just placing the battery port connector, and leaving everything else as is. But I am worried about my 15" screen not being compatible on this board that might be configured for a 17" screen.




links:
https://i.ibb.co/yy0GK4S/an15.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/x3CcDjd/17T.jpg

[liquidzorch]

Re: Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

Well, I ended up buying the boardxot should be here in two weeks. Hopefully the 17 inch to 15.6inch screen change will be compatible. I didn't see anything else that would cause it to be incompatible. If anyone does know of any bios programming I might need to do for the screen to be compatible, please let me know.

Just an extra queation that's isn't as important: could my original bios be used on this board?

[mcplslg123]

Re: Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

No,You cant use your original bios on the new mb as both boards use different bios. The board seems compatible and some minor soldering of components may be required but very hopeful this will fit here and work.

I'll advise to buy a new display cable specific to the new motherboard and dont use the old display cable. Thats should make it support your old screen on new motherboard.

[liquidzorch]

Re: Motherboard swap compatibility HP 15-an and 17T or 15-ab

UPDATE

Just in case anyone has the same question I did. The motherboard did work, but with a few catches.

So first things first, you wil have to swap the battery connector from the old board to the new board, then swap the keyboard connectors from one location to another. AFter that everything will work as intended EXCEPT the monitor. You can use it through HDMI. To get the monitor working, there is a lot of work to be done. If you compare the underside of the board, under the lvds connector, you will se a lot of differences, starting with a realtek chip that the star wars laptop (original) does not have but the 17t (new board) does. This chip need to be removed and all the caps and resistors around it need to be removed and replaced. Once all that is done, it will work on the original 15.6" screen. Sorry I did not take pictures, it ended up being a long day and I wasn't even sure if it was going to work without bios programming issues.

But at the end of the day, I put it back together and got a perfectly working computer (upgraded to i7). No issues what so ever. Just a little hard work since the schematics for this optional realtek chip were a little hard to read and determine what needed to be swapped since this is an unmarked board and there is no boardview. Had to do it all one by one, one board to the other. Of course ther are certain bypass caps that you don't need to even bother to remove, since they aren't doing anything, but when in doubt, just make a 1 to 1 copy of you original board on the underside of the lvds connector.