HP dv2000/6000/8000/9000/tx1000 Video Problems [ Edited ]

[cmetrav]

I wrote my own driver for the video card and monitor on mine that helped alot. I had to rebuild my machine and I lost it so I was working on another till the laptop burned my leg and HP won't do any thing about it. please read My laptop burned my leg. You will understand why I stopped but the issue is an interlacing issue that seems to be more prominent with Aero turned on. Turning it off will help greatly for most of the anomalys. as Far as the heat issue I have always uesed a cool pad on mine so not so sure on that one. The one time I grabbed my pc off my desk with out it i got burned from the battery.

Message Edited by cmetrav on 08-21-2009 04:06 PM

[Mikeman1985]

wow.

I ordered some parts from ebay, A new replacement motherboard, same p/n as the original. I bought a heatsink/fan from the newer dv2000's that has the heat pipe that goes all the way over to the GPU... bought some copper, and copper shimmed the gpu to heatsink with arctic silver 5 between.

The new heatsink was NOT a direct swap, it required some pretty extensive modification to get it to work. the orientation of the new GPU on the newer notebooks is different, the bump on the bottom of the heatsink had to be ground off, and copper spacers used to fill the gap. the four holes for the CPU mount match perfectly, but the last screw by the GPU side had to be relocated to clamp that side. I just drilled a new hole in the heatsink to where it matched the existing stand off on the motherboard.

Guys my GPU Core temp dropped from 72C @ idle with the original heatsink, to about 56C @ idle with the new set-up... that's a significant drop. Plus with it being copper shimmed there's no chance that the solder joints will lose connection on the new chip due to expansion, as now it cannot move. it seems to be hovering at 62c with a few apps going, so far I haven't got it up over that, so ti is doing MUCH better at managing the heat... The CPU runs about 42c, hasn't been higher than that on either setup.

I also opened up the case bottom a little more under the fan so that it gets more air flow, just drilled a few holes around that area.

I still can't figure out why it wasn't set-up this way from the beginning???

 all of this was done on a dv2225NR.

the 6000's and 9000's always had a heat pipe solution for the GPU, only the dv2000 originally shipped without it. if you guys do get your notebooks repaired, the best you can do is copper mod the GPU, that ensures maximum heat transfer, as well as helping the heatsink to clamp the chip down so that it cannot rise as it heats up.

-Mike-

[steve293]

Mikeman,

I have been following your posts from the other HP thread.  I am in a VERY similar situation.   Laptop will always stay on Black Screen when unplugged.  When plugged: black screen--restarted--works--restart won't work again....this pattern is ALWAYS the same.  Basically erratic screen behavior.  Found the website of the HP extended warranty support with my Model and P/N listed....Called HP support and was told that this program ended August of LAST YEAR for me in accordance to their 24month BS rule.  So I need to be blamed here for a problem that HP acknowledges by the very existence of their "extended" warranty.  This should be a flatout recall. Please advise me if I am doing the right thing.  I always build my own computers and OC most of them so I am very familiar with heatsinks, cooper shims, etc...but I have NEVER messed with a laptop.

- I am going to do the same thing you did and buy the new heatsink/fan part: 455843-001

- Is purchasing a new mobo necessary or is applying heatsource just saving pennies for a temp solution?  Is it expensive?  Do you have the p/n to it?

- I'm trying to understand what part of the heatsink you had to grind off.  Was it leaving no room for the copper shim?

- I'm getting my copper plate from onlinemetals.com..would you say that the thickness and size resembles a penny?

- Do you have any advice into taking this laptop apart and getting access to the motherboard?

- Last but not least, did you fix work in the short run?  Any changes since you last posted your temp changes?

Thanks and hope things work out.  This is my GF's laptop...makes me love my dell when I thought they were worst in customer service (but then my dell was never built to break like this one)

[steve293]

People I tried to read as much of the 66 pages of this thread but I was wondering if anybody mentioned several class-action lawsuits against HP.  I sort of skimmed over one in OK City where it was settled (something with a drive I think...not very relivant other than perhaps precedence), but more interesting is a current lawsuit that has received a green-light for class action lawsuit to go forward in CA.  It has to do with defective inverters that the plaintiffs claim HP installed into their notebooks eventually resulting in black, inoperable screens, etc (sounds familiar?); some during and other after warranty expirations.  HP tries to argue "class certification" based on the failues of a lawsuit against Honda, but the judge eventually ruled that regardless of how the lawsuit ended, it wouldn't be the basis of determining the validity of a class-lawsuit in the present trial.  Anyways this paragraph I find most interesting:

"The Court agreed with Green Welling, based on another California Court of Appeal decision titled
Hicks v. Kaufman & Broad Home Corp., that proof of a breach of warranty does not require
proof that the product has malfunctioned, but rather that it contains an inherent defect which is
substantially certain to result in a malfunction during the product’s useful life" (Green/Welling LLP).

The fact is here though (from what I haven't seen in the case summary etc.) seems like HP never publicly acknowledged this malfunction as opposed to the extended warranty they implemented with our problem.  However in the inverter case there were two service notes that were submitted as evidence.  Forgive me if I am wrong but aren't service notes inteded for internal use?  I may be wrong.  Either way apparently HP submitted evidence that out of "118,514 pavillions sold approx. 4,716 were reported as needing repairs (which leads to the whole class-certfication thing). I wonder how many reported problems there are for our problem for them to offer extended warranties and even offer a free computer from what I have read on this thread.  

Either way I find all this VERY interesting and found it all from a forum where there are over 100 pages pertaining to a thread where Dell guys are performing copper mods on their Nvidea card.  However many of them do it to lengthen to life of their computer as opposed to outright shutdowns/blackouts like most of us. But it makes me wonder if Nvidea is just is liable...perhaps not. Either way the thread is very interesting and the instructions are very detailed with pictures.  Even with the Dell however the GPU had a dedicated thermal cooling block--and clearly-- a better cooling system...MUCH better than ours.  I don't know if I got this right but a forum said that the nvidia chips on the dv2000 also performed the tasks of the NB while the Dell's is seperated.  So not only does our GPU produce a fair amount of heat, it receives inefficient cooling.  Great.

Anyway out of fear of any and all lawyers that might come down on me with their wrath, I would like to say that all legal information was from Green/Welling LLP and Findlaw for case summary.  I will not post links due to board rules but from what I have wrote and credited I believe a google search will lead to all the correct links.  I highly recommend those looking to mod their laptop to take a look at the Dell Copper Mods.

[steve293]

Mikeman, I believe you wanted to get some get of law towards what you are going through here in the US.  If it helps any, the entire aforementioned lawsuit is based on the claim that it violates:

"Unfair Competition Law (Bus. Prof Code, subsection 17200 et seq.) / Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Civ. Code subsection 1750 et seq.), breach of express warranty and 'Unjust Enrichment'"

I believe UCL is both at state and federal level and the CLR is a california exclusive act but similar regulations should be in effect in most states.

[ahmer]

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for all the information. My HP 9548us suffers from the same problem chronicled in all your posts. I just wanted to ask you guys: Is it worth spending $180 for a replacement motherboard? or should I just drive my car over it?

Thank you! 

[Mikeman1985]

steve,

In order for me to advise you on repairing your laptop, I need to know the specific model number, I.E. mine is a dv2225NR...

On the dv2000 series there is an online guide to dissassembly, it was very helpful for me taking this apart, tells you different screw sizes, and gives a diagram as to where they all go,  DV2000 Dissassembly Walkthrough

Now that I have literally had mine apart about five times now to try different configurations, it's pretty simple... one thing the guy left out in his guide was how to get the cd-drive out... there are two screws he tells you to take out that you can't get too with the drive in, I didn't realize he already had it out in his guide. so to take it out you first remove the hard drive bay cover, directly under where the very edge of the cover was, there will be one screw hole there, remove that screw, then the cd-drive will slide right out. be very careful with the connectors inside the laptop, they are delicate, especially the one for the webcam (ask me how I know)... also make sure you note screw sizes and get them back in the right place, you can literally destroy the laptop if you put a longer screw somewhere it wasn't meant to go... now on these notebooks it seems that different length screws also have different threads, so that is less likely to happen...

Anyway, the reason the new heatsink wont work on the older model dv2000 (without modification) is the old models have the nvidia 6150 go, and the newer models have the 7150m graphics. the chips are phisically different. the 7150 sits about 2mm further back on the motherboard than the 6150, in addition to that the core on the 7150 chip is turned 45 degrees so that it sits diagonally compared to the 6150. this means that the "bump" on the bottom of the new heatsink is not oriented in such a way that it sits over top of the core of the older 6150 gpu. that's why it has to be ground down, and a copper shim, I think mine was .075" used to fill the space and draw the heat to the heatpipe... You also have to re-locate the screw hole on that side of the heatsink, now I happened to have an extra screw that worked (left one off of my dell, oops), but I don't know what to tell you for that screw, unless you can make the original screw work (it's kind of short)...

If your laptop is already to the point where it wont boot or display video, then replacing the heatsink, or just doing a copper mod would be of little or no benefit. You need to replace the motherboard, or have the graphics chip resoldered, probably better to just replace the board... price depends on which motherboard you have. mine is p/n 440768-001, I got the new one from cheaplaptopz on ebay for 140.00 shipped, $10 cheaper than HP's price for just the part... I ordered it on a saturday, and it was at my house on monday, that's fast... I would definately buy from him again... the motherboard I bought was actually brand new, I guess they got a wholesale lot from HP, and then re-sold them on ebay...

One thing I did not try was using a copper shim on the original heatsink. I feel that since on the original dv2000 heatsink there is no heatpipe for the GPU, I didn't think a copper shim would be of any benefit on that heatsink. if you don't want to go to the trouble of modifying the new model heatsink to work, you could try shimming the old one and see how that does. I actually could not find any thick enough copper stock locally, so I used three pieces of .025, with AS5 between each piece, and that gave the above posted results, right now it's running at 66c, so at load it's 6c below my previous idle temp, not bad... I imagine that with a single piece of copper the result would likely be much better... maybe I will buy a thicker piece and try that next... man, why couldn't they have designed this thing to get the heatsink off without total dissassembly??? the total thickness on the dv2000 for the copper shim is like .075 inches, or about 2mm. make sure it's not over 2mm, or you could damage the GPU when you tighten it down... also if you use the new heatsink, make sure it is ground and sanded smooth and even, or it wont work efficiently. thickness 'might' be different if you keep the original heatsink, not sure about that.

And yes, the fix is working... it is of course a new motherboard, but the temperature right now as I type this is sitting at 66c, and not going over that. yesterday I played some video on it, and it went up to 70c, that was it, and that's still 2c below my previous idle temp! before changing the heatsink it would go way up over 80c when playing any type of video... so yeah if you can handle the modifications you'd have to do to make it work, i'd say it's worth it... and the new heatsink was only $15 shipped... also from ebay.

keep in mind if you're on a dv6000 or dv9000 you do not need to replace the heatsink, as those already have a copper heatpipe for the graphics chip, you would just need to copper shim it, and I do not know what thickness is needed for those models. also, make sure you pick up some arctic silver 5 (any radio shack has it) it's the best readily available thermal compund you can get, put that on the CPU too. make sure you put a thin layer on each surface, cpu and heatsink, GPU and heatsink and on both sides of your copper shim if you are using one... you can use an old credit card to spread it, or anything like that, it needs to be a thin even layer though...

 also for what it's worth, someone has a class action already going against Nvidia for this very defect right now. it is in federal court in california. try searching for nvidia defect class action. it's broader than just HP and compaq, some dell models as well as even apple models were also affected by faulty Nvidia chips, so this is a big lawsuit. and Dell did the same warranty enhancement that HP did, so dell isn't much better... I also have an Inspiron 600m that I just put a MOBO in, unrelated problem though... bad power supply killed that one...

I was going to file a class action against HP, but I decided that it was not worth the time and hassle to do it, I would be better off just fixing or replacing what I already had... so that's what I did... if this lasts a year, I'll be happy. My next one is likely to be either a toshiba, or possibly, and this one is a slim possibility after all of this trouble, but maybe an HP elitebook. Class actions are bad news, they limit everyone to whatever the settlement terms are, and noone has a chance of getting anything after a classaction has settled... plus the lawyers get a rediculous paycheck, while we would probably only get a rebate or something... not worth my time...

Good luck with it, post or PM me if you need any more info, I'll check back here...

[Mikeman1985]

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ahmer wrote:

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for all the information. My HP 9548us suffers from the same problem chronicled in all your posts. I just wanted to ask you guys: Is it worth spending $180 for a replacement motherboard? or should I just drive my car over it?

Thank you! 

---

well, if you like the laptop, sure spend the 180, plus get you some arctic silver 5 and do the copper mod... should last you a while then.

But, if it makes you feel better, drive the car over it and go buy a better laptop, IE not an HP... I was almost to that point when mine quit on me... I'm happy now that it works agin though. I couldn't afford about $1000 to replace the laptop right now, money's tight man, so spending in total less than $200, was a winner in my book...

Up to you though... if you do drive the car over it, make sure you video tape that and youtube it, I wanna see!!! LOL... 

[ahmer]

First, Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I truly appreciate it!

I have HP dv9548us and it has been collecting rust until now. So I wanted to junk it before I googled the issue again.

So I have changed my mind after reading your post, and I will hold off on making that youtube video :-)

Not to over-bug you, but can I actually buy any dv9000 motherboard to replace mine? or it has to be dv9548us? I looked for the motherboards online, and my model is selling for $275. Is that too much? Also, any other tips for my model?

Thankkkkkkkkkkk you! 

[Mikeman1985]

---

ahmer wrote:

I have HP dv9548us

Not to over-bug you, but can I actually buy any dv9000 motherboard to replace mine? or it has to be dv9548us? I looked for the motherboards online, and my model is selling for $275. Is that too much? Also, any other tips for my model?

---

as I have not actually worked on a dv9000 series, I'm really not sure.

as far as motherboards, on any given series, any motherboard for that series will fit, however, it is not guaranteed that everything will connect to it. That is why I just went back with the same part number on mine in lieu of upgrading it... $275 for the upgrade board was too much of a risk compared to $140 for the one I was sure would work.

For pricing I would find the best price. Try to make sure it's new though. You don't want one that is likely to suffer the same fate in short order after going through all of that trouble to replace it. Additionally the new replacements have newer revised chips, and have some corrections to the design, as noted earlier, that a used one may not have if it's not new enough. 

We have a dv9000 that I'm probably going to do the copper shim mod on, if I do take that one apart, I'll let you guys know how much if any differenc there is in dissassembly... should be pretty similar to the dv2000 guide I linked above, though screw sizes and placement will vary between the two. The over-all procedure will be the same though, and with that guide you should be able to do the 9000.

to find out which part number you have, without taking apart the laptop, go to HP's support site, find the parts page should be linked on the right side of the support home page. next search for you product number for your computer, then under that look under pc board.  it will list which motherboard you have, and the price. You can then take that part number, and search other palces on the net (ebay) for price comparison.

Hope that helps...

-Mike-