Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

[ahmetozay]

Hi friends, i have this dell inspiron 1520 with Nvidia Geforce 8600M GT. When i turn on the laptop everything is ok even on welcome screen, after passing welcome screen there are bad square pixels on the screen. i changed the screen also reballed the nvidia chip but its all same bad square pixels. i send a video of the laptop as attachment. What do you think the problem is. Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkUnRgR_1f4

[lezsimply]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

How about on external monitor?

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Looks like bad VRAM to me.

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

How about on external monitor?

Same on the external monitor

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Looks like bad VRAM to me.

do you recommend to reball all video rams or do you know a way to find out which one is defected?

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

do you recommend to reball all video rams or do you know a way to find out which one is defected?

Back when I used to reflow graphics cards I would press down on each VRAM chip to see if the video-out changed at all. Obviously very difficult to do if there are heatsinks involved, though.

That repeated pattern is very typical of VRAM failure.

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Back when I used to reflow graphics cards I would press down on each VRAM chip to see if the video-out changed at all. Obviously very difficult to do if there are heatsinks involved, though.

That repeated pattern is very typical of VRAM failure.

is there a test software like memtest to test the vrams?

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

is there a test software like memtest to test the vrams?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...ress_test.html

No idea how reliable it is.

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...ress_test.html

No idea how reliable it is.

Thank you, i am going to give it a try and feedback here.

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Thank you, i am going to give it a try and feedback here.

the software did not find any errors also i found another one called OCCT http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=214 , also found no errors. Any other recommendations?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Try just reflowing all the VRAM chips. They should not require reballing.

[spleenharvester]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

Definitely worth trying a reflow. Though the VRAM chips I reflowed back in the day never lasted more than a few weeks before failing again.

[senchire]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

They are easy to reball anyway.

[Journeyman]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

They are easy to reball anyway.

is there a step by step for those of us without specialized equipment.

I've tried the "at home" reflow methods with poor results. I'd be interested to reball if it can be done without expensive equipment.

[ahmetozay]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

i tried reflowing and the result is same, reballing is the only choice but it would be nice to know which one to reball because there are 8 vrams have to reball one by one until it fixed

[ravi_1617]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

have a close look all the vram from side u may see some solder balls crushed and came out solder would be there reball it

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Dell Inspiron 1520 bad graphic card or something else?

is there a step by step for those of us without specialized equipment.

I've tried the "at home" reflow methods with poor results. I'd be interested to reball if it can be done without expensive equipment.

You won't find a step by step guide because it differs for everyone and the tools they have access to.

I have been doing fine for 2+ years using what used to be a toaster as a preheater (free), a controller to go with it ($5-$10) to build your own), and a regular temperature controlled hot air SMD rework station ($100).

What I also needed to buy were a few BGA nozzles of different sizes ($15-$18 each) for the hot air station, and of course, flux, solder balls, stencils and fine tweezers. Oh, and the vacuum pen thingy to lift chips. And you will of course need a stand to hold the hot air wand in place above the chip, that's left for you to cobble together out of whatever you have on hand.

I already had 2 decent ($100 range) multimeters with temperature probes so i did not need to buy thermometers. Get some Omega thermocouples if you can though, the regular size ones that come with multimeters are annoying to place and they sometimes knock parts off the board when you're not careful.

All in all, you can put together a usable BGA rework machine under $500, which will pay for itself quickly once you learn how to use it, but the most important part is you need to have lots of spare dead boards to practice on. I got the hang of it after 20 or so, but some people break 50 or more boards before they get it right, even with a professional machine. YMMV.