Do you think that this is a FAULTY BIOS?

A friend of mine has a problem with his Gateway ML3108b laptop. He turned his laptop off one day, then he was not able to use it the following morning.

When I turn his laptop ON, it powers up, but I can't see anything on the screen nor on an external screen. The power LED is ON, the CPU fan spins. If there is a CD on the optical drive I can hear it spining for few seconds. The optical drive LED is ON what I hear the CD spinning.

I tested the following items and they all seem OK: CPU, RAM, HDD, WIFI, AC adapter, and optical drive. I also removed the CMOS battery for a couple of minutes.

Do you think that he has a corrupted BIOS?

 

Does this notebook have nvidia graphics?

EDIT: I see that does... is it by chance a GeForce GO7150? Just recently my older HP bit the dust with exactly those symptoms.

 

It's the nvidia Go6100/6150.

Aren't those supposed to be fault free?

 

Nope... I confirmed mine by baking it, and it worked long enough to see the vista login screen. And it died just like you described... literally, I came back to it the next morning dead, and it was working fine when I left it.

 

For such laptops you might want to underclock and undervolt the GPU to ensure longer mean time before failure.

 

So it was like dead, I mean like my friends where despite the black screen it doesn't even try to boot into windows?

EDIT:

How do you undervolt/underclock an integrated IGP such as the Go6100/6150? I don't remember very well but I don't think that nibitor works with this particular IGP.

 

Yep. I can push my power button right now and everything powers up just like it would normally, but it won't post. Can you see HDD activity, like it's booting?

I can underclock the core, but I was never able to undervolt.

 

What did you use to underclock nibitor or something else?

The HDD LED stays OFF.

 

Yes the 6000 series VGA BIOS is integrated into the main BIOS image.
You have to dissect the main bios and get at the VGA BIOS Module.
And Nibitor is capable of undervolting the VGA BIOS.
I can do it for you if it is a Phoenix/AWARD/AMI BIOS.

 

Yea, I'd say this ones day has come. And I just used Nvidia System Tools to underclock the core. But weinter's method sounds a little more comprehensive.

 

Thanks for the info.

~ Off topic ~
The laptop is out of service now but I don't mind if you can describe the steps that I have to follow to do it myself. The bios is a phoenix and I have access to a phoenix editor.

I like to read about bios modding. So if you have any intersting links to bios hacking/modding tutorial please PM them to me.
~ End off topic ~

 

If you are really serious about this link me the BIOS and I will try to perform the mod.

 

Ok if you have PBE then you can DIY.
Download the BIOS then open the WPH file.
Sometimes it will throw an error if BCP markers are not in place then you have to manually hex edit the BCP back in place, otherwise it will work 80%.
Then open the PBE TEMP folder and you will see all the stripped BIOS Modules.
Usually the VGA BIOS is in a module called OPROM0X.ROM
Trial and error use Nibitor to open them.
In each ROM you will have a Device ID and SubSys.
To be sure double check the ID to ensure it is the VGA ROM.
The Device ID must match the number given by Nvidia.
Open as 6000/7000 Series Nvidia VGA BIOS.
Go to Exact Volt tab and drop all the voltages to the lowest possible.
Then Save and replace the ROM in the TEMP Folder.
Change a variable and change it back so PBE will know something as change and it is possible to compile it.
Before you compile checksum all the modules and after compliation is complete Open the Compiled BIOS and compare it to the earlier checksum to ensure the modules are not corrupted.
Then it is safe to be flashed.
Besides undervolting this techique can also be used to update VGA BIOS ROM if you know a more updated version exist in other laptops.

 

I've just send you a PM about this...thanks

 

In case you are mistaken.
IF your laptop has no display you have to reheat the board to mend the solder fracture first.
The BIOS is just a measure to reduce the likelyhood of repeated failure by exposing the board to less extreme temperatures.

 

I know...I've already read the motherboard baking thread (was it here or in another forum? can't remember) about three weeks ago. So I'm familar with this procedure.

I may also try the superglue trick that I've used in the past with a faulty intel chipset (same soldering problem) on an HP/Compaq nx6110 laptop.

Since the laptop is not mine I'll let my friend decide. The worst case scenario I can get him a replacement board from ebay for £50 to £70.

 

That's what I was going to recommend. You can just get a new board, and then underclock, and undervolt it, to save it's life

 

Also replacing the blue thermal pad with an aluminum or a copper shim.

Question:
I found this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MGvJCMQFis. Is this or the baking technique a temporary or a permanent fix?

 

Either way is a temporary fix, as far as any kind of mobility is concerned. If it's flexed in ANY way, it's dead again, and it just gets harder to re-flow each successive time. My HP worked for a maximum of 10 minutes before failure again. But some people have remarkable luck though, so I wouldn't say "don't try it".

 

I'm tempted by trying. But I'm not sure about baking it though. It's kind of too risky.

This is off topic, but does a GPU has the same safe guards as a CPU? I mean does a GPU has a Tjunction and Tmax temperatures? Can it throttling itself down and switch itself off if it get too hot?

 

In Desktop the VGA BIOS on Discrete card have pretty advance thermal protection and will turn performance down when it gets too hot.
But on Laptops especially those GPU soldered on the Motherboard directly the thermal protection is assumed to be handled by the main bios so they do nothing.
By removing the thermal features the VGA BIOS size is also reduced to fit into the main BIOS image.

 

Weinter are you the same one who answered my post at AMD's processor forum?

 

My ML31808b has given up the ghost and I was sure it was the video card. I took it apart and baked it lastnight. covering in foil to protect some parts where possible, just leaving the GPU exposed. Pre-heat oven at 180c, put the board in for 4 minutes. Turn up to 220c and leave for 6 minutes. Left in oven to cool down for 30 minutes then unwrap carefully. First couple of boots were a bit odd but after the 4th one it was normal and booted Windows

I'd like to do as "weinter" suggested and edit the bios to underclock it. The motherboard bios isn't available from Gateway to download. How do I go about extracting it from the laptop ?

 

The bios is by Phoenix and I can't find away to do anything with it. I've updated the drivers and used RivaTuner, ATITool and you can't adjust the clock speed. I've enabled PowerMizer and the clock speed is down to 100mhz from 425mhz at desktop so that's an improvement.

Reading about online not much you can really do with this setup it seems.

 

NX3 from what've read here and there 220c is not enough. The ideal temperature is 280c to 285c because the melting temperature of the tin used with CBGA components is 275c.

The ML3108b GPU is an nVidia GO6100/GO6150. So you need an nVidia tool to clock it down. 'weinter' suggested to extract the VGA BIOS, and then down clock the VGA BIOS setting with nibitor before flashing the BIOS back to the laptop. I tired to use nibitor on the ML3108b BIOS but it didn't work.

If your laptop is working I would suggest to replace the blue heat pad above the GPU with a copper shim. Read this http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268081

 

220c is 428f which on other guides suggest was hot enough and the oven doesn't go over 220c anyway. It must have worked as the motherboard was dead before and is now working

PowerMizer in the newer drivers seems to do a good job of keeping it at a low mhz and cool.

Thanks for the inofo on the copper shim, I'll look into that! Any recommendation on what size shim to get ?

 

The width and length don't matter that much. Any thing betwen 15mm x 15mm and 20mm x 20mm should be fine. For the thickness I would say 1mm or might be even less since the blue pad above the GPU is relatively thin.

I read that the thermal past 'IC Diamond 7' is relatively thick compared to other thermal pastes. I've also read that it is a switable replacement to the blue pad if the gap between the GPU and the heatsink is relatively small. You might want to try it

 

Well I got my copper shim off off of ebay so decided to rebuild the laptop. I used Arctic Silver 3 as I had some lying about and its thick / gunky stuff. I removed the thermal pad from the HSF and installed the copper shim instead. It all went back together well so I fired it up ! On boot up using ATI tool to read the GPU temp and speed it was immediately running at 60c. This compares to previously running at 99c. I left it at desktop for about 30mins, screensaver off. It warmed up between 70-80c, it seemed to vary between the two. Previously it would have idled in the 120-130c range. Nothing else had changed, it seems an amazing to drop 40c but that's what its reporting. Overall the HSF unit feels warmed but I guess its getting the heat out the system now whereas before the thermal pad wasn't very efficient. I'm very pleased to say the least, who knows how long it will last now though. Thanks for pointing out the copper shim info

 

what was the thichness of the shim?

Are those temperatures in degrees or fahrenheit?

 

I got a 18mm x 18mm x 0.9mm copper shim. The temps are C (degrees celsius).

 

thanks for the info regarding the shim

I think those temperatures are still high. Have you used another monitoring tool to check the GPU temperature?

 

That was from ATI tool, I did have something else to check but can't remember its name. I'll double check it. The figures are high but I understood the nvidia chip Gefore 6150LE (?) was a hot chip.

 

GPUZ has the same temperatures. I can't get RivaTuner to show any temps.

 

Weinter, are you still willing to do this? I have Compaq v6065ea with IGP 6150go and phoenix bios. If I supply you with it, would you be able to undervolt the GPU? My laptop is borderline unusable now.

And since we are on the subject, is it also possible to edit default voltages for the CPU?