Laptops Reflowing/reballing work GPU on HP DV6000 at Mumbai

Kilroyquasar

Kilroyquasar

4 seconds, inhale; 4 seconds, exhale.
Skilled
Hello!

y'day had a peculiar problem. while browsing, my laptop's (HP DV6114TX) display went blank. restarted the laptop, but still no display. checked on the net about the issue, and found that the HP DV6000 series was prone to it. i encountered it for the first time. rebooted it a couple of times. once, it gave a long beep followed by 2 short ones, indicating video chipset failure. however, that was only once. i used the towel-wrap method once after removing the HDD, and the display came up after 20-30 mins. i then shut it down, and powered it again after a couple of hours. was fine, until i again started browsing on it (somehow makes me feel the GPU driver may be at fault, has something to do with my browser with many tabs opened). the display again went off.

i will try the towel-wrap method once again, then uninstall the GPU driver and install the one available on HP's website (earlier, it was installed automatically by the OS, Win 7). if that also fails, then i will have to take it to some service centre for reflowing of the GPU chipset. there are many articles on it over the net. however, am not sure if any techinicans here would be aware of this specific problem and how to handle it. i plan to download a few videos and show them what's it about. but it would be good to know if any of you here has had a similar problem and got it resolved by the reflowing or reballing method at some service centre at Mumbai/Lamington road. would appreciate suggestions on any service centres that you are aware of that can help me with this.

thanks![DOUBLEPOST=1426693329][/DOUBLEPOST]UPDATE: it seems the issue had something to with firefox and the many tabs that were open in it (my laptop is old and the config is weak). browsed the web on IE and used the laptop for quite some time without any issues. later on uninstalled the GPU driver and installed the older version from HP. made some changes in the advanced settings of FF, reduced the no. of opened tabs, and for now the laptop's working fine, and hopefully would continue so.
 
Last edited:
Common problem with Dv series which has ATI/Nvidia graphic chips. Reflowing/Reballing may solve your problem temporarily, say about 2-3 months. Recommended to Reball a new chip and make sure the exhaust vents are not clogged with dust or lint.
 
yes, had cleaned the vents as a first measure y'day, and have since then removed the laptop-cooler from underneath, as i felt it may've been blocking the flow.
i read the issue was far more common for DV2000 and DV6100 series laptops, esp. that had AMD chips.

by reballing a new chip, did you mean replacing the present one with a new chip? didn't know that's also done.
 
"by reballing a new chip, did you mean replacing the present one with a new chip? didn't know that's also done."
Yes, that can be done too. The replacement chips are very cheap to buy. You can find them on ebay.com very easily.
 
Had a DV6516TX earlier. It developed a similar problem within 4 years of purchase. Display went blank initially, then sometimes display showed weird colored random lines, and finally started showing the same colored lines as eight miniature screens.. :p Got it repaired once (not sure what was actually done) and it worked fine for a couple of months before conking off again. By then, I was well aware of the problems with DV6xxx series, and the only reliable solution was replacing the entire motherboard. IMO that was a complete waste of hard earned money, so I bought myself a new laptop.
Be ready to invest a lot in setting this alright, or dispose it at the earliest and settle for a new one.
 
that was what i was fearing too y'day, replacing motherboard/purchasing a new laptop. had got the motherboard of this replaced once when it was in warranty (2006/2007), but since then there've been no problems with the laptop that would impede normal use whatsoever. i hope it runs well atleast for some more time too. pocket won't allow a heavy expenditure for the time being. gotta pamper and take care of it all the more now. :D
 
Replacing the whole motherboard because of a faulty GPU seems pointless. Eventually, you will face the same problem after a few years of usage. Best is to replace the GPU chip with the new one. :D
 
yeah you had provided the pointer to a good (and economical) alternative. i checked ebay and found those chips listed in abundance. will enquire about thia at laptop service centres when i visit Lam rd next.
 
^^ Do update this thread about how it turns out for you. I still have the HP I believe, and I would like to know if I can infuse fresh life to it and hand it over to my parents for casual browsing. BTW, please share a couple of those ebay links. I'm not really sure what I am supposed to be looking for.
 
for now, since y'day, the display is back to normal thankfully. that's why i had suspected firefox to be behind the issue. i closed some of the many tabs that were open, and disabled hardware acceleration in it, and am using the laptop & the browser gleefully again!
however, will surely ask about this chip-replacement thing and the associated cost when i visit the computers market here next time, and will then post about it here.

this is the link to the search-results page of ebay.com for my GPU chipset - http://ebay.to/1MQJtUA

BTW, if only for casual browsing, wouldn't even the basic Intel VGA adapter/driver suffice, albeit, may be at a little lower screen resolution? i downloaded that too from HP website (though didn't install) in case if needed in future.

P.S. - i have 're-infused' life in my laptop (don't know how many times i've done that), hopping between XP and Win 7 now-and-then. currently using Win 7 after re-formatting the laptop some weeks back, when it was on XP. i use it for browsing, downloading, media and documents-sharing, etc.
 
Kilroyquasar said:
BTW, if only for casual browsing, wouldn't even the basic Intel VGA adapter/driver suffice, albeit, may be at a little lower screen resolution? i downloaded that too from HP website (though didn't install) in case if needed in future.
Click to expand...
Don't think I am able to follow you.. Isn't the problem hardware related? Not installing Nvidia drivers won't solve the problem, right? JFYI, I am getting all those display artifacts right from boot screen.[DOUBLEPOST=1426771956][/DOUBLEPOST]And BTW, thanks for the link. :)
 
oh your laptop still has that issue! no what i meant was that if your nvidia chipset has failed, you can either get a new one installed on the mainboard or if the laptop has Intel VGA adapter as the primary display adapter, then you can also try using that, the one which enables display say after reformatting a laptop and before installing nvidia display driver.
in my case, i think the GPU had failed y'day as i had hardware acceleration enabled in my firefox browser, and there were too many tabs open; the browser was already hanging up for moments, and then finally the GPU too got overly taxed and the display went off. undoing the above specifically is what has i think resumed the display back to normal; so i think it was like the GPU/its driver crashing down due to overload. and yes, welcome! :)
 
BTW, the artefacts issue i've read occuring on some drivers on desktop GPUs earlier. see if rolling back to a previous driver or upgrading (clean install) solves the issue (but you may have already tried that).
 
Kilroyquasar said:
no what i meant was that if your nvidia chipset has failed, you can either get a new one installed on the mainboard or if the laptop has Intel VGA adapter as the primary display adapter, then you can also try using that, the one which enables display say after reformatting a laptop and before installing nvidia display driver.
Click to expand...
I can try that. Weekend project I guess. Will format and install XP and see what happens.
Kilroyquasar said:
BTW, the artefacts issue i've read occuring on some drivers on desktop GPUs earlier. see if rolling back to a previous driver or upgrading (clean install) solves the issue (but you may have already tried that).
Click to expand...
Yeah. Tried everything possible.
 
alright. installing XP should not be necessary (though if you want to install it for some other motive then fine), as after i uninstalled the nvidia drivers y'day and restarted the laptop, it automatically fell back to the default system video driver for display. the display wasn't crisp, but it was certainly manageable. after that i didn't install the Intel display driver that i had kept downloaded from HP's website, else i think the display-quality would've improved. i rather straightaway installed the HP-provided nvidia driver.
so i would suggest to keep this driver for your laptop downloaded, then uninstall the present nvidia driver, restart the laptop, and manually install that downloaded Intel video driver, reboot again and see.
 
Back
Top