7805u motherboard dying, what are my options

My 7805u is dying. I get artifacts and the system locks up whenever I move it. Internals are clean and I put fresh themal compound on CPU and pad on GPU so I dont think its just overheating.

What would you guys do?

1) have the MB repaired by one of the ebay guys $125-$150
or
2) replace the motherboard with a new or refurbished one $300ish

I was reading some thread where a guy replaced the guts with a totally different laptop. Is there another board that will fit in easily that might be cheaper than the $300?

Thanks

 

you could put P79xx mb in it.... this way you'll have more powerfull laptop and have problem solved!

 

Thanks. Will every p79xx motherboard fit without change and needing extra components. In other words all I need is to buy the motherboard and that's it right? no fans, heat sink, add on boards, etc.

What were the different models of the p79 series that will fit my system so I can search ebay/google for the board?

Thanks again

 

as far as I know any P79xx motherboard will fit P78xx but pm tanware to make sure because he did such swap.
try typing gateway p-79* in ebay search and it'll show you all variants of last two digits.

 

I answered in the PM but I will here as well for others. The P79 board is a direct swap. Only a few drivers will be required. Counting on the changes you have done over time it may require reactivation of the Windows OS.

The PB boarsd are a direct hardware swap but other issues may prevail. Since a different OEM reactivation is almost a garenty. The bios is not as mature either from my understanding. Drivers may also be slightly different too.............

 

If I swap to the P79xx, does the heatsink need to be changed since the 260m runs hotter than the 9800m. if it does need to be changed, which does it need to be changed to? Thanks.

 

Not sure if the 7805u uses a SATA dvd drive or the older format like the 7811fx does. That might be something you have to upgrade. But for less than 20 bucks you can get one of those.

I am also not sure which GPU heat sink comes with the 7805u. If it is the one that wraps around the fan, then I would upgrade it to the one that comes with the P79 series. It does a MUCH better job as there is more heat sink material in contact with the heat pipes. The fan is actually built into the heat sink assembly. The P68 series did not have that format and is much less efficient at cooling.

I found my P7908 board at a local eBay retailer. Impulse purchase really, but it was the best single thing I did to this computer. The GPU runs much better and much cooler. I did upgrade the GPU fan at the same time to the P79 unit. For the fan and board, I paid $292 out the door with California sales tax. There are some P79 boards selling for $261 on eBay and I would go that route.

Yes, it costs more than getting yours repaired, but the end result is more than satisfactory and the latest revision is the revision they got right in my opinion.

 

The 7805 drive is PnP with the P79 board..............

 

Just wanted to update the thread. I purchased a p79xx motherboard from ebay model MB.WEU01.001 and the updated gpu fan part number 60.4FE04.001. Paid $275 for the MB and $35 for the fan (including tax and shipping.) everything was a straight swap, nothing tricky about it. just be careful of the wireless switch. i wasn't paying attention and almost busted it off. would have been a $300 mistake.

As an alternative, I was considering getting the bga reball done for half the price. I decided on the MB swap figuring gateway would have all the issues resolved on the newer model.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

Nice... If i could afford it, I would get a P-79 board to replace mine ONLY for the quad core... the GFX on the P-78 works perfect for me... I mean I always run everything on lowest settings (except resolution) anyway

That being said! I pretty much disabled the WiFi switch (seriously, I havent seen anyone use that thing on any of the laptops I repair... and half the time they wouldnt have even known about it unless i pointed it out to them...

As for doing a reball, if there was a place within a 80mile radius of where I live I would be giving them loads of business... so many laptops I get and even desktops to work on that might be repairable if only for a reball station.. Oh, and my own personal cash because I like using premium reball materials since the bga jobs most major MFG's do are just like the thermal paste/pads... IE they suck major ...


that being said, got my new dremel and realized its been too long since I did any precision work and cant cut a nice square of copper to save my life... half way through this old pure copper heatsink and not a decent cut to save my life..

 

Congratulations friend. It sucks spending that kind of coin, but honestly, this is the way the laptop should have come. Anyone with a P68XX got the short end of the Gateway design team stick. Or perhaps it was nVidia or RoHS. No matter, the P79XX and the 260gtx are the best this laptop will ever get. You did well on price too considering what some folks are asking for those boards.