HP X360 Spectre laptops - They Just Die

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[@eeledahc]

I'm very surprised that Alex took it that far. If those mosfets are welded to the ground pad like that, you have a 1 in 7 chance of getting them off. Dremeling them off down to the pads is how it's done but it's time consuming and messy.

[@tyrellwreleck4226]

I'm guessing they used heat resistant epoxy on those mosfets

[@imqqmi]

I was thinking the same. All that heat delaminated the board, could be fixed by grinding it, or leave to someone who will grind if not Northridgefix. but there's little point in it now.

[@KaptanDerya]

I thought the same thing, it wouldn't be any other way... it would be nice with a controlled Dremelle.

[@myne00]

I'm semi-surprised there's not a vacuum + drill attachment designed especially for mosfets.

[@chrischi783]

If you dremel these out, than it could be a problem in the layer too, about the melting mosfett. And the mosfetts are not the problem, i think there is an other reason. So Alex spend 2 or 3 hours for repair, than it is cheaper to buy a new motherboard.

[@husseinkiani2351]

You can grind the part of. When you reach solder stop grinding and solder the new part on top of what you get. you need a stronger grinder than your grinding pen .

[@supergrendel]

I've had a computer repair business for 16 years and over the course of those years customers would bring me laptops of all brands. I ended up with a literal STACK of HP laptops in my closet. Either a GPU would die or hinges would break or the screen backlight would fail or the board would fail and they would just leave them with me and go buy a new laptop. I would NEVER buy ANY HP product. Everything they have ever made has been absolute shit...except for maybe a first gen laserjet 4.

[@zadainaway7712]

probook 6570b is a tank. best laptop they made

[@intraterrestrial69]

I still have my 2013 Envy DV6, shes alive and kicking. What Im noticing most is the consistent downward slop of quality, along with peoples willingness to accept the increasing disposability of electronics.

[@enteranon3342]

When I have such a repair, I use the Dremel grinding and polishing disc to sand the transistor down to the pad so that all the pads are preserved if they are not already short-circuited internally

[@TheFool2cool]

Do you have a part number for that disc?

[@SAerror1]

Wow! How common is it to find components that have welded themselves directly to the copper trace like that? I wonder if it matters if they used too little solder paste at the factory or something... Oh, and a late Happy new year!

[@oilybrakes]

When components overheat, the solder gets out from underneath the components as tiny solder balls until there is almost nothing left. So the quantity doesn't matter. The heat destroys the epoxy that holds together the fiberglass layers of the board and delaminates the layers. And the welding, I believe it happens when the components blow up. Because it takes about 1000°C to melt copper.

[@ChodaBoyUSA]

It would be helpful for people shopping for a laptop, if you published a ranked list of products you see come in for repair. The only laptop I have had fail (so far), was an HP. I would love to know which brands and models are least often repaired.

[@denosorx3805]

Msi laptops are the best

[@Shady-Gaming]

why didnt grind the those mosfet with a grinder from top to the traces bottom

[@NorthridgeFix]

I'll pass. No worth it inhaling cancerous particles.

[@DIYDaveOK]

Alex, are *any* laptop manufacturers worth a darn these days? Seems like they've all gone to garbage.

[@corr2143]

Buy a used $300 - 400 thinkpad add some ram if you can and make sure it has an ssd and a new oem charger.

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Framework?

[@stevenwilson7232]

Lenovo *Thinkpad* = the best laptops (not all Lenovos, only Thinkpad)

[@Live1509]

First HP is a shit brand and you should not buying anything from printers that they locked with silent FW updates to PCs that are bad designed. If the mosfet weld so bad to the trace the design is terrible.

[@mendiarapi]

What if a customer says you did that to my board and then decided not to fix how do you actually deal with that?

[@Derricky007]

It always sucks to encounter such scenarios. Everyone in the repair business can get involved in a such case. He got it on video. What can he do ? He tried. It is obvious, he could only have grinded them down. No other way arround. The device was defective, so you can blame no one else.

[@Notnownev]

I bought this laptop in 2019, had to have a complete replacement sent within a year. That replacement is now overheating and crashing. It's always the same issue for me, overheating.

[@lucasrem]

Heating and swollen battery pack

[@nbrettoner]

This video has been very interesting; as it highlights and talks about the several reasons such as this one are deemed to be "no fix"

[@azurehydra]

I own one of those. I hope that never happens to mine. Oh well.

[@AnssiVIH]

Btw. How has it been going with cracked PCB's when talkin about 4090? Have manufacturers given refunds or sent new ones? Or do they just say that there is no problem (user fault)?

[@lucasrem]

Swollen battery pack

[@vicrod74]

Very interesting to see what is practical in terms of repairs and when you should throw in the white towel. Thank you Alex for this video!

[@haloslayer255]

I'm glad I've never purchased an HP system, laptop, or otherwise. Even though it was a no-fix, it still highlights important information. Have a good day, and keep up the excellent work!

[@morten1]

But you know that HP is not worse than other brands right

[@byronwatkins2565]

I predict that some of the layers were already shorted together when it came in. I wonder whether milling the components off with a cutter to board level would allow placing new parts though.

[@Loongstreet]

I purchased an HP 15” envy laptop running a Rizen 7 CPU from Best Buy. To make a long story short the CPU failed after 13 months. When the back was taken off the computer, the manufacture date in the back of the CPU was 2019. I purchased the computer November 2021. So the CPU in the computer was three years old. Neither Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard or AMD would give me any help or any relief on repairing the computer. I spent $1000 on the Purchase. As of today the computer is still sitting in the closet. I might buy a new CPU motherboard to repair it. The bottom line is none of these companies are going to stand behind their products and help you. They have no integrity. They don’t care about you as a customer. My next purchase will be an Apple product running iOS. Tired of the windows operating system. This last incident with the HP computer sealed the deal.

[@ntag411]

Ironic the HP X360 Spectre Laptop has a similar name to the Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console of the distant past. I believe the 360 was their own designed second gen gaming console. The first gen was by Intel, a good hardware maker IMO. The Xbox 360 had a well known issue of overheating over a period of time eventually giving the Red Ring of Dead during power up. Use it sort of lightly like for standard video, will last around 3 years. Gaming can kill the console within months. I will never trust a software maker for hardware again. Additionally I've toasted several smartphones and their batteries. They were fast to fairly fast phones. Now use a low-end Oukitel WP5 with a 8A battery. Slow/sluggish response time, armored body, acceptable image quality and a touch screen that's only fair. Yet I've not toasted this phone in about 2 years+. Learned and made changes, USB gives the option of slowing the charge rate dramatically. Currently charging at about 7% per hour, that's 0.5A with the screen off. Partial screen video playing, charging drops to about 2% per hour. IMO, phone will remain cool enough to run in this mode continuously.

[@tek9058]

we received hp business notebooks, 3500€ per piece and its just cheap plastic and a crappy cam worse than any 5€ cam. but cpu and 128gb ram are nice

[@felixchoque9208]

Big greetings to northridgefix from Bolivia - La Paz, thanks to your videos I learn more every day, bless you and keep going: sincerely Felix Choque, your continuous follower

[@schizolab]

I had a x360 once, the screen is more fragile than the phone, don't think it's gorilla glass. And the weight of the laptop is many times more, so the screen cracks easily if you drop it. Most importantly, the tablet experience is worse than an iPad, laggy and apps not optimized for tablet.

[@8peterp]

HP=Hardware Problems

[@darkwarrior478]

Sometimes you just have to let go.......word to the wise, use proper cooling fans when sitting in bed with laptop!

[@rchltmedia]

god those x360 laptops designed to fail...

[@mball1993]

Could you not have just bypassed them by running a wire instead? There are already two other mosfets that would be used for protection anyway.

[@teku412]

The diamond cut spectre was working great for years, and now it seems like they are all going bad at around the same time:( i think mine is a bad power supply inductor right next to battery connector

[@IgorL-rv1mn]

Looks like top pressure from the keyboard, doesn't take much to burn out already maxed 4 and 8 pin chips

[@franciscocisneros4904]

I truly sad. You have excellent video ideas, but lack the ability to deliver them. Such wasted potential

[@Gimel2]

Oh no! I have one of those diamond cut HPs. I hope it doesn't break soon 😢

[@DavidVague]

i would watch this just because alex rapping the sponsor text lightning fast

[@JeffGrimes-e7u]

I had one of the diamond cut ones and was underwhelmed. It always had the fan roaring and felt hot. Then it just died - with the caps lock flashing. After a lot of faffing I got ti to boot but as soon as it was warm it died again with a gibberish pattern over the screen. I won't touch HP stuff now. You made it clear at the start that these are a major problem and you made the right call in declaring a no fix.

[@douglofreddo7886]

Was your 13 or 15 inch? I have the 13.. mine certainly gets warm and the fans do run quite a bit but I haven't had it die yet.

[@JeffGrimes-e7u]

13 inch. I made sure the fans weren't bocked with dust but it always ran hot. I used to monitor the temperature and was usually in the high 90s centigrade. If it had been idling it would drop to the 70's, but as soon as I started workinng o it the temperature would shoot up to hig nineties and then the fans roared. Unfortuntely there's no equivalent to alex and NF here in UK!

[@douglofreddo7886]

Oof.. I hear ya there. Mine runs the same temps under load. It instantly gets up to high 90s.. this is actually my second one. The first one died, but it was my fault lol but yeah they both ran about the same temps. I don't use it very much.. maybe that's why I haven't had a failure yet. @@JeffGrimes-e7u

[@maklogetrich2378]

HP laptop is always terrible with their cooling system

[@tehfalcon]

My 12th Gen 16" is doing the game thing, dead with caps lock flashing 5 times slow then 3 fast "BIOS failure"

[@Diagoras_de_Melos]

Pourquoi un tel vandalisme et une telle température? Ces composants sont très faciles à retirer avec un mini-dremmel. J'utilise un microdremmel dentaire pour cela...

[@kroks06]

It's nice to have so much business that you can decline hard jobs

[@nayt33z]

Best bet is to grind the mosfet down to the pads. little messy but it's the only way to do it without doing more damage.

[@switzerland3696]

Grind them off?

[@realdeal485]

Have you ever tried the dremel tool to grind those off instead of pulling it?

[@beogeek]

Those HP X360 Specters are pure trash, those mosfets always die, even when they're running ok those mosfets run extremely hot, melting the plastic lining. Every single Specter that came in is either bad fused mosfets or brocked charging ports on the diamond model! POS HP!

[@syntehk]

I purchased an HP gaming laptop with a gtx 1650 and ryzen 5600h(?). I had to send it in for RMA just a couple months after buying it because it wouldn't power up anymore. Mind you I didn't use it much and the only gaming it saw was me firing up dota and RE2 remake for a few minutes just to see how it ran. It's been running ok since receiving the repaired unit back but I've only used it for basic tasks and it doesn't inspire much confidence that it died so quickly in the first place with light use.

[@numbr6]

Say you did get those MOSFETs off the board cleanly, but the short persisted? That could have been a deep rabbit hole. My Bosch oven relay board had a shorted Darlington Transistor array chip, and that was it. 60 cent part vs buy a new $400 board. Of course I did the repair vs buying new.

[@markholle3450]

I have the Spectre X360 Spectre 14 with the 13th gen chip (2023 version). It's quiet, bright, and the keyboard/trackpad are exceptional. It beats the hell out of my experience with my Dell XPS 13 at work. We've enjoyed HP's through the years and have had some failures after 4 years. That's about what I expect.

[@larrybud]

I will never buy another HP product ever again after the last support issue I had with a laptop. Under warranty, took 5 weeks turnaround, and 6 chats/calls. Ridiculous.

[@seckinseckin3919]

hello Alex what do you think about laser soldering ? I see some products about that like tbk r-2201 or lws-301 laser soldering station. Do you recommend these kind of products?

[@BARDAKABRAMA]

another HP, who would surprised

[@ChrisCookTech]

Not better than factory.

[@trei2unu]

Any idea what made it break in the first place? Users fault? Bad design? Bad luck with poor quality components?

[@roberthayes6329]

The component flew and joined The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

[@flrn9434]

Hello. After the big Boss disassembly the laptop and you repair the motherboard, do you repaste the CPU am GPU?

[@Mitchel-Gaming]

Don't buy HP Notebooks always Hopeless Damage if it is broken Repair lvl 0.

[@BrianReynolds-s6h]

I would suggest using air nozzles on your heat gun for more focused heat being applied. I have universal ones that attach to my heat gun with a screw. The air speed setting on my heat gun has to be turned up to max so the heat doesn't build up in the nozzle and damage the heat gun. Also, hot knife soldering tips used for engraving leather and wood would give you a few more options for removing something like this.

[@Nicolas-ki3dl]

Modern HP products suck.

[@matthewhutchinson4942]

Alex if you have time could you please tell me based on your experience what the best make of Laptop would be to buy? Thanks in advance..

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

That looks like an attempt from the manufacturer to prevent third party repair of their systems.

[@ralphmans]

Whatever happened to quality?

[@Graciashauf]

Money happened. Why build a quality product when you can make it like crap and get your customers to buy another?

[@kimjung7816]

missed you. Welcome back.

[@justinkambala]

Do you offer trainings?

[@jlrockafella]

Laptops overheating is a common problem. They blow up components all the time from long usage.

[@aspinx]

That looks like a work for a grinding pen, not high heat and brute force.

[@lookitskazzy]

Definitely not getting through those packages efficiently with a grinding pen. You need a Dremel

[@aspinx]

@@lookitskazzy Maybe it will happen once they start stocking dremels in their store 🙂

[@williamkelley7654]

That's not a Hiroshima, it's a Fukushima. THat was A LOT of heat when it popped.

[@biffedya]

for welded tough ones like that I use a dremel grinding disc to cut a waffle criss cross pattern on the component .....very careful not to go through to board then flood with low melt solder and usually they let heat in for success

[@tonymontana897]

Trash it. It's no good.

[@treeoflifeenterprises]

it's good to see even the no-fixes , and learn what is economic from your business viewpoint. thanks alex.

[@RadiusNightly]

HP 360 model: "Winner, winner, chicken dinner." 😂

[@M4r10h]

I hope the video link is shared with the poor customer so he/she knows Alex really tried but it was beyond repair

[@supersilverhazeroker]

what if you had a mini circularsaw that you can align directly with the board (so the circular saw is flat on the board) and saw those components off?

[@sk22ng]

Can't win them all.

[@yousifbaker3931]

its funny ive been running my spectre since 2019 and i think its a miracle it hasnt broke

[@lemagreengreen]

Ooft. Bad quality mosfets or just bad board design?

[@AndrewH-br3ye]

lol this one is done

[@MrReeceyburger123]

This laptop is designed to be plugged in and not moved at all whilst plugged in. Seen alot of twisted usb c ports on these resulting in dead tps and jlh.

[@MrReeceyburger123]

Ive also had luck dremeling parts down like this and taccing to whatever copper could be exposed. Not a nice repair though after :D

[@and12an]

If it is time consuming- it is no fix and a spare board for Alex.

[@robertbezak7605]

HP Spectre laptops - an example of terrible engineering

[@ksenofobov]

What if.. to take a dremel and grind the mosfets or other "fried stuff" off..

[@pentestingshop9194]

11:30 look at this guy he just want to escape to the 9th dimension. What is this hell 😂

[@MirceaD28]

Is using a grinding pen to completely grind them?

[@dennishammond3126]

Sure was glad to get my NF fix in, was going into dt’s, Thank you Alex

[@zodiacfml]

a laptop should not die this way except HP sacrificed reliability longevity to achieve this form factor

[@lucasrem]

zodiacfml swollen battery pack i would say, user negoletted it ... spetre x360, not the best system by HP, if you need Nvidia + intel, OMEN please. ultra light ?

[@bblod4896]

A sad day. Another doner board is now available to help others.

[@FuzeTheWholeTeam]

i loved this one to much haha. jokes were good. good video

[@stusue9733]

I think the "no fix" is an important video.

[@wolepepo4722]

brutal ways ,, grinding hehehe

[@ChristopherLePage-o2f]

Taking it that far is what it's all about. XD!

[@oemytech]

No Fix... Diag charge.

[@kiwichess]

That's sad... fried layers

[@stephenpaulevans6947]

Would it not have been easier to have used the donor board instead and swap parts from that one The donor looked better than the one that was going to be repaired

[@viscuine]

donor boards tend to be faulty too, with no previous history and are just used to harvest components, rather than spend several hours trying to repair the donor motherboard with no guidance of what was originally wrong with it.

[@disguiseddv8ant486]

The entire purpose of the donor board is that the board is used for parts because there's a problem with it.

[@stephenpaulevans6947]

@@disguiseddv8ant486 it might have had less problems than the one he had to fix

[@mp1454]

🤯🎖️🎖️🎖️🎖️🎖️🙏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻❤

[@djburland]

Well done again Alex, greetings from UK

[@Rupieciarnia-xq5ll]

Greetings from Poland

[@deathtrap1976]

Certainly it's a doomed board.

[@0xc0ffee53]

Nice one, I liked it 😂

[@abdosyaya7495]

What if you grind the two mosfet with grinder is it be possible to fix ?

[@4of20]

nothing can fix it now lol

[@ubertcoolie8694]

That is cool.

[@BryantAvant]

I have a 3090 like this. Tried everthing and cannot get the mosfet off

[@guydarj]

It's a flaw in the design of the components... Poor Show hp

[@JalanIcipVinaBabeh]

Finallly new video

[@outfield1988]

Board is bricked

[@abhaykumarsinha]

Is the replacement of the mother board able to fix the laptop?

[@MrBojangles901]

Of course lol.

[@sgtellioman]

Do you guys fix Yamaha stereo amps?

[@CognacKidd]

I fix Yamaha stereo amps.

[@ajayaYtube]

🙏👏👏👏🙏

[@MrMojolinux]

Can't win 'em all!

[@Indianswag01]

First apply low temp. Solder on such points than start giving heat..