My 8400 saga...

As some of you know my DV2500 with it's beautiful NVIDIA 8400GS died. I tried all sorts of little experiments like the Xbox towel trick... and nothing worked.

Well, I found a local shop who will take apart the laptop and heat the solder points with a "machine" and are going to charge me about $50 for it, which I think is reasonable.

I go to pick it up tomorrow... I am kinda excited. I am hoping it will last me for another year or something, crazy optimistic I know but... we'll see.

I'll let you guys know what happens.

 

They're probably going to use a heat gun. If done well it will work alright, if done wrong it will be unfixable. You could've gone the ghetto route and stuck it in the oven. Many people have fixed their video cards by this method (mostly desktop cards though), just check HardOCP and there's a 60+ page thread on it.

I did that to a cellphone board that was acting up and it worked perfectly afterwards. Of course, it requires an oven with temperature control, or an infrared thermometer.

Fortunately my 8400GS is still kicking, but still i'm curious about your outcome.

 

Well..... it's never good to hear more 8400 failure news, but I hope it works out for ya. Let us know how it goes! I could be short-in-trail. See sig

All the best.....

 

Well, I got it back the other day but I kept getting BSODs and errors that my video card had an error.... it was still working fine, save for the restarts/errors.

Not sure what to do, keep pushing her until she croaks and hope it takes her a while to die or.... hmm.

I think it's time to lay her to rest.

%*#$) Nvidia.

 

If you don’t have an extended warranty you may be S.O.L. However, I think if I’d just taken it to a “professional” shop and they confirmed the 8400 issue, then I’d see if they would put it in writing on business letterhead. With that in hand, along with as much “documented” information as I could gather (including recalls), I’d give a call to a case manager or write a letter and beg for mercy.

These things just cost too much to toss and from my point of view, given the known Nvidia issues, HP should be fixing or replacing the notebooks without you having to plead your case. It’s just poor judgment on their part if they don’t. Reality though…. your chances are probably slim at best since it’s not “yet” on the recall list… but perhaps still worth a try.

Keep us posted…. and best of luck.