DV2000 motherboard fix

[Kako]

I did the heat gun fix on my motherboard a total of four times. Three myself and paid someone the first time. Each time temporary, including now. I told myself after it goes again, I wouldn't go through the effort of disassembling the laptop to temp-fix the motherboard and that I would buy a used laptop before it goes out again. Well, it went out again and I didn't buy a replacement computer to use. You can say out of aggravation or just not caring anymore, I gave up...almost.

If I could get it to boot one more time, I could just have it running all the time until I purchase a new laptop, but how without taking it apart? Well, I took the laptop, put it in a bunch of supermarket vegetable bags and grocery bags and sticking that pain in the ass in the refrigerator where I left it overnight. Next day when I went to go get something to eat, I saw it sitting there just chilling, literally. I completely forgot about it. I took it out of the bags, plugged it in, and IT WORKED! It booted straight in, I didn't even have to hit the keyboard a couple of times when the hp logo came up to get it to progress. I couldn't believe it.

But after shutting it down after a couple of hours and trying to boot up again, no go. It wouldn't post at all. So back in the refrigerator it went and when it came out, it booted just fine again and now I'm typing this up from that computer.

I must warn though that quite a bit of condensation builds up on it and it takes a while for the laptop to get warm enough to evaporate the moisture.

One thing that I would do differently if I have to shut it down again and it wont boot up is to take the hard drive out before I put it in the fridge and put it back in when I'm ready to boot the computer. So far I've done it twice but no damage done to the hdd, fortunately.

Is this common knowledge and I'm just speaking what everyone knows already? I did a quick google and hardforum search for "dv2000 refrigerator" but I didn't come across anything. If anyone has a laptop with the same problem and wants to boot it up and get data off of it one last time, this may be an option. If anyone else tries this, and isn't afraid of voiding your warranty any more than it already is, post your results.

 

[SHDSM]

My buddy has a computer recycling company and in the last 4 weeks he got 6 or so of these laptops (hp dv2000). We just stripped them of there hard drives, memory, keyboards and screens and scrapped the rest. We've also noticed, a lot of HP laptops we take apart HP doesn't put thermal compound on the processors. I am currently typing this from my personal G61 and I hope I don't have any problems

 

[Bahamut]

The basic gist of it is this: if you own or plan to purchase (a used one, of course) an HP Pavilion dv2000, dv4000, dv6000, dv8000, or dv9000 series laptop (no longer made, they were made from 2005 to late 2007 or so) and it's got an Nvidia GPU on it sooner or later it's more than likely going to fail on you.

Best possible advice: cut your losses, cut your frustrations and hassles, and let it go... get a new laptop, or at least one that doesn't offer the potential of taking a complete dump on you right when you least expect it.

I get more of those series laptops than any other, and honest to some higher power I'm sick of seeing them. Yes they make me some money when I get them operational again but, there's a point in time where you just have to say "Enough is enough" and I'm almost there. If I get another one before the weekend I seriously think I'm just going to tell the owner "Sorry, don't waste money on me, my bills are paid for now, use what you were going to pay me and put it towards a new or better used laptop, and do it now."

Can't think of much else to say.

 

[itsrickjames]

Yea my compaq F572 US has the problem starting. The Mini-pcie slot is no longer working, and usb ports randomly stop functioning. Still starts up for now only a matter of time.

There was a company on Ebay that offered some sort of copper shim that they said would prevent the problem from happening again. I can't seem to find them again though.

 

[ropy]

The basic gist of it is this: if you own or plan to purchase (a used one, of course) an HP Pavilion dv2000, dv4000, dv6000, dv8000, or dv9000 series laptop (no longer made, they were made from 2005 to late 2007 or so) and it's got an Nvidia GPU on it sooner or later it's more than likely going to fail on you.

My dv2890nr died on me recently, I did the heat gun fix and it worked for a very short period. Do you suggest getting a replacement motherboard from ebay, or should I sell it as parts and get another?

 

[Bahamut]

Anybody that owns any of those laptops, here's my best advice:

The minute it gives you a problem related to not booting properly, not powering up, no video upon power up, etc - really anything that is a hardware issue and completely unrelated to Windows itself - do yourself a huge favor and get rid of it, fast.

It's not worth the time, the frustration, or the hassles of doing a fix/repair/replacement, etc. You spent enough money on the machine already I'd bet, don't keep tossing good money after bad.

Those models are old now (the entire dv series from 2005-2007) and best avoided at all costs if you're thinking about getting one. There are machines on the market today for under $500 that are infinitely better in terms of build quality and reliability as well as just stomping the shit outta those old machines in terms of sheer performance.

That's about it...