Everex XT5000T Support thread

Slightly related update, my email exchange with the tech support was, briefly: "my motherboard needs to be replaced, can I get one from you?" "No, we don't have it" "What do I do then" "Try a local repair shop" "Can you guys recommend one? Maybe one that knows how to deal with your stuff?" "Nope, sorry".

Essentially we're all on our own now as far as support goes. FIC/Everex has cut us off for good.
 
Wouldn't a complete re-flow of the chip mean that the solder actually melts? In this case, wouldn't components on the other side of the board just fall off as you were heating up the other side? How can the solder correctly re-flow if it doesn't melt?

And what exactly is wrong with the chip, is it just the connections to the board or is it something inside the chip? Would re-balding it solve it for good?
 
Berger said:
Wouldn't a complete re-flow of the chip mean that the solder actually melts? In this case, wouldn't components on the other side of the board just fall off as you were heating up the other side? How can the solder correctly re-flow if it doesn't melt?

And what exactly is wrong with the chip, is it just the connections to the board or is it something inside the chip? Would re-balding it solve it for good?
Click to expand...

Yes, reflow means the solder melts. But only directly under the chip I'll be heating, and only for a few seconds. The components on the other side (dunno yet if there are any at all directly under, but probably not - anyway, if there were any) will not reach the melting temp of the solder as they'll have several layers of PCB between them and the heat source. And the PCB itself is a pretty good insulator. Anyway, the Xbox guys have been doing it successfully for over a year.

What is wrong with the chip is: the lead-free solder is more fragile than the older, leaded solder (lead adds not only a lower melting point, but also more elasticity). As the PCB heats and cools as you turn the system on/off, it will expand and contract, and the solder points will crack and lose contact.
 
According to the Master rework operator (expert in replacing and reflowing BGA parts) said that the part showed a brown ring around the core, due to overheating. Under the microscope he wasn't sure if the part itself had delaminating, the only way to figure that out is to cross section cut the part in two.

He put Kapton tape to hold any parts under the PCB also he preheats the PCB to remove and replace the BGA part as quick as possible, plus he used direct hot air that was computer controlled to minimize the PCB and part damage during the process.
 
Good idea on the kapton tape, I'll go buy some. Also, he heated the mobo in that spot twice (one for desoldering the old chip, one for resoldering the new one) but I'll only do it once. And I'll preheat the PCB as well with a hot plate (I already sorted out what setting I need to turn it to so that the surface temp reads 400F on the IR thermometer).

(edit) done, found nice cheap kapton on ebay.

Also, for small components to fall off they'll have to contend with the surface tension of the liquid solder that wicks between the pads and the component itself. When I was doing SMT work not long ago I remember once accidentally turning over a PCB before it was cool set, but nothing fell off it. :)
 
Last edited:
jh1523 said:
Yes, reflow means the solder melts. But only directly under the chip I'll be heating, and only for a few seconds. The components on the other side (dunno yet if there are any at all directly under, but probably not - anyway, if there were any) will not reach the melting temp of the solder as they'll have several layers of PCB between them and the heat source. And the PCB itself is a pretty good insulator. Anyway, the Xbox guys have been doing it successfully for over a year.

What is wrong with the chip is: the lead-free solder is more fragile than the older, leaded solder (lead adds not only a lower melting point, but also more elasticity). As the PCB heats and cools as you turn the system on/off, it will expand and contract, and the solder points will crack and lose contact.
Click to expand...
Ah I see, thanks. I re flowed the the GPU and got the laptop to POST. Based on what you said I think I'll reflow the northbridge too before I put the laptop back together.
 
I used a heat gun on my friends laptop. I heated up the northbridge first - would not post. I then heated up the gpu and it posted. It is still working after reassemby for now. I had previously baked it. The baking fix lasted about 6 weeks.

This is not a scientific test with controls. The northbridge did get heated twice as everything got fairly hot with the heatgun - just some spots hotter then others.

thanks for the help and suggestions.



ps - the whole thing smells quite awful now. Hopefully nothing got burned.
 
Last edited:
So I bought a new optical drive to replace the broken one in my machine at the moment, but I can't seem to get the casing off. I've removed all the screws from the bottom, but I feel as if there is a screw from the other side that I may need to remove. I have also been having trouble finding older posts with pictures of disassembly.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
 
hmmm I read about the aluminum foil trick to help the GPU's heat, sounds pretty cool. I have an xt5300t that has a gpu overheating quite a bit, would this trick help out? It stays at about 80c while surfing the net, and if I play games, it'll stay between 105c-115c, which causes it to start locking up until it cools down. I've got a cooling pad under it, but it doesn't seem to help too much. Would the Aluminum foil trick work with this slightly different model, or is there another fix that could help it? Wish Everex hadn't yanked their boards when they went down.
XP32
2gb ram
 
Does anyone know if there is an express card 54 -to- COM (rs232) port adapter out there? I need a COM port and hate the USB-to-COM port adapter I purchased from Newegg.
 
I, like so many others, have suffered the dread Black Screen...a lot of it. (Yeah, I just said it's a lot of BS)
I have tried to reflow the gpu/northbridge using a heat gun...and it worked for a while. (The gun apparently didn't get hot enough)
I have been using a modified towel-trick: a thin paperclip inserted through the fins to stop the rotation of the fan until it successfully posts. While this works, I fear damaging my beloved.
Therefore, I offer her to someone who can do something useful with her. I am keeping the hard drives and memory, but everything else remains with her. Should you wish to provide a good home and a possible life after experimentation and/or repair please PM me. I will ship the laptop to you, well padded and protected.
All I ask is that once you receive the laptop, please consider donating the cost of shipping to a charity of your choice. My paypal account would be preferable, but not required. I just cannot bring myself to discard something that has potential value to someone else. And I'm too lazy to part it out on auction sites, who end up getting more of the money than I do anyways.
It has been a wonderful 2 years and some-odd months...but alas, all good things must eventually come to an end... :(
 
I just recently installed windows 7 on this laptop but i need the drivers for the touchpad, cardreader and the Realtek manager. Or are the drivers on pcambrosis enough? Thanks
 
I installed Windows 7 on mine before deciding to give up the fight and Windows Update was able to take care of all the drivers. Or just use the Vista drivers from the installation cd. Of course, I had mine in a dual boot configuration with Vista as the primary, so Win 7 might have used those since they were available...?
 
Can anyone give me a diagram of where the hidden usb port is? i plan to create a usb fan using that port.
 
I did a fresh install of Win7 RC, my only issue is powermizer does not downclock the GPU. I hadn't turned it on in a while though..........
 
allbeengone said:
Can anyone give me a diagram of where the hidden usb port is? i plan to create a usb fan using that port.
Click to expand...

It is directly under the far right side usb port towards the back on the opposite side of the MB. It is inactive though.
 
Anyone know how to get the line out to work again after installing Windows 7? I have all the windows updates.
 
I'll be upgrading to Winows 7 on my XT5300T as soon as the disk arrives. Can I just run an upgrade or should I do a fresh install? The machine is running great for the most part, though it still crashes when watching videos somethimes. Mostly flash videos but sometimes while watching files from the network using VLC Player.
 
Can someone post a link to a set of disassembly instructions for the XT5000T? I've done some searching and can't seem to find anything. Everex doesn't provide anything, and now that the forums there are down this seems to be the place to go. I see a link a few posts back but I don't see how the top speaker pops off/keyboard removes, that top part all seems to be one piece... it seems like the plastic in the back is fused between top and bottom....must still be a screw somewhere...?

Any help would be great! Thanks!

...ah nevermind, apparently you just need to yank on the speaker cover with a little gusto
 
Last edited:
Hopefully in a few days guys, I'll be able to figure something out. Thanks to DarkMatter. Anything I can come up with will be posted here.
 
Just got DarkMatter's Everex today. I tried the towel trick (with a real towel) and let it 'bake' for about 10 minutes. Worked perfectly after a power down and reboot. Kudo's to DarkMatter, thank you so much for this StepNote!
 
Hey Fredbro, that trick will work for a good week or so. But you can do this over and over again and it will work ok every time! I just bring my laptop case with me everywhere and I just leave it on inside the case and it works just as well as the towel.
 
Yup, I have an HP laptop book bag that I've been hauling it around with, works the same way :D. I've even painted it with automotive paint. I'll upload some images later on. Just got to upload them to my server.
 
I've had my XT5000T for over 2 years now with no problems. Recently my DVD drive has not been loading any disk i put into it. Windows will not even recognize there being a disk in the drive. The drive ejects when I right click the drive in My Computer and tell it to eject. I've tried uninstalling it from Device Manager, i've followed the advice to delete some reg values that others have said worked for them with this drive, but to no avail. I'm running XP with 2GB of RAM and no other modifications (though I did order a second hard drive today from NewEgg...i need the space).

Any ideas? I'm completely stumped and I'm by no means new at fixing computer problems.

Some additional info:

When I insert a disk into the drive, the drive makes some loud noises (though similar if not exact to many other CD/DVD drives) and if I put my ear up to it, it will sound like its spinning the disk for a second or two before giving up. If the drive is bad, ok, i can replace that. But if it's something I can fix, i would like to do so.
 
dty06 said:
I've had my XT5000T for over 2 years now with no problems. Recently my DVD drive has not been loading any disk i put into it. Windows will not even recognize there being a disk in the drive. The drive ejects when I right click the drive in My Computer and tell it to eject. I've tried uninstalling it from Device Manager, i've followed the advice to delete some reg values that others have said worked for them with this drive, but to no avail. I'm running XP with 2GB of RAM and no other modifications (though I did order a second hard drive today from NewEgg...i need the space).

Any ideas? I'm completely stumped and I'm by no means new at fixing computer problems.

Some additional info:

When I insert a disk into the drive, the drive makes some loud noises (though similar if not exact to many other CD/DVD drives) and if I put my ear up to it, it will sound like its spinning the disk for a second or two before giving up. If the drive is bad, ok, i can replace that. But if it's something I can fix, i would like to do so.
Click to expand...
Have you tried cleaning the lens?
 
I have not, but I also have absolutely no clue how to go about doing that on a laptop drive like this one. I assume it will mean removing the drive, opening it up and then cleaning it very carefully?
 
dty06 said:
I have not, but I also have absolutely no clue how to go about doing that on a laptop drive like this one. I assume it will mean removing the drive, opening it up and then cleaning it very carefully?
Click to expand...
The lens should be right there on the tray. A guide to clean it can be found [Here]

Here's pic pic of one, for reference, if you need it:
17441.jpg


Note, you don't want to have any excess amount of Ethanol or Alcohol on your Q-Tip, or you could end up dripping some on the the laser rail or controller.
 
I didn't have any Q-tips on hand but i did manage to find a random cotton ball. I put it in the top of the isopropyl alcohol bottle and gently let it absorb a very small amount. I gently cleaned my lens and now it works like new. Thanks!!
 
dty06 said:
I didn't have any Q-tips on hand but i did manage to find a random cotton ball. I put it in the top of the isopropyl alcohol bottle and gently let it absorb a very small amount. I gently cleaned my lens and now it works like new. Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Awesome! Glad I was able to help out!
 
Same with my lens about 3 months after having the machine. I now once a month with every laptop clean the lens with Eclipse II. It is a lens cleaner for digital SLR's and does an absolute bang up job...........
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top