DV6000/DV9000 NVidia Issue fix!

[DJWick]

My wife came back from town with the heat-sink stuff, so I went ahead and plunged into the repair.

I followed a YouTube video on how to take apart my DV6000 and followed the video recommended here on how to heat the chip. Put it all back together ... and I absolutely could not believe that it booted right up. It's been booting up first time every time every since. Unbelievable!

And it only cost me 8 bucks for the heat compount and 1 cent for the shim. A penny, literally.

I had another conversation with an HP tech support guy just before I went to work on my motherboard. That conversation pretty much convinced me to never, ever buy any HP product again. My laptop was out of the enhanced warrantly period by only a couple of weeks. He was totally unbending even though I told him that we've been having this problem beginning a year or so after buying the laptop, and it's even been in the shop for the same problem. Definitely a dud machine. Furthermore, the list of problems that the enhanced warrantly covered didn't include a laptop booting intermittently. So, a half-dead, sometimes-working computer is perfectly acceptable to HP -- which tells me I don't want to be buying electronics from a company that believes in sticking customers with half-dead, sometimes-working products.

Oh well. Live and learn.

Anyway, my very gracious thanks to DVFixxer for promoting the idea of doing the chip heating trick. It sounded like voodoo to me, but I was desperate to try anything. Many, many thanks.

Dave

[Help_Please]

interesting, you should probably monitor the heat and use a fan to prevent further overheating

[DVFixxer]

Sorry I haven't uppdated in a while. Last week was my birthday and my wife had to work so I spent the whole time with my kid. DJWick, I am so glad you were able to fix it! Sorry to hear that you won't buy another HP product. As a computer repair person, I have seen a lot of HP products come my way but they are not the only ones. Dell also seems to be a big headache at times as well. My Compaq laptop that I've had for 6 years is still working great and I plan on using it as some type of low power server in the near future since I have this DV6000 that works! I hope many more people see your post and try it out. It's better than letting the thing sit there or even throwing it away! BTW, if anyone has a DV6000 series (or DV9000) that they are tired of working on and want to sell, please send me a PM! I'll buy it off of you!

[jimkola]

Sorry to hear that you won't buy another HP product

Nothing last forever. I think most people accept that.

Other manufacturers were hit with the Nvidia issue-they just handled it with more aplomb then HP.

Sure would be nice if they offered a redesigned motherboard, at my expense, that addressed and corrected the defect. But at a reduced price. To profit in repair off their poor choices isn't just.

[mjxj101]

have you had a chance to finish that tutorial yet? i've got a dv9000 that i believe this will help with. Been getting a blue screen error that says because of an error with nv4_mini.sys I cannot log into windows until this is fixed. motherboard was replaced by hp about 9 months ago with similar probelm. Crazy lines all over the screen-blinking text they said it was the video card- now it's doing the same thing again. have ordered the shims from ebay - do i also need to do the heat trick from the video on ebay? thanks for your help

[NolaBlue]

DJWick... would you mind sharing with me the video you viewed to take apart your DV6000? I tried opening mine last night and didn't get far enough. It seemed like there was something right under the touchpad mouse that was preventing the top from coming off.

[DVFixxer]

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NolaBlue wrote:

DJWick... would you mind sharing with me the video you viewed to take apart your DV6000? I tried opening mine last night and didn't get far enough. It seemed like there was something right under the touchpad mouse that was preventing the top from coming off.

---

There are two "standoffs" that are right next to the wireless card on the bottom of the laptop. These standoffs take a 3/16" socket and look like they would hold down another wireless (MiniPCI) card. I had the same exact problem and battled with it for 30 mins or so before I got the idea to remove them! And the tutorial should be up here in the next few days. Been a bit busy at work and with the 7 1/2 month old baby girl!

[NolaBlue]

Thanks DVFixxer. I did notice them, but I just assumed they were meant to stay put. I will try again, thanks.

One other question I have... I watched the video someone (you?) posted from YouTube about this repair and wanted to do the extra part of reheating the solders but don't have a light that will work. Is there anything else that can be safely used?

[NolaBlue]

Well I managed to get everything open this time and followed the part of the video where the copper shim and conductor gel is added and somehow got mostly back together. It still does the exact same thing. Hit the power button and all the lights come on for a second then off again. I'm guessing now that I will have to take everything apart again and do the part of the video I skipped about "frying" the motherboard....?

[DJWick]

NolaBlue,

I'm no expert by any means, and I graciously defer to anyone else here, but I believe I can answer your questions.

"Frying the motherboard" is definitely the key to the fix. The thermal compound and shim are what helps prevent it from happening again.

My solution to get heat on it was definitely low-tech. I just took a regular clip lamp with a 75-watt bulb and placed it right over the chip. I didn't time it (I guess I should have), but I don't think I held it there longer than a couple or three minutes, 'til I smelled plastic burning. Just joking -- 2-3 minutes until the chip felt way too hot to touch with a bare finger. Then, with a pad of paper towel I pushed on the chip until I felt it had sufficiently cooled to where holding it down any further wouldn't do any good ... maybe 5 minutes or so?

Remember to mask off all the rest of the motherboard, leaving only the NVidia chip exposed.

Unfortunately, I've already deleted the link to the video that I watched for taking the laptop apart, but I did download it and keep a copy. Here is the title. You can look it up on YouTube:

Mainboard disassembly (Hewlett Packard DV9000 laptop)

I followed the video step by step as I disassembled, and this was the very first project I've EVER done where I didn't have any screws or parts left over when I put everything back together.

DVFixxer:

It's not that I hold HP to an impossibly high standard when it comes to expecting them to build perfect machines that last forever. Nobody can do that.

But after scouring the 'net and finding out that this has been a known problem for a number of years, and after having experienced the problem earlier while my laptop was still in warranty and having them fix it once, and because it happened again within only a few weeks of falling outside their enhanced warranty, I would expect a company worthy of receiving my hard-earned dollars to be a little more gracious about fixing the problem that they knowingly created.

The tech guy I talked to the second time even shrugged it off by saying it's too bad this didn't happen a few weeks earlier. It's just a darn good thing he wasn't telling me that in person. I'm not a violent person, but ... well, let's leave it at that. I'm still angry thinking about it.

BTW, the laptop still boots perfectly ... first time, every time. I'm still overwhelmed with amazement.

Dave