[Splatocaster]

I received a broken HP Pavilion dv6500. The laptop starts up, and than the screen turns random colors midway through startup. I tried installing Windows 7 on it, and the computer got all the way through startup without any errors. I was able to use the laptop once the new version of Windows was on it. However, as soon as I installed the video card driver (nVidia 8300 or 8600 i believe, I dont remember exactly what it was) and restarted, I was back to my original problem. The previous owner told me that the laptop had over heating problems, until it overheated and broke.

I am thinking the problem is either a driver mismatch or (most likely) a burnt vid card.
Is it possible that the problem could be a driver mismatch, and how would I be able to troubleshoot this?

Thank you in advance.

This post has been edited by Splatocaster: 02 March 2011 - 02:33 PM

[no2pencil]

Splatocaster, on 24 February 2011 - 10:48 AM, said:

I'm assuming that the Pavilion dv650 doesn't have an integrated video card into the motherboard. Will I be able to put a video card from another laptop into the Pavilion dv650?

If this assumption is true, then yes. However in my experience very few laptops have removable video cards.

[calvinthedestroyer]

It sounds like the BGA GPU chip has some broken solder joints. There are some places that will repair the laptops motherboard but it can get pricey.

Just don't take off the heat sink and run it with a towel on it, like they tell people to do with their XBox360's

[Splatocaster]

I got more information on the problem. After reinstalling Windows, I realized the computer runs with almost no problems before installing the video card driver. After installing any driver (there are 2 or 3 updates for the Nvidia 8400 GS video card), the video card seems to act up. The symptoms are:
- Entire screen turning differant colored vertical bars on startup
- Random pixels turning random colors
- Video card driver crashes, where the screen will freeze and after a few seconds recover, with a message saying the video card kernel driver has crashed and recovered.
- Laptop freezes, which also causes sound to freeze up (often resulting in an annoying loop of the last 1 second of sound played)

To me it seems to be a consistent driver problem due to the fact that the laptop works fine prior to driver installation (other than certain limitations that are normal to computers before driver installation).

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[calvinthedestroyer]

I think we need to find you a testing program for your video card. Like a video card bench mark testing program. Maybe that will give use a better idea of whats going on. Check to see if the manufacturer of your video card has a bench mark program.

Other than that I would try a different video card to see if the problem is just with that one video card. That's if you have another video card to try.

You can also search to see if anybody else is having issues with the video cards drivers, maybe the manufacturer released bad drivers. (it's a big if, but that has happened before)

[Splatocaster]

SOLVED (For now at least)

I solved the problem by removing the laptop's motherboard, and reflowing with a hot air gun. The laptop works for now, but well see how long it lasts.

[no2pencil]

Oh, that's no good. The BGA under the GPU must be failing. HP's have been known to have GPU/heatsink issues, much like the Xbox 360.

[WinkyCode]

Splatocaster, on 28 February 2011 - 10:09 PM, said:

SOLVED (For now at least)

I solved the problem by removing the laptop's motherboard, and reflowing with a hot air gun. The laptop works for now, but well see how long it lasts.

I love this type of solution! LOL, I will probely test it on some of my broken down computers. It can't hurt, they are dead as last Christmas pig. (We eat pigs at Christmas in Sweden).

[calvinthedestroyer]

Splatocaster, on 28 February 2011 - 11:09 PM, said:

SOLVED (For now at least)

I solved the problem by removing the laptop's motherboard, and reflowing with a hot air gun. The laptop works for now, but well see how long it lasts.

Ok, that should be good but if the problem comes back I would have the GPU removed and re-balled then re-soldered.

How did the heat sink look? Did it look sufficient? Maybe you can add a piece of copper to it to help with cooling? That way you can make sure that the problem does not come back.

[modi123_1]

Quote

reflowing with a hot air gun

I am not familiar with this term. Can someone elaborate for me?

[Splatocaster]

modi123_1, on 17 April 2011 - 11:19 AM, said:

Quote

reflowing with a hot air gun

I am not familiar with this term. Can someone elaborate for me?

For the GPU, instead of a bunch of pins like manufacturers used in the past, now they use little balls of solder. These balls of solder can sometimes melt because of the heat produced by the GPU itself. By reflowing, you heat the GPU up to melt the solder, and make sure it doesn't move or vibrate. When the solder cools, it usually will have a better connection.