TouchSmart tx2 motherboard failure [ Edited ]

[Joedel263]

Hi,

Hoping someone can point me in a direction..  Turned my laptop on the other day and got nothing.. NUM lock and CAPS lock blink once...  Yay motherboard failure!

It's well beyond warranty at this point, so I'm at a loss..  Do I attempt to replace it myself?  If so is there a better place to get the part?  is it worth it?  Safer to bring it somewhere and have them do it? Risk of hard drive loss?

The internet suggests I remove the motherboard and throw it in the oven (325 for 8 minutes)  thoughts?  will a blow dryer (for shrink wrap, not hair.. more powerful) solve issue? (at least temporarily so I can run a backup that's not a week old?)

Really frustrating...

HP Touchsmart tx2 FR239AV running Windows 7 64 bit.

Thanks,

Joe

[Daniel_Potyrala]

Hi,

Check the link below:

Blank Screen LED Error Codes

As you see this problem is related with CPU not motherboard, so just replace it and everything should be ok.

You need more info? Let me know about it.

[Joedel263]

Isn't the CPU..

Figured I didn't have anything to lose and took the motherboard out.. pointed a blowdryer at the GPU for five minutes and then applied pressure until it cooled down.  Laptop turned on and worked fine for two hours before the screen went black..

did this twice more, same effect..

What do I need to replace?

[LostwithoutmyHP]

My Laptop did the exact same thing.  Did you ever find a solution?  I am on the Boat this weekend to I need to use it as an additional Backup Boat Anchor?  Or do we have a chance.

Regards,

Jim

[whiteraven5]

Hi,

      Only last week the same thing happened to my touchsmart tx2. Screen was blank, all lights went on and two lights kept flashing. I took it to a repair shop and they said that the GPU was burnt out. But they told me that I need to purchase a new laptop rather than replace the motherboard. I would have though that it is easier to replace the motherboard since the GPU is connected to it.

[TigerHC]

I had the same problem also. If I do manual shut down, then I can restart the computer. But if I let the computer goes to sleep then I can't restart the computer. When that happened, I'd use a blow dryer and blow it for 5 mins several times and it comes back on. However, it stopped working no matter how much I blow dry it and I had to bring it to a computer repair shop and the guy said the motherboard needs to be replaced. He can't seem to order the motherboard from his vendors coz they discontinued it? How else can I get this fixed??? I don't want to buy a new computer, I have many programs that I use for work. Any help is HUGELY appreciated! 

[whiteraven5]

Apparently this is a common fault with all HP Touchsmart laptops. I couldn't find the model on their wesite so I assume they have stopped making it as well. I gave the laptop to professionals to fix it but they came back saying that the GPU was fried and there was nothing they could do. I even obtained a new board from ebay but that only worked for a bit and then the same problem showed up. Luckily, the ebay dealer refunded my money after I sent the board back.

In short I have given up on the touchsmart. I ended up buying the new Fujtsu tablet laptop.

[KB41786]

Okay, I have the fix for this and it is very inexpensive, but takes some minimal work.  This same problem you all have described and I have found on many other forums happened to me 1.5 years into ownership; the screen did nothing, the num and caps lock lights flashed, and the PC otherwise acted like it was on (though the fan did not always run).  The first time it happened--1.5 years into ownership--I checked around with some geeks and everyone thought it was the motherboard.  I sent it back to HP because I had purchased an extended warranty and they said they had to replace the cpu.  Almost exactly 1.5 years later, the same problem happened again; this time I had no warranty so I assumed it was the cpu again.  I installed a new cpu and it did nothing to correct the problem.  I, then, noticed that my GPU and Southbridge were after-market additions or, at least, re-solders (it is very clear that they were not original because the repair person had applied a red glue to keep them in place and the fellow I speak of below confirmed that the repairs were post-purchase).  Since I purchased the computer new from HP and I knew that the only time the PC had been opened was by HP's repair department, this means HP's repair letter was incorrect when it stated they just replaced the CPU, because they actually did major work to my motherboard by replacing the GPU and Southbridge.  I also researced online and found that the likely culprit was actually the Gpu, not the Cpu; others are catching on to this problem.

I asked my neighbor, whose business is hardware repair on PCs, servers, etc.  He said that these AMDs were notorious for overheating (which I've always known) and he enlightened me on what happens when they overheat.  THEY DO NOT BURN OUT.  They just rise up off of the motherboard and come unsoldered from the motherboard.  "That's great, but what can you do about it," I said.  "Do I have to replace my motherboard when I almost certainly have 100% quality parts that just aren't connected to one another."  He said "no" and educated me quite a bit further.  The hair dryer thing can work, but these motherboard repair guys have an infrared heat gun to do the repair.  He took my motherboard, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and shot BOTH MY SOUTHBRIDGE AND MY GPU (seperately) at around 150-200 degrees celcius, then pressed down on them until they cooled.  Apparently, this works most of the time.  The only exceptions would be if the GPU or Southbridge has risen so much that the connections touch one another and short out or the GPU/Southbridge did, in fact, burn out.  Neither of these happen very often, though.  A few notes on this repair:  remove the CPU and clock battery from the motherboard before doing any heating and cover the other parts of the motherboard.  The Southbridge is a processor that, on the tx2, is on the opposite side of the motherboard from the CPU/GPU.  When assembled, it is just under the palm rest for the right hand (just to the right of the mousepad).  It says "Southbridge" on it, but you might need magnification to read it.  It has no heatsink, fan, or other heat dissipation mechanism.  You should have both the Southbridge and the GPU shot with the heat and pushed down because the problem can be either one.  You might be able to tell which one is the cause of the problem because you'll be able to see little metal beads under them if they have risen up.

But, that's not then end of the story.  This reheat and press down repair worked for only a couple of weeks before the black screen problem happened again.  My neighbor had indicated that, if it happened again, I should alter my heatsink and find a way to keep pressure on the GPU and Southbridge to keep them from rising and coming disconnected.  Therefore, this 3rd time (once repaired by HP and the second and third by my neighbor) I put a little extra work into the reinstallation of the motherboard and took my neighbor's advice.  One big problem you'll find is that the heatsink over them GPU has a piece of metal that is not copper, like the rest of the heatsink.  In addition to that, that piece of metal does not even touch the GPU and HP just put a "cooling pad" between the two.  Essentially, someone failed in the original design of the heatsink or the design of the motherboard because the GPU and CPU are not anywhere close to level with one another.  The CPU is much taller, but the heatsink is level.  To correct this, HP could have easily measured the distance and added a copper piece to the copper heatsink.  Instead, they added some inferior alloy and a piece of fabric.  Both likely conduct heat okay, but not nearly like copper and, because of the fabric pad, they don't put pressure on the GPU.  The best fix for this would be to replace the non-copper piece, but I didn't want to bend the heatsink and not have it level (it needs good contact with the GPU).  Therefore, I got a piece of flat copper from my neighbor, doubled it over, and used that in place of the fabric "cooling pad."  I, of course, put Arctic Ice between all of the pieces.  Arctic Ice is a silver compound that should always be used between pieces that are to conduct heat; it connects them.  You can't let your copper pieces touch the resistors/transistors on the top of the GPU/CPU/Southbridge, or your short them out, so be careful.  

For the Southbridge, since there is no heat conductor on it, but there is a metal heat shield on the underside of the wrist-rest, you can get some copper or take an old penny (you need a pre-1980s one for it to be copper) and bend it in half and in half again, so it is the general shape of a piece of pie.  This could also be done for the copper needed for between the GPU and heatsink.  After each fold, hammer it very well.  This can be done with a minimal amount of tools: two pairs of pliers and a hammer.  Grab the penny from opposite ends with the two pairs of pliers (with a little space between the noses of the pliers) and bend it as far as you can before the pliers touch.  Then, keep the penny in one pair of pliers and beat the penny with the pliers as far as you can like that.  Then, grab the folded penny with the pliers and squeeze it until the fold is flat.  Then beat the penny until it is completely flat.  Then do the whole process over again to make the penny 4 pennies thick.  However, make sure to beat the penny enough between folds to where it is really just about 3 pennies thick.  That way, it should be just thick enough to touch both the wrist-wrest and the Southbridge.  Put the Arctic Ice between the Southbridge and the folded penny and maybe between the metal on the wrist-wrest and the penny.  

I have done most of the above.  I can't say that I've done the penny trick and you'll note that I wrote it as a hypothetical instruction, as I would never deface money.  What I have done above has worked so far and the GPU and Southbridge are cooler and hopefully there is pressure on them so that they will not rise off the board and cause the problem again.  Because the GPU is cooler, the CPU is also cooler.  

I wrote this post on my repaired tx2!   

As evidence that this works, search ebay and the internet generally for this motherboard (HP 504466-001) and see what you find.  You'll find a lot of suppliers that want you to send them your old motherboard when they send you a REFURBISHED ONE.  You'll also not that you can pay different prices for different lenghts of warrantly.  It seems that these companies likely only use the heat method explained above (one even has a photo of their heat device) and they just constantly resell the same motherboards.  It is a great idea because it is such little work to get it back in working order.  Remember, though, if you buy one of these to somehow put some solid pressure on the GPU and Southbridge or you'll just be buying a new board again.

Another thought to fix this problem is to drill more holes for the intake and exhaust for the fan to pull air through.  I tried this, but my drill bit didn't go through the bottom of the PC and I found that our tx2 bases are made out of metal!  I never knew that.  I did, however, remove some of the plastic from the underside of the keyboard, at the top-right of the keyboard, to get a little more air flow.  One day, I might drill or dremel some more holes in the based between the current air inlets and the back of the PC.