My Tivo Fixed my GPU/BGA

From	mike <spamme9@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.sys.laptops
Subject	My Tivo Fixed my GPU/BGA
Date	2011-07-28 12:30 -0700
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<j0sder$erc$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)

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My Tivo Fixed my GPU

It's been a bad year for $1 garage sale laptops.
Almost every one I've found this year has the nVidia
gpu with the heat problem.

With some help from you guys, I did successfully reflow
a Thinkpad X31.

Giddy from my success, I tried an inspiron 8200.  Went
from intermittent to just blotches of color. Tried again,
still no joy.  I think I overheated it the first time and it
ain't coming back.  The mainboard is BIOS locked anyway and
nobody wants to help with that.

There's gotta be a better way.
Then I remembered I'd just recycled a Tivo and the recycle truck
hadn't arrived yet.

Turned over the bottom chassis and cut a 2"x2" hole in it.
Fashioned a wedge-shaped box from some power supply boxes and spot
welded it to the bottom side.  Drilled a 1.5" hole to accept
the heat gun.  Mounted a thermocouple on the surface.
I've about given up on the IR thermometer.  I think the shiny
metal surface on the 8200's GPU fooled the IR and I overheated it.

Now, I have a controlled preheat source.
Some bits of ceramic tile space the board off the tivo.
Another thermocouple on the gpu.
I tweaked on the heat gun power to preheat the board.
Hit it from the top with the temperature-controlled heat gun.

First try was a DV9000.
Worked like a charm, no burnt board or melted connectors.
Finally, a use for a Tivo.

This DV9000 also had the broken left hinge.
Turns out that a propane torch and Welco 52 rod,
also sold at a much higher price as "miracle rod" at RV shows,
works great for patching up the pot metal.
I messed it up pretty bad by overheating it.  But there aren't
any plastic mounting bosses left in the display anyway.
Turns out that one of the tiny torches with the butane lighter
inside works much better.   Biggest problem was jigging it
while welding.

Now, if I could just get the Lifebook unlocked, I'd have something
to do this afternoon.

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Thread

My Tivo Fixed my GPU/BGA mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-07-28 12:30 -0700
  Re: My Tivo Fixed my GPU/BGA "Ryan P." <rdeleteyannewguy@gremovemail.com> - 2011-08-04 11:40 -0500
    Re: My Tivo Fixed my GPU/BGA mike <spamme9@gmail.com> - 2011-08-05 20:04 -0700

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