HP DV9000 - Nvidia Go7600 - not working

Xa3phod

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 19, 2012
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170
Hey folks,

I have a HP DV9000 with an Nvidia Go7600 video card. I believe the card is not working properly. When you turn on the laptop you see a lot of lines and dashes all over the screen, but once you log into the OS, it goes away. The problem is, Windows (10, 7, Vista 32&64 bit) all use the default windows video driver. If I try to install the Nvidia driver from either Nvidia or the HP web site, I get a BSOD. I tried multiple versions of the drivers, none worked. I also installed Mint Linux, and although I was able to run the live version, I was unable to actually install it and run it off the hard drive.

So, does this mean the GPU is faulty? I did hear there was a huge recall of this GPU way back when. If it is the GPU, is there a way to fix it aside from replacing the mobo (which isn't worth the price for an old laptop). I heard somewhere that the GPU was prone to overheating. Any information regarding this would be appreciated. If it is fixable, I am well able to take it apart and use a heat gun or soldering iron, if that is how you repair it.

Attached you can see the pictures of the BSOD and boot screens.

Thanks for the info
 

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Yes, that's a bad GPU or video RAM. If you run a game that uses most of the VRAM, you'll likely see glitches. Unfortunately the GPU and video RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. You could try using compressed air around the GPU and VRAM (try to hit it with compressed air at board level) in the off chance something conductive is shorting out BGA balls.

A replacement motherboard is around $75 shipped on eBay.
 
Can try baking the motherboard, not much to lose. May be the solders are failing with age.
 
Toss the laptop, get something newer. The entire HP dv series from years ago - the dv2000, dv4000, dv6000, dv8000, and dv9000 series with the Nvidia GPUs - were defective the moment they came off the production lines, seriously, every last fucking one of them and you should not waste another penny out of pocket or another minute of your time trying to extend the lifespan of that horrendous machine.

Now I suspect you'll say it's worked fine for yada yada yada years and that might have been true but, as stated, it's a defective laptop from the factory and there was a period of time where HP would have replaced it for you (if you're the original owner but not likely) but that's long long since passed. And even if that's not the actual issue with that laptop - it's entirely possible the issues you're having are not specifically related to the Nvidia GPU and that defective solder they used on those entire series runs - the laptop is so old now as to not be worth sinking more funds into.

It technically might be possible to use an SMD oven or even a focused heat gun (with a tip designed to focus the heat on just the GPU more precisely) and extend the life of the laptop for brief periods of time but you can never fix it forever - the solder that's used to hold the GPU to the board is itself defective and not up to the standards which is why the issues come to light sooner or later with all of those dv models. While a baking/heat gun session will bring it back to life for a short period of time, perhaps days, perhaps weeks, it absolutely will fail on you over and over when you least expect it because the solder itself is where the defect lies.

Seriously, do what you can to just get another laptop as that thing is coming up on 10 years old now. Normally I'm all for using older still functional hardware even if it's slower because of age, but those dv models, fuck that - time to move on. ;)

Good luck regardless of your decision.
 
^Charlie? :p

The problem is not only HP models with Nvidia GPUs, those HP consumer laptops just have high failure rates. Even ones with Intel IGPs or AMD IGPs had high failure rates. People want to tie the failures to the years older BGA problems from the early GF6 series, but it seems to be a problem with mechanical stress breaking BGA connections since it affects AMD/ATi and Intel only video models too.
 
Thanks. I wanted to get some more life out of it. A heat gun seems like an easy fix. Can I just use new solder to repair it?
 
Thanks. I wanted to get some more life out of it. A heat gun seems like an easy fix. Can I just use new solder to repair it?
No, the solder connections to the motherboard are very small balls on the chip's package. The proper way to fix it is using a BGA rework station made for handling those types of chips, and it's usually relatively expensive compared to a replacement $75 motherboard from eBay. Even replacing the board probably isn't ideal as the replacement may also fail for the same reason.

You can try to make the connections contact better using a heat gun or oven, but it's unlikely to get hot enough to reflow the solder ball connections anyways. It's a temporary fix, even if it "works".
 
I use to repair the dv series laptops (dv2000-9000 series models, AMD and Intel models). All with the same symptom described by OP. Only permanent fix was re-balling the VGA chip via a SMD reflow/BGA system.

Quick fix is disassembling the laptops to its motherboard barebone core, remove the battery from the motherboard, cpu and clean off thermal paste compounds. Bake the motherboard at 210'C for 8 minutes in a fan forced option oven.

Bake it too long or at too high temperatures the capslock LED will fuck up and not work or the board starts to warp.

The dv9500's were decent laptops at the time with a nice 17inch gloss display, fingerprint scanner, 2 hdd bays and ability to take the newer Core 2 Duo T8*** series mobile CPU's as upgrades (from memory).

The only shit thing with these laptops of its time was the batteries, the cells would randomly die not long after (and most times just after the warranty is up) so your charge drops dramatically with 1 or 2 cells dead.
 
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mr kane is correct. I too used to repair/refurb these units and this was a MASSIVE problem with them. basically the gpu area gets warped and the BGA pulles apart. try baking it and if that doesn't work don't waste anymore time on it. either toss it or part it out.
 
mr kane is correct. I too used to repair/refurb these units and this was a MASSIVE problem with them. basically the gpu area gets warped and the BGA pulles apart. try baking it and if that doesn't work don't waste anymore time on it. either toss it or part it out.
I am a DIYer that can follow instructions... however, here is the problem: I have a HP dv9500 - I dismantled the computer down to the mother board, isolated with metal and heated the video chip with a heat gun for 2~3 minutes. Put the darn thing back together. Only one screw left over. BUT - the screen now glows not black like before but I have nothing but the glowing screen. I can hear Windows start and chime on. What now?
Thanks for any and all help.
 
I am a DIYer that can follow instructions... however, here is the problem: I have a HP dv9500 - I dismantled the computer down to the mother board, isolated with metal and heated the video chip with a heat gun for 2~3 minutes. Put the darn thing back together. Only one screw left over. BUT - the screen now glows not black like before but I have nothing but the glowing screen. I can hear Windows start and chime on. What now?
Thanks for any and all help.
PS- this laptop is for my 80 yr old parents who like the big screen the easy to use keyboards and most of all the older Windows 7 operating system. This is mostly for internet/email/photos/text & spreadsheet documents. I want to make life easier cause I am tired of over the phone gadget support
 
I am a DIYer that can follow instructions... however, here is the problem: I have a HP dv9500 - I dismantled the computer down to the mother board, isolated with metal and heated the video chip with a heat gun for 2~3 minutes. Put the darn thing back together. Only one screw left over. BUT - the screen now glows not black like before but I have nothing but the glowing screen. I can hear Windows start and chime on. What now?
Thanks for any and all help.
sounds like you got some success. check your video cable is seated correctly. you can also try hooking it up to an external monitor to confirm if the video is working. you could also try another reflow for an extra minute.
welcome to [H] btw!
 
sounds like you got some success. check your video cable is seated correctly. you can also try hooking it up to an external monitor to confirm if the video is working. you could also try another reflow for an extra minute.
welcome to [H] btw!
Thanks for the welcome. It is a great sight. Thanks to all who contribute their time and effort to help people out.

I have been unable to get an external monitor to connect. I used an hdmi to a tv and a 15 pin video cable to a desktop screen. I have checked the video cable and re-seated it. I probably shouldn't have but I did this while the computer was powered on and could see the screen go black.
Now however I am also not getting the Windows chime. I
 

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I have checked the video cable and re-seated it. I probably shouldn't have but I did this while the computer was powered on and could see the screen go black.
that shouldnt matter, they are meant to be hot swappable. but there might be too much warping in the pcb to to get good contact. unfortunately, about all you can do is try again and either it will connect up or will die altogether. it has had a good run....
 
I am a DIYer that can follow instructions... however, here is the problem: I have a HP dv9500 - I dismantled the computer down to the mother board, isolated with metal and heated the video chip with a heat gun for 2~3 minutes. Put the darn thing back together. Only one screw left over. BUT - the screen now glows not black like before but I have nothing but the glowing screen. I can hear Windows start and chime on. What now?
Thanks for any and all help.

Congratulations, you now have a charcoal briquette. In no reality was what you did going to fix any problem the machine may have had, you just roasted the GPU ASIC. Reflow ovens and/or proper hot air rework stations operate in the 360-715F range (depending on solder used), a heat gun goes straight to 1,200F. Reflowing also uses flux, which you did not. So in addition to frying the ASIC, you burned the solder.

The HP DV6000-9x00 series laptops were hideously unreliable due to garbage ROHS solder. The models that had discrete graphics were even worse with the Nvidia chips in the 8xxx-9xxx series, because you also had "bumpgate" to contend with. The internal bond wire connections would break on the chip carrier on the GPU package due to again bad solder. There is no fix for this. Even if you could source a new-old stock GPU (which is unlikely since Apple gobbled them all up for Macbook warranty repair), it would have the same failure in the same time frame. Since you don't have a hot air rework station, it wouldn't help you regardless.

Sourcing a motherboard replacement likewise would be a waste of money, because it too would predictably fail.

The best course of action would be to send the whole thing to the recycle pile, minus any bits you want to keep, like the RAM, CPU and hard drive.
 
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