i have the compaq cq50 laptop and my dog peed on it so i took it apart to clean the boards and much to my surprise theres a spot on the mother board with 19 pins saying "HDMI 1" so if i want hdmi on it i just buy a 19 pin hdmi and solder that bad boy to the board? theres even an opening on the case of the laptop for it that i always wondered what it was for.
ahh i totally spaced taking a picture and now its back together. but heres my same motherboard. ive circled in red where it says "hdmi 1" and its 19 pins/solder points sorry if its hard to see http://tinypic.com/r/2agnf9g/6
Do you see that small copper square that looks like it should have a chip on it; the one next to the red circle? I'm guessing that the missing chip is required before you could install an HDMI port...there are probably other things missing too.
oh i see. that makes sense. sounds like too much effort for hdmi on a less than high quality laptop though. eh, i probably wouldnt have done it anyway but i was curious as to if thats what its there for. and why didnt compaq just solder the dang thing on themselves? well thanks anyways guys
They probably saved $0.50 by leaving HDMI out; multiply that by a million units, and you will see why they left it out. Either that, or they were trying to force people who need HDMI to buy more expensive models.