Good HP DV2000 Motherboard Repair needed (BGA Nvidia Problem)

I'm looking for someone to repair an HP DV2000 mother board with the defective Nvidia 8xxx chipset BGA problem. HP refuses to repair it since it's past their 'extended' 2 year time period and want $400 to replace the motherboard. I've been searching around on the net and ebay and have found a few places that will repair the motherboard for around $100.

Here's my issue with that.. as I understand it you can repair it yourself by heating the Nvidia chip on the motherboard. Problem is, it'll fail again in time once it overheats sufficiently. I've heard there are a few repair shops out there that will modify the motherboard to help dissipate the heat better on this chip or replace it all together with a non-defective one. Anyone have a link to one of these repair shops that have a good reputation and will actually repair the thing for less than what HP charges for a new motherboard?

I'd love to find a good repair shop since (as you can see by my tag line) I happen to own a 1520 with one of these chips. It has not failed me, but I have upgraded the bios to have the fan run constantly and I keep a cooler on the laptop at all times, but eventually I'll need the same type of repair.

Thanks!

 

I've heard that some shops don't want to replace the motherboard and all with this faulty NVDIA card thing.. you can try using a heat gun or the oven baking way.. anyway if that doesn't work , don't pay the extra cash to repair it.. its an old laptop and the $400 u spend can be used to buy a new one..

 

I agree with you completely. $400 is not worth it. However, I see many people doing the reflow repair (heat up the chip, then add additional cooling mods) to alleviate the problem for much less than that. I'd prefer not to do it myself if there is a shop out there that specializes in this sort of repair. Anything up to $200 would be worth it to me, especially if it includes replacement of the actual faulty chip on the MB.

The problem I see is there are a ton of DIY'ers on ebay selling this repair. They'll simply use a heat gun to get it to work short term and then give it a 30-90day warranty for around $100, I could do that myself. I'd like it to be usable long term so would rather not go that route unless that also included a copper shim, Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound, etc. (sometimes known as the "copper mod") to help the heat problem with this chipset.

My guess is the solution is going to be for me to do it myself, but would rather pay to have it done somewhere that will give it a 90 day warranty, and that way I'll know it wasn't just thrown in an oven at 400 deg and slapped back into the laptop with no modification. God knows what that 400 deg temp in an oven would do to the rest of the MB components over time.

 

you can try this as a temporary solution.

1- take the motherboard out of the laptop.
2- Press of the GPU and pour some superglue on the board is such a way that it gets in the space between the GPU and the board.
3- repeat the process for all four sides.

I tried this in the past with an intel chipset on an HP/Compaq nx6110 laptop and it worked.

 

They cant replace the chip with a "good one".
All they can do is BGA reballing or BGA reflow.

BGA reflow is the oven trick but using a BGA reworking station. Your graphics will die again after this so it would be a waste of money.

BGA reballing is what you need. You can watch youtube videos of this.
Usually after a reball some repair guys will turn the fan speed up, one repair guy I spoke to just connected the fan to usb power.

Personally I would just buy a heat gun ($20 from local hardware store) and heat up the GPU for a few mins at 300C. There are lots of vids on youtube with instructions. I can give you some links if you want.

 

I may just give that a try. I've found a bit more lately about using a copper shim and Arctic Silver 5 to reduce the chance it'll happen again soon after the reflow. At this point it's a paperweight so it couldn't hurt to give it a try. 300C seems pretty hot, my only reservation would be melting something else on the board, or the chip itself. The laptop is about 3 years old, so at this point it may just be better give it a try and see what happens. I did find one crazy youtube vid where the guy put his between two pillows to make the whole laptop heat up, now that is crazy!

Anyone know the exact size of copper shim that needs to be used on a dv2000? I found info on a M1330, might be similar in size but might not be.

 

The copper mod only delays the inevitable. I had an m1330 before.

I would just bite the bullet and buy a new notebook.

 

You can remove and replace BGA chips, its just a big pain if you do not have the equipment to do so.

You can try taking the motherboard out and using a heatgun, you can try reconnecting it to the motherboard. You will need to fasten the motherboard down and apply a direct vertical load over the chip, so that as you heat it the contacts all get reconnected. You do not need a heavy load.
I have done this before with my D900K, its how I reconnected the Northbridge on it,

Wouldnt it be cheaper to get a used/refurbished motherboard on ebay to replace the one you have?

K-TRON