Acer Aspire 5720ZG - 8400M done right
My neighbor dropped by with this today. Failed GPU, but due to user error. He forgot it on the bed a whole day. Which you know is a big no-no especially on the nvidias.
He's had it for 4 years though, it's pretty much a miracle it lasted this long. Specs are C2D Merom @ 1.46GHz, 2GB DDR2, 8400M 256MB, didn't look at the HDD. He also has a nice Creative X-Fi Expresscard plugged in it.
It also had a sizable amount of dust in the heatsinks. He said he'd cleaned it a while back, but probably "a while" meant "last year". I also found dried up thermal paste. It appeared to be silver-based, but it seems it was low quality. However, none of that crap thermopad treatment for the CPU and GPU. 1 point for Acer. There's also a pretty decently sized chunk of aluminum for the GPU, with copper insert and copper heatpipe.
Everything was readily accessible by simply removing the bottom cover, unlike some other brands. I'm looking at you, HP. Upon removing both heatsinks (due to the construction the CPU one has to be removed before you get access to the GPU one), i am greeted with... A 8400M in a slot!!!
They deserve 10 points for this one. The GPU board is also very well built - the chip's corners are epoxied to the PCB. Apparently this wasn't enough either - but hey, it's 4 years old. That's pretty much a record for a 8400M.
Refluxed, reflowed (i am partial to oven reflows, but because the GPU is on a small removable board i used the hot air station this time), and she booted right up. Heatsinks cleaned, new thermal compound applied, running FurMark for 1 hour, no problems. GPU temps are 53C idle, 67C after 1 hour of FurMark. I also recreated the failure scenario to be double sure it works properly - left it on my bed, and keeping FurMark running while i was at it. The GPU temperature climbed to 74C. Still safe. Once i gave it some clearance again, temp came back to 67C. Gonna last a couple more years i'm sure.
Congrats, Acer. I didn't expect to say this ever.
He's had it for 4 years though, it's pretty much a miracle it lasted this long. Specs are C2D Merom @ 1.46GHz, 2GB DDR2, 8400M 256MB, didn't look at the HDD. He also has a nice Creative X-Fi Expresscard plugged in it.
It also had a sizable amount of dust in the heatsinks. He said he'd cleaned it a while back, but probably "a while" meant "last year". I also found dried up thermal paste. It appeared to be silver-based, but it seems it was low quality. However, none of that crap thermopad treatment for the CPU and GPU. 1 point for Acer. There's also a pretty decently sized chunk of aluminum for the GPU, with copper insert and copper heatpipe.
Everything was readily accessible by simply removing the bottom cover, unlike some other brands. I'm looking at you, HP. Upon removing both heatsinks (due to the construction the CPU one has to be removed before you get access to the GPU one), i am greeted with... A 8400M in a slot!!!
They deserve 10 points for this one. The GPU board is also very well built - the chip's corners are epoxied to the PCB. Apparently this wasn't enough either - but hey, it's 4 years old. That's pretty much a record for a 8400M.Refluxed, reflowed (i am partial to oven reflows, but because the GPU is on a small removable board i used the hot air station this time), and she booted right up. Heatsinks cleaned, new thermal compound applied, running FurMark for 1 hour, no problems. GPU temps are 53C idle, 67C after 1 hour of FurMark. I also recreated the failure scenario to be double sure it works properly - left it on my bed, and keeping FurMark running while i was at it. The GPU temperature climbed to 74C. Still safe. Once i gave it some clearance again, temp came back to 67C. Gonna last a couple more years i'm sure.
Congrats, Acer. I didn't expect to say this ever.
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