I know i said i'll never again get a...

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Laptop with nVidia GPU
... HP laptop with nVidia GPU...
Let alone a... DV9000. I just did that yesterday.

Classic nVidia chip failure (display showed broken in 4 pieces), board hadn't been worked on before. Screen and top cover in pretty sorry shape, but i still have those left over from mine. Too bad i sold the battery...

Reflowed up to 235C peak temp, and it fired up just fine. Put the hard drive, DVD and some screws back in and connected a mouse to see it boot. Unfortunately... it never came back up again. It would just turn off and back on by itself every 3 seconds. Googled it and it pointed to the nVidia GPU again.

Now, i can't figure out HOW it just died out of the blue, after having started up first time, but i've reflowed it again and the chip is certainly dead. Now it no longer shuts down by itself, but no video output either. Ahh well. Can't have everything work on the first go. Time to order a chip.

Fortunately, the cheapest chip i found from a top-rated seller comes pre-balled, so all i need to do on this board is pull this dud GPU off and clean the board well. I'll come back when the replacement chip arrives.

[trebo]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

The repetitive on/off by itself, and the wont turn off, by the p/switch can be Cpu
Worth testing if you got a spare handy

[c_hegge]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

My Toshiba Satellite A200 (Which I'm posting from now) has an nVidia GPU (GF Go 7300). It's still going strong. My guess is it's because of my fan mod. It's wired directly to the 5v output on the HDD SATA Connector.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

The repetitive on/off by itself, and the wont turn off, by the p/switch can be Cpu
Worth testing if you got a spare handy

I'm 99% the CPU is good. After all, it worked before the reflow, just with bad display, but it even got into Windows. And as i said above, it also worked properly after the reflow.... once, that is. Then it died.

When it did the on/off thing, it would stay on if the Esc key was held down, but still no video. If i remove the CPU it turns on then shuts off immediately and STAYS off. If i remove the RAM, it turns on and the power LED blinks, so it's detecting the lack of RAM.

I'll order the G86-730-A2 chip today and let you know of the outcome once it gets here.

[inflex]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

My guess is it's because of my fan mod. It's wired directly to the 5v output on the HDD SATA Connector.

OT: I do wish most BIOSs had the "Always On" option for fans.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

The problem i have with fans on full blast in a laptop (apart from the noise) is the fact that the fan WILL wear out AND attract more dust than normal. So, for regular computer users (read: semi-ignorant), it will end up the same eventually.

I plan to take this one step further, because with DV series software fan-hax is possible. I connected the dots and it IS possible to have the fan speed dictated by both CPU and GPU temps. Too bad i found it too late... but still, if i revive this DV9000 i am going to do that. Oh, and i may be getting a DV6000 too...

[punjac za laptop]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

do you have equipment for reballing or i may even suggest replace the gpu chip with new one ?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

do you have equipment for reballing

Well, sort of. I already had a hot air station, and i built myself a bottom heater. I have practiced lifting chips from dead boards and they come out fine, but have yet to try an actual reball, as the reballing supplies are still on their way from China.

or i may even suggest replace the gpu chip with new one ?

Look above, this is exactly what i'll be doing. GPU has been already ordered. I got a pre-balled one, so it shouldn't be that hard to replace.

[Lumberjack777]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

The DV9000 when it is working is a beautiful 17" widescreen laptop. I can watch movies from my bed in full HD with one. I have bought a few broken ones because there's so many and they are fairly cheap

There's definitely a difference between the AMD models and the Intel models. The AMD chips may or may not work when reflowed. I have been able to reflow every single Intel with the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS.

I have successfully reballed one 8600M because the customer wanted a new GPU. The main thing to look for is to ask the supplier if they are leaded balls, or lead-free. Leaded are much easier to reball because you don't need to go as high on the temps.

Currently I'm trying to develop the best mod possible for the fan. All suggestions are welcome. With only the black and red wire the fan runs at full speed but it is way too loud for me. I dropped in a 6 ohm resistor on the red wire and it's quieter, but now the temps get into the 70's on full load.
I installed a really long flat piece of copper and bent it around the heat sink. Didn't really seem to help much.
There's got to be a cheap way to bring down the temps without having that fan run at full speed. (loud)

If you come up with any breakthroughs Unique I'm all ears. I'll keep you updated if I come up with anything short of water cooling

[senndogg]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

hello guys!
been 3 months in the reballing business and learned a lot of things, and yet still too much to come...
i have noticed that:
there are 2 problems with the G86 chip:
-ball fraction because of the unleaded solder.
-internal problem of the chip itself, a manufacturing fault.

when you reflow, you never know, you can accidentally repair the lost contact inside the chip and bring the laptop to life, or either you can reball with no results.

Q: should i reball or reflow?
A: in this case i suggest to just reflow. and hope it will last as long as possible.

Q: what can i do to permanently fix it?
A: you should change the chip with the 2011+ revisioned chip by nvidia.

Q: but i have seen ~20$ exactly similar chips in ebay from china, why shouldnt i try them?
A: because they are the older defective models and a permanent fix will not be guaranteed.

Q: but the seller claims it is nvidia refurbished and faultless.
A: they are probably trying to sell you an old reballed chip, which may also not work.

Q: but i can complain in a formal way.
A: they can pretend you have done a mistake during reballing.

Q: so, how can i look for a 2011+ new chip?
A: they have the xx1 index, for example, if yours is a nvidia 8400m you probably have the G86-730-A2 chip. search for the revised G86-731-A2 chip, it is between 50-70$.
if you have 8400m gt or 8600m you have either G86-750-A2 or G86-770-A2. In both cases go for G86-771-A2 for under 50$.

thank you, any questions you are welcomed.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

If you come up with any breakthroughs Unique I'm all ears. I'll keep you updated if I come up with anything short of water cooling

My installation of the pre-balled chip ended up in a failure. I didn't heat it up uniformly first time round, one side was visibly higher than the others. I guess it cracked internally or something, as another couple tries, with the chip seating itself properly, still resulted in no video. Learned something from this process tho - i crafted myself a proper BGA nozzle for my hot air station.

I have to do a DV5 HD3450 GPU tomorrow, chip arrived today. I had no problems lifting that one as it's small, unlike the 8400 which is a pretty big chip. So, i hope that one's gonna work.

Anyway. On the DV9000 and DV6000 (and possibly others), the fan is controllable via software. And it is possible to take into account both CPU and GPU when deciding the fan speed (something that HP overlooked). However, that software doesn't exist in one piece, so someone oughta put the pieces together and create an application. You can wait till i finally fix the thing and write the software myself, or you can ask me for the info and have a hand at it. Just post if you want me to show you how it can be done.

[RobRocks]

Re: I know i said i'll never again get a...

The on and off cycle comes from the nvidia northbridge, when connections are broken so that the cpu cant be detected, its like there is no cpu installed or the type is unknown. Sometimes when you work on the video chip you may crack the contacts of the northbridge. I must say i have seen the northbridge more faulty than the video chip.
I fixed many hp by reflowing most of them last very long, like one year. But if you want a 100% fix and you plan to use the laptop for years, better replace the chip with the correct new one and solder it right with infrared reworking station, hot air is too unstable.