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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: Computer-Lab in Basement on Mon, 29 March 2010, 18:21:00
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Today my stepdad was typing away on his laptop, no issues what-so-ever, when all of the sudden...death! The motherboard failed in his 3 year old HP Pavillion dv6000 laptop, the exact same laptop that my mother use to have (it's motherboard failed too). So of course, it is Computer-Lab in Basement to the rescue! Need a loaner laptop? You got it! Lent him my Micron TransPort GX+. So for the time being, I am minus one laptop while I let my stepdad use it.
Just out of curiosity, anyone here ever have a motherboard on a laptop fail?
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Thought not technically part of the motherboard, I might have had a logic board fail on a 4 year old Apple Titanium Powerbook. I don't know for sure because I sold it off for parts after replacing the PRAM battery didn't fix the problem.
It didn't totally die, but it was so erratic that I could only turn the laptop on once every few days. Since it appeared to have some kind of power related issue, I thought it was a PRAM battery, but it turned out to be more... what exactly I don't know. A new logic board would have cost more than I wanted to spend to repair that machine.
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I've heard a lot of HP laptops from the past few years have had heat-related motherboard failures...it's a design flaw supposedly. Not really surprising if you've tried to use one on your lap...compared to equivalents from other manufacturers, they do run hot.
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I remember the day that my mother's dv6000 failed she had it on her lap for about an hour, that must be what pushed it over the edge.
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I'm on my third battery for my Fujitsu tablet. I think it may be because it runs so hot and I tend to use it plugged in 95% of the time. Anybody here remove their battery when plugging in to the AC?
The good news is a bit of DeOxit seems to have finally fixed the trackpoint drift problem I was having.
I've got the 9-cell for my Inspiron 630m. When I use it on AC power - which is the majority of the time - the battery is always in.
I'd say the 'curve' for this battery has been excellent. When I got it two years ago I could stretch 4-5 hours, maybe more with wifi off and screen low, and now I'll get somewhere between 2-3 or if I'm really stressing it between 1-2. Keep in mind the battery was already used before I got the computer.
I've read stuff pointing in every direction when it comes to charging cycles, prolonging life, removing when charging, etc...yet the way I use it defies all the common suggestions and I still get decent life out of it. As with everything I guess YMMV
Edit: to be clear, I have and do use it on battery, generally for a full discharge cycle or at least half, perhaps when in class not near an outlet or at a friends or something like that. I didn't mean to suggest the life degraded over time without getting any use out of the battery.
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My laptop's battery clocks in about two hours of battery life. If I need more than that then I just tote my big old UPS with me.
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I can get about 1.5 hours per battery on my Latitude D600. I have 2 good batteries, and another crappy battery that gets about 0.5 hours. 3.5 hours battery life total. I never use it on battery though. I should get a super-good battery for this laptop. I would be happy with a battery that gets 3 hours.
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so back in March I made this thread asking about motherboard issues with laptops. It all started with me explaining about how both my parents HP dv6000 laptops had motherboard failure. So three days ago I was talking to MS Windows about them, and he said I should try to get them running again. Ok, so I tried turning on my step dad's laptop first. Nothing. I tried it so many times that I got frustrated and thought of the most obscure way to revive it: the Heimlich maneuver. I gave the computer a nice forceful push in the middle of the keyboard and it actually worked! My step dad's laptop was, and still is, running like nothing ever happened to it.
So then came the more-than-impossible task of resurrecting my mothers old laptop. This was to be no easy task considering that it has been sitting in pieces in a box for the past 2 years. So I pulled out the motherboard. It was still in one piece, but the CPU was missing. So I got that and put the heat sink and fan back on it. Then I put the LCD back together. Then I just installed the RAM and CD drive, and plugged it in. Of course, it didn't work. This also frustrated my to the point that I just started smacking the motherboard with a floppy disk. I tried turning it on again, and it worked! By some miracle of God or some other non-Earthly being, I got both broken laptops with faulty motherboards running again. Very unorthodox.
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The dv6000's have the same graphics chip problem that the tx1000 that I have has. HP never recalled these systems even though it's a known problem. The graphic chip needs to be reflowed/reballed. I tried to reball mine but ended up tearing the graphics chip and mobo all to pieces. Need a new mobo, but they cost as much as the computer cost me. The repair will work for a while, but the problem will come back. The problem is a heat issue with the chip mainly. Pressure can sometimes make enough contact, but it only lasts a week or two before the issue comes back.
Those hp's with the nvidia chips are total lemons.
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hp's ... are total lemons.
Fixed.
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Just out of curiosity, anyone here ever have a motherboard on a laptop fail?
I use IBM, so, I don't get any motherboard failures in laptops ;)
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Fixed.
Hopefully. Most likely it'll fail again shortly. Not all hps are total lemons, just those series. Almost every computer manufacturer has a lemon line that dies. Some companies like say dell actually recall theirs. Hp decided to tell the buyers of these products to suck it, which is pretty bad. I have a tx2500z which is the descendant of the tx1000 that I'm still perfectly happy with, that uses an ati graphics chip, and is much more stable.
I use IBM, so, I don't get any motherboard failures in laptops ;)
The day ibm makes a laptop with the capabilities of a tx1000, and stops using the worthless intel graphics chips in all their tablets and a lot of their desktop mobos is the day I'll switch to them. lol
"The light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long." Unfortunately this is the case of the tx1000 and dv hps. lol
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I got both broken laptops with faulty motherboards running again.
Ummm... How did you originally diagnose motherboard failures on these?
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Hopefully. Most likely it'll fail again shortly. Not all hps are total lemons, just those series. Almost every computer manufacturer has a lemon line that dies. Some companies like say dell actually recall theirs. Hp decided to tell the buyers of these products to suck it, which is pretty bad. I have a tx2500z which is the descendant of the tx1000 that I'm still perfectly happy with, that uses an ati graphics chip, and is much more stable.
The day ibm makes a laptop with the capabilities of a tx1000, and stops using the worthless intel graphics chips in all their tablets and a lot of their desktop mobos is the day I'll switch to them. lol
"The light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long." Unfortunately this is the case of the tx1000 and dv hps. lol
There's only one line of HP systems I'm interested in. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_9000) The rest look like junk.
I use IBM, so, I don't get any motherboard failures in laptops
I have seen Thinkpads with dead motherboards.
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Just out of curiosity, anyone here ever have a motherboard on a laptop fail?
Yes. IBM Thinkpad R30 fail on me right and left. I have two non-functioning units from a long run of supporting a number of R30 for my family. Its the only ThinkPad I've ever regretted owning.
As for reflowing/reballing a poorly soldered NVIDIA chip, that was common on the iBook 500, 600, 700, 800. There are articles in the mac sites about people successfully reflowing their solder with a candle or oven. That shoudl probably work for the HP unit previously mention ed in this thread.
I use IBM, so, I don't get any motherboard failures in laptops ;)
Get a ThinkPad R30 and re-evaluate. I triple dog dare you.
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As for reflowing/reballing a poorly soldered NVIDIA chip, that was common on the iBook 500, 600, 700, 800. There are articles in the mac sites about people successfully reflowing their solder with a candle or oven. That shoudl probably work for the HP unit previously mention ed in this thread.
Hmm... do you think you might be able to put up a link to this information? It might be useful to me.
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http://www.google.com/search?q=ibook+graphics+chip+solder&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
(http://gadzikowski.com/images/google.gif)