Laptop won't POST

Serious? I can unsolder it with a heat gun?

 

Haha yep, i'd ask Mark personally though how its done,

But you can definately refill cracks with heating up the solder!,

The GPU could be completely broke, or just malfunctioning due to cracks in the solder.

 

No it will not unsolder with a heat gun all you have to do is heat the area around the gpu and underneath for 10 secs then with a towel apply pressure on the core of the gpu.

To me it looks like they used a thermal pad on the core causing overheating just like the problems with the HP DV 6 and 9 series.

 

So just so I know I'm following you... assuming the GPU is not completely dead, this could repair and damaged solder connections on the GPU?

 

Yes, i believe so, Mark said he'd repaired two? possibly more machines with a similar issue.

 

So would it be possible to get some direction as to how to go about this. I'm gonna give it a try. I want to make sure I do this right though cause it seems like it may have potential to be dangerous lol

 

Wait till you get your USB thingy before attempting that

 

I've repaired 6 DV6000's 2 DV9000's and one Acer aspire 5520.
I've also repaired old 6800GT AGP and 7600GT PCIE desktop cards.

 

We have a winner! Any of the cards integrated on the mobo mark?

 

Alright... I've got the mobo removed for the laptop... And I have a heat gun. Would it be possible to detail step by step what I need to do here? I appreciate the help guys!

 

Put the board on flat surface I used a wooden work bench.
Next use heatgun on low around the core in a circle for a least 10 seconds.
Next flip the board and heat the bottom of the core for the same 10 seconds.
Next get a towel or oven mitts and flip the the board so you can see the core,
caution the Board at that time will extremely hot put pressure on top of the core hold it for 5 secs reheat and pressure again.

I usually do chipset when I do those steps.

reassemble the the laptop.

Good luck.

 

Alright... I've followed the steps, but it didn't seem to be all that hot to me. I mean... it was hot I guess... but I could put my hand to it without burning it. How hot should it be? Just before I put all this back together. Also, I'm supposed to center the heat on the GPU right?

 

It should be hot to a point where it would hurt touching it for more then 2 secs.
yes you can center the heat gun to the die.

 

Hmmm, try external again?

Could have completely fried it in the process :S.

 

The external monitor you mean?

 

Yeah, see if anything kicks off on the external monitor,

 

noticed a post for a new release of ati drivers ? will this work ornis 9.2 hacked only option for gt725 win7 64 bit ? ideas anyone ?

 

Not sure I follow what you mean Diesel... I got my POST reader today and it's saying that the mobo is good. The fault it's giving is 'F1 - The AMIBOOT.ROM file is not in the root directory'. Anybody ever come acrooss something like that?

 

Don't worry about Mr diesel , he's just looking for some drivers

Corrupt bios ?, have you tried flashing it ?

 

Problem Solved!!! After fighting with this thing for 2 weeks I got it worked out. Turns out it was the BIOS. I reflashed the BIOS using these steps:

1.Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a floppy disk. e.g. Rename A569MS23.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM

2.Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system and press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. It will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.

3.When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk and restart the computer.

Only difference is I used a USB stick, and I didn't hear any beeps at the end. I couldn't see anything so I just left it for about half an hour to make sure it had a chance to do whatever it needed to do, and after a reboot she came right to life. It's a miracle.

 

Awesome ! thank god you didn't melt anything yesterday

 

Roger that. Thanks for all the help dude.

 

No prob man That USB thingy deserves all the credit though

 

Great job getting it booted up again!

That tester is really good?

Might order one myself, because thats a handy gadget!

 

Yeah and it only cost 5 bucks on fleabay. I searched for minipci diagnostic and found a bunch of them. It's installed via minipci or LPT, using USB for power. Money well spent. The instructions for it are a little hairy, but after a little while messing around with it I got it figured out. If you end up getting one and you need a hand using it just get in touch with me. I also ordered one that installs via PCI and ISA. Haven't received that one yet, but when I do I'll let you all know how it works.

 

You're not going to believe this. I got that notebook up and running... everything was great. Shut it down (with no battery installed, I was running off AC power only) and put it to the side for a bit. Went to fire it back up and... same problem. I checked the cmos battery and it was almost flat dead, so I replaced the battery with a new one, and now the BIOS reflash won't take. The USB stick I'm using lights up periodically, but it just won't take the flash. I've left it going for over an hour, it just keeps lighting up (the USB stick).... Just my luck lol.

 

possibility of a slighly damaged/loose component or bios chip?

 

Assuming everything else is good....With a dead CMOS battery, shouldn't my BIOS have stayed intact? I should have only lost the date/time etc.... Right?

 

Yep , and you should receive a msg like F1 for set-up and F2 for fail-safe. It's just a case of loading up the default values and carry on with the rest. If i was the battery it should just resets itself ...

You sure you using the right battery or voltage ? What kind of error code you getting from that USB thing ?

 

No more warranty? now that's bad. It would have been a relief if
it was still available

anyways,

Did you check the Processor Lock?

 

Yep. Processor lock is good. Battery is the same CR2032, 3V. This thing is driving me crazy... it's become a personal vendetta between me and the machine lol. I agree Dead.... it should have, worst case scenario, restored the default settings to the BIOS, not dumped it completely. It's weird too cause it took the new BIOS flash like a charm yesterday, first time it just sparked right up. Now it's just cycling. I even tried creating a bootable CD with the BIOS on it, and disconnected the HDD to make the CD the only boot device. Nothing. Oh yeah... and the reader is still giving the 'AMIBOOT.ROM file is not in the root directory'

 

Look for the latest bios online and flash it using a USB stick and not CD or DVD.

If that does not work then you need to start looking at your BIOS chip. Might need replacing.
http://www.wimsbios.com/forum/topic9392.html

 

Yeah I've been doing it with a USB stick most of the time (I've probably tried it 15 times now)... I only tried the CD once or twice. The first time, when I did get it to work it was with the USB stick.... The BIOS chip, I believe, is soldered right into the board. It the one underneath the modem right?

 

Sorry i don't know where yours is. Are you comfortable doing that ? Sounds like it's a task for the g** McGyver

 

Hahahaha no doubt. You all had Mcguyver over there too huh? Too funny. If it's soldered, which I think it is, I won't bother.... If it's in a DIP socket I would definately try replacing it... You think it would have taken the BIOS previously if the chip was fried though?

 

Seen it when I was a kid , My most recent memory is from family guy when they take the mickey out of him

Anyway Mcgyver aside , It doesn't seems to hold anything so it could be it .. but I might be wrong. I don't see any other culprit so far ..

 

Hmmm.... The original flash instructions from MSI call for a floppy drive to be used. I used a USB stick (as the computer has no floppy drive). According to AMI a USB stick or bootable CD are working alternatives to the floppy. I know the USB stick worked at one point.... but maybe I'll get my hands on a USB floppy drive and see if that makes a difference....

 

Something I'm noticing here too... The BIOS file from the MSI website has '709 file' as the type. I reformatted my USB stick and reloaded the BIOS file to it several times today while attempting to get this thing to flash. Following the steps I'm supposed to rename the file from A1633NMS to AMIBOOT.ROM. I'm 99% sure that before it was changing the type to 'ROM file'. What's happening now, is that it's changing the name to AMIBOOT.ROM but keeping the type as '709 file'. What is a 709 file? And should it be changing?