Averatec 6240 Rebuild / Review

Not sure if this will help anyone, but here goes- a review of the Averatec 6240, before, during, and after a rebuild/repair.

I buy / repair / rebuild / sell used laptops locally. One of my latest acquisitions was an Averatec 6240 (2GHz AMD64 CPU, 512MB PC2700 DDR RAM, 30GB hard drive, DVD-RW, 15.4" widescreen LCD, 802.11g wifi, Ethernet, etc). It had a couple issues which made the owner feel it was worthless. I picked it up for $75. Specifically, the unit would begin booting, but could only go about thirty seconds before shutting off. The disc drive also wasn't reading properly. The original rubber feet were missing as well.

I completely dismantled the unit to clean it and evaluate the problems. The first, and obviously biggest issue, was the automatic shutoff. Inspection of the heatsink (accessible through a large bottom panel) showed a poor dry, cracked bit of thermal pad. I removed the heatsink, cleaned off the clay-like useless gunk, and polished it until the copper was shiny (Goo-gone spray works wonders, just remember to clean it thoroughly afterwards with water).

I applied some thermal paste (left over from an ancient Pentium-era HSF); not a ton, but a little more than I normally use. Then I reattached the heatsink. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN! If you can't turn the screws anymore, that's way too tight. The built-in compression springs are there for a reason. Making it too tight risks cracking the core as it heats/expands, plus can trigger the thermal (overheating) probe. With the entire unit apart, I was able to see to insert the screws until they were flush with the bottom bracket, and not beyond it.

I then used a spare DVD-RW drive to install XP Home (I find optical drives are easier to troubleshoot while within Windows). XP installed fine, no more shutdowns. I cleaned the optics on the original drive, and re-tested. The unit only had partial readability, and struggled getting data off discs. The laser was likely misaligned. Luckily, like many others, this model drive has two tiny variable resistors that alters the laser's voltage. If one is careful, enhancing these often compensates for weak/misaligned/failing lasers. This units' can be adjusted without taking apart the laptop or even the drive. With the drive ejected, the two adjustments can be seen slightly hidden on the outer edge of the optic assembly. They will look like two miniature philips-head screws. I used a small set of tweezers, giving the most accessible one nearly a quarter-turn. Testing showed 100% perfect disc reading after this, without hesitation. The key to this trick is small adjustments, patience, and continued testing.

I then cut angles into some rubber feet to replace the lost ones (using the same grooves), giving enough clearance for airflow under the unit. I finished up the XP installation, tracking down drivers by hardware ID codes. The Averatec website did not have any drivers; it appeared to give a custom error page from their end, designed to look generic. The best touchpad drivers came from Dell (more options, such as Sensitivity); SiS had the latest videocard drivers; Driverguide helped for the 56k v92 modem.

Final thoughts: This unit has some serious design defects. The 2GHz AMD64 is a decently fast CPU, but runs way too hot for this laptop. This caused the original thermal 'tape' to deteriorate into uselessness, eventually making the laptop unusable without the above-described rework. The foot-pads physically detach due to the same heat issue (glue melts from the adhesive backings); once gone, the unit sits lower, cutting off airflow and further adding to the overheating problem. This is definitely a laptop to be used only on a flat, hard surface. I'd highly recommend a laptop cooler pad as well. From all my research, Averatec is a brand to steer well clear from. That said, if you end up finding/owning one of these, it can be usable with some effort.

Mine continues to work flawlessly, though the fan runs constantly, as I would expect with the 2GHz cpu. It's a portable space heater with a 45 max battery life. Installing the AMD Mobile Athlon 64 driver, which automatically clocks the cpu down, helps slightly. I'm using it to type this while at work (I like to real-world test all units for a week or more). I won't sell it for as much as a decently made slower unit, but it was worth the investment I made. The shared video memory (32MB, 64MB, or 128MB) cuts into the 2 x 256MB DDR RAM, but with SiS video it's not any sort of gaming machine. It's a budget computer for a broke student that doesn't want or can't afford any better. To that end, they should be happy with this. The specs are respectable (as quoted above, plus 4X USB, VGA/S-Video out, built-in CD/DVD player module), it's the Averatec engineers who should be shot. Don't expect it to last forever without some hardware troubleshooting/upkeep. This unit was designed to sell solely on specs alone- durability and practicality never entered the equation.

 

Interesting exercise, and fitting to your user name too.

 

As you mentioned, the notebooks do have heating problems just by looking at the raw number of folks having those problems. Averatec on several models started putting stickers inside directly under the cpu fan to prevent it from drawing any miscellaneous junk directly into the already overtaxed fan.

Thanks for the great observations on the product. Just goes along with what many of us owners have said.

Rick

 

In reference to your post, which I considered an excellent dissertation on repair, I had one question. You said that the heat sink should not be tightend all the way to allow for expandsion of the components. On my 7170, there are four spring loaded bolts that fasten the heatsink to the CPU. I screwed them tight and then backed them out one full turn. Was that appropriate, or do you have a better suggestion?